|
No, it's not any of the seven how-to books I own (although Championship Omaha was a pretty damn good read last week). It's "Positively Fifth Street" a book that about poker but at the same time not really about poker at all. It chronicles local Chicago guy (and die hard White Sox fan) James McManus as he sets off with a $4,000 advance from Harper's magazine to cover the progress of women players at the 2000 World Series of Poker and simultaneously cover the trial of the alleged murder of Ted Binion by his best friend and stripper wife, former operator of the very casino the World Series is hosted in.
Long story short, McManus ends up using his advance to buy into a $1000 satellite, wins a seat to the Main Event, and makes an improbable run deep into the tournament while covering both the trial and his female competitors.
McManus is a little long-winded in his anecdotes, but his writing style is amazingly lucid and he draws from literally every aspect of the Las Vegas backdrop. I'm about 350 pages into the 400 page book and I can safely say it is the most entertaining and fascinating poker book I've ever read (and I've read and re-read nearly every major book on the market a dozen times).
Highly, highly, highly recommended stuff for anyone moderately interested in the WSOP. You don't need to know a damn thing about poker to read this amazing, improbable story of circumstantial events.
|
