Poker in Books; Positively 5th Street

Poker in Books will be a reoccurring post where I cover books related in some way to poker.  Some will be strategy, but the first one I want to share with you is my favourite all time poker book, Positively 5th Street.

 Amazon.com Review

In 2000, novelist and poet James McManus was sent to Las Vegas, innocently enough, by Harper's magazine to write a story about the World Series of Poker held annually at Binion's Horseshoe. But then, as so often happens on trips to Sin City, something kind of ... happened. Rather than becoming an objective report, McManus's article evolved into a memoir as he put his entire advance on the line, got lucky with his cards and won a spot in the competition, and came much closer than anyone expected to winning the darn thing. The result, Positively Fifth Street, is just as dazzling, exciting, and disturbing as Vegas itself.

McManus details his battles not only against his opponents but also against "Bad Jim," the portion of his own personality that needs to get in on a poker game in spite of both common and fiscal sense. Besides telling his own story, he relates the considerably more unpleasant tale of Ted Binion, whose grisly death was blamed on Binion's former stripper-girlfriend and her ex-linebacker beau. 

 Pass The Dip Review

This book is written by an author, not a card player so it is a smooth read that you won't want to put down.  James McManus AKA Jimbo Sweetness travelled to Vegas to cover the progress of women at the 2000 WSOP as well as to chronicle of the mysterious death of Ted Binion.  Like any poker player in Vegas, his actual work assignment for Harper's proved to be a good excuse to try and win the Main Event.  The stories all mesh together in such a way that you want to keep reading each storyline as it develops.  If you read one poker book this year, I strongly suggest this one.  (Except Kramp and maybe Gepeddo who should check out Poker For Dummies first.)

James McManus