10 Poker books you MUST read: Cowboys Full

When I began playing poker choosing a ‘primer’ –as poker strategy books are often called-was a fairly simple process, since there were typically only a handful of books on the particular topic in print! And no, I’m not 75 years-old, I began playing poker a few years before the nuclear bomb known as Chris Moneymaker went off in 2003.

Nowadays, the process is a lot more complex for the sheer fact that there are hundreds of ‘primers’ to choose from, so with that in mind I have devised the following list of the 10 poker books you MUST read, and honestly I am loathe to include any ‘primers’ on my list; although a couple of more theoretical tomes seem to have found their way onto it, as well as two general poker ‘primers’!

• 1. Ace on the River, by Barry Greenstein
• 2. Cowboys Full, by James McManus
• 3. Positively 5^th Street, by James McManus
• 4. Zen and the Art of Poker, by Larry W. Phillips
• 5. Biggest Game in Town, by Al Alvarez
• 6. Education of a Poker Player, by Herbert O’Yardley
• 7. Big Deal, by Anthony Holden
• 8. Theory of Poker, by David Sklansky
• 9. Mathematics of Poker, by Bill Chen and Jerod Ankenman
• 10. One of a Kind, by Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson

So without further adieu, here is #2 on the list of poker book you MUST read:

Cowboys Full, by James McManus

Cowboys Full is one of the best written poker books of all-time -no surprise since it comes from a master of prose like McManus-and that is saying a lot since Cowboys Full is basically a history book! McManus takes the reader on a journey from the obscure origins of the game in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, through the Americanization of the game along the Mississippi, all the way up to the Internet age of poker.

As he did in Positively 5^th Street -another entry on this list-McManus was able to pen a poker tome that doesn’t necessarily rely on poker to tell the story: In the manner that Star Wars was told not through the characters living the story, but through two droids eyes who were mere background players, the reader is told American History through the eyes of poker in Cowboys Full.

The target audience of this book is wide-ranging, since the book would appeal to poker players, but also to history buffs, but what makes the book so special is the sheer volume of information that is conveyed to the reader. McManus is the professor of Poker History, who can teach even the most wizened poker historian a thing or two.

What makes Cowboys Full a MUST read poker book is the way the author is able to blend facts, wit, and feeling into the book, making what should be a history fun and exciting, but still jam-packed with insights and knowledge. Cowboys Full is the definitive work on the history of poker, and the reader will walk away with a stronger understanding of the games past, as well as the challenges it still faces.