GETTING LUCKY

by Richard Sparks

The follow-up to Diary of a Mad Poker Player, in which Richard Sparks went on a wild roller coaster ride to the World Series of Poker. Now, when the dust clears, he sees one thing above his game needs help. So Richard approaches one of the legends of poker, World Champion of Poker Tom McEvoy, who signs on as his personal coach. Soon Richard sets out again into the booming world of poker -- armed with a lot more firepower. He sails down to Mexico, on board the Party Poker Million Cruise. He gets up close and personal with famous poker faces, top stars and big money players, old pros and young guns. He discusses the future of poker with the man behind the World Poker Tour. He hears about the bad old days from The King of the Cheats. And he gets into the action at the World Series of Poker, against the biggest names in the game. There are anecdotes, and encounters with some of poker's unusual characters. There is insight and instruction from McEvoy, as Richard's game improves rapidly -- with spectacular results. And there is plenty of real-life, real-time poker action.

Genres: Nonfiction

100 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2006

About the author

Richard Sparks has written over sixty hours of broadcast TV worldwide (among others, The Famous Five, Not the Nine O'Clock News, The Worst of Hollywood, Valentine Park, The Optimist, The Flying Kiwi.) On stage, a dozen plays for companies all over the U.K., such as the Welsh National, the Chichester Festival and the West Yorkshire Playhouse, and London theatres including the Victoria Palace, the Latchmere, the Orange Tree, Greenwich, Hampstead and the Bush. It was at the Hampstead Theatre that the then-unknown Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) performed Richard's Schoolmaster sketch, which launched him to stardom in John Cleese's show/film The Secret Policeman's Ball. He is now living in the U.S., and writing many opera libretti for leading companies such as the National Symphony (Washington D.C.) and the Los Angeles Opera -- four of which have their world premieres in 2006. He has even written an opera for puppets, in the New Line film The Adventures of Pinocchio, with composers Lee Holdridge and Brian May of Queen. A lifelong poker afficionado, he used to play in a home game in London that included poker authors A. Alvarez, David Spanier and Anthony Holden.