Wednesday 20th August 2008

The Hand I Played

David Spanier

The gambling writer and journalist David Spanier looks back at his life-long love of poker in this compelling memoir. Spanier takes us from teenage days spent playing the horses to the elegant casinos of Mayfair and Monte Carlo, from the legendary Tuesday night game in north London to Las Vegas.

Primarily a collection and development of articles that Spanier produced for various publications, (although many pieces appear in this book for the first time), Spanier begins with an account of his early life that led to his fascination with gambling then moves on to consider the appeal of gambling to human beings as a species. He goes on to cover his time on a Caribbean poker cruise, give his thoughts on internet poker, Las Vegas in literature, discusses Texas 'Holdem for beginners and recounts his experiences in the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em tournament at the World Series of Poker.

David was a journalist on The Times where he had a long and distinguished career, from 1957 to 1982, where he was Diplomatic Correspondent, later changing careers to become a broadcaster with LBC. But it was his love for Chess and Poker which were the major influences on his professional life during the past two decades.

David's craving for poker exceeded even his great love for chess. His serious gambling days started while he was a student at Cambridge where he came close to losing his termly allowance in a poker game, despite which his love of the gaming world became one of his great, enduring passions.

One of his earliest books, published in 1977, was Total Poker, which was described by one reviewer as "The complete addict's guide to poker", but it is much more than that. It pays homage to the game and to the whole poker experience which meant so much to David and many of his friends.

His other books include Total Poker, The Gambler's Pocket Book , Easy Money: Inside the Gambler's Mind , All Right, Okay, You Win: Inside Las Vegas and the Little Book Of Poker.
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