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The Poker Face of Wall Street
Product
The Poker Face of Wall Street by Aaron Brown
Hits
- Interesting take on poker as a financial instrument
- Good eye-opener for players in need of money management
- Interesting "side stories" on famous players as well as economic history
Misses
- Not a "clean cut" poker book, more a financial overview and risk guide
- Definitely not a good beginner's guide to poker
Review
The Poker Face of Wall Street is one of those books that breaks new ground. A professor of finance and a stock trader that has spent a fair share of his adult life playing high stakes poker, author Aaron Brown has his roots dug firmly in the financial world. Thus, it's not entirely surprising that he chose to write a poker book with a twist.
Calling The Poker Face of Wall Street a poker book, however, is almost like saying The Wizard of Oz is about witches: it's partly true but not the whole truth. Indeed, a quick glance at the index reveals that this book deals with a lot more than just poker. It's a book about calculated risk, financial history, poker history, expected value and other financial factors and theories that can actually be applied to poker. But if the question is whether or not the book is focused on teaching or informing mainly about poker, then the answer has to be no.
Aaron Brown focuses on risk and money management and draws parallels between the money market and poker games in an insightful and interesting way. What he doesn't do is teach poker. In fact, what little direct poker strategy there is won't be enough for most poker players to justify buying the book.
To find The Poker Face of Wall Street interesting and informative, it helps to have a grasp of how the financial world works. The book parallels poker and its inherent dangers with the fluctuations and risks involved with any sort of "gambling," including stock and options trading. For those widely interested in "financial gambling," the book may be interesting and well worth its price. For most anyone else, and anyone looking for a classic poker book in particular, there are far better books available on the market today.
The book consists of 10 chapters:
- The Art of Uncalculated Risk
- Poker Basics
- Finance Basics
- A Brief History of Risk Denial
- Pokernomics
- Son of a Soft Money Bank
- The Once-Bold Mates of Morgan
- The Games People Play
- Who Got Game
- Utility Belt
The book totals 350 pages including an annotated biography and index.
Details:
- Paperback $29.95
Wiley Publishing