The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King

Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time

Michael Craig

Recommended By

Book Reviews

One of three books Chamath Palihapitiya tells new graduates to read.

Book Synopsis

"The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King" by Michael Craig is an exhilarating true story that delves into the fascinating world of high-stakes poker. In this gripping tale, Craig takes readers on a thrilling journey through the minds of extraordinary individuals.

The story centers around a legendary weekly poker game known as the Big Game, hosted at the famous Bellagio casino in Las Vegas. A group of elite poker players, including a college professor and a wealthy banker, gather to compete against some of the world's best in the highest-stakes poker games ever played.

At the heart of the tale lies the enigmatic figure known as the Suicide King, a mysterious and reclusive billionaire who joins the Big Game, seeking the ultimate challenge. As the stakes rise to astronomical amounts, tensions soar, and the professional poker players must confront their skills, strategies, and psychological stamina to take on this formidable opponent.

This true story unfolds with captivating detail, showcasing the intense highs and lows experienced by the players, the psychological battles fought at the poker table, and the extraordinary sums of money exchanged in a single hand. With each page, Craig provides readers with a glimpse into the world of high-stakes poker, revealing both the glamour and the dark underbelly of this captivating universe.

"The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King" is a masterfully-written narrative that combines the thrill of a high-stakes poker game with insightful observations on human nature, ambition, and the pursuit of greatness. It is an unputdownable read that will leave readers amazed by the lengths individuals will go to achieve their goals and the intellectual prowess required to succeed in the world of professional poker.

Explore More Books

See All
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
How Will You Measure Your Life?
In-N-Out Burger
The Hot Hand
The American Story
A Peace to End All Peace
The Infidel and the Professor
The British Are Coming
How to Read a Book
Happy Money
Beat the Wealth Management Hustle
Search Inside Yourself
More Than You Know
A Hall of Mirrors
The Great Book of Amber
Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero
Talent
Believe Me
Superforecasting
100 Deadly Skills
Billion Dollar Whale
A History of Rome
The Art of Possibility
The Neverending Story
The Essential Scratch & Sniff Guide to Becoming a Whiskey Know-It-All
The Aspirational Investor
101 Things I Learned in Engineering School
The Net & The Butterfly
Endure
The Story of Civilization: The Age of Louis XIV
The Psychology of Intelligence Analysis
Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens
Oranges
The Constitutional Convention
Trillion Dollar Triage
The Book of Why
The Skeptical Environmentalist
Scaling People
The Little Book of Bull Moves
The Box
Einstein
Prof. Arnold Ehret's Mucusless Diet Healing System
The Surrender Experiment
The Best We Could Do
Double your Profits
The Clash of the Cultures
Hidden Repression
Blue Ocean Strategy
Tales of the Unexpected
Mohandas K. Ghandi
Making The Modern World
Power Failure
Homo Deus
The Fear Book
Viral
Technopoly
Q.E.D.
The Airbnb Story
Army Of None
Natural Capitalism
The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross
No Bullshit Guide to Math and Physics
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Barbarians At The Gate
Paradigms
Matthew Barney & Elizabeth Peyton
An Autobiography of Anthony Trollope
The True Believer
Modern Man in Search of a Soul
Rubicon
Nonviolent Communication
The Hate U Give
The Science of Success
A Mathematician's Apology
Chasing Hillary
Maps of Meaning
Golden Gates
A History of the Mind
Not The End of the World
The Talent Code
Margin of Safety
Stretching the School Dollar
My Forty Years with Ford
The Inner Lives of Markets
Confidence Game
A Year with Rumi
Dream Big
Originals
Endurance
The Man Who Fed The World
You Can Be a Stock Market Genius
Freakonomics
The Story of Civilization: The Reformation
Every Life Is On Fire
Measure What Matters
Black Edge
Traction
The Happiness Hypothesis
The Weather Makers
Night Sky with Exit Wounds