This is from the June 12, 2025 edition of 
"The Anthony Curtis' Las Vegas Advisor"

Question::

My father-in-law is a lifetime poker player and he just loves telling poker stories. In his 80s, we’ve all heard them all 100 times and he’s gotten the message that we’re pretty much over them already. So now, he loves reading poker stories. He loved your book The 50 Greatest Poker Stories and told me that he wished it never ended and is waiting for the sequel. Are you working on one? And if not, do you have another book of poker stories you can recommend?

Answer:

We waited awhile to answer this question — until a great new book of poker stories was published. We’re not planning a sequel to The 50 Greatest Stories in Poker History, but the new book, Missouri & Me — A Poker Odyssey, will more than suffice.

Missouri & Me is written by Glen Garrod, a poker pro for nearly five decades. His career began in college in California in the 1960s, then moved up to Lake Tahoe and Reno in the early ’70s, where it stayed on and off, mostly on, for the next 25 years. This was decidedly old-school poker, as Glen writes, “a time when the poker community was small and connected by yearly tournaments that weren’t overly populated and by road gamblers who spread stories that became embedded in poker mythology.”

From his home base in northern Nevada, Glen roamed the U.S. and Europe, playing as he went, with numerous back-in-the-day adventures that your 80-year-old father-in-law can no doubt relate to. The stories in the beginning are more about the players, eccentrics every one, and various settings on the long road trips that involved poker and plain old hippie wanderings, than the games. But as the chronology progresses, they turn more to the tournaments and individual hands that stand out in Glen’s memory, which is ferocious.

The Missouri of the title refers to “Missouri” Dave, a legendary poker player on the old road-gambler circuit, with whom Glen formed a lifetime friendship. He writes, “Missouri Dave is a laser-focused assassin to whom most of his weaker opponents appear mentally naked and defenseless. Bolstered by a lifetime of playing, he has total command of every aspect of the game. His intuitive abilities are finely tuned. It would be fairly accurate to say Missouri Dave plays poker on a higher plane than most.”

More characters your father-in-law will enjoy reading about include Sailor Roberts, Flyer, Cornbread, Laughing Al, Cowboy Tom, Suitcase Jimmy, Tuna, and Lenny the Levitator, among many others. There are also appearances by Benny Binion, Amarillo Slim, Freddie Deeb, Richard Pryor, David Mamet, and the Grateful Dead. Vietnam, cocaine (“a tsunami that swept through many of America’s poker rooms”), “The Biggest Pot I Ever Won,” and numerous World Series of Poker stories round out the book.

The stories are fast-paced and entertaining, but when Glen describes the individual hands, such as in Chapter 7 on the World Series of Poker and with seven “Big Hands in the Big Game,” they slow down to the tempo of the poker, with all the attending drama, tension, agony of bad beats, and triumph of scooping big pots that you’d expect from a 313-page book of poker stories. Also, we were happy to see the suits of the playing cards in the text and the graphics of the cards themselves in the showdowns. That’s impressive, especially for a self-published book, and bring the hands to life.

Missouri & Me is available as an ebook on Amazon for $9.99. But we suspect your father-in-law will be happier with the trade paperback, which can be purchased at the book’s website for $19.99 (plus shipping); also at MissouriAndMe.com, you can get a little deeper look into the book.

We’re confident when we say that Missouri & Me will keep your father-in-law in poker-story heaven for a good long time — and hopefully, he won’t repeat them to you and your family, though we’re sure he’ll be tempted to!

—

Glen Garrod recounts the days of old-school poker in ‘Missouri & Me’

I am just finishing up Missouri and Me.

 I think Glen Garrod has a very accessible concise and entertaining style of writing. The quick jabs of the stories he tells play out like poker hands, some are over quick, some take much longer, but the tension of the outcome of each one is well maintained. The poker life that Glen and Missouri Dave chose, is revealed to me in reading Glen’s stories. You got to love the life.  And it is clear, they love the life.

In one of the final chapters, Glen explains that even today he still gets a sensation, a thrill, whenever he first enters a poker room, hears the ‘cricket-like clatter’ of poker chips. I know a little about that because I still feel a bit of a twinge whenever I walk into a pool room. Though I never achieved what Glen, and Missouri Dave achieved in their specialty, I had my moments on a pool table way back – long lost as to any skill at the game today – but yet it resonates with me when I hear the ceramic click of those pool balls.  As Fast Eddie Felson said in ‘The Hustler’, ‘Didn’t know you could get clay balls to move that way’.

 I really enjoyed reading the book. I would compare reading the book to reading Playing Off The Rail by David McCumber about the world of 9 ball. It opens up the adventure and explains the allure. A fun read that makes me respect even more those who took the risk and made it pay off.  I especially liked the story about schooling Richard Pryor. And the one about meeting Michael Ondaatje who was doing research for a novel (I now plan on reading Divisadero). All the stories about The Big Game were totally entertaining.

–Bob Malone
Portland, Oregon published poet and the writer of two novels.

I purchased Glen’s book and am loving it. I am currently vacationing in the Cayman Islands. I brought 3 books with me. I can’t put ‘Missouri and Me’ down long enough to even start the other two.

— Dick Cooper, Nevada City, California

I once had the opportunity to sit behind Glen as he played in a big money poker game. After forty-five minutes, I had to walk away because my anxiety levels were through the roof, broiling further as the piles of chips grew larger.

If you’re like me, you can’t help but be captivated by the notion of professional poker, and what it must be like to build a life on a career with such high stakes and where skill can take you far, but where luck also plays a role. Glen Garrod’s Missouri & Me realizes the romanticism of being at the table, on the road, and in the life of a professional poker player throughout the decades leading up to the online poker revolution.

This book offers an intimate look into the life of Glen Garrod, whose personal experiences and insights form the core of the narrative.

Glen’s unique voice and perspective draw readers into his world, fostering a deep connection with him and his close-knit group of friends, as well as the strangers he encountered along the chapters of his life.

His captivating stories provide an insider’s view of a master poker player, alongside the adventures of a man who embodies both carefree spirit and determination.

As you journey through the decades of Glen’s life, you’ll enjoy a fast-paced and entertaining ride filled with passion for the game and the bonds of friendship that surround it. From the opening chapters and through the end of this saga, my love for the author’s voice and his world grew and grew.

This book touched my heart and opened my mind. Read Missouri & Me and you’ll find yourself falling in love with Glen, Missouri Dave, and the exhilarating game of poker itself as it was before it went mainstream and we all went digital.

—Eve Imagine, Editor, Missouri & Me