Independent Reading #1: All-in

For this assignment I read "All-in" by Pete Hautman, an excellent book for  those who like poker. All-in is a novel about a seventeen year-old poker genius named Denn Doyle, who is ridiculously lucky. He is technically not legally allowed to gamble, but with immense talent to read people's tells he makes himself alot of money. At one point he won a nightclub off a texas hold em player called Artie Kingston. Unfortunately Denn's magic seems to be running out and he's starting to go broke. Eventually, some players with a personal grudge bring Denn down all the way taking his last sixteen thousand dollars. They do so with the help of Denn's ex-girlfriend, an poker dealer called Cattie. Now with only a few dollars to his name Denn needs a miracle to come back on top. At this point the story sort of splits, following both Denn and Cattie intertwining their paths every now and then. Denn's only chance now is to rake together ten thousand dollars to enter in a high-stakes million dollar tournament at Artie's new casino. His fortunes resting upon this single game, Denn finds himself facing off against Artie in the finals.

I find that the novel is very fast paced and Pete Hautman certainly researched the subject rather well. The entire novel is narrated by Jimbo, a friend of Denn. Otherwise, the story is third person like when the story switches over to Cattie or Denn. The dialect in the novel is convincing, just as I'd expect of Las Vegas poker sharks. The vocabulary was spectacular, ranging from poker terminology to excellent synonyms for most generic words. The characters were intriguing and well written. The back stabbing Cattie was particularly interesting as when she was asked by Denn for her motivation for ruining him she simply replies that she enjoys destroying people around her. Jimbo himself is a strange one, as he is a friend of Denn yet he does not back Denn for the game at Artie's casino when asked for a loan.

Finally, I would say that this part of the novel seems significant to me. When Denn is in a really bad place, and at the bottom he considers killing himself by jumping off the Hoover Dam. After losing his earnings going towards the ten thousand dollar buy in later in the book in a game of black jack, he is finally broke. This excerpt from the book from right after he becomes fully broke, I find interesting in relation to that: "He got in his car and started it and looked at the gas gauge. He didn't even have enough gas to make it to the Hoover Dam." - (P.127). As suicide by jumping of the Hoover Dam was mentioned earlier in the novel, I found this rather funny. Denn does not even have enough gas to take himself to the dam and kill himself. This is significant because he ends up getting the money from Cattie, shortly after getting out of his car and walking to her apartment.

All-In is an excellent book, which might not be for everyone but is still interesting and a great read.