Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “The Biggest Game in Town” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

The Biggest Game in Town

Al Álvarez

3.70 · Rating details · 920 ratings · 54 reviews

Called "the best book ever written on poker" by players and critics alike, The Biggest Game in Town is a sought-after classic thats finally available in print again. Acclaimed author A. Alvarez delves into the seedy, obsessive world of high-stakes Vegas poker, where "the next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing." Uncovering an exotic underground rich in ...more

Get A Copy

Paperback, 192 pages

Published February 1st 2002 by Chronicle Books (first published 1983)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about The Biggest Game in Town, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about The Biggest Game in Town

Lists with This Book

The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King by Michael Craig

Poker Players, Gamblers, and Casino Bosses

43 books — 27 voters

Deal! - Books with Card Games

29 books — 42 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.70 ·

Rating details

· 920 ratings · 54 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of The Biggest Game in Town

Jul 08, 2020 Glenn Sumi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

What happens when an esteemed, Oxford-educated British poet, novelist and critic attends the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas?

This book. And what a book it is: funny, insightful, superbly written. It's justifiably considered one of the best volumes ever written about the game.

Back in 1981, when Álvarez visited Sin City for three weeks in the scorching spring – on assignment from The New Yorker magazine, no less – poker wasn't the phenomenon it would soon become with televised tournaments and What happens when an esteemed, Oxford-educated British poet, novelist and critic attends the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas?

This book. And what a book it is: funny, insightful, superbly written. It's justifiably considered one of the best volumes ever written about the game.

Back in 1981, when Álvarez visited Sin City for three weeks in the scorching spring – on assignment from The New Yorker magazine, no less – poker wasn't the phenomenon it would soon become with televised tournaments and younger players drawn to the game by the internet.

Álvarez, an amateur player himself, fills in the history of the tournament, begun by Benny Binion of Binion's Horseshoe Casino in the so-called Glitter Gultch, or downtown (old) Vegas. He also introduces you to some of the well-known (at the time) professional players, including Doyle Brunson, Johnny Moss, Stu Unger and Jack Straus, each of whom had won or would win a WSOP title and bracelet. (In 1982, the following year, Straus would make a legendary comeback from a single chip to the $520,000 title.)

And there are others across the U.S. who are drawn to the three-day event to compete against these players; all they need is the $10,000 to buy in, stamina and a bit of luck. Oh yes, and skills. (Many of them also sport Stetson hats and little bolo ties.)

You have to wait until the final two chapters for the tournament itself, which Álvarez captures with colour and drama; his writing is so vivid you can see everything as it's unfolding: the showdowns, the bluffs, the graceful or graceless exits.

The rest of book is filled with other stories – about the tournament, Binion, Vegas, and why the brightly-lit, 24/7 town draws people from all over the world to test their luck. A couple of anecdotes are so good you'll repeat them to your friends.

Obviously, Álvarez had great access to everyone: the players, the owners, even strangers standing around a table or lounging about in bars or pools. The quotes, complete with accents, are fabulous. He takes in people and the environment with a poet's eye and a poker player's understanding of tells. One of the things you come away with is an understanding of the psychology of the professional player, who can sometimes win or lose an ordinary person's annual salary in a single card – or golf – game.

Even though the book's nearly 40 years old, it hasn't dated much, except for a bit of language we might call culturally insensitive (especially about weight and class). I bought a remaindered copy for $5, and I'd consider that a win. For several hours of entertainment, I got an enormous return on my investment. ...more

flag 24 likes · Like · see review

Mar 25, 2012 Tim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: poker, reviewed

I love love love this book, and wrote a large piece on it for Card Player in 2006 after interviewing Alvarez by phone):

Al Alvarez & The Biggest Game in Town:
How An English Poet Penned the Best Poker Book Ever Written

Twenty-five years ago, an English poet, critic and avid poker player named Al Alvarez flew across the Atlantic to Las Vegas, checked in at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino to watch the World Series of Poker, then sat down and produced the best poker narrative ever written: The Biggest Game ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 18, 2015 Kirsten rated it it was ok

Shelves: nonfiction, male, not-my-cuppa, sports

A look at the key players in the poker world in the late 70s early 80s. Almost liked it. Can't put my finger on why it's not a 3-star, because there was something about it I did like. The characters and the city seemed to be made into caricatures of themselves, but then again, maybe that's truly how they were. Maybe I'm comparing it to the Stuey Unger book that I liked so much and this wasn't that. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 10, 2014 ben rated it liked it

