 Bad Beat, Pete Hautman, Midnight Paper Sales, 1998. |
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Novelist Pete Hautman is a player. Early one morning the rest of us
were moving as quickly as we could toward home. Pete, however, stood
thoughtfully analyzing the game—who won, who lost, and why. This
was my introduction to Pete Hautman.
A few years and a number of games later we talked about doing a book
together. It would involve Poker. This was no mystery.
Bad Beat takes place in Zink’s club 34, a familiar bar
with a card game going on upstairs. At the end of the story we are awakened
to the meaning and implications of the term bad beat.
Joe Crow’s Rules are Hautman’s observations about the game
of Poker. Crow’s opinions resonate far beyond the card table.
For my part I hand-set the text in Garamond with Ratdolt titling, hand-printed
the edition on Zerkall mould-made paper, and hand-bound it into boards.
Seven multiple-color wood engravings were printed from maple blocks.
The book is signed by us both and enclosed in a slipcase. It’s
great fun. –Gaylord Schanilec
56 pages. 4 x 7 inches. 200 copies.
