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| The Entertainment Review |
| By: Michael Kane Publisher: Viking |
Poker has become a sport that is almost always on ESPN2 when channel surfing and many see these players who, if
able to see their faces, look pretty intent on what's at hand. That's usually because of what's in their hand, and
what's at stake. To most, it's hard to watch, which is to say it's far from the ideal spectator sport. However, Des
Wilson's book, “Ghosts at the Table” may have readers seeing poker differently and be less inclined so quickly to
dismiss it.
In enough detail to keep readers reading, too much on this particular subject would be unbearable, because what's
important here are the characters that made the game. Starting with the evolution of the game in the Wild West
where Wild Bill Hickok was killed over cards, Wilson introduces us to the key personalities who have made the game
what it is today.
What’s interesting is that the most popular form of the game, Texas Hold 'em, gets its name from the state that
spawned some of the most colorful and daring players. That and, no one seems to know the origins of that particular
version of poker. Texas hold 'em, as Wilson points out, is the most popular form of the game; it's what's played at the
World Series of Poker every year in Las Vegas.
Two legends of the game have different theories. Amarillo Slim, one-time frequent Johnny Carson guest, and
perhaps the most famous poker player in the world, remembers his first encounter with the game, “It was in 1959 in
Brenham, Texas, a little old town between Houston and Austin. At that time one of the best poker games was played
above a feed store in downtown Brenham. I remember I liked the game right off because every time a card lands on
the board it changes the possible best hand…”
Doyle Brunson, another legendary player and mentor to numerous players today, simply seems to recall that it was
first played in Waco in the early 1950s. Wilson gives evidence that it may have begun far sooner than either Brunson
or Slim, both still alive, theorize - perhaps as early as the 1920s or 1930s in Dallas, Texas.
The momentum of the book accelerates when Wilson gets to Binny Binion, a character who could only exist in Vegas
and who created the foundation for today's mega event that the World Series of Poker has become. Part gangster
and part hustler, Binion founded and sustained the tournament that propelled the game to prominence. His
Horseshoe casino was the original home of the tournament and still is today. Binion exists purely in the Bugsy Siegel
tradition of the impossibly preposterous city that is Las Vegas.
From the dusty roads of “Tombstone” and “Deadwood” to the early Vegas playing parlors to today's internet whiz
kids, Des Wilson takes readers on a colorful, interesting and well researched journey. His direct, no nonsense writing
style is perfect for the history of a game, a high stakes game where nonsense is clearly not tolerated.
able to see their faces, look pretty intent on what's at hand. That's usually because of what's in their hand, and
what's at stake. To most, it's hard to watch, which is to say it's far from the ideal spectator sport. However, Des
Wilson's book, “Ghosts at the Table” may have readers seeing poker differently and be less inclined so quickly to
dismiss it.
In enough detail to keep readers reading, too much on this particular subject would be unbearable, because what's
important here are the characters that made the game. Starting with the evolution of the game in the Wild West
where Wild Bill Hickok was killed over cards, Wilson introduces us to the key personalities who have made the game
what it is today.
What’s interesting is that the most popular form of the game, Texas Hold 'em, gets its name from the state that
spawned some of the most colorful and daring players. That and, no one seems to know the origins of that particular
version of poker. Texas hold 'em, as Wilson points out, is the most popular form of the game; it's what's played at the
World Series of Poker every year in Las Vegas.
Two legends of the game have different theories. Amarillo Slim, one-time frequent Johnny Carson guest, and
perhaps the most famous poker player in the world, remembers his first encounter with the game, “It was in 1959 in
Brenham, Texas, a little old town between Houston and Austin. At that time one of the best poker games was played
above a feed store in downtown Brenham. I remember I liked the game right off because every time a card lands on
the board it changes the possible best hand…”
Doyle Brunson, another legendary player and mentor to numerous players today, simply seems to recall that it was
first played in Waco in the early 1950s. Wilson gives evidence that it may have begun far sooner than either Brunson
or Slim, both still alive, theorize - perhaps as early as the 1920s or 1930s in Dallas, Texas.
The momentum of the book accelerates when Wilson gets to Binny Binion, a character who could only exist in Vegas
and who created the foundation for today's mega event that the World Series of Poker has become. Part gangster
and part hustler, Binion founded and sustained the tournament that propelled the game to prominence. His
Horseshoe casino was the original home of the tournament and still is today. Binion exists purely in the Bugsy Siegel
tradition of the impossibly preposterous city that is Las Vegas.
From the dusty roads of “Tombstone” and “Deadwood” to the early Vegas playing parlors to today's internet whiz
kids, Des Wilson takes readers on a colorful, interesting and well researched journey. His direct, no nonsense writing
style is perfect for the history of a game, a high stakes game where nonsense is clearly not tolerated.
