Fans pick 89 books like The Noble Hustle

For fans of true crime, there’s plenty to recommend in this artfully crafted investigation into the murder of casino heir Ted Binion. But the book takes a gonzo turn when its author – a writing teacher from Chicago – uses his advance to enter the World Series of Poker, the tournament started by the Binion family. The deeper he digs into the murder, the deeper he runs in the tournament, creating a once-in-a-lifetime mashup memoir that’s almost too good to be true.

Poker is an American game—maybe the most American game—but an Englishman elevated it into something literary: in 1981, Al Alvarez, a poet, editor, and critic best known for introducing the world to Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, traveled to Las Vegas to chronicle the World Series of Poker. His deceptively breezy account of the larger-than-life characters who played a card game for nosebleed stakes inspired a new generation of players to discover the world’s hardest way to make an easy living.

Nonfiction! Yes—but this is no self-help/how-to. Maria Konnikova (and some family members) suffered some personal and professional setbacks: the type of thing that happens to most of us. Bad luck. She decided to make a study of how luck impacts our success and happiness. How? By becoming a serious poker player. I loved her willingness to try something new in the face of a lot of skepticism and disapproval (especially from her beloved grandmother!).

I especially connected to her systematic approach to getting better and to her chagrin when she gets taken advantage of as the “new fish” at the poker table. I find luck a fascinating subject. Deliberately setting out to harness luck in the service of self-transformation? Yes, please. This one lives on the nightstand.

In 2003, a struggling accountant (and poker amateur) from Tennessee parlayed $39 into victory at the World Series, a $2.5 million prize. His story, coupled with his unforgettable name – Chris Moneymaker – catalyzed poker’s explosion into the mainstream. For the next couple of years, tournaments flooded television and everyone seemed to have a story about a full house cracking their nut flush. In this oral history, Raskin, former editor of All In Magazine, collects accounts from dozens of players, writers, and, of course, Moneymaker himself, to create the definitive snapshot of the moment that changed everything. 

Really fun true stories about six gambling legends. Titanic Thompson never entered an official PGA event, yet made more money playing golf than most of the top pros in his era, often by beating the famous pros at their own game. Minnesota Fats never won a major pool tournament, but made so much money traveling from city to city to hustle the local pool sharks he became a legend in the Midwest pool halls. Johnny Moss cut his gambling teeth in illegal poker games in Texas and Oklahoma, then went on to win the first two World Series of Poker championships in 1970 and 1971, winning nine WSOP bracelets in total, his last one in 1988 at the age of 81, making him the oldest WSOP bracelet winner ever.

The four areas of a Las Vegas casino where you’d be likely to find the most professional gamblers would be the poker room, the blackjack pits, the race and sports book, and the video poker machines. Bob Dancer is one of the most successful video poker pros ever. He’s written numerous books on the subject, has put together highly-profitable video poker teams, and is widely recognized as the game’s top expert. This is his story about how he came to Las Vegas with $6,000 and within six years had won $1 million from playing video poker. Video poker is one of the most overlooked areas of professional gambling and one of the most accessible to players starting with a small bankroll.

Crushing the Microstakes has been around since 2011, and it’s still highly recommended. This is a no B.S., straight to the point, but also a comprehensive 200+ page micro stakes cash game book. Nathan is one of the biggest winners at the micro stakes, and he shows the strategies he personally uses to beat these games in this book. The book covers just about everything you’d need to know to start beating micro stakes cash games, from player types to post-flop strategy.  

This book was groundbreaking when it was first released well over a decade ago and was a must-read for just about every poker player. In 2022, it’s considered a bit dated for tougher games, but for beginners and struggling poker players at the lower stakes, it is a must-read. Andrew Seidman covers a plethora of topics in an easy-to-understand manner. In fact, I regularly reference one of his coined poker terms, the Baluga Theorem, which I learned in this book to my poker students on a regular basis.

The author, a former casino executive, exposes the industry’s “comp system,” through which casinos give away more than a billion dollars in “complimentaries” every year, as an enticement to get people to gamble. Although the book appears to be aimed at amateur gamblers looking for casino freebies (room, food, booze, show tickets, etc.), the information in this book has been devoured by professional gamblers at the highest levels because it reveals the inner workings of how players are evaluated and rated, with tips on how to look like you’re betting more than you are, how to look like you’re losing when you’re winning, and basically how to look dumb when you’re smart. I personally made a lot of money from the information in this book.

I bet it’s because I lived on a houseboat for ten years that this hilarious book grabbed me by the sea legs and never let me go. Nothing tickles my funny bone more than a group of people who have nothing in common and are thrown together on a boat out to sea but going in circles.

The antics of this ship of fools on a gambling boat who are seemingly clueless as to the ship’s nefarious real business make for a madcap tale of side-splitting laughter.