If Texas Hold’Em – the kind of Poker with the greatest success in these days – was just a gambling game, based on good luck, there wouldn’t be any champions, and nobody would need a book like this. Texas Hold’Em is an interesting mixture between ability and luck, pleasure and risk: an explosive formula that turned on all the passionates of the world. But it is a good idea to enter on tiptoe in the seductive and sparkling world of  Poker, and it would be even better to do it with a good guide. You have to learn the rules, the “good manners” of a match, the basic technique, the history, the main characters, the philosophy and the culture. And then you can start the adventure testing tricks and advanced strategies, in order to win at different “tables”, such as Video Poker or the online matches. This book is the compass that helps one not to get lost during call, pot, and all-in, a great guide for beginners as well as for advanced players. Written with simplicity, precision and irony by a field expert, Il grande libro del Poker is the best way to fall in love with this game. And also the best way to start to win.

Translation from Giampaolo Dossena’s Elogio dell’azzardo e dei casinò (1989)
“The creation of poker has been a brainwave, like creating the sonnet or the minuet. Tell me (I am looking straight in your eyes) why history of games should antropologically be something less than literature or music history.“