The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time
“One of the three books he tells new graduates to read: Liar's Poker, The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King, Fermat's Enigma.”
Why it is worth your time
This is Michael Craig's 2005 account of the highest-stakes poker game played to that point. Between 2001 and 2004 Andy Beal, a Dallas banker and self-taught mathematician, took on a group of Las Vegas professionals, including Doyle Brunson, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman and Ted Forrest, who pooled their money and played him in rotation as the Corporation. The game was limit hold'em with stakes that reached $100,000 and $200,000 a bet. Craig, a lawyer turned writer, spoke to both sides. Chamath lists it with Liar's Poker and Fermat's Enigma as the 3 books he tells new graduates to read. He plays high-stakes poker himself and treats the game as training in bankroll, variance and reading opponents, which is the book's real subject. It suits anyone interested in poker or decisions under pressure.
