Why Tobey Maguire does not come across well in the new poker book 'Molly's Game'
In the Community Weekly Round-Up Barry Carter reviews Molly's Game, the new book about the Hollywood high stakes poker scene.
Apologies to those of you Community Weekly fans who have missed it the last couple of weeks, but I have been on holiday. During that time I read the new book Molly's Game.
It is about the high stakes private games in LA and New York held by Molly Bloom. These games featured a host of famous names including Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. The games would sometimes have wins and losses in their millions, and professional players were excluded from attending.
The book is really good, it reads very much like a Hollywood rise & fall movie, where Bloom starts this game from nothing, becomes incredibly wealthy and has it all taken away from her by the Federal Government. Bloom herself is very intelligent and honest, and showed great business acumen in setting up these games and keeping everyone happy.
If you are looking for a detailed analysis of the hands themselves, this book is not for you. This is not a book for the poker audience, this is a mainstream book, and while we learn a lot about the games, we learn nothing about the standard of the play. And rightly so, because the story of who played and for how much is so much more interesting than whether they bet the turn with third pair.
The most pertinent thing about the whole book, however, is how Spiderman star Tobey Maguire is portrayed. He has gathered a reputation as something of a shark in poker circles, and rightly so, as you will learn he made millions in these games.
But the most interesting thing is what an unlikeable character he comes across throughout the book. The stories of his prima donna showbiz tantrums are rife, as well as quite a lot of breaches of poker etiquette.
He ratholes a number of times in the book (ie. he leaves a game literally after winning an enormous pot) and several times tries to humiliate host Molly Bloom in front of the other players, most notably trying to get her to bark like a dog for $1,000 (She doesn't).
The most striking story for me was that he insisted on bringing his automatic card shuffler to the games, and despite winning millions in them, demanding he got paid $200 a game for the loan of it. Bloom estimated he made $42,000 over the years for that.
To an extent the book is as much revenge on Maguire than anything else, but if the stories about him are even half true, you can hardly blame her.
It's totally worth the read as long as you are not expecting complex hand analysis.
Thread of the week
An interesting discussion is developing in our forums on the all too familiar subject of poker as a career.
dnawithin is at something of a crossroads in his life and is wondering if pursuing a career as a professional would be wise?
So far some of our pro members have taken the responsible road and suggested it is not something that should be entered into on a whim - what do you think? Why not join in the discussion with your own thoughts?
LOL of the week
Sorry to keep harping on about this one, but I laughed the most this week when I saw this tweet during the Brazil vs Germany game (I guess you have to be a Simpsons fan):
Most people watching #BrazilvsGermany right now pic.twitter.com/etCMOSkBvh
— Mike Ross (@MikeRoss03) July 8, 2014
Running hot
Lots of fun stuff this week, including:
• This promotion to win an iPad mini is still going, and proving very popular with you guys.
• Your last chance to play in the Football Fever Mission Week at PokerStars.
• Do recreational players like deep stacks or big guarantees?
• Collin Moshman and Katie Dozier made the same final table this week.
Join us next week as the Main Event comes to a close and much more.
 Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2. He has been working in the poker industry for nine years and in 2013 won the APAT Award for Best Poker Media Provider. You can learn more about his work here.
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