I finished a pretty good book last night, Poker Face a girlhood among gamblers by Katy Lederer. Katy, as you may know is the younger sister of pro poker players Howard Lederer and Annie Duke. I had always admired the way Howard and Annie played poker but I’d heard some unhappily dramatic things about Katy’s book and what it said about fellow family members. I was lucky enough to meet Annie Duke recently and she recommended reading the book “because it promotes poker”. I bought the book and enjoyed it a lot. It’s a memoir of life in a brilliant, dynamic family and scores more points for fleshing out Howard and Annie and being a stylishly written book. Katy’s talents include being the author of a collection of poetry and thus this book is is very lyrical and moves in a comfortable rhythm.

Mother and Father Lederer are both very bright intelligent people. I’ve observed this dynamic in families before and it can lead to some quirky relationships. Howard and Annie both are self-assured while Katy is more introspective and sometimes has selfimage doubts. Father Lederer’s role in all this is left murky but Mother’s involvment with liquor is upfront. None of these aspects of the family is morbid or particularly destructive, just a matter-of-fact narrative of the family. Father is employed as faculty at an East Coast boarding school and Katy and her siblings are exposed to “old money” culture daily without the means to participate. Finding a way to get money becomes paramount with Katy and she can only envy the ease that Howard and Annie have in getting money.

I found the subtitle a girlhood among gamblers somewhat of an exageration. I would peg Howard Lederer as the only real gambler of the family. The extent of his gambling was a surprise to me, he had a sports betting enterprise that was pretty substantial at one time. The tale of his becoming a poker player is pretty poignant. Is Annie a gambler? Well, if you play poker with Annie, she’s gonna get your money… hard to find the gamble in that! Mom helps Howard with administration of his enterprise and shares in the dividends.

Katy obsesses with getting A’s at UC Berkely and then getting into the right poetry/writing workshops. Aiming to finally get money she heads to Las Vegas to join up with Howard, Annie and her mother who actually are getting money. This was the best part of the book. It was refreshing to see Las Vegas and the poker scene described with such talent by someone not jaded by the whole scene. A real relief after slogging through Jim McManus’ Positively Fifth Street! Katy gets lessons from Howard but has enough intelligence to know that while Howard and Annie hold five aces each (!) of poker ability, Katy is only chasing a pretty good drawing hand for poker potential. Very interesting musings and observations about LV round out this chapter of the memoir.

The book kind of fades off with no real ending of course. All the family is still pursuing their lives to good effect including Katy. She is saved from dwelling on too many quirks in her life by the same growing maturity that guides us all. If you’ve an interest in Howard and Annie, this book is a pleasant experience. An easy read for those who really aren’t poker players but have a facination with Las Vegas or gaming.

Chip content: Katy playing poker remarks on “dirty plastic chips” and thus avoiding chewing one’s fingernails. Upon entering a bookie joint, she notices a “crumpled bag of chips”! Oh, I see…potato chips, groan.

Annie telling Katy that she has doubts about Katy’s poker “face”:

”So this guy was now across from me, and he’s staring, and he must be on something or other, and the dealer deals me perfect eights, I get rolled up with eights.” (In Stud, “rolled up” means that the first three cards a player’s dealt make trips.) “I have these great trips, but the guy can see only the one eight that’s showing, so I play him for all he’s worth, and he loses twenty thousand dollars then and there. And I wouldn’t say I felt bad, because that’s not how I felt, but it wasn’t a pleasant thing to take money from such a clueless person. And I just can’t see you being happy having to make that decision again and again, like Howard and I have to do—to take someones’s money, even if they happen to be a total moron."

Howard explaining “a very important concept” to Katy during a visit to Howard’s home in Las Vegas.

”There’s only so much matter in the world,” he says. “And when you calculate it, there’s an average distance between objects in the universe. When objects come together in a greater than average way—when things like planets and stars and cosmic dust are arrainged in a greater than average proximity, then things get warmer.”
“So order is when things comes together in a ‘more than average way’ and get warm?” I ask.
“Yes, that’s right. It’s a very important concept.”