Reviews
Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker by James McManus
dogpound's review
3.0
While the look into the World Series of Poker is great, I so did not care about this guy's personal life. Every time he started talking about his wife, his kids, his guilt, lap dances and hanging out in vegas, I wanted to skip ahead to the card games.
jaredw1974's review
4.0
Probably the most recognized poker book out there. The two main stories about the murder trial and the authors attempts to enter the world series of poker are amazing. The reason this book does not get five stars is that the author gets into so many distracting sub-plots, about other poker authors and how he learned poker from his grandparents. Overall, a really good read.
thomasroche's review
4.0
Beautifully told story of the author's experiences in the 2000 World Series of Poker, coupled with his reporting for Harper's both on the Series and on the murder of its owner, Ted Binion, who was killed by his stripper wife and her new boyfriend.
I have a reservation about giving it four stars, which is that most of it probably wouldn't be of much interest unless you follow poker pretty closely -- and specifically No Limit Texas Hold 'Em. If you don't, much of the book is completely impenetrable.
What I liked most was the lyrical quality of the gambler's cant used in the gambling scenes. In the annals of American subcultural writing, this book is pretty amazing and important. It records the obsessive, sleazy, testosterone-pumped noir-ish slang of the modern poker player with an edgy brilliance that makes it poetry. This is a totally modern, totally organic lingo that's like its own language, and the author renders it with a lyrical quality that is some of the most beautiful writing I've ever read, evocative of the hardest-boiled of crime novels.
If you like the dense slang and tongue-in-cheek wordplay of, say, Damon Runyon, you can probably appreciate the beautiful language in this book. The guy can seriously lay that shit down. Pretty impressive.
I have a reservation about giving it four stars, which is that most of it probably wouldn't be of much interest unless you follow poker pretty closely -- and specifically No Limit Texas Hold 'Em. If you don't, much of the book is completely impenetrable.
What I liked most was the lyrical quality of the gambler's cant used in the gambling scenes. In the annals of American subcultural writing, this book is pretty amazing and important. It records the obsessive, sleazy, testosterone-pumped noir-ish slang of the modern poker player with an edgy brilliance that makes it poetry. This is a totally modern, totally organic lingo that's like its own language, and the author renders it with a lyrical quality that is some of the most beautiful writing I've ever read, evocative of the hardest-boiled of crime novels.
If you like the dense slang and tongue-in-cheek wordplay of, say, Damon Runyon, you can probably appreciate the beautiful language in this book. The guy can seriously lay that shit down. Pretty impressive.
reenum's review
2.0
This is a perfectly good book. I enjoyed the bits about Ted Binion's murder in the beginning, but lost interest when McManus began recounting his poker hands in excruciating detail.
michaelstearns's review
3.0
Fun book. Doesn't quite pull off the dovetailing of the murder investigation in Vegas (which bores comparatively) with his own antics at the World Series of Poker, but fun fun fun.
xterminal's review
3.0
Jim McManus, Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2003)
Jim McManus made the final table at the World Series of Poker.
That alone should make any poker player want to pick this book up and read it immediately. It gets better when you realize that McManus went in as the rankest of rank amateurs, the guy whose previous poker career revolved around the $3-$6 Hold 'em game at the local VFW. Yes, folks, Jim McManus is living proof that anyone CAN do it. And, as This American Life host Ira Glass says on the back cover, the poker writing to be found here really is some of the best sports writing you are likely to ever see; McManus' descriptions are easily the equal of Laura Hillenbrand's race descriptions in Seabiscuit (and this is high praise indeed). Its when McManus gets off the subject of poker that things tend to go downhill.
Unfortunately, this happens often. McManus was in Vegas for the purpose of covering the Murphy/Tabish trial (Murphy and Tabish were accused of murdering Ted Binion, wayward son of the owner of the casino where the World Series of Poker is held*), and much of the book details McManus' attempts to get at the meat of the psyches of Binion, Murphy, and Tabish, in order to write the article. Despite the tenuous connections McManus makes between murder and poker towards the end of the book, these are two separate pieces, and should have been treated as such.
Worth reading for the cards. Skim the rest. ***
* For the sticklers in the audience: yes, "is" is the correct tense. Binion's reopened on April 1, 2004.
Jim McManus made the final table at the World Series of Poker.
That alone should make any poker player want to pick this book up and read it immediately. It gets better when you realize that McManus went in as the rankest of rank amateurs, the guy whose previous poker career revolved around the $3-$6 Hold 'em game at the local VFW. Yes, folks, Jim McManus is living proof that anyone CAN do it. And, as This American Life host Ira Glass says on the back cover, the poker writing to be found here really is some of the best sports writing you are likely to ever see; McManus' descriptions are easily the equal of Laura Hillenbrand's race descriptions in Seabiscuit (and this is high praise indeed). Its when McManus gets off the subject of poker that things tend to go downhill.
Unfortunately, this happens often. McManus was in Vegas for the purpose of covering the Murphy/Tabish trial (Murphy and Tabish were accused of murdering Ted Binion, wayward son of the owner of the casino where the World Series of Poker is held*), and much of the book details McManus' attempts to get at the meat of the psyches of Binion, Murphy, and Tabish, in order to write the article. Despite the tenuous connections McManus makes between murder and poker towards the end of the book, these are two separate pieces, and should have been treated as such.
Worth reading for the cards. Skim the rest. ***
* For the sticklers in the audience: yes, "is" is the correct tense. Binion's reopened on April 1, 2004.
satyridae's review
3.0
First of all, I have to say that I don't know how to play poker, so large swathes of this book went sailing over my head. It opens with a gory murder reenactment, also not something I fancy. Those two things notwithstanding, this was a solid and entertaining listen. I didn't like McManus' habit of referring to himself as "Good Jim" and "Bad Jim". Every time he did so I found myself rolling my eyes. It was quite a window into a totally foreign lifestyle. Enjoyable.
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