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Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker by James McManus
rbixby's review
5.0
This is a very intense book. McManus writes the poker scenes with a sparse intensity that left me on the edge of my seat. He mixes it with long dissertations on the Ted Binion murder trial he was there to cover for Harper's, intellectual musings on the interconnectedness of no-limit hold-em to the deep contradictions in human nature.
I really enjoyed this one. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the deeper inner workings of tournament poker.
I really enjoyed this one. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the deeper inner workings of tournament poker.
cmcarr's review
2.0
I thought this book was going to be more interesting than it was. The author sets it up as though he is going to delve through the details of a murder mystery in Vegas at the same time as he follows his own progress in the World Series of Poker. But in truth, he lays out all the facts of the murder in the first chapter and then makes forced analogies throughout the rest of the book. The poker game commentary was interesting, but otherwise I found the book lacking in cohesiveness.
jdferron's review against another edition
Partial read. The legal trial portion of the book bored me. I enjoyed reading the gambling section. I will need to re-read this book at a later date.
blevins's review
3.0
McManus' non-fiction book enters the world of high stakes poker and murder in Las Vegas and when he sticks to those two topics--Positively Fifth Street comes up A-K and sitting on quad Aces on the River (couldn't resist!). When he veers off into a tangent, or starts talking endless poker strategy from one of the many books he has read--then the book takes a dip.
I'm not a poker player so some of the poker action in this got lost on me. Since I don't know what hands really beat another hand, the suspense wasn't as great as it could have been. Poker is actually kind of confusing to follow when it is written about--heck, even on TV I have little clue as to what is actually going on.
McManus actually gets a seat at The Big One--the Binion World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe--in 2000 and the scenes with him trying to make it to the next round are great. The other main topic of the book is the murder trial of Ted Binion, who may or may not have been murdered by his stripper girlfriend and her adulterous lover. If McManus had written just about these two things, cut back on the literature review of poker philosophy, the book would have been more satisfying to me.
Still interesting but doesn't make me want to start playing poker or watching poker on TV.
I'm not a poker player so some of the poker action in this got lost on me. Since I don't know what hands really beat another hand, the suspense wasn't as great as it could have been. Poker is actually kind of confusing to follow when it is written about--heck, even on TV I have little clue as to what is actually going on.
McManus actually gets a seat at The Big One--the Binion World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe--in 2000 and the scenes with him trying to make it to the next round are great. The other main topic of the book is the murder trial of Ted Binion, who may or may not have been murdered by his stripper girlfriend and her adulterous lover. If McManus had written just about these two things, cut back on the literature review of poker philosophy, the book would have been more satisfying to me.
Still interesting but doesn't make me want to start playing poker or watching poker on TV.
cwebb's review against another edition
4.0
http://www.weberseite.at/buecher/positively-fifth-street/
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