Poker Articles

By grapsfan | Published Dec 15 2005, 10:56 PM

The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King:Inside the Richest Poker Game in History
by Michael Craig


The truth about poker player’s results are never accurate. Winning players are often looking to avoid the Internal Revenue Service, and losing players are never happy being portrayed as the loser. The old adage “the ‘break even’ player lost a little, the ‘lost a little’ player lost a lot” is true for every game from penny-ante at the kitchen table to the 80/160 at your nearest card room.

So what happens when the participants are a billionaire banker and the best poker pros on the planet, and the stakes are ten times higher than any game ever spread? What varieties of the truth are spun then? The rumors surrounding the Big Game at Bellagio, held in several sessions between 2001 and 2004, are mind-boggling. The truth, as uncovered by author Michael Craig in “The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King” is even more incredible than the strangest fictions. Craig did an incredible amount of research with all of the participants, and discovered the truth amongst a wide-ranging web of stories.

The billionaire, a self-made businessman named Andy Beal, first visited the poker room at the Bellagio during a night off on a business trip, and quickly moved up in stakes to the biggest game spread in the room. Andy was a competent player, but bored while sitting in full ring games. As the night wore on, and the game dropped to three players, then heads-up against Todd Brunson, the action of playing every hand appealed to him. He became very curious to see what would happen to himself, and to the top pros, if he could play them at bankroll-crushing stakes, $10,000/$20,000 to start, with a constant push higher until they or he could be broken. Not financially broken, per se, but mentally and emotionally. Eventually, the top professionals in the world, led by Doyle Brunson and Chip Reese, formed a financial group and playing roster to sit down with Andy Beal, heads-up.

The book does a fair job with descriptions of the play, and the study and preparation that Andy Beal did over the course of three years to raise his game to the highest levels in the world. Heads-up limit hold’em isn’t a hot topic for books and magazine articles, so Beal generated his own mathematical information and approach to the game, some of which is briefly covered. Michael Craig’s primary focus, however, is the personalities involved in the team of pros, specifically Jennifer Harman, Howard Lederer and Ted Forrest. We learn what makes these players tick, how they approached playing at stakes bigger than anyone ever dreamed of, and how the entire team put aside their competitive and philosophical differences in the pursuit of millions of dollars.

The profiles of the pros, and of Beal himself, are fascinating, as is the results of each session and how the game grew from $10,000/$20,000 to $100,000/$200,000. I always recommend expanding anyone’s poker library beyond the analytical and educational. You can learn as much about poker from knowing about great players, not just what they do. The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King tells a lot about the great players inolved in the biggest game we may ever see. It’s a must-read.

To buy this book on Amazon.com click here: The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King