Didn't think I was going to enjoy a book about Vegas… I just got back and was sick and tired of the place. But Alvarez writes about the place in such a way that almost made me want to go back next week. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Sep 25, 2016 Arty rated it really liked it

Frequently described as 'the best book about poker ever written' and I won't argue with that. It's quite good. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jun 13, 2020 Juan Pablo rated it really liked it

The prose is extraordinary and the description so vivid that one feels part of the poker tournament. The reader encounters the improbable stories of the greatest poker players of that time---lives completely devoted to the adrenaline found in playing and betting---as well as Vegas itself, a sort of statement against nature, the most extreme version of the "American dream". ...more

flag Like · see review

Aug 27, 2019 R Fontaine rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

first read in 1983; Another re-read that is every bit as enjoyable and informative as it was so many years ago.
The World Series of poker, played in Las Vegas at Binions casino, has an unlimited cast of characters -both players and fans: and they all have stories to tell.

flag Like · see review

Nov 05, 2017 Stephen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A Brit decides to write a book about the Poker scene in Las Vegas in the 1980, and in doing so paints a complex picture of the personalities that dominated Poker at the time.

flag Like · see review

Jun 22, 2018 Anita rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

The story of Binnion's World Series of Poker and the characters that play in it. I learned a lot about poker. ...more

flag Like · see review

Nov 12, 2018 Stefan G.A. rated it liked it

Great character sketches and dialogue. Would have been interesting to have had a follow up on where they all went...

flag Like · see review

Jul 26, 2019 Scott Wilson rated it really liked it

Shelves: poker

Great read if you are interested old time poker with the legends.

flag Like · see review

Oct 27, 2019 Joe rated it really liked it

Solid look at the early WSOP days. Stories about the Binions and the origins of modern Vegas. Interest read, could’ve used more about Ungar and less about Doyle.

flag Like · see review

Dec 10, 2019 Chelsea K rated it really liked it

4.5 stars

flag Like · see review

Feb 26, 2020 Scott rated it it was amazing

Terrific book, the author has a Steinbeckian non-fiction style, paints a great picture of the time, characters, with observational wit. Doesn't feel dated. ...more

flag Like · see review

Oct 19, 2020 Brettsinclair70 rated it really liked it

Al dissects the high rollers in Vegas. America in microcosm.

flag Like · see review

Jan 01, 2019 Alexandra Chauran rated it really liked it

Shelves: poker-books

This book is very similar to The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death, but is not contemporary. I enjoyed being taken back to the 1980's casino days through the author's vibrant prose, though it wasn't always flattering. The vignettes about famous poker players gave these figures life. I want to read his other book, Poker: Bluffs, Bets, and Bad Beats. ...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 08, 2017 William Milks rated it liked it

Short and fun. Just a poker book. Game has changed a lot (written in 1982).

flag Like · see review

Sep 18, 2011 Tyler Jones rated it really liked it

Shelves: poker

In 1983 Al Alvarez wrote a book called The Biggest Game in Town. It was both a history of poker and an account of the 1981 main event which was won by Stu Ungar. Alvarez was and is a great writer of both poetry and prose, and was also Sylvia Plath’s close friend and editor. He knows how to put words together and he also knows a lot about poker, being a long-time player himself. The combination of writing ability an deep knowledge of his subject makes The Biggest Game in Town, in quite a few peop In 1983 Al Alvarez wrote a book called The Biggest Game in Town. It was both a history of poker and an account of the 1981 main event which was won by Stu Ungar. Alvarez was and is a great writer of both poetry and prose, and was also Sylvia Plath’s close friend and editor. He knows how to put words together and he also knows a lot about poker, being a long-time player himself. The combination of writing ability an deep knowledge of his subject makes The Biggest Game in Town, in quite a few people’s opinion, the best book about poker. I have read it a few times and I have recommended it to people who want to understand what all the fuss is about. The game has never had a more eloquent spokesperson.

I do, however, two small quibbles. Quibble number one: historical inaccuracy.

