Book Review and bits and pieces

I finally read "Bigger Deal" by Anthony Holden. I know the rest of the 3,567 who got this book for free because you had a poker blog have already read it, so this review may be pretty worthless. But I've had some stuff going on in my life. Scroll down to see.

Overall it's a good book about the new poker craze. But it has its flaws. Holden really doesn't offer anything new. We find out how the World Poker Tour, Chris Moneymaker and online poker all contributed to the poker boom. But most poker fans know all that already, and Holden talks extensively about his poker exploits, so much so that it may bore those who aren't really into poker or even those who enjoy playing once a month and that's it.
So it's hard to know exactly who Holden's audience is for this book.
Yet it felt somewhat universal just because Holden is that good of a writer. He sense of detail, through the eyes of a jaded yet amusing Brit, captures the feel of the poker tournaments he's involved in and loses in. But it's his descriptions of himself that make the book worth reading. Any poker player, the tournament players especially, know what he feels when he continues to bust out of tournament after tournament short of the money. He describes his own play, probably the play of most bloggers (tight/aggressive) and discusses just how lucky you really do have to be to win a big score, along with tidbits of loneliness that most poker players have also felt over time.
His best chapter come when he attends a poker camp. Not only does he point out his own shortcomings, he manages to make us laugh about them, especially when faced with a fiesty Annie Duke. This chapter made me laugh out loud. The rest of the book just made me smile.

If you did get it sent to you, it's worth reading. Otherwise wait for the paperback or pick it up at the library.




Otherwise, life continues to roll on. The twins are basically sleeping through the night, and as a result, I ran under 23 minutes at a 5K for the first time in a year. The pace averaged out to a 7:22-per-mile run. I also have experimented with starting slower and going faster as the race went on. In the past I just ran as hard as I could and tried to survive. But this time I started out at 7:40 and averaged 7-7:15 miles those last two, and those last two miles felt the best I've ever felt in a 5K. I'm doing that from now on.

Poker finally is going well after a mediocre three-month stretch. I'm winning at the cash games lately. I'm still playing mostly cash games just because I still can't count on spending two hours at the tables uninterrupted. I did play a Mookie last week and I hope to get back to that on a regular basis soon.

We went out to dinner the other night. By ourselves.
Heaven.

Bookworm

All of a sudden, Jayden is obsessed with books.
He seemed to enjoy us reading to him, especially a big animal book that had colorful pictures of all kinds of critters, but many times reading was more of a chore than a pleasure. He was (is) addicted to "Little Einsteins" the way certain Minnesota bloggers are addicted to cheese curds, and when we asked him if he wanted to read, he would say, "no."
And, to be honest, by the end of the day, we were so tired, we were fine with him watching his cartoon.
Bad parent. This despite my love for words and writing and reading. Bad parent. This despite the fact that I could read at a high level when I was in Kindergarten, and I think that was because I had a knack for it, "Sesamee Street" and my parents willing to read me a book all the time.
Jayden still lags a bit on talking. He's a couple months past two and still does not use more than one word at a time despite knowing plenty of words. I'm guilty over that, wondering if we had read to him more if he'd be talking more at this pont.
Bad, bad, naughty parent.
So I'm relieved he's suddenly so into books. When I come in his room to get him in the morning, sometimes I find 5-6 books on his bed, something he was obviously doing instead of sleeping (that kid does not know how lucky he is to be offered at least 10 hours a sleep a night). He wants me to read to him all the time. He even wants to read, occasionally, when those little smart, musical, crack fiends are on.
As a society TV, video games, texting on the phone and surfing the Web are valued more than reading. I'm sensitive to this, perhaps more than I should be, because newspapers have taken a severe hit in the last year, and I wonder if I'll have a job in 10. Maybe even five. We don't read enough. I wonder if it wasn't for blogs, we would read at all anymore.
I'm just as guilty. After spending all day at work writing, I don't want to read when I get home. I'd rather play online poker or video games or watch a movie, if I have any free time at all after appeasing Jayden and the twins.
But Jayden has inspired me. I am reading again. I'm reading my magazines, I'm staying in touch with your blogs, and I'm even reading books again, this time "Bigger Deal," a freebee a lot of you got and already read months ago. I devoured Harry Potter. I have a stack of books that I'm going to attack, not all of them poker books. I need to be an example for my son.
I want my bed to be covered in books when I wake up, something I should have been doing years ago instead of sleeping.

Edit: I went downstairs this morning and caught him reading this. Cool! This is not a pose.