“There’s not an ounce of bullshit in that autobiography, none,” Tom McEvoy says about his 15th book — Poker Pioneer, an all-encompassing memoir.
True to his word, the autobiography weighs in at over 500 pages with true stories and confessions from a poker life that spans decades. It’s the magnum opus for an author who practically invented what we have come to know as the poker strategy book.
Ahead of the Global Poker Awards on February 22, where the memoir is nominated in the Best Poker Book category, McEvoy invited us over to his house in the shadow of the Las Vegas Strip to talk about the life of poker authorship. The visit is a short trip from the Rio, where the World Series of Poker was held from 2005-2021.
As many poker writers, gambling historians, and friends of McEvoy know, a visit usually involves the privilege of scouring through thousands of original photographs from the WSOP and other tournaments throughout his career. This time he brought out three binders, most notably the collection from his WSOP Main Event win in 1983.
A program from the 1984 World Series of Poker featuring McEvoy as the 1983 champion. Elsewhere throughout the house are an indeterminate amount of rare and one-of-a-kind pieces of poker memorabilia, including a number of original poker artworks. Among other things, several volumes of the History of U.S. Table Tennis sit on shelves that are overflowing with books about poker and everything else. McEvoy was a very good table tennis player.
This is McEvoy’s 15th — and likely final — book. He is an early pioneer of poker strategy content, self-publishing and distributing books on the subject of tournament strategy and the World Series of Poker. It’s a prolific writing career that almost never happened as it was nearly over just as quickly as it began.
Filling a market niche
“The idea never even entered my mind,” McEvoy said about writing a book. “But back then there was nothing, and I mean zero, written about tournament poker strategy.”
The original approach came from Stanley Sludikoff, who owned a magazine called Gaming Today. “They thought that it would fill a little market niche, maybe.”
McEvoy knew he needed help, so he contacted Roy West, a writer who had penned books about Seven Card Stud. West organized McEvoy’s content and developed the book based on dictated tape recordings. It became How to Win at Poker Tournaments.
West was paid upfront for the book and McEvoy never recouped his costs. It wasn’t until 10 years later that he’d take another shot at it.
“I always felt I could do a much better book on tournament strategy.”
Enter Dana Smith, who had written a book called Tournament Tips from the Pros. It was a compilation of quotes and other advice from other sources, like McEvoy’s first book.
“I was flattered. I mean, she didn't ask anybody's permission, she just did it. That's fine, I don't care. And she approached me, but I didn't know this lady from Adam, and because I lost money in my previous writing attempt I basically gave her the brush off.”
Between bankrolls
Smith didn’t give up, and eventually, McEvoy ran into her again at the Mirage poker room.
“She saw me and approached me again. This time she had a business plan written up and she said, ‘Tom, if we do this book, here's what we can make.' And she came up with about $25,000.”
It was a tempting offer.
"At the time I was, as Mike Sexton used to say, between bankrolls. I was divorced in 1990 and basically all my money was gone. And not from gambling losses — the divorce wiped me out."
McEvoy looked over the business plan and reluctantly agreed. “We were gonna do it on my schedule, on my timeframe. I was not easy to deal with."
The book took seven months to complete. He started with the same approach — dictating strategy into a tape recorder for Smith to organize. “It was a terrible mishmash. It wasn't flowing and she was getting mad. Rightfully so, I might add.”
Figuring it out
The two took a step back, made an outline, and had a game plan. McEvoy decided to focus on writing about the World Series of Poker
“I figured, well, I'll talk about the World Series games. I started breaking them down and giving strategic insights on all the different games. It started to flow, and instead of just taking my own sweet time, I wanted to get it done.”
Smith’s original $25,000 estimate turned out to be off. McEvoy says he stopped counting after $100,000.
“I made a whole bunch of money because there was nothing out there and we were charging 40 bucks. We were self-published, self-printing, and she had basically her own mail-order book business right out of her house. Plus, I was selling them, and I never thought I was that much of a salesman, but I had the right product at the time.”
McEvoy (right) with co-author Brad Smith in Las Vegas. For his autobiography, McEvoy recruited Brad Smith as co-author. It was Smith’s first book, but McEvoy took a liking to other writing he had done about gambling and Las Vegas. The entire process took a year and nine months from start to finish.
“I had the same problem I had before; I needed help. I needed someone to work with on this. I was more than pleased with the finished product. I didn't just write it for the poker public, I wrote it for my own family too, although they were critical of some of the decisions I made obviously, and rightfully so. They're not so sure that I should have put everything I did in there. I could have left some of the stuff out.”
'I'll never do another book'
The memoir likely wraps up a writing career that spanned 15 books, but McEvoy is staying busy with other projects. He recently served as a technical advisor on Unsuited, a poker comedy from writer/producer Tom Baldinger. The show has recently gone from shopping a pilot around to shooting a full season. McEvoy appears in the first two episodes with a speaking part (as himself).
“I'm pretty sure I'll never do another book. This book took the most effort, but it was also the most rewarding for me. A lot of my strategy books had been surpassed by other authors. The strategy is much more complex than it was. It was pretty good for the time, but poker has changed so much since I wrote my books. A conservative strategy won't cut it anymore, which is what I was using for a lot of my early tournament successes.”
He’s also not done with the World Series of Poker yet. McEvoy has played in 38 Main Events and counting.
“Last year I still played nine events at the World Series. I doubt if I'll do nine this time, but I'll probably be in maybe five or six. So I'll have a few shots.”
Watch the Global Poker Awards on Saturday, February 22 at 5 pm PT on PokerGO.
Photos courtesy of 624 Productions/Tom McEvoy/Brad Smith
