Poker Book Review

Under the Gun

By John Vorhaus

Review by Kaelaine Minton

Murder mysteries are my weakness when reading fiction -- I consume them like shrimp on a Las Vegas buffet. John Vorhaus' new novel, Under the Gun, combines murder mystery with my other passion, poker. The combination promised a good read for someone with my interests, but Vorhaus takes the time to weave the basics of poker and poker tournaments into his story, allowing the poker-newbies to come along for the ride.

Pittsburgh-based tax accountant Hal Harris gets a call from his poker-playing brother Guy, who lives in Las Vegas. Recognizing the call for help, Hal jumps on a plane and heads for Vegas, only to have his brother die in his arms. Hal, who has never played poker, promises to take Guy's place in the Poker Apocalypse, "the biggest poker tournament in the history of ever," enlisting the aid of Slaughter Johnson, author of the book-within-the-book, Swoop and Pummel: A Guide to Tournament Poker. Slaughter's daughter Vinny, a poker dealer, and Josh 'Skip' Loder, an under-age poker bum with a fake id, join the cause of educating Hal. Oh, and there's a one-hundred-pound dog, too.

Vorhaus' frenetic prose portrays the sense of urgency the team feels as they navigate through Vegas' poker culture, trying to uncover the conspiracy to fix the Apocalypse while avoiding the thugs who want them to join Guy in the dead zone. With just 30 days to accomplish all this, they discover that Hal is a poker savant like his brother Guy, but without all of Guy's bad habits. Slaughter learns that his basic recipe for a good poker player, hand selection, aggressiveness, and reads, is missing a key ingredient: heart. Hal's got plenty of heart and a keen desire to bring his brother's killers to justice. Hal also discovers "The Isness of It All" which can only be understood by reading Hal's explanation in the book.

Under the Gun is less of a "whodunit" and more of a "weknowwhodunit-howdoweproveit" interwoven with some very Vegas-like characters and locales. Although the story is fiction, the poker is authentic. Vorhaus takes no poetic license with the game. The hands recounted are believable and the strategy lessons are realistic:

"Your enemies want something of you. All their bets, raises, chat, body language, and psychic energies are directed at getting you to do what they want. Maybe they want you to fold. Maybe they want you to call. Maybe they want you to stand on your head and shoot ping-pong balls out your ass. But you can be sure that whatever they want is for their benefit, not yours. Success in poker is therefore quite simple. Just figure out what your enemies want, and then don't do that."

I've been a mediocre poker player for a few years and I've read quite a few poker books, but watching the fictional Hal Harris grow into the game through Vorhaus' eyes gave me some new insights. A key lesson I learned was not to take myself, or the poker, quite so seriously. The laughs are sprinkled liberally throughout, providing comic relief even as the key players are Under the Gun.

"When you lose, don't whine, and when you win, don't gloat." Hal learns this lesson from Slaughter early on, but there are some real professional poker players out there that could use a refresher course on this very basic aspect of the game. I enjoyed John Vorhaus' romp through the fictional poker world of Under the Gun and unless you're a Mirplo or a Queef, I think you will too.

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