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Dirty Poker
Product
Dirty Poker: The Poker Underworld Exposed by Richard Marcus
Hits
- Somewhat interesting look at possible cheating and hustling in the gambling world
Misses
- Based to a large extent on pure speculation
- Wrongfully paints the entire poker community as hustlers and cheaters
- Writer has a terribly cynical view of all forms of poker
Review
Dirty Poker is the second book by Richard Marcus, a self-proclaimed world-class cheat at casino games and poker. In this book, Marcus goes after poker and the people who play it, in particular the big players and the World Series of Poker.
The book pretty much tells the reader that many of the biggest names in poker, online poker Web sites, casinos, dealers and anyone in between cannot be trusted with a dime of your hard-earned cash. While this may be simplifying the message of Dirty Poker, it is the core.
Here is an excerpt from the book:
"It's no secret that bots are used to fill up play-money tables on sites. They claim that it's strictly a service for new players who want to practice playing online poker before venturing into the real-money games. And it is. People can play 24 hours a day on the play-money tables. In the long run, this service earns millions for the sites because nearly 100% of the play-money players graduate into real-cash games."
This statement is just one of the many that comes right out of thin air. No sites have admitted to using bots, and why would they? The biggest rooms are the ones that run the most commercials for their free poker schools, and they are also the ones that are most crowded, which means they have no need for bots. The fact that many people graduate from free games to real money is not crime; its good business.
Marcus employs anonymous sources, creative thinking and pure speculation to get his message across: "Don't trust anyone in the poker or gambling industry!" Though this may be true for the odd cheat and scam artist, it is very hard to believe that multi-billion (yes, with a "B") dollar companies and high-ranking players who earn more from business deals than they do at the table, would jeopardize their entire future scamming players who don't need to be scammed to be relieved of their money.
The simple facts are that the poker industry does not need to defraud anyone; they make plenty of money off the rake. Would anyone seriously believe that Jennifer Tilly (one of the characters not so cleverly disguised in the book) would risk public ridicule for the amount of money she probably makes screaming for two minutes on the silver screen? I hope not.
Richard Marcus may very well be correct in some of his accusations, and we all know that cheating occurs in any type of game or sport. But to the extent he describes? Hardly.
As a semi-action thriller, this book is entertaining at best. As a fact-based book dealing with cheating, it is not. This book cannot with a good conscience be recommended to anyone, as there are far better books on the subject of cheating that are far more believable.
The book consists of nine chapters including:
- Who Are Today's Poker Cheats?
- The Underworld of Legal Casino Poker
- The "Underworld" Series of Poker
- Why Professionals Cheat
- The Evolution of Poker Cheating
- Online Oncrime
- Cheating in Home Games
- Great Poker Scams
- Where Will It Go From Here?
The book totals 271 pages including forward, introduction and index.
Details:
- Paperback $17.95
Undercover Publishing
