The Biggest Game in Town

Al Alvarez is a poet who has also written books on mountain climbing, suicide, and dreams. This depth is why his 1983 book on the World Series of Poker has achieved the status of a classic in its field. Alvarez's interviews add to the players' two dimensions a third of his own. He is not a phony gonzo reporter; he is a sincere, intelligent, interested outsider who writes in a crisp style and who allows his subjects' quotations to run for long paragraphs, even pages. When Alvarez encountered the World Series of Poker, in 1981, it was a much smaller and more freewheeling event than it has since become. It may be nostalgia to think so, but the players of that time seem more philosophical, or at least more capable of expressing an abstract thought, than the crude celebrities who populate the game today.