After Benny Binion took over the Horseshoe Casino, he slowly began to develop it into the main poker place in Las Vegas. Binion achieved this in part by creating a myth - the myth of Johnny Moss and Nick the Greek. In a nutshell, the story goes that Nick the Greek, the most famous gambler in the world at the time, came to Vegas in 1949 and asked Binion to set up the highest stakes poker game possible. Binion called in Johnny Moss (who would later win the WSOP main event twice) to duel it out with The Greek. The game, according to legend, lasted five months with only short breaks for meals and rest. Binion set up the table right at the front of his casino and the epic struggle drew thousands of curious onlookers who, it is assumed, spent their money in Binion’s place. Binion even went so far as to claim Albert Einstein came to the Horseshoe and was introduced to Binion’s friends as “Little Al. He runs a lot of the action in Jersey.” After five months of fortunes sliding back and forth between the two men, Moss finally wore The Greek down, until The Greek finally stood up and uttered the famous words: “Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.”

That’s the story. Binion claimed the epic game was the inspiration for him starting the WSOP. The story quickly became accepted as truth and was given credibility when Alvarez repeated it in detail in The Biggest Game in Town. The only problem is that it almost certainly did not happen. There is no record Nick the Greek ever spoke of such a match, much less participated in it, and the story seems to have started only after Nick’s death. If such as match took place, with thousands of tourists serving as witnesses, then there must be a mountain of photos to prove it - but the fact that no one has ever brought forth a single picture of this game is a pretty strong argument that it never happened. Still a great story. One really can’t blame Alvarez, who was a poet not an historian, for perpetuating the myth.

The only other quibble I have is Alvarez’s obvious dislike for the man who won the 1981 WSOP main event, Stu Ungar. If Amarillo Slim Preston moved poker towards the light of respectability, then Ungar certainly moved it back towards the dark. Far from eloquent, Ungar is portrayed by Alvarez as barely human - communicating with monosyllabic grunts. Ungar was a terrible drug addict, which may have also fuelled Alvarez’s distaste. Still the portrait of Ungar as somehow sub-human reflects poorly on Alvarez.

...more

flag Like · see review

Oct 17, 2017 Lynn rated it liked it

The first half was very interesting, a study of the gambling personality. The second half not so much.

flag Like · see review

Nov 08, 2013 Robert Beveridge rated it really liked it

Shelves: owned-and-gave-away, finished

A. Alvarez, The Biggest Game in Town (Houghton Mifflin, 1983)
[originally posted 14Aug2000]

Someone who's not involved in the wonderful world of gambling may look at Alvarez' spirited and slightly surreal view of the World Series of Poker 1981 as a study in caricature. "No one's like this," I can hear them saying. "No one's really that obsessive over this kind of thing. It's just a game, right?"

Let me tell you something, and this is coming from the perspective of a guy for whom $64 on a pick six t A. Alvarez, The Biggest Game in Town (Houghton Mifflin, 1983)
[originally posted 14Aug2000]

Someone who's not involved in the wonderful world of gambling may look at Alvarez' spirited and slightly surreal view of the World Series of Poker 1981 as a study in caricature. "No one's like this," I can hear them saying. "No one's really that obsessive over this kind of thing. It's just a game, right?"

Let me tell you something, and this is coming from the perspective of a guy for whom $64 on a pick six ticket is a year-high bet: if four hundred thousand dollars of your money, and the same amount of the other guy's, are on the table in front of you, it stops being a game and becomes a test of wills. The cards become meaningless, or at least far less meaningful than the people holding them. And under those circumstances, it'd be on the insane side to NOT obsess, wouldn't it?

Alvarez, a witty and insightful Londoner whose first name has been a mystery for decades to those who only know him from his many books (all of which have been published under only his first initial, to my knowledge), travels to Las Vegas with a press pass, a curious nature, a "respectable" poker ability, and not nearly enough money to get himself into trouble. While there, he covers the World Series of Poker for 1981 ("not nearly as interesting as the side games, which have no limits") and, more importantly, gets to know a few of the many characters who give Las Vegas its somewhat unique charm. There are poker players with advanced degrees and poker players who are illiterate; there are quiet players and there are brash, boorish players; there are transgendered dealers and (well, there's really no other side of that one); the whole spectrum of Americana is represented within the Golden Nugget, as Alvarez would have it, and by the time you're finished with your trip through this book, as with a trip to Vegas, the oddness of the folks around him simply vanishes, and you're left with only their personalities and their strategies. They have only one thing in common—they analyze every detail of every hand in order to try and get better. The pot isn't all that great in the World Series of Poker—oftentimes men and women win ten times as much in a single hand in a side game—but it sure does give you bragging rights to have that title for a year or two. It may look obsessive... Okay. It is. But it's also wonderful.

