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Ghosts at the Table: Riverboat Gamblers, Texas Rounders, Roadside Hucksters, and the Living Legends Who Made Poker What It Is Today | 
 enlarge | Author: Des Wilson
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $12.85
You Save: $13.15 (51%)
New (27) Used (6) from $12.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 137133
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st Da Capo Press Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.4
ISBN: 0306816288
Dewey Decimal Number: 795.412
EAN: 9780306816284
ASIN: 0306816288
Publication Date: April 21, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: unread, cloth binding, 1st edition, immediate shipping
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Product Description
Destined to become “the new poker classic, a must-read” (Mike Sexton, top poker player and promoter), Ghosts at the Table is the game’s first definitive history. With verve and wit, internationally renowned poker personality Des Wilson traces poker’s Wild West origins in Deadwood, South Dakota-where “Wild” Bill Hickok was said to have been shot holding aces and eights-to the annual World Series of Poker and amazing high-stakes games of modern-day Las Vegas. It’s a story full of unforgettable characters-riverboat gamblers, Texas rounders, roadside hucksters, and living legends-who have helped make poker the world’s most popular game.
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| Customer Reviews:
 FRESH NEW LOOK AT AN OLD GAME June 20, 2008
WELL WRITTEN, EXCELLENT PICTURE OF POKER SINCE THE 1800S. VERY ACCURATE WITH PLENTY OF NEW MATERIAL.
 Poker history comes to life June 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Wilson starts his book with a helpful preface that divides poker into four ages: the initial frontier stages, that lasted from the game's introduction to the US to the closing of the frontier, which in poker terms correlates with the last mineral booms in the 1890s/1900s.
The second age starts much later, with the heyday of the Texas road gamblers in the 1950s. This is a short era that is followed by the Las Vegas era, which symbolically began with the first World Series of Poker held at Binion's Horseshoe in 1970.
The final age of poker is the current boom, fueled equally by television and the Internet, which most people would date to 2002.
It's a good division, though it neglects the "rank and file" of poker in some ways. The thousands of backroom poker games that sustained the "sport" during the first half of the 20th century, for example, are nowhere here. There's good reason for that-they were mostly undocumented, and little heralded. For good reason. There is nothing exceptional or heroic about them. But history is rarely exceptional or heroic.
The book properly begins with Wilson checking into the Bullock Hotel in Deadwood, South Dakota, and learning that a real ghost lives there-the spirit of Seth Bullock, the original proprietor, who frequently shows his disgust over the current staff's lassitude by shaking the odd plate or turning on a random blender.
That's when I realized that the ghosts of the title aren't a metaphor: for Wilson (and for poker players) the legends of the past really are ghosts, who still have an incorporeal presence and can still do us harm.
As Wilson admits in the preface, this is not an exhaustive history of poker as a historian would write it, chronological narrative interspersed with hard-won quantatative data about numbers of card decks sold, arrest for poker-playing, and the like. Instead, it's an impressionistic journey-literally-through the past and into the present of poker.
Wilson's strategy is to revisit the scenes of past poker greatness, from Tombstone to Texas to Binion's Horseshoe, and through research, interviews, and observation, try to recover what is lost. Luckily, many of the figures of the last three eras are still alive, and those that have passed on are survived by friends, rivals, and associates. There a real richness of detail here, and no matter what your previous knowledge of poker, your insight into its history will be enriched Ghosts at the Table.
Two sections that stand out are Wilson's conversation with Amarillo Slim, probably the most controversial poker figure in its modern era, and his investigation into the disappearance of 1979 WSOP champion Hal Fowler.
Wilson's writing on Slim has a balance that is rare-most people either love or hate the lanky rounder-and the facts that Wilson's unearthed about Fowler, while in the end a bit underwhelming, are a neat bit of detective work, and show an inquisitiveness that's too rare in most students of the game. Ditto for his questioning of the Johnny Moss/Nick Dandalos proto-WSOP 1949 match, which has attained apocryphal, if not mythic status.
