This is a good book. The explanation of the history of the game and breakdown of rules and situations added to the flow and accessibility of the book and thus my enjoyment of it. Character development, especially considering how many players appeared in just several-hundred pages, was exceptional.

The first flaw is that the book suffers from bouts of redundancy. Some interesting anecdotes are repeated without much more context except the passage of time. This happened on about five occasions. The other thing that bothered me is that the "action" was actually quite boring. It just flowed really well. By the last quarter of the book, your reaction will be "Eh, okay, they raised the stakes," "Eh, okay, Doyle Brunson did something"- the story would have lost all momentum if not for the defibrillation on account of the fact that the poker world was blowing up at the time these events transpired. The story has no climax, it just fizzles out.

I'm a casual poker player, and I recommend the book, but there were times where I would rather have been reading an Andy Beal biography.