Poker Book Review: Aces and Kings by Brad Reagen and Michael Kaplan

One of the consequences of the big poker craze is that books are coming out a million on the subject. Aces and Kings is a perfect example of the fad, but it bares none of the hallmarks of quick production. The prose reads very much like what one would expect to find in a mainstream magazine; which is not surprising as several of these chapters appeared first in places like Cigar Aficionado. The book, on the whole, is quality and chocked full of details. It's main focus concerns those who try to make an easy living in the hardest way possible, i.e. the professional players. With ESPN and The Travel Channel, they have ever-increasingly become the focus of the public's attention.



Aces and Kings attempts to inform readers about the poker life by analyzing its biggest names and figures. Many of these cardsharps have become celebrities overnight. Their mini-biographies are extremely interesting and are told over the course of 15 chapters. Three of them, "Web Kids," "The Women of Poker," and "The New Superstars" concern, groupings of players rather than individuals. In this, I think that they made one major error because Daniel Negreanu deserves a chapter of his own. That guy's personality is big enough to fill a warehouse.

Nearly all of the pros have lives that make for good reading, but, in my opinion, the most fascinating entry was the one concerning Chris Ferguson. In case you might not recognize his name, he was The World Series of Poker 2000 champion and is one of the most recognizable players in the game due to his Black Bart cowboy hat and huge Oakley shades. We discover that his appearance, just like every aspect of his persona, was carefully calculated in the hopes of discouraging his opponents from perceiving just how mathematically oriented he actually is. Ferguson has a PhD in mathematics/artificial intelligence from UCLA, and has spent years forging his probability based approach to the game. His huge black binders are brimming with statistics and determine how he will play hands and scenarios.

The results, as we know, have been fantastic. What impressed me most about him was that he went on a severe cold streak in 2002, but did not get discouraged as he "recognized a statistical deviation" when he saw one. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and, even if you are not a huge poker fan, the plots within are about as interesting as something written by Nicholas Pileggi.

Bernard Chapin


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