Photo: Larry Grossman, Las Vegas.

DAVID SPANIER discovered poker, like many other people, while at university. In his spare time he studied major writers such as Shakespeare, who knew quite a bit about gambling. (Hamlet: Now might I do it, pat.) In those far-off days five card draw was the game. As a student, a loss of five pounds or ten bucks meant he couldn't eat for a week. 

On graduation he joined The Times newspaper in London and developed his poker playing skills in Fleet Street and beyond. He took time off to become a foreign correspondent but usually got back for the regular Tuesday game he helped launch in London. He also played a lot at the Press Club in Washington DC. 

David believed that foreign policy has a lot in common with gambling, particularly poker. In diplomacy, each side is trying to out-play and out-think the other and gain its objective, as in cards. 

David's first book Total Poker, celebrated the game in all its aspects - "Sex is good but poker lasts longer" . The book has become something of a minor classic, in the sense that a lot of young players first discovered poker through reading it. 

He has written several other books on gambling, listed below. His favourite town was Las Vegas.

He wrote a weekly column on poker in The Independent, London, which was the first and so far as we know the only column on poker in a national newspaper, anywhere in the world. David passed away on April 18th, 2000, which was a sad blow to his many friends around the world.

These are his books: 

All these titles are available in England from High Stakes Gambler's Bookshop, 21, Great Ormond Street, WC1N 3JB e-mail: jerryraine@aol.com 

In the United States from The Gambler's Book Club, 630, South 11th Street, Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 e-mail: info@gamblersbook.com or from Amazon.com