Cowboys Full

Book Review:
Cowboys Full,
By James McManus
2009, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

In Positively Fifth Street, James McManus did a three-part juggling act in relating his first-hand adventure at the World Series of Poker's main event with the trial of the accused killers of Ted Binion, while also injecting a healthy dose of poker history. Of the three themes, the poker history came off as dry in comparison to the more immediate drama found in the other threads. It comes as a very pleasant surprise then that Cowboys Full, an ambitiously large study of poker, should be such a fascinating book.

As a history, Cowboys Full is impressive. McManus goes back beyond the game -back beyond the invention of cards itself- and methodically brings us up to the game we recognize today. But as interesting as the history is, the book is most fascinating when it shows how the skills various historical figures developed at the poker table influenced their success in the business and political world. The chapters covering the Civil War are brilliant.

Unfortunately Cowboys Full weakens somewhat in its later chapters where McManus repeats much of what he wrote in Fifth Street and regurgitates what appears in other books. Two full chapters are devoted to Texas banker Andy Beal's attempts to better the best of the Vegas pros, and while interesting, this story has already been covered in great detail in Michael Craig's The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King. Yet, overall, it is the most complete book on poker I have yet read. Those who do not understand poker's appeal, or view it merely as a form of gambling, would do well to read it.