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For all the Poker Gurus
Taking the pulse of 'Poker Nation'
April 23, 2002 Posted: 9:54 AM EDT (1354 GMT)
By Todd Leopold
CNN
(CNN) -- Advice-seekers write to Dear Abby. Ethics questioners turn to the New York Times' Randy Cohen.
And poker players turn to Andy Bellin -- at least they do now, ever since his book, "Poker Nation" (HarperCollins), came out.
"Everybody has their story," Bellin says in an e-mail interview from his home in New York. "And yes, they somehow feel like I'm the person who will understand their pain. And yes, sadly, I do understand it all too well.
"You can't really whine to your wife or girlfriend about getting gutted on the river by some 47-1 long shot insurance salesman. I'm your man for that," he says.
Poker players and poker movies
Do poker movies show the game as it is?
"It seems all the great gambling movies use gambling to propel another storyline," Andy Bellin says. His favorite: "The Cincinnati Kid" (1965), with Steve McQueen as an up-and-coming player and Edward G. Robinson as the veteran champ Lancey Howard.
Bellin didn't think much of "Rounders" (1998) -- "so short of anything interesting other than the poker I thought it was hard to watch" -- but loves "The Sting" (1973) and the billiards-oriented "The Hustler" (1961). The latter two both star Paul Newman.
But his favorite movie about hustlers -- if not about poker -- is "The Grifters" (1990), Stephen Frears' dark drama about con artists starring John Cusack, Angelica Huston, and Annette Bening. "The characters were written with such depth and appeal that you were fascinated by every move they made," Bellin says.
Other notable movies about poker players, con artists and gamblers:
- "A Big Hand for the Little Lady" (1966)
- "California Split" (1974)
- "House of Games" (1987)
- "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" (1976)
- "The Music of Chance" (1993)
- "Maverick" (1994)
Bellin, indeed, knows all too well what it's like to be "gutted on the river" (ruined by the last card dealt in a poker game). The author, 32, has playing seriously for about a decade -- and he plays four or five nights a week, finding havens in New York City's underground poker clubs.
These aren't your nickel-dime-quarter friendly games, either; Bellin and his cohorts regularly drop (or win) hundreds of dollars.
But he wouldn't be anywhere else.
"I absolutely love poker," Bellin says. "It's the perfect game. ... The perfect combination of everything that I love: it's math, psychology, competition, money ..."
Rabbit hunting and gut shots
"Poker Nation" is a colorful trip through the poker world. Bellin traces the history of the card game from its origins, along Mississippi River cities in the mid-19th century, to the big-time World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Nevada. He offers tips on "tells" -- those little unconscious signs players give that offer clues to what they're holding -- and provides odds and percentages for the best hands dealt in his usual game, Texas Hold'em.
But, at its heart, "Poker Nation" is about stories. Poker is a game with its own lingo, and Bellin shoots his book through with its coinages -- flop, gut shot, rabbit hunting, San Francisco Busboy, Big Slick, the nuts -- while filling "Poker Nation" with anecdotes. (See the glossary for more poker terms.)
And then there are Bellin's colleagues, people like Holy Chip, an Episcopal minister who cheats (poorly) with abandon; Dr. Liam, a New York psychologist who, despite years of training, flies off the handle as soon as he starts losing; Yana, a Russian woman trying to make enough money to stop playing poker -- but who's pretty much addicted to the game; and, perhaps most tragically, Crazy Rich, a one-time Wall Street investment banker who lost his job, his money and his wife because of his gambling habit.
Like many of his cohorts, Bellin came to poker from an unlikely beginning. He first learned the game when he was 8, keeping his family up all night with his card-playing insomnia. He continued playing through grade school and into college, where he majored in physics and astronomy -- and first realized poker's mathematical underpinnings.
Finally, one fateful night while attending graduate school, a friend took him to Connecticut's Foxwoods Casino. "I had never felt so at home any place in my whole life," Bellin writes.
'Going to high school'
After dropping out of grad school, Bellin played poker professionally for awhile. He eventually turned to writing, taking a job at George Plimpton's literary magazine, The Paris Review. He credits the author and journalist, known for such books as "Paper Lion," for much of his success.
"He's just about the most generous person I've ever met," says Bellin. "If not for him taking me under his wing, I would have never published a single word."
And what about Plimpton's poker playing?
Author Andy Bellin in a familiar place -- at the poker table.
"[He's] a fine player, though a little too talky at the table," Bellin says.
He also got more comfortable in New York's "technically illegal" poker clubs, a process he describes as "a lot like going to a new high school." Bellin's hangout was the Winchester, a "glorified basement" teeming with "strippers, chiropractors, tax attorneys, and cabdrivers huddled around fifteen tables, stacking chips, shuffling cards, and watching sports." The Winchester was finally shut down by New York's finest in August 2000; its owners have since opened other clubs.
"Poker Nation" grew out of an article Bellin wrote for Esquire magazine. The book took him about a year, he says, but he did most of his research close to home, playing several nights a week.
"The only true preparation I had was reading everything ever written about poker," he says.
And if he didn't have poker? Bellin believes he'd probably still be avoiding honest work.
"I could have majored in barroom games in college," he says. "I was an amazing foosball player, a good pool player, and I could throw darts over my left shoulder with my right hand. If I studied half the time I spent playing games, I'd be fluent in six languages."
Not that it's so bad to be fluent in card playing. When you're sitting around that table, all that matters is to shut up and deal.
