Cowboys Full

I read Positively Fifth Street (a great read) and was very disappointed by this tedious exposition. The author didn't give the narrator much to work with and the reader returned the favor. This is a very dry read. I like Poker but if this was my introduction to it, I'd try something else. Long lists of data, names, countries from which players come. Just tiresome filler that an editor should have deleted. Very disappointing from an author who has demonstrated the ability to do far better.

What's interesting about poker? How about hands that play out in surprising ways, big personalities, shady characters, heartwarming generosity just when you least expect it, and the combination of camaraderie and cutthroat competition in poker rooms. Sadly, this book delivers too much incidental material about presidents who happened to play poker (without the animating effects of accounts of how the presidents played) and too little of the heart and soul of the game. A moderately interesting listen.

Overall a good history of Poker. I thought it was a bit disorganized as it jumped time periods. I believe he ran out of material and devoted an unusual amount of time to the Andy Beal story.

For the entire book, many parts were interesting.

McManus is obviously a radical left winger and had to put in his slaps at the right. Instead of buying a poker history book I got a left wing poker history book, which doesn't make sense.

The reader had no idea how to pronounce poker player's names.

Not for me. Too much detail. The reader was okay, I didn't like the "book."

McManus has provided a great book about poker in Cowboys Full. I don't play poker, but purchased this Audible gem to inform myself and McManus did just that. There is a history of the game here, how it became the modern game(s) that it is, and how the professional poker tours began and work. The poker player, poker novice, and poker ignorant will all come away with insight and perspective on this historical game. This is well written and well read.