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In 350 pages (plus an appendix of poker terminology), the professor from the Art Institute of Chicago details what happened when he took his $4,000 advance from Harper's Magazine for an article on the increasing presence of women in high stakes poker and the murder trial of fallen casino heir Ted Binion, which was concluding concurrently with the World Series, and entered the 'Big One'. For any fan, the poker coverage is riveting, and the ins and outs of the trial will leave you pondering right to the end: are they gonna get off? The interspersed history of Jim's family, and the seemingly forced battle between what he calls 'good' and 'bad' Jim are less successful as literary tools go. Any poker fan will appreciate the insider look at the 2000 World Series of Poker from a man who went from dead money to being invited to sit with Becky Behnen, the Horseshoe Casino owner, as the verdict was being read in the trial of her brother's alleged murderers. But, I'd caution those without a love of the game from forking over the chips to see what McManus is holding in this one. I'd put him on a medium Ace, and it really depends on your point of view whether those are rags.

McManus' Harpers article was supposed to do three things: Cover the World Series of Poker; more specifically, cover female professional poker players; and cover the Ted Binion murder trial.

The first ten pages cover the murder; and there are approximately five more pages throughout the book that are really relevant to the trial. There are maybe a total of three pages in the book that talk about female poker players, and the vast majority of that is descriptions of their breasts. I am not making this up.

There *is* poker in here, and it's pretty entertaining. However, here's my reconstruction of how this book was "designed". McManus went to Vegas, and kept detailed stream-of-consciousness notes. When he got home, he filled out the notes with research... and left absolutely *nothing* out. The result is unbelievably boring. Boring history of cards, for no reason; boring life stories of several poets, for no reason; ridiculously puerile comparisons between poker and sex, for no reason. On and on and on and on. I would not have thought it possible for a description of a lap dance to be tedious. Turns out it is quite possible.

The only way to have a positive experience with this book is to leaf through it, and read only the passages describing actual poker play. Even then, you have to be prepared for obvious errors in terminology (e.g., according to the Appendix, a "blank" is the same as a "rag," false) and betting sequence (according to the seating chart, McManus must already have acted, but he has himself fold later in the round).

"Hey," I thought when I saw this book at a local store - "What a neat idea for a book!" Interested in gambling and all things Vegas, I bought it. The author is a good storyteller and he weaves adroitly between the tales of his unexpected run at the World Series of Poker and the trial of the two people charged with murdering casino operator Ted Binion, whose Binion's Horseshoe Casino hosts the annual WSOP.

For poker fans, including the thousands (millions?) of new enthusiasts introduced to the game by all the recent televised poker, it's a good read. The author also provides a decent account of the trial and the events leading up to it. But where he fails is in his interjecting of his own strong personal views about the principals involved. His blatant dislike of the defendants (he finds them both "guilty" in the book's opening pages), their attorneys (including the mayor of Las Vegas), and others, taints the story and attemtps to influence opinion instead of just presenting the facts. I was further disappointed at the author's political railings, which are totally unrelated to the story, at the end of the book.

Nonetheless, the poker and courtroom action are quite revealing and interesting. If the author had stuck more to the tournament and the trial and less to his political beliefs and family history, this could have been an even better read.