Anthony Holden — an English biographer, journalist, and avid poker player — quit his day job and spent a year trying to make it as a professional. Big Deal is the memoir of that year: the games, the travels, the characters, and the slow realization that loving poker and surviving as a pro are very different things.
Holden’s chosen profession is writing, not poker. He’s a biographer of Prince Charles, a translator of opera libretti, and a literary critic. He happens to also be obsessed with poker. That combination — literary talent meets genuine poker knowledge — is what makes Big Deal special.
The Review
Big Deal succeeds because of Holden’s witty literary style — in the same class as A. Alvarez (The Biggest Game in Town), Michael Konik, and Peter Alson. But unlike Alvarez, who wrote about poker as an outside observer, Holden actually put his own money on the line. He wasn’t documenting someone else’s adventure. He was living it.
The book chronicles Holden’s travels through Las Vegas, Morocco, Louisiana, and London — playing in tournaments and cash games, meeting legends like Johnny Chan, Jack Binion, and Amarillo Slim. The era matters: this was late-’80s poker, when fields were small enough that players knew everyone at the table and the game was still a genuine subculture, not a televised sport.
Poker was a niche culture when Big Deal was written. Tournament fields were so small that players knew most of the other participants by name. There were no hole-card cameras, no ESPN coverage, no online qualifiers. That era of late-’80s poker may be gone, but true fans still appreciate its distinctive, bygone atmosphere.
Holden’s writing would please anyone who enjoys a good book — not just poker readers. In fact, Big Deal would probably appeal to non-poker players who simply enjoy well-crafted memoir. The poker is the vehicle, but the journey is universal: a man risking stability to pursue a passion.
What Makes It Work
The writing quality
Holden is a masterful author, not just a competent poker writer. His prose has the confidence and wit of a seasoned journalist who’s also deeply funny. He makes poker accessible without dumbing it down, and he captures the emotional texture of the game — the highs, the grinding lows, the absurdity — with a literary touch that most poker books don’t even attempt.
The personal stakes
Unlike most poker narratives, Holden is genuinely risking his career. His weekly Tuesday night game gives him enough confidence to take the leap, but as time passes and money dwindles, the tension becomes real. This isn’t a millionaire playing with house money — it’s a writer betting his livelihood on a card game.
The characters
Holden’s personal encounters with poker’s legends — Johnny Chan, Jack Binion, Amarillo Slim — are some of the book’s best passages. These are figures we now know through TV coverage and Wikipedia entries. Holden knew them as people across a felt table in the late 1980s.
In 2007, Holden published Bigger Deal: A Year Inside the Poker Boom, covering the incredible growth of the game during the Moneymaker era. If you love Big Deal, the sequel offers a fascinating contrast — the same writer returning to a game that had transformed beyond recognition.
About Anthony Holden
Background
Born in 1947 in Lancashire, England, Holden has had a prolific career as a writer, journalist, and biographer. He started in journalism before publishing biographies of Prince Charles, Laurence Olivier, and others. His poker writing sits alongside a literary career that spanned decades. Holden passed away on October 7, 2023, at the age of 76.
Big Deal and its legacy
Big Deal was inspired primarily by Holden’s experiences at the 1988 World Series of Poker. Originally published in 1990, it found a new audience during the poker boom when it was reissued. The 2007 sequel, Bigger Deal, covered the boom era itself. Together, the two books bookend poker’s transformation from subculture to mainstream spectacle.
Big Deal is an overlooked classic. Anthony Holden tells the story of pre-boom poker in brilliant, witty prose that transcends the game itself. It’s a memoir about risk, obsession, and the gap between loving something and being good enough to survive on it. If you read one poker narrative from before the Moneymaker era, make it this one.