REVIEW
Lyle Berman is well known in the world of poker. He is a regular player in the biggest cash games, a three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, and the business force behind the World Poker Tour. While Berman's poker accomplishments are considerable, he is first and foremost a businessman. His family parlayed a small fur business in Minneapolis into a nation-wide chain of leather goods stores. He also established Grand Casinos which became one of the largest gaming companies in the United States and was the financial muscle behind the wildly successful Rainforest Cafe chain. Berman's is a life filled with accomplishment. Consequently, it is also one worth chronicling. I'm All In! is the autobiography of this remarkable person.
Almost every story Berman recounts involves either poker or business. Frankly, building businesses and playing poker seem to comprise the bulk of Berman's life, at least as he recounts it. He begins his book by describing his upbringing in Minneapolis where he spent his time, you guessed it, gambling with his friends and working at his family's business and on his own ventures. His most formative educational experience seems to have been getting kicked out of school for, no surprise, running a poker game. These sorts of themes recur throughout his life.
Berman discusses not only the positive aspects of his life but the negative ones as well. He is candid about aspects of his personality that have at times made him unpopular. He also discusses some of the choices he has made in his life for which he has regrets. Berman has been married and divorced twice and by his own admission didn't always spend as much quality time with his family as he might have. Doubtless there are those who have other views of some of the more controversial aspects of Berman's life, but this is his autobiography, so it is the author's view of events that we get in these pages.
Even though Berman discusses poker, this isn't a poker book. There's no discussion of strategy, the tournaments he has played in, or the like. In fact, even though Berman does relate some memorable events that have occurred at the poker table, I can't recall the author mentioning a single hand he was holding. Poker plays a big part of Berman's life, but this is the autobiography of a poker-playing businessman, not a poker book.
I'm All In! is a quick read. This is not an exhaustive memoir as Berman and Karlins just focus on the high points. This is the chronicle of an interesting life, though. Berman has much to say about business, risk, and living. As one example, toward the end of the book he provides a fairly formal analysis of relationships. Not everyone will appreciate his approach, but I found his thoughts on the matter to be insightful. Berman has done and experienced a great deal, and I believe that what he has to say on many topics is worthy of consideration.
One aspect of this book that poker aficionados are likely to find especially interesting is Berman's account of the origins of the World Poker Tour. I've read several articles on how this phenomenon came into existence, but much of what Berman has to say here was new to me. The account here is doubtless only one version of this story, but it is a necessary one to a complete understanding of how the WPT came into being.
I wouldn't classify I'm All In! as a poker classic, but it's interesting and entertaining enough to be worth reading by those who may be interested in Lyle Berman's life. Not everyone is going to appreciate this type of book, but those who do will likely appreciate this work.
Capsule:
Even though Lyle Berman is well known in the world of poker, this book is an autobiography of a poker-playing businessman rather than a poker book. Fortunately, as a story of one man's life it is an interesting and entertaining one, even though it naturally depicts events through the eyes of its principle character. I expect that those who are interested in this man and what he has accomplished are likely to find I'm All In! to be worth reading.
Nick
Christenson
Gambling
Book Reviews
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