Annotation
"In the spring of 2000, Harper's Magazine sent James McManus to Las Vegas to cover the World Series of Poker - in particular, the mushrooming progress of women in the $23 million event, and the murder of Ted Binion, the tournament's prodigal host, purportedly done in by a stripper and her boyfriend with a technique so outre it took a Manhatten pathologist to identify it. Whether a jury would convict the attractive young couple was another story altogether." "But when McManus sets foot in town, the lure of the tables is too strong: he proceeds to risk his entire Harper's advance in a long-shot attempt to play in the tournament himself. Only with actual experience at the table (he tells his skeptical wife) can he capture the hair-raising subtleties of the kind of poker that determines he world champion. The heart of the book is his deliciously suspenseful account of the tournament itself - the players, the hands, and his own unlikely progress in it."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Awards
2003 New York Times Notable Books of the Year
Author Notes
James McManus teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, including a course on the literature and science of poker.
James McManus is the author of four novels, including Going to the Sun, which won the Carl Sandburg Award in 1996, and two books of poetry, most recently Great America. His writing has been featured in Harper's and The New York Times and on This American Life, In 2001 McManus received the Peter Lisagor Award for sports journalism. He teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, including a course on the literature and science of poker
| Genre | NonFiction Sociology |
| Topics | Games Gambling Pop culture Murder Murderers Competition |
| Setting | Las Vegas, Nevada |