Title	Ghosts at the Table: Riverboat Gamblers, Texas Rounders, Roadside Hucksters, and the Living Legends Who Made Poker What It Is Today
Author	Des Wilson
Year	2008
Skill Level	any
Pros	Great storytelling and myth-busting from poker's past up to 2007.
Cons	Chapters cover a random assortment of topics of varying importance. Publication should have been delayed a few weeks to finish the story of the 2007 WSOP Main Event.
Rating	4.0

Note: Some chapters actually have longer descriptions.

Poker has a long history of colorful stories and tall tales that have grown taller with each retelling. In Ghosts at the Table: Riverboat Gamblers, Texas Rounders, Roadside Hucksters, and the Living Legends Who Made Poker What It Is Today, Des Wilson debunks some myths about Wild Bill Hickok's "Dead Man's Hand" and the multimillion-dollar Nick Dandolos-Johnny Moss match. The former may have been made up out of whole cloth later, while the latter was probably played a much smaller game than folklore has it.

On the other hand, Wilson passes on as truth many other poker stories of the Old West (including the Bird Cage Theater in Tombstone), riverboat gamblers, mid-twentieth century road gamblers, Benny Binion, and Doyle Brunson. He even does some serious detective legwork to figure out what happened to Hal Fowler, who basically disappeared from the poker world after winning the 1979 World Series of Poker.

Wilson also covers online poker and high stakes poker and includes a relatively short section on women in poker, mostly discussing their history at the World Series of Poker. The WSOP gets its own long chapter with stories about his eight favorite Main Event final tables. The final chapter of the book returns to the WSOP but unfortunately ends as the 2007 Main Event final table is set.

Because Wilson traveled all over the U.S. to interview people, he has some unique insights, especially regarding Fowler. Although not as comprehensive¹ as James McManus's Cowboys Full - The Story of Poker, which was published the following year, Ghosts at the Table is equally worthy of your time.