Rating

★★★★☆

Category

non-fiction

Read

2018-05-06

Pages

258

I’m a sucker for the “journalist falls into a subculture and writes about it” genre.

Every paragraph is turned up to eleven, which is slightly tiring though so many of them are winners I didn’t really mind. It’s also quite a short book. The opening paragraph:

“I have a good poker face because I am half dead inside. My particular combo of slack features, negligible affect, and soulless gaze has helped my game ever since I started playing twenty years ago, when I was ignorant of pot odds and M-theory and four-betting, and it gave me a boost as I collected my trove of lore, game by game, hand by hand. It has not helped me human relationships–wise over the years, but surely I’m not alone here. Anyone whose peculiar mix of genetic material and formative experiences has resulted in a near-expressionless mask can relate. Nature giveth, taketh, etc. You make the best of the hand you’re dealt.”