Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker |  | Author: James McManus
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
List Price: $30.00
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Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 139,137
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 528
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.4 x 1.7
ISBN: 0374299242
Dewey Decimal Number: 795.412
EAN: 9780374299248
ASIN: 0374299242
Publication Date: October 27, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2009: Professional sports such as football and baseball may tout themselves as "America's Game," but according to James McManus, poker is the true American pastime. Cowboys Full is McManus's brilliant homage to the game that inspired his 2003 bestseller, Positively Fifth Street, and weaves through a colorful history of sharps, grinders, and braying donkeys. From the lawless saloons of the Old West to Oval Offices of the modern era, poker has been a part of our cultural DNA for nearly two centuries by offering a shot at the American Dream with each deal. "More than politics, warfare, business, or physical sports," McManus argues, "poker has become the arena in which men and women of every race and background compete on the most equal footing." Although positioning it alongside Mom and apple pie may be a stretch, Cowboys Full nevertheless presents a compelling case that the essence of America is best understood through a few hands of its favorite card game. --Dave Callanan
Product Description
From James McManus, author of the bestselling Positively Fifth Street, comes the definitive story of the game that, more than any other, reflects who we are and how we operate. Cowboys Full is the story of poker, from its roots in China, the Middle East, and Europe to its ascent as a global—but especially an American—phenomenon. It describes how early Americans took a French parlor game and, with a few extra cards and an entrepreneurial spirit, turned it into a national craze by the time of the Civil War. From the kitchen-table games of ordinary citizens to its influence on generals and diplomats, poker has gone hand in hand with our national experience. Presidents from Abraham Lincoln to Barack Obama have deployed poker and its strategies to explain policy, to relax with friends, to negotiate treaties and crises, and as a political networking tool. The ways we all do battle and business are echoed by poker tactics: cheating and thwarting cheaters, leveraging uncertainty, bluffing and sussing out bluffers, managing risk and reward. Cowboys Full shows how what was once accurately called the cheater’s game has become amostly honest contest of cunning, mathematical precision, and luck. It explains how poker, formerly dominated by cardsharps, is now the most popular card game in Europe, East Asia, Australia, South America, and cyberspace, as well as on television. It combines colorful history with firsthand experience from today’s professional tour. And it examines poker’s remarkable hold on American culture, from paintings by Frederic Remington to countless poker novels, movies, and plays. Braiding the thrill of individual hands with new ways of seeing poker’s relevance to our military, diplomatic, business, and personal affairs, Cowboys Full is sure to become the classic account of America’s favorite pastime. James McManus has covered poker for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Magazine, Card Player, ESPN.com, and The NewYorker. Positively Fifth Street, his memoir of finishing fifth in the World Series of Poker championship event, was a New York Times bestseller and is already considered a classic. Winner of the Society for Midland Authors Best Nonfiction Award
Cowboys Full is the story of poker, from its roots in China, the Middle East, and Europe to its ascent as a global—but especially an American—phenomenon. It describes how early Americans took a French parlor game and, with a few extra cards and an entrepreneurial spirit, turned it into a national craze by the time of the Civil War. From the kitchen-table games of ordinary citizens to its influence on generals and diplomats, poker has gone hand in hand with our national experience. The ways we all do battle and business are echoed by poker tactics: cheating and thwarting cheaters, leveraging uncertainty, bluffing and sussing out bluffers, managing risk and reward.
