Dealer's Choice

Book excerpt: We all know that money won is twice as sweet as money earned, and there are plenty of books that will help you if you want to mortgage the house to take on the $30-$60 table at the Mirage or the Taj Mahal; but most of us are looking for a friendlier species of the game, a chance to test our luck in the enjoyable company of friends, and, if we are favored with good fortune and they are not, to really, really rub their noses in it. Dealer's Choice is the ultimate guide to the world of low stakes poker, where fun and bragging rights count as least as much as the final tally. Starting with the elementary principles every beginner will need to know before swimming with the sharks-betting, bluffing, and the hierarchy of hand values-Dealer's Choice also includes invaluable tips on how to host the perfect poker evening (the relative merits of chips versus coins, what food to serve) as well as fascinating sidebars (great poker hands in cinema, trivia, unspoken laws of the game) and hilarious profiles of archetypal poker characters-the kinds of oddball one is bound to encounter sooner or later across the green felt. Every conceivable variety of poker is discussed in each of its variants, from established favorites like Baseball and Follow the Queen to truly esoteric mutations of the authors' own invention such as Frankenstein, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and Hamlet (i.e., Jacks are low, Queens are wild, Kings dead). Renowned illustrator Phil Foglio has enlivened the text with spectacular line drawings. With worldwide interest in poker at unprecedented peak, Dealer's Choice gives casual players the chance to re-create, right in their living rooms, the excitement of the World Series of Poker... except without the five million dollar jackpot-but pizza and beer aren't bad either.