BIG DEAL is the mesmerising story of a year spent by bestselling biographer Anthony Holden in the tough world of the professional poker player. He spent days and nights in the poker paradise of Las Vegas, in Malta and Morocco, even shipboard, mingling with the legendary greats, sharpening his game, perfecting his repartee, and learning a great deal about himself in the process.

Poker, Holden would insist, is not gambling. Like chess it is a paradigm of life at its most intense, a gladiatorial contest that brings out the best as well as the worst in people. Its heroes, its eccentrics and is comedians stalk the pages of this remarkable book, along with all the hair-raising, nail-biting excitement of the games themselves.

A very good book and an important addition to the literature of gambling (David Mamet)

A remarkable odyssey - part Damon Runyon, part Dostoevsky (VANITY FAIR)

The best book about poker I've ever read (Walter Matthau)

BIG DEAL is the classic book on big stakes poker. Praised from high and low, all players love this book, and all those wannabes, dreaming of raking in that monster pot, will eat it up (IRISH TIMES)