McManus's history shows how what was once accurately called the cheater’s game has become amostly honest contest of cunning, mathematical precision, and luck. It explains how poker, formerly dominated by cardsharps, is now the most popular card game in Europe, East Asia, Australia, South America, and cyberspace, as well as on television. It combines colorful history with firsthand experience from today’s professional tour. And it examines poker’s remarkable hold on American culture, from paintings by Frederic Remington to countless poker novels, movies, and plays. Braiding the thrill of individual hands with new ways of seeing poker’s relevance to our military, diplomatic, business, and personal affairs, Cowboys Full is sure to become the classic account of America’s favorite pastime. "McManus writes with verve and knowledge . . . The thoughts on poker terms and principles in global politics, and on the application of game theory to fields like cancer research, are interesting, although McManus does sometimes exaggerate or stretch a point . . . Cowboys Full is so entertaining, informative and genial that McManus can be forgiven for occasionally overplaying his hand."—Robert Pinsky, The New York Times
"[McManus] tracks the evolution of poque, a French parlor-game that made landfall in 19th-century New Orleans, from Mississippi steamboats to Civil War battlefields to American kitchen tables, the White House and the Internet . . . [McManus] is a reliable guide to a pastime that . . . seems less like subculture than culture."—Justin Moyer, The Washington Post
“The story of poker is that of risk-loving America and, recently, the rest of the world. Here is that crazy ride in unparalleled detail, driven by wit, wisdom, true love, and sizzling style. As analyst, historian, devotee, and no mean player, James McManus is poker’s most eloquent advocate.”—Anthony Holden, author of Big Deal, Bigger Deal and Holden on Hold’em
“Mr. McManus writes about our American love of poker like James A. Michener describing the Plains Indians’ discovery of the buffalo: `Wait a second . . . I can eat it, wear it, make it into a drum . . . There’s nothing I can’t do with this sonofabitch.’ I would throw in `A joy for poker players and non-players alike,’ but, of the second group, who cares what they read—and I don’t think there are enough of them to affect Mr. McManus’s royalties.”—David Mamet
“Before the burst of a million online geniuses, James McManus was already writing the best material on poker, and Cowboys Full proves that nothing’s changed. A must-read!”—Antonio Esfandiari, professional poker player
“Poker now has what must surely be its definitive history in this excellent, comprehensive account of the game from the author of the widely hailed poker memoir Positively Fifth Street. In tracing the game from its early 19th-century roots in New Orleans to today’s global phenomenon, McManus does more than present a history of poker: `My goal is to show how the story of poker helps to explain who we are.’ The `national card game,’ he asserts, embodies essential American qualities. It’s an ambitious objective, but the book achieves it by connecting the game to American culture. Poker, it turns out, is inextricably linked with history, from the Civil War to the cold war, and with politics . . . The book also outlines the re-emergence of poker in recent years as a pastime for many millions and, for a select few, a reasonably legitimate profession.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Like Leonard Cohen said, no man wants to give up the holy game of poker. Fortunately, James McManus is staying in. While writing 2003's Positively Fifth Street, McManus famously parlayed a magazine article assignment into a seat at Binion's World Series of Poker. Now he delivers a history that tells the classic card game's story via the lives of larger-than-life players, from Wild Bill Hickok to Barack Obama . . . It doesn't hurt the book's authenticity that McManus knows the game inside and out."—Kirkus Reviews
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 31
poker June 21, 2010
Diane C., Goelz (Paso Robles, Calif.)
Well the first 1/2 of the book is great. The second half I could live without.
 Good History of Poker May 14, 2010
D. White (Bossier City, LA)
I enjoyed this book, but felt like the end did not really go with the rest of the story. The first four fifths of the book does a good job of explaining how poker came into being and how it spread across the country and eventually the world. After discussing the WSOP, the rest of the book examines where poker is going, some legal issues it faces, and how academics are using and studying poker. This section of the book felt more like an appendix. If you have a interest in the history of poker, I would recommend this book. If you are looking for a good poker story pick up McManus' Positively Fifth Street instead.
 Politics not Poker April 10, 2010
Henry Bemis (The Twighlight Zone)
3 out of 9 found this review helpful
Do yourself a favor and read the sample first. I got the hard copy as a gift and was appalled at the politics in the first chapter. This guy is just another Obama lover from Chicago.
 The most definitive account of poker yet committed to paper April 4, 2010
B. Murray (Ireland)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Acclaimed novelist, poet, academic, and poker player James McManus is back with what is undoubtedly the most definitive account of poker and card playing yet committed to paper.