One of Wilson's strengths is to integrate the present of poker into its past. The reader really sees how today's players slowly took control of the game from the legends of the near past. In the future, historians will be grateful for such an immediate account by a knowledgeable observer of the earliest days of online poker, and of the proliferation of poker in Europe.
As an active narrator, Wilson himself becomes a character in the book. This has the potential for disaster-should the writer show up as a swashbuckling hero, the reader might be turned off by the braggadocio. But Wilson appears as an honest, curious, student of the game, who's taking a trip and bringing a few close friends-including you, the reader-along with him. He's the foil to some of the game's legends and rising stars, driving Amarillo Slim's ranch and listening to his act, seeking out Bobby Hoff in a California card room, and almost invisibly eliciting recollections from other poker icons. When he does step into the frame-in the book's coda-it is for him to try his luck at the 2007 World Series of Poker. Since he's humble without being self-effacing, the reader can't help but root for him.
Don't view this as a narrative-see it as a collection of stories told to you as you're driving down a dark, endless Texas highway (or English road) on the way to your next big game. If you are a poker player or are just curious about this quintessentially American game (and its ghosts) you should definitely read Ghosts at the Table.
poker May 9, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
a must have book for anyone who has the slighest interest in poker or gambling. a really great book!!
Learn How the Experts Win at Poker & Fun to Read Too! May 7, 2008
"The wild weird money world of professional gamblers is illustrated with stories from the riverboats to Vegas. Your own way to learn all about the World Series of Poker but for the price of this book instead of the ten thousand dollar buy in."
 From Hickock to Negreanu April 22, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Good read - I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of poker from the early days of riverboats and gunslingers through the Texas/Southern Circuit of the mid 20th century to Vegas and now the world. Wilson weaves a good tale of the changes in the game through time, illustrated with numerous stories about events that actually happened but seem too fantastic to be true.
In researching this book Wilson visited many locations and interviewed many individuals that were pivotal in poker's path from the riverboat to today. And his portrayal of location adds significantly to his story. If you've read T.J. Cloutier's books you will recognize some of his favorite stories. And if you aren't familiar with the role played by Benny Benion in making Vegas the center of the poker world the section dealing with Benny's career should be an eye opener though his portrayal as a rather one-dimensional character simplifies a bit too much. Players familiar only with today's casino-based antiseptic game and who've never awakened to find a knot on their head and their pockets empty after leaving a game the winner will gain a new perspective from the hijacking stories. These stories alone are worth the price of the book.
If I like the book so much then why only three stars? Maybe it's because I know too much. For example on page 76, in a discussion of games in Odessa, Wilson writes of "nearby Graham" - well, Graham is about 250 miles from Odessa, and in the the middle of the last century with narrow two-lane roads "nearby" is hardly the proper adjective. Google Maps estimates the trip today to be 4 hours, 16 minutes. Based on my experience the last time I made that drive they're about on target.
And on page 93, in an apparent quote from Sailor Roberts, Wilson writes: "'This was the toughest place I've ever played in,' Sailor says. 'There were forty of us that hung around together there and, apart from Sailor and me, they were all either dead or in the penitentiary by the time they were thirty-five.'" Accuracy of the description of the Fort Worth stockyards area and Jacksboro Highway in the 30s through the 60s is not in question. However one does have to question whether Sailor referred to himself in the third person as well as in duplicate. I'd swear I've read that quote before but with it being attributed to someone other than Sailor Roberts. Wilson does not cite a source, but may have been quoting from another source such as Brunson, perhaps in "My 50 Most Memorable Hands". Since Roberts departed this planet long before Wilson began his research for the book it is obvious that the attribution to Sailor is an error.
Taken as a whole I do recommend the book. I'd give it five stars if my ignorance level were slightly higher. Can't do that though! I'd have much preferred to see this product after being worked over by a more knowledgeable editor.
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