Take Me to the River: A Wayward and Perilous Journey to the World Series of Poker

An overeducated underachiever, Peter Alson spent his post-college decades doing his best not to grow up. But having just turned fifty, this rambling-gambling bachelor decides it's time to settle down. So he pops the question to his longtime girlfriend, then hatches a plan to pay for their wedding — involving poker and a trip to Las Vegas. Boarding a plane bound for the neon desert and the biggest game in town — the 2005 World Series of Poker — this inveterate gambler and bad boy stares down his past and his future while competing for over $56 million in prize money.

Take Me to the River is a hilarious, wrenching, full-tilt Vegas exploration of one man's obsession with poker and the lessons it has to offer — about probability and luck, good fortune and bad, patience, perseverance, and — most fitting for a man with marriage in his near future — commitment.

An overeducated underachiever, Peter Alson spent his post-college decades doing his best not to grow up. But having just turned fifty, this rambling-gambling bachelor decides it's time to settle down. So he pops the question to his longtime girlfriend, then hatches a plan to pay for their wedding — involving poker and a trip to Las Vegas. Boarding a plane bound for the neon desert and the biggest game in town — the 2005 World Series of Poker — this inveterate gambler and bad boy stares down his past and his future while competing for over $56 million in prize money.

Take Me to the River is a hilarious, wrenching, full-tilt Vegas exploration of one man's obsession with poker and the lessons it has to offer — about probability and luck, good fortune and bad, patience, perseverance, and — most fitting for a man with marriage in his near future — commitment.

Peter Alson is the author of the highly acclaimed memoir Confessions of an Ivy League Bookie and coauthor of One of a Kind, a biography of the poker champion Stuey Ungar, and Atlas: From the Street to the Ring: A Son's Struggle to Become a Man. Alson's articles have appeared in many national magazines, including Esquire, Playboy, and The New York Times Magazine. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Alice, and their daughter Eden.

Forward by Brian Koppelman ix

Prologue 1

1 Vegas from the Air 9

2 Heart of Ice 26

3 A Thin Slice of Nothing 48

4 The Troglodyte on the Couch 79

5 Something Bright and Shiny and Worth the Pain 107

6 The Heart is a Lonely Hunter 119

7 Seduction, Fantasy, and Getting Lucky (Not Necessarily in That Order) 140

8 Almost All of Them Are Tough 165

9 Strangers When We Meet 188

10 A Senior Moment 210

11 The Perfect Path 226

12 The Quick and the Dead 239

13 The Mighty Casey 257

14 The Single Most Depressing Day of the Year 267

Epilogue 281

Acknowledgments 285

Selected Reading 289