Gives New Meaning to the Term “Going All In”

Publishers Weekly pointed out that more than 60 books on poker will appear in 2005. Kind of makes you wonder what The Cincinnati Kid would make of all this card attention. I guess he would be lining up to learn more about the game, and buying these books. He did have pretty grand aspirations after all: “Listen, Christian, after the game, I’ll be The Man. I’ll be the best there is. People will sit down at the table with you, just so they can say they played with The Man. And that’s what I’m gonna be.”

On the subject of poker, I’ll take the risk of pissing off all the players out there (including some of my buddies) with this note. Bill Simmons the Sports Guy over at ESPN had an interesting column recently. First, he calls for a moratorium on poker columns, “just about everyone knows how to play now — it’s 90 percent luck! You might as well write columns giving the play-by-play of a scratch card you scratched off outside a convenience store. Enough. Please stop.” And then he throws his Sunday punch by writing “how hard can it be to play poker for a living when Jennifer Tilly, Tobey Maguire and Ben Affleck have won major tournaments? Even in a sport like golf, when the celebrities play with the pros, they’re clearly inferior… In poker, anyone can become a pro — you just need enough cash to get started and a ton of time on your hands. I mean, have you seen Jennifer Tilly on a talk show? Not a Mensa threat.” It’s a funny article, check it out here.