Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker (Audio CD) (Abridged)

Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker (Audio CD) (Abridged)
reviewed on + 107 more book reviews


This book is subtitled "The Story of Poker", and McManus certainly does the subtitle justice with a very comprehensive history of poker in all its myriad variations from early days up to the time the book was written. He makes a strong case for poker being the real "National Pastime", rather than baseball or football.

Toward the end of the book he concentrates on Texas Hold'em, and goes into exhaustive (and exhausting) card-by-card detail about many of the highest-stakes games ever played.

Although I have played quite a bit of poker over the years, I got a little fatigued toward the end. It was certainly more interesting than listening to people talk about golf, which I find even more boring than the game itself.

The reader of this audio book tries to spice things up by doing accents as different players converse. I still haven't decided how I feel about that, although I will have to say it was a virtuoso performance.