If you liked Rounders, or if you like poker, this one's definitely worth hunting down. *** 1/2 ...more

flag Like · see review

Dec 01, 2011 Jeremiah rated it really liked it

"Las Vegas is no more a place for childhood than it is a place for sensibility. It is a town without grace and without nuance, where the only useful virtues are experience, survival and money. "In Vegas, they weigh you up in gold," said Jack Straus. "They call it the golden rule: the man who has the gold makes the rules." (Page 40)

The Biggest Game in Town gives you the 1970's history of the World Series of Poker, held at Jack Binion's Horseshoe Casino, along with small biographies of some of the ...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 11, 2020 Kapil Kashyap rated it it was amazing

A great portrait of the lifestyle of professional poker players and the WSOP, examining several WSOP participants and their sensibilities

flag Like · see review

Jan 15, 2016 Andrew rated it really liked it

Great book that really gets in to the psychology of those playing at the absolute top end of the poker spectrum; the kind of people who can win or lose hundreds of thousands of dollars on the turn of a card without batting an eye.

Both exhilarating and depressing, The Biggest Game in Town is about a gritty Las Vegas of the late 70's and early 80's- before the rise of the shiny mega-casino- and the chain-smoking, overweight, bizarre personalities who are compelled to live in the desert to match w ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 14, 2008 Tung rated it it was ok

Shelves: non-fiction

Last year I read Positively Fifth Street, a book about poker whose author entered the World Series of Poker and described the experience. The inspiration for that book was this book, widely regarded by poker players as one of the best poker books ever written. This goes to show you that poker players should stick to cardplaying and leave the bookreviewing to people with taste. This book is not nearly as energetic or enthralling as Positively Fifth Street. You don’t end up wanting to play poker; ...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 22, 2013 Jay rated it liked it

Shelves: business

This is my second poker stories book in a couple of years, after "Positively Fifth Street", and I am going to slow down my rate. This one, written before Positively, felt pretty similar. I did notice a different style in this one though - it really stood out for me. I think because I read that the author is a poet, I was looking to see how this was unlike other similar books that were written by journalists / magazine writers. This one felt like, of all things, a soundtrack album. There were the ...more

flag Like · see review

Apr 30, 2009 John rated it it was amazing

Another poker classic on my Shelf of Honor. A. Alvarez was a close friend of Sylvia Plath and was best known (prior to this book) as the author of a study/contemplation of suicide, "The Savage God."

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Alvarez

This book is also about the World Series of Poker (see my comments about Positively Fifth Street) but written about 20 years before James McManus's account -- in the days when the participants numbered in the dozens, not thousands, and the $10,000 ent ...more

flag Like · see review

Oct 20, 2009 Luis Perez rated it liked it · review of another edition

Nonfiction. A writer and amateur poker player from Britain swoops into Las Vegas for three weeks to observe and write about the characters of the game and their fates at the 1981 World Series of Poker.

If you like poker, you will like this book.

One other note: This book will not help you become a better player. It's not a book of strategy or techniques, although the pros in this book do reveal some insight into their thought processes. ...more

flag Like · see review

Oct 25, 2011 Sheehan rated it really liked it

Great travel writing-esque review of the 1981 World Series of Poker...

Written by someone from the UK, the perspective of the outsider looking in to the Vegas of that era is a novel way to see Glitter Gulch, than other histories of Vegas I've read.

Definitely, written for those with an affinity for poker and the major players whose personalities come out so well in the anecdotes and interviews Alvarez includes.

...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 02, 2013 One Flew rated it it was amazing

Shelves: poker, non-fiction

Insightful and thought provoking. As a poker enthusiast i loved this book, the endless poker stories and industry overviews. Alvarez did very well to give an unbiased view to the Vegas scene and the immense highs and lows of the gamblers life. Probably a more enjoyable read for the other degenerate gamblers out there like me, though still a great introduction to the subject if you're an outsider.
Well worth the read. ...more

flag Like · see review

Jul 26, 2015 David rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to David by: Bought it cheap: remaindered or used

This edition is hardback.

This brief book on poker players in Las Vegas, especially the 1981 World Series of Poker, was interesting, but I think I gave it away . . . not something I thought I'd ever read again. The writing reminded me of one of those long New Yorker articles. Which is to say the writing was good but somehow lightweight. It would be of much more interest to a confirmed and avid poker play.

Let's call it 2.75 stars. ...more

flag Like · see review

« previous 1 2 next »