The Story
A billionaire banker from Texas walks into the Bellagio and challenges the best poker players in the world to heads-up limit Hold’em. The stakes: $50,000/$100,000. The swings: millions per hand. The catch: he’ll only play if they agree to his terms.
That’s the real story behind The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King — Michael Craig’s account of the largest documented poker game in history.
Andy Beal, owner of Beal Bank in Dallas, decided the ultimate test of his poker progress would be to challenge the pros on their own turf. But at stakes so high that even the world’s best players couldn’t afford to play alone — forcing them to form a syndicate and take turns.
The Review
The sheer facts of the poker games between Andy Beal and the pros should make this story huge: a poker newcomer takes on the world’s best poker players for $10 million at a time. However, the interesting thing about this series of games is that they largely took place in a private bubble away from the limelight of poker.
In fact, when the games started in 2001 there was no limelight of poker.
Even as the games continued through the poker boom, there were no television crews documenting the action for the rest of us to watch from home. With the stakes so high, spectators weren’t allowed to crowd the surrounding space and, in fact, that would be the last thing that Andy Beal would want.
Andy Beal was a banker and not a pro poker player
Andy Beal’s background was in finance, not poker. His most successful venture, Beal Bank based out of Texas, netted (and still nets him) several hundred million dollars per year. Beal didn’t become interested in poker with the goal of becoming a professional but rather as a personal challenge to master the game as best he could.
The best test of his progress, he decided, would be to challenge the top poker professionals. In order to lessen the obvious advantage of experience and sheer skill that the pros held over him, Beal insisted on playing heads-up limit hold’em for stakes that he rightfully assumed would take them out of their natural element.
Intimidating stakes, even for the pros
Even to the top professionals, $100,000 big bets put a significant chunk of their bankroll on the line. Even short-term bad luck could cost millions. Saying that it was essential for the pros to put aside the value of the chips couldn’t be overstated.
Assembling the Dream Team of Poker
With the intent of getting a chance at the billionaire’s fortunes, the professionals would accept the challenge at all costs. In order to lessen their individual financial risk and build a large enough bankroll, Doyle Brunson assembled a team of players/investors including his son Todd Brunson, Howard Lederer (The Professor), Ted Forrest (The Suicide King), Jennifer Harman, Chip Reese, and Barry Greenstein.
Each of them contributed as much as $1 million and would take turns playing Andy Beal heads-up. Just the logistics of such a collaboration were fascinating to read about and you do get a great behind-the-scenes look at the world of high-stakes poker.
In an inherently individual game, the pros had to become a collective and rely on each other in order to be able to succeed. The dynamics, dialogue, and psychology behind these mega-games make for a truly interesting read.
While perhaps I shouldn’t divulge the eventual outcome of the series of games, I will say that as time progressed the edge that the pros held over Beal almost became nonexistent. The fact that the games took place over several years speaks to the fact that they were closer than most would expect.
To match Beal’s bankroll, the pros formed a syndicate — each contributing up to $1 million. Doyle Brunson, Howard Lederer, Ted Forrest, Jennifer Harman, and others took turns playing the billionaire heads-up. In an inherently individual game, they had to become a team. The logistics, dialogue, and internal politics of this collaboration are some of the book’s most fascinating material.
The Writing
As for Michael Craig’s actual writing, it is a small marvel how he wrote with such detail on such a private game.
He did a commendable job tracking down and interviewing the key players and he has a great reporting writing style. While most of the commentary is strictly factual and the play-by-play is a bit dry at times the book is very engaging overall if you love poker.
Craig also provides succinct biographies and interesting tidbits about all the key players.
Overall, if you’re a poker player or poker fan who enjoys non-fiction, The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King is a must-read. The magnitude of these games is simply mind-boggling and takes you into a level of poker that is difficult even to imagine.
Craig somehow gained access to one of the most private games in poker history. He tracked down and interviewed all the key players, producing a level of detail that makes you feel like you’re watching from the rail at the Bellagio.
About the Author
Michael Craig’s background
Craig graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and practiced law for fifteen years before discovering his passion for writing. He started as a freelance magazine writer and published two books on finance before turning to poker.
How the book came to be
Craig says the biggest motivation was simply that he really wanted to write it. He got acquainted with some lower-stakes regulars, then reached out to Todd Brunson, who was friendly and accommodating. From Todd came the others — Doyle, Forrest, Lederer. He was able to interview virtually everyone involved.
The title
Craig originally planned to call it simply “The Big Game,” but his publisher wanted something more literary. The final title references the three central figures: the Professor (Howard Lederer), the Banker (Andy Beal), and the Suicide King (the king of hearts, which appeared in a pivotal hand).
The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King is one of the best poker books ever written — and it has nothing to do with strategy. Craig takes an almost impossibly dramatic real-life story and tells it with the pacing of a thriller. The stakes are real, the characters are legends, and the ending is earned. If you read one poker narrative in your life, make it this one.