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 its comedians stalk the pages of this remarkable book, along with all the hair-raising, ail-biting excitement of the games themselves

A classic of the genre, Big Deal is here reissued with a new introduction by the author.

Praise for BIG DEAL:

* 'Vivid, engrossing, superb . . . the best description of world-class poker we've been given' Salman Rushdie

* 'A very good book and an important addition to the literature of gambling' David Mamet

* 'Mr Holden writes with extreme grace and wit' NEW YORK TIMES

* 'A remarkable odyssey — part Damon Runyon, part Dostoevsky' VANITY FAIR

* 'Sharp, feisty and well-crafted . . . fascinating' SPECTATOR

* 'Bursts with extraordinary, real-life characters' DAILY MAIL

* 'Tony is toney . . . When the pot gets high, the hour late, and you need to see what he has in the hole, the lounge-lizard melds into a loan-shark' Martin Amis