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 & nights in the poker paradise of Las Vegas, in Malta & Morocco, even shipboard, mingling with the legendary greats, sharpening his game, perfecting his repartee, & 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 & is comedians stalk the pages of this remarkable book, along with all the hair-raising, nail-biting excitement of the games themselves. A classic of the genre, BIG DEAL is here reissued with a new introduction by the author.