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Review of Drawing Dead to a Gutshot
Reviewed by Nick Christenson, npc@jetcafe.orgApril 22, 2010 Poker has its own jargon. This can be nearly impenetrable to those who have not been immersed in that world. Many poker books have glossaries, but they typically just cover the terminology used in that particular book. I expect that people who have recently become interested in poker would find a poker dictionary to be a worthwhile addition to their poker library. Drawing Dead to a Gutshot aims to fill that void. Right off the bat, in the Introduction Janeway provides the following example of poker language: I was in the big blind in a $20 SNG. Under-the-gun said 'Czechoslovakia,' Baker tapped, everyone else went Pasadena, and I peeked German Virgins. I called, under-the-gun mucked, and we were heads-up ... .After four more sentences of this, the author writes, "Do people really talk like this? At the poker table, yes, they do." No they don't. Even assuming the passage described the action correctly, there is no poker game I've ever been in or witnessed where someone quoting the above passage wouldn't get strange looks, attract outright laughter, or maybe even elicit a, "Dude, are you okay?" Yes, poker players use a lot of jargon, but they don't sound like this example. Okay, so this was obviously contrived to use language that was as confusing as possible to someone who hadn't paged through the book. Some of these terms are, indeed in common use in poker, and anyone who doesn't understand "big blind", "SNG", and "heads-up", is going to miss out on a great deal in any poker conversation. Some of these other terms, though, are just not in common usage at the poker table, or even, frankly, rare usage. This brings me to the first way in which the book could have been improved. With each word defined Janeway could have listed whether the usage was common, uncommon, very rare, or used in select subcultures of the poker world. I don't pretend to have thought much about what the categories should be, but anyone new to poker should be warned that if you use the term "German Virgins" at a poker table to describe your pair of nines (get it?), it's highly unlikely to make you seem like you fit in. Trust me on this. The second issue I have is that a lot of very common poker terms are not listed in the book. Janeway includes "tapped" and "all-in", but not "push", "shove", or "move in". "Check-in-the-dark" is included, but not "bet-in-the-dark". If the author is going to include poker variants such as "anaconda" and "Chicago", why not include "baseball" or "pass the trash"? As a poker dictionary, Drawing Dead to a Gutshot is far from exhaustive. The third issue I have is with the editing. It's horrible. The definition of "steel wheel" is wrong. "Irwin" not "Irving" is the correct response to someone declaring "Presto!", the origin of that response is not "unknown", and, frankly, just not that hard to find. Several terms are included multiple times, such as "gorillas" and "shootout", and each time an entry is included more than once, there are two different definitions for these terms. In the case of "shootout", one of these is simply wrong. Moreover, there are several entries that are not in alphabetical order, including a definition for each of the above terms, along with "felt". How can you assemble a dictionary and not be bothered to ensure your entries are in alphabetical order? It seems to me that Janeway was inspired more by poker in movies such as Rounders and The Sting than he was in actual poker play in public card rooms. Perhaps this makes the book more appealing to "poker fans" more than "poker players". If that sort of emphasis appeals to the reader, then by all means enjoy reading the list of poker terms that poker players don't really use. Such a thing holds no appeal to me. In addition to movies such as Rounders, another major source of material for Drawing Dead to a Gutshot is Super/System. This is the origin of most of the cute names for Texas hold'em starting hands that fill the book. I don't know anyone who calls a king and a seven "Columbia River", and I'll bet big money the author doesn't either. At least for these obscure entries the author could give us some clue as to the origin, or provide some information on where the term is used. Although, in one case where the author does this, for "Milligan", I have to admit that the explanation didn't increase my appreciation for why the author bothered to include it. Unfortunately, Michael Wiesenberg's excellent The Official Dictionary of Poker is out of print. In my opinion, it is everything that Drawing Dead to a Gutshot is not. It's carefully thought out, well edited, thorough, and well researched. Having been published in 2000, it is a bit behind the times, but we can only hope that it gets updated and reprinted at some point. Until then, Drawing Dead to a Gutshot may have to do, but in my opinion it's a pale imitation. Capsule:Drawing Dead to a Gutshot is a poker dictionary written by Brant Janeway. In my opinion it is poorly edited, incomplete yet includes many terms not commonly used, and emphasizes terminology used in poker movies over that actually used in real games. If someone hears a poker term they don't understand, there's a good chance it's defined in this book, and a good chance that the definition is basically correct, so it probably serves a purpose. However, I don't think this is a particularly well constructed poker dictionary. |
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All Rights Reserved © 2010 by Nick Christenson