The extensive coverage and popularity of the game of poker has resulted in prosperity for authors on the subject and their publichers, says New York’s Cardoza Publishing this week.
The publisher reported a tenfold increase in sales for its poker-related titles, and the daily newspaper USA Today estimates that 60 poker books will go to print this year.
Locally, one publisher has found itself ahead of the curve, another is trying to catch up and a third is sitting out the poker craze altogether.
Book store owner Howard Schwartz says his store now has 250 separate titles on poker, double the number in stock a year or two ago. Many of them are from the pens of Two Plus Two Publishing’s Sklansky and Malmuth – between them, since 1987 the pair have published 26 of Two Plus Two’s 43 poker titles and are widely respected.
Two Plus Two’s business has prospered as a result of the intense interest in poker, too. In 2002, before the game took off Malmuth sold 45,000 books, and this has climbed to an estimated 500,000 books this year. The interest is illustrated by the growth of the pair’s online poker site, Two Plus Two.com where at any one time, there can be as many as between 500 to a thousand people generating a staggering 10,000 posts a day.
For beginners, Huntington Press’s “Kill Phil” is a new how-to book for beginners, aimed at those TV viewers who fantasise about playing against the big names in poker. Phil Hellmuth has endorsed the book, which carries strategies outlined by authors Blair Rodman and Lee Nelson.
“Regardless of what happens, it (poker) will still remain big,” Anthony Curtis of Huntington Press says. “Poker will be a cool thing to do for quite some time. Will it continue its meteoric ascent? It can’t. It’s too expensive. Nobody wants to get their brains and their wallet beat out every time they sit down.”
“We’ve been fairly steady over all the years,” added Malmuth, whose poker-based publishing house well predates the current craze for Texas Hold ‘Em and games of that ilk. “Obviously there will come a day when it peaks. There’s probably too many tournaments right now and new ones continue to be announced.”
Malmuth thinks the fever for poker will subside yet the sport will still maintain a higher temperature than it did a few years ago. He points to the generation coming of age, and into the workplace, picking up the green-felt virus in college.