Cowboys Full - The Story of Poker is indeed the story of poker. It will be cherished by aficionados' and laymen alike and its exhaustive research and clear historical analysis will thrill scholars of the game for years to come.
The author of the much-loved Positively Fifth Street, a groundbreaking book about his own journey to fifth place at the World Series of Poker main event in 2000, has painstaking pulled together all the disparate threads of the game, from the development of playing cards through the codification of modern poker to the present day Internet boom in an eminently readable study on how poker has helped shape the world.
Indeed, early in the book McManus states his "...goal is to show how the story of poker helps to explain who we are."
Not unpredictably this accomplished writer, who has penned articles for the likes of The New York Times, The Economist, and The New Yorker, does so with an knowing eye to the colour, characters, and, of course, cowboys of the game.
Seamlessly blending fastidious historical research with analytical observation and a sophisticated sense of humour McManus manages to effortlessly contextualise poker through history with reference to religion, militarism, diplomacy, law, business, education, mathematics, economics, and technology.
If that somehow makes it sound like it might not be a page-turner, think again.
The cast of characters alone reads like a history of the last millennium writ small over the felt and includes Eisenhower, Nixon, Truman, Roosevelt, Johnson, Grant, Hoover, Clinton, Obama, Homer, Dante, Chaucer, Goethe, Moliere, Shakespeare, Mary Queen of Scots, Henry VIII, Joan of Arc, Cassanova, Einstein, Crockett, Holliday, Hickock, Churchill, Goebbels, Hitler, Binion, Ahmadinejad, Garbo, Garrett, and Gobachev.
And all of that before we get to the players who are the media darlings of today.
Taking as its starting point the notion first posited by the New York Times in 1875 that, "The national game is not base-ball but poker" the book begins its journey through the story of poker back with the invention of playing cards.
Anthropoligist Stuart Culin traced their development back to Korean divinatory arrows which were eventually miniaturised in the six century to strips of oiled silk - the first playing cards.
The invention of paper and portable money, and the growth of the silk route hastened their internationalisation and popularity.
A second boom occurred after dark ages in Europe in the 1300s as people began to live longer, knew more, and had leisure time to play.
In Rouen, France by the late 1400s suits had generally been settled upon in a way we recognise today: Hearts representing the church, diamonds the merchant class, spades the state, and clubs signifying farmers.
In 1564 Milanese physician and mathematician Griolamo Cardano Dr. Jerome Cardplayer as McManus playfully translates invented a way to combine probabilities, laying the groundwork not only for modern algebra, probability theory, and financial analysis but for the basic poker odds we all know and take for granted today.
The card game Primiera was simplified by the French into Poque (pronounced Pok-uh) and is now regarded as the most direct antecedent of the modern game.
By the early 1800s the French had taken control of New Orleans, Louisiana and in this cultural melting pot of English, Spanish, French, and new American the modern game of poker was born and spread like wildfire on the steamboat routes out of the Creole capital.
McManus astutely describes the Mississippi steamboats as the Internet poker rooms of their day.
From there things pick up a head of steam (literally) like a prototype information superhighway the wild west years where lawlessness and chicanery threatened to destroy the game through the wars of the late 19th and early 20th century which saw poker language and concepts permeate mainstream language.
Dancing like Spider in Goodfellas through the road gambling years to the dusty neon oasis of Las Vegas, Benny Binion's visionary development of the World Series of Poker, and the "perfect storm" of the year poker went "boom" in 2003 the book fetches up at the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, the online poker cheating scandals, and ultimately the mainstream globalisation of the game.
Cowboys Full The Story of Poker delights and informs in equal measure and it will surely be a long time before we see such a comprehensive book on card playing and players.
Save your money February 28, 2010
Jeffrey J. Bakke (Ellison Bay, WI)
3 out of 9 found this review helpful
While the author makes a fair attempt to write about the game, the reader is subjected to his political agenda.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 31
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