The education of a poker player : including where and how one learns to win

Out of seven saloons which ran poker games, Monty's Place was the only clean one. The poker room itself was at the rear of the saloon and was about twenty feet square with two barred windows high above the ground and an iron wood stove at the end kept polished by the town idiot, called Dummy. The windows had dark, drawn curtains. The walls were unplastered brick, the woodwork painted white, and the floor scrubbed. In the centre was a large round table covered with green billiard cloth and surrounded by seven cane chairs. Others, for loafers and kibitzers, were scattered here and there or were grouped around the stove when the weather was cold. The table was lighted by a single bulb, extended to the centre by a cord from the ceiling and shaded against the eyes of the players. At the side of each chair was a spittoon; others were at convenient spots This classic is not only a poker playing manual, but a marvelous autobiography. First published in 1957, Yardley, also the first chief of the US code breakers during WW1, recalls countless poker games with characters ranging from railroad men, traveling salesmen, speculators, drunks, and even secret agents, all seen across the green baize tables of the world. Offering fascinating insight into Yardley's cautious/tight play variety of poker as well as the world of code breaking, this book is in a league of its own. Both an autobiography and a poker-playing manual which seeks to expose the cynical reality behind the "American Dream". Yardley describes many poker games and characters who include railroad men, travelling salesmen, speculators, drunks and no-hopers.