Take Me To The River: A Wayward and Perilous Journey to the World Series of Poker

(Paperback)

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Description

Peter Alson turned fifty and proposed to his long-term girlfriend. To pay for the wedding, a plot was hatched: Alson would board a plane bound for Las Vegas and the biggest game in town, the 2005 World Series of Poker. Take Me to the River is a first person account of an inveterate gambler and bad boy's quest to grow up, while at the same time compete with more than 5,000 players for over $100 million dollars in prize money. It is an exploration of the lessons that poker has to teach: probability and luck, good and bad fortune, patience, and - fittingly - commitment.

Reviews

"A bloody good read." - Poker Life
"[Alson's] transparent prose is ferociously honest and deceptively simple." -- Matthew Klam, author of Sam the Cat and Other Stories
"A compelling look inside the often tortured lives of professional gamblers." -- Mason Levinson, Bloomberg News
"Literary, smartly written." -- The Poker Gazette
"Alson is at his best in recounting pivotal hands from his tournament experiences. He expertly builds suspense while explaining how he observes his opponents for clues and calculates his chances of winning a hand." -- St. Petersburg Times
"Without question, one of the finest poker books ever written." -- James McManus, bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

Author Bio

Peter Alson is the author of the highly acclaimed memoir Confessions of an Ivy League Bookie and coauthor of One of a Kind, a biography of the poker champion Stuey Ungar, and Atlas: From the Street to the Ring: A Son's Struggle to Become a Man. Alson's articles have appeared in many national magazines, including Esquire, Playboy, and The New York Times Magazine. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Alice, and their daughter Eden.