April 23, 2002 Posted: 9:54 AM EDT (1354 GMT)
By Todd Leopold
CNN
(CNN) -- Advice-seekers write to Dear Abby. Ethics questioners turn to the New York Times' Randy Cohen.
And poker players turn to Andy Bellin -- at least they do now, ever since his book, "Poker Nation" (HarperCollins), came out.
"Everybody has their story," Bellin says in an e-mail interview from his home in New York. "And yes, they somehow feel like I'm the person who will understand their pain. And yes, sadly, I do understand it all too well.
"You can't really whine to your wife or girlfriend about getting gutted on the river by some 47-1 long shot insurance salesman. I'm your man for that," he says.
Poker players and poker movies
Do poker movies show the game as it is?
"It seems all the great gambling movies use gambling to propel another storyline," Andy Bellin says. His favorite: "The Cincinnati Kid" (1965), with Steve McQueen as an up-and-coming player and Edward G. Robinson as the veteran champ Lancey Howard.
Bellin didn't think much of "Rounders" (1998) -- "so short of anything interesting other than the poker I thought it was hard to watch" -- but loves "The Sting" (1973) and the billiards-oriented "The Hustler" (1961). The latter two both star Paul Newman.
But his favorite movie about hustlers -- if not about poker -- is "The Grifters" (1990), Stephen Frears' dark drama about con artists starring John Cusack, Angelica Huston, and Annette Bening. "The characters were written with such depth and appeal that you were fascinated by every move they made," Bellin says.
Other notable movies about poker players, con artists and gamblers:
- "A Big Hand for the Little Lady" (1966)
- "California Split" (1974)
- "House of Games" (1987)
- "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" (1976)
- "The Music of Chance" (1993)
- "Maverick" (1994)
Bellin, indeed, knows all too well what it's like to be "gutted on the river" (ruined by the last card dealt in a poker game). The author, 32, has playing seriously for about a decade -- and he plays four or five nights a week, finding havens in New York City's underground poker clubs.
These aren't your nickel-dime-quarter friendly games, either; Bellin and his cohorts regularly drop (or win) hundreds of dollars.
But he wouldn't be anywhere else.
"I absolutely love poker," Bellin says. "It's the perfect game. ... The perfect combination of everything that I love: it's math, psychology, competition, money ..."
Rabbit hunting and gut shots
"Poker Nation" is a colorful trip through the poker world. Bellin traces the history of the card game from its origins, along Mississippi River cities in the mid-19th century, to the big-time World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Nevada. He offers tips on "tells" -- those little unconscious signs players give that offer clues to what they're holding -- and provides odds and percentages for the best hands dealt in his usual game, Texas Hold'em.
But, at its heart, "Poker Nation" is about stories. Poker is a game with its own lingo, and Bellin shoots his book through with its coinages -- flop, gut shot, rabbit hunting, San Francisco Busboy, Big Slick, the nuts -- while filling "Poker Nation" with anecdotes. (See the glossary for more poker terms.)
And then there are Bellin's colleagues, people like Holy Chip, an Episcopal minister who cheats (poorly) with abandon; Dr. Liam, a New York psychologist who, despite years of training, flies off the handle as soon as he starts losing; Yana, a Russian woman trying to make enough money to stop playing poker -- but who's pretty much addicted to the game; and, perhaps most tragically, Crazy Rich, a one-time Wall Street investment banker who lost his job, his money and his wife because of his gambling habit.
Like many of his cohorts, Bellin came to poker from an unlikely beginning. He first learned the game when he was 8, keeping his family up all night with his card-playing insomnia. He continued playing through grade school and into college, where he majored in physics and astronomy -- and first realized poker's mathematical underpinnings.
Finally, one fateful night while attending graduate school, a friend took him to Connecticut's Foxwoods Casino. "I had never felt so at home any place in my whole life," Bellin writes.
'Going to high school'
After dropping out of grad school, Bellin played poker professionally for awhile. He eventually turned to writing, taking a job at George Plimpton's literary magazine, The Paris Review. He credits the author and journalist, known for such books as "Paper Lion," for much of his success.
"He's just about the most generous person I've ever met," says Bellin. "If not for him taking me under his wing, I would have never published a single word."
And what about Plimpton's poker playing?
Author Andy Bellin in a familiar place -- at the poker table.
"[He's] a fine player, though a little too talky at the table," Bellin says.
He also got more comfortable in New York's "technically illegal" poker clubs, a process he describes as "a lot like going to a new high school." Bellin's hangout was the Winchester, a "glorified basement" teeming with "strippers, chiropractors, tax attorneys, and cabdrivers huddled around fifteen tables, stacking chips, shuffling cards, and watching sports." The Winchester was finally shut down by New York's finest in August 2000; its owners have since opened other clubs.
"Poker Nation" grew out of an article Bellin wrote for Esquire magazine. The book took him about a year, he says, but he did most of his research close to home, playing several nights a week.
"The only true preparation I had was reading everything ever written about poker," he says.
And if he didn't have poker? Bellin believes he'd probably still be avoiding honest work.
"I could have majored in barroom games in college," he says. "I was an amazing foosball player, a good pool player, and I could throw darts over my left shoulder with my right hand. If I studied half the time I spent playing games, I'd be fluent in six languages."
Not that it's so bad to be fluent in card playing. When you're sitting around that table, all that matters is to shut up and deal.