TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER

In today's world of do-it-yourself celebrity and reality TV "stars," it's not surprising that autobiographies of the world's movers and shakers have been supplanted by memoirs penned by regular folk whose otherwise ordinary lives were impacted by some extraordinary circumstance, be it poverty (Frank McCourt), rape (Alice Sebold) or substance abuse (Augusten Burroughs). "Poker Face," subtitled "A Girlhood Among Gamblers," is poet Katy Lederer's tale of how her family's entry into the world of professional gambling influenced her during her formative years.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: At first glance, Lederer's childhood seems unremarkable. The youngest of three children, she is born to an English-teacher father and a stay-at-home mom in a fiercely intellectual family most notable for its love of games, from solitaire and gin rummy to chess and crossword puzzles. Only her mother's drinking problem sets them apart from the rest of middle-class America ... until both of her older siblings become world-class professional poker players.

By the time Lederer graduates from Berkeley, her parents have divorced, her mother has stopped drinking and both her brother and her sister are living large in Las Vegas, playing poker with the rest of the high-rollers in the city's swankiest casinos. Even the author finds the siren song of fast money too tempting to ignore; she joins her siblings in Sin City with the idea of writing during the day and playing poker at night before being accepted to a graduate poetry program at the University of Iowa.

WHY WE LIKE IT: Like much of the country, I've gone a little poker crazy, watching countless episodes of the Travel Channel's "World Poker Tour" and the World Series of Poker on ESPN. But while others - my husband, for example - are interested in studying the strategy, analyzing the pot odds and, of course, actually playing the game, I find myself more intrigued by the stories of some of the game's bigger-than-life personalities. For example, there's Gus Hansen, the intense Dane and two-time World Poker Tour champ who's a former professional backgammon player. Or Dan Coupal, the Canadian law student who got hooked on poker after seeing the Matt Damon film "Rounders." Or Chris Moneymaker, the 27-year-old amateur who turned a $40 online tournament win into a seat at the 2003 World Series of Poker - and walked away with the $2.5 million first-place prize.

And of course, there are Howard Lederer and Annie Duke, the acclaimed older brother and sister of Katy Lederer. While Poker Face is, inarguably, Katy's story, those of us who have sat enthralled watching Howard and Annie win pot after pot in some of the game's most prestigious tournaments will find themselves absorbed as their little sister pulls back the curtain and reveals the people behind the personas. At the table these world-class players are the epitome of discipline and self-control, so stories about Howard's weight problems or Annie's eating disorder are a bit surprising. And Katy turns the same uncompromising eye on herself, candidly admitting to grade-grubbing, hypochondria and, perhaps the biggest failing in her family, not being in the same class of gamesmanship as her hypercompetitive siblings.

As is the case with all of literature's most fascinating heroes, these character flaws make the Lederer family more engaging, more interesting ... more human. And it just ups the odds that these are the players I'll be betting on.