Recently reissued by Orloff Press of Athens, Ga., The Education of a Poker Player by Herbert O. Yardley is arguably the most celebrated book about poker ever written. As recently as January 1997, Poker magazine asserted: "Even though it's nearly a half-century old, this book belongs in every poker player's library simply because it is a true classic."
The 1998 film Rounders also paid homage to the book; any video viewer curious enough -- and deft enough -- to freeze-frame the video just might catch a glimpse of the thin spine of The Education of a Poker Player resting on Matt Damon's bookshelf. The book also provides some glimpses into the colorful life of its author, one of America's super spies during a 25-year period spanning both World Wars.
Orphaned at 16 with a meager $200 left to his name, Yardley stumbled into the poker tables at Monty's Place in his hometown of Worthington, Ind. He was down to his last $50 when he was afforded his first major insight into playing winning poker: He noticed that Monty (of the "Place") had a "tell," that unconscious nervous tic that reveals whether an opposing player is bluffing.
Impressed that a kid got one up on him, Monty took the young orphan under his wing and taught him more rudiments of the game. Yardley then went on to finance his college education by playing poker. The mathematically gifted Yardley went to work in the code room of the U.S. Department of State. When World War I broke out, he established the first cryptography department to decipher enemy messages. As a result, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for being the first to break the Japanese diplomatic cipher in 1921.
The cryptography department was disbanded in 1929; unable to find employment, in 1931 Yardley published The American Black Chamber, a bestseller revealing the secrets of the espionage group. In 1935, the book was made into the film Rendezvous, starring William Powell and Rosalind Russell. Still in print from Aegean Park Press in Laguna Hills, Calif., The American Black Chamber is credited with causing 19 foreign countries to change their diplomatic codes.
Early in 1941, Yardley was hired by Chiang Kai-shek to crack the Japanese army codes. His embarrassing public exposé of Japanese intrigue made him a marked man in the Orient. Just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Yardley was recalled to Washington.
When publishing The Education of a Poker Player soon afterward in 1957, the initial demand for the book was so extraordinary that publisher Simon &Schuster had to issue 12 printings of the bestselling volume in the deluxe hardcover edition alone. Yardley died a year after publication.
Prior to Orloff's February first printing of 5000 copies, the only current U.S. source for the book was Oldcastle Books, Ltd. in England. Orloff is already planning to print an additional 10,000 copies. Peter Ruchman, head of the famed Gambler's Book Club in Las Vegas (80,000 members), is already headlining the new Orloff edition on his Web site, www.gamblersbook.com, which receives more than 8000 hits a day.
Robertson is director of the Annual Celebration of Writing in the Lowcountry, a writers' conference in Beaufort, S.C.
