The Biggest Game in Town

"The greatest dissection of high-stakes Vegas poker and the madness that surrounds it ever written." — TimeOut Al Alvarez touched down in Las Vegas one hot day in 1981, a dedicated amateur poker player but a stranger to the town and its crazy ways. For three mesmerizing weeks he witnessed some of the monster high-stakes games that could only have happened in Vegas and talked to the extraordinary characters who dominated them—road gamblers and local professionals who won and lost fortunes on a regular basis. Set over the course of one tournament, The Biggest Game in Town is both the first chronicle of the World Series of Poker ever written and a portrait of the hustlers, madmen, and geniuses who ruled the high-stakes game in America. It is a brilliant insight into poker's appeal as a hobby, an addiction, and a way of life, and into the skewed psychology of master players and fearless gamblers. With a new introduction by the author, Alvarez's classic account is "probably the best book on poker ever written" ( The Evening Standard). "A classic . . . There is no better book on America's national pastime." —James McManus, New York Times–bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street "Magnificent . . . Beyond the straights and full houses, Alvarez has written a book about people who are extremely good at what they do, and about America." — San Francisco Chronicle "Conveys an understanding of gamblers and their milieu that can appeal to someone who has never seen a casino." — Philadelphia Inquirer "Thoroughly entertaining . . . both perceptive and literate." — The Washington Post