Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Novelist and poet McManus (Going to the Sun, 1996, etc.) sits in on the World Series of Poker. Harper's magazine assigned him to cover the progress of female players, the impact of information-age technology on the game, and the murder trial of Ted Binion, a member of the family whose Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas hosts the series. But McManus is also a player—kitchen-table level, granted—who wants in on the action (that Harper's advance will do nicely) and does very well indeed. As he charts his play through the ranks, the author reports on his guilt at having so much fun while so far from his wife and daughters (in short, wonderful phone conversations, his spouse invariably punches his ticket) and deals out aperÇus ("the beauty of no-limit hold 'em, in fact, parallels that of all human mating procedures") while spinning off like sparks from a pinwheel all manner of subplot and tangential material: game theory, card-deck history, the poker table's strange weather, the literature of poker, and the software that has opened the game to so many. The murder tale is vile, the female players a story in themselves, but what powers it all is McManus's nearly hand-by-hand recounting of his time at the table: the rhythm of play, the feints and dares, the unbearable Russian-roulette drama of the all-in hands. Though the language of poker can be as obtuse as haiku, McManus uses it to dazzle the reader, convey the torque ("I'm afraid my adrenaline might rupture an eye"), and share the fall when "with an ace on the turn, and a ten on the river, it's not even close. The Satanic Prince of Noodges has forked me down into the pitch." A heart-in-its-mouth card story: urgent, potent, and damn jolly. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

McManus went to Las Vegas in May 2000 on assignment for Harper's to cover the World Series of Poker, which has grown into a hugely popular, heavily publicized $23 million event. He was to throw in coverage of the trial of Sandy Murphy, an ex-stripper, and her boyfriend, Rick Tabish, accused of murdering Ted Binion, the tournament's host, well known for his voracious addictions to sex, violence, gambling, and drugs. To satisfy his own gambling urge, McManus enters the poker competition and spends 10 days immersed in the culture of Vegas and gambling, rendering a fast-paced, riveting account of his progress through the tournament. At one point, after losing $10,000, he parallels his own irrational, impatient behavior with that of defendants Murphy and Tabish. McManus also offers a play-by-play account of his long-shot action, with sidelines on the pros and cons of computerized poker, reviews of classic gambling texts, and virtually anything else that crosses his mind. Most fascinating is his portrait of the customs and sensibilities of the eclectic homo pokereins across every race and nationality, male and female (including a very aggressive barefoot and pregnant professional poker player). A delicious inside look. --Vanessa Bush

Library Journal
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Here is a rare work that combines personal memoir, journalism, nonfiction, and lurid crime reporting into a book that is genuinely informative, fun, and well constructed. Novelist and poet McManus wraps together three stories. First is his reporting on the trial of a well-known Vegas socialite and her boyfriend for the killing of her husband, casino owner and poker tournament host Ted Binion. The second story is that of the bizarre and fantastic world of no-limit "hold 'em" poker (the game favored at the World Series). The last thread is McManus's decision to take his advance from Harper's to cover the trial and the tournament and enter it himself. McManus moves gracefully among topics like the corrupt intersection of Vegas politics and casinos; game theory, statistics and poker odds; his own history with the game; the culture of high-stakes poker; and Ted Binion's transparent and grisly murder. As well as providing a guide to poker's seminal works (Doyle Brunson's Super/System and David Sklanksy's Theory of Poker), this book is the heir to Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as the effortless distillation of a small piece of Las Vegas's madness. Recommended for all collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/02.]-James Miller, Springfield Coll. Lib., MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

To cover the 2000 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas for Harper's, McManus insisted on entering. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly
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It's a safe bet that no one at Harper's expected novelist McManus, who the magazine sent to Las Vegas to cover the 2000 World Series of Poker, to parlay his advance into chips and play his way into the championship. The scene for this nonfiction work is Binion's Horseshoe Casino, and the game is No Limit Texas Hold 'Em, presumably the purest form of the game. McManus, a poker player since age nine, plays like he writes: gloriously. From the 512 starters, he finds himself, days later, at the championship table, playing for surreal stakes (he wins $866,000 on a single hand). In addition, he is simultaneously covering Ted Binion's gruesome murder trial, which just happens to coincide with the Series. McManus reads with a poker face. Seemingly calm and impassive, his voice may initially make listeners wonder if the author is the right person for the job. But although McManus's style doesn't change, listeners' perception of it will. His even keel is a deception, and as he is describing making quarter-million-dollar bets after playing cards with the world's best for days on end, listeners will be able to feel his heart racing under the calm fa?ade. Simultaneous release with the Farrar, Straus & Giroux hardcover (Forecasts, Feb. 24). (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

It's the fantasy of many a red-blooded American male, and increasingly, many a female: to stare down a grizzled "rounder" (or professional) in the final hand to win the million-dollar prize of the world's biggest poker tournament. Harper's magazine sent poet and novelist McManus (Going to the Sun, etc.) to cover the 2000 event in Las Vegas. Playing in his first tournament, he was more successful than anyone could have dared hope. For a writer, this is the equivalent of drawing a straight flush-no small part of the appeal here is watching McManus as he skillfully converts a chance into a sure thing. Moreover, coinciding with the tournament that year was the salacious trial of the murderer of Ted Binion, legendarily profligate scion to the family that created the event. He probes the trial at length, but the theme-scummy people are capable of scummy behavior-is hardly as interesting, and the book always perks up when McManus returns to the green felt, where "flop" and "river" can combine to end the author's streak at any moment. Of course, opponents and spectators alike were well aware of McManus's identity as erudite literatus and tourney neophyte-which at once made him prey and permitted him to play possum. While refusing to downplay his No Limit Hold'em chops (earned by practicing with a computer program), McManus modestly charts his delirium as he prevailed in one nervy confrontation after another. The drama of high-stakes poker is inherently compelling-here is a rare opportunity to read an account by someone who can really write. B&w illus. Agent, Sloan Harris. (Apr. 16) Forecast: While the initiated will greedily devour this, it has considerable crossover potential, justifying the 75,000-copy first printing. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved