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23rd out of 34 books
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Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker
Rough sex, black magic, murder, and the science—and eros—of gambling meet in the ultimate book about Las Vegas
James McManus was sent to Las Vegas by Harper’s to cover the World Series of Poker in 2000, especially the mushrooming progress of women in the $23 million event, and the murder of Ted Binion, the tournament’s prodigal host, purportedly done in by a stripper a...more
Hardcover, 416 pages
Published
April 16th 2003
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
(first published January 1st 2003)
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Parts of this book where used almost wholesale as building blocks for Cowboys Full so no matter which you might read first at this point if you read both you hit parts you swore you read somewhere before (because you did). Unlike Cowboys Full which is a later book that discusses the history of poker this book is specifically about the authors experience at the 2000 WSOP at which Chris Ferguson won the main event and during which the trial of Ted Binion's accused killers was taking place just a ...more
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 ...more
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 ...more
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 ...more
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 ...more
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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.
I found the book somewhat entertaining with the poker action and the coverage of the trial but I found other parts of the book aggravating. There was too much free association to the point where I would get frustrated. It was as if the author could not express his own emotions without referring to someone or something else. If I had not read the same books or watched the same movies I was clueless as to what McManus was trying to say. Also I almost feel that to explain your emotions or feelings...more
As a poker enthusiast, I thoroughly enjoyed Positively Fifth Street. Author James McManus travels to Las Vegas on behalf of Harpers to pen an article on the progress of women in the World Series of Poker as well as the alleged murder of Ted Binion, the son of the tournament's founder. In a turn of events worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster, McManus - a family man on a budget - risks more than he can afford in a long shot gamble to enter the World Series and does well enough to write about it.
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Many interesting individual topics, but the writer tried to intertwine about 5 or 6 different stories in one book.
It didn't work.
His account of the murder of Ted Binion, he admits is fictional.
That starts the book, and you don't get the trial results till the end.
He spends most of the the book talking about his life,
his wife, his playing poker, his "good Jim, his bad Jim", his.....
The book is about 50% autobiography.
He...more
It didn't work.
His account of the murder of Ted Binion, he admits is fictional.
That starts the book, and you don't get the trial results till the end.
He spends most of the the book talking about his life,
his wife, his playing poker, his "good Jim, his bad Jim", his.....
The book is about 50% autobiography.
He...more
I enjoyed it immensely. I should specify that I read it in about 2001-2002, before Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 WSOP main event as an amateur on national TV and kicked off the "poker boom." The book was my first exposure to many of the personalities well-known to poker aficionados, e.g. Doyle Brunson, Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, Amarillo Slim, Kathy Liebert, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, Phil Ivey, T.J. Cloutier, Jack Binion, etc.
Jim McManus does an excellent job of inter...more
Jim McManus does an excellent job of inter...more
A few years ago I read the article that contained the seed for this book in Ira Glass's New Kings of Nonfiction. (If you haven't read that book you should stop reading this now, and go find a copy.) I really enjoyed that article.
I was not terribly interested in poker, but was fascinated by the idea of an amateur entering the world's premier poker tournament in order to write a story about it...then finishing fifth overall. I recently ran across a copy of Positively Fifth Street in a t...more
I was not terribly interested in poker, but was fascinated by the idea of an amateur entering the world's premier poker tournament in order to write a story about it...then finishing fifth overall. I recently ran across a copy of Positively Fifth Street in a t...more
The lurid opening of this book -- a reconstruction of how gambling magnate Ted Binion was probably murdered in 1998 -- is quite a page-turner. I enjoyed how McManus jumped into the action without much explanation. At first, I wasn't sure what was going on. I thought perhaps it was merely a kinky but poorly executed menage a trois; but it slowly dawned on me that something vicious was going on. Eventually, I realized that McManus was describing a brutal murder.
McManus is certain...more
McManus is certain...more
Another book that changed my life. Reading the juxtaposition of the author in an improbable run to the final table of the WSOP and the demise of the physical manifestation of the history of poker in Teddy Binion, well, it made me realize that there is more to the game of poker than just money, gambling and smoke. Its psychology, art, science, math, and money gambling and smoke. The poker table is where the microcosm of humanity meet and where mental Darwinism occurs. The strongest survive...more
McManus is an excellent writer, and he's able to make the world of professional poker engrossing. (He also, probably unintentionally, makes it clear how truly boring it is.) The parts of the book about his tournament play and the murder trial that surrounds it are page turners. His tangents about the psychology of gambling, evolutionary biology, etc. etc. are much less so and have a distinct barnyard smell. They feel like padding in a book that's already as padded as a term paper by a second-sem...more
I don't think a non-fiction writer has ever been in a more fortuitous position in regards to his subject then McManus. Aside from his brief asides about his darling wife and his tendency to call his poker playing self "Bad Jim" (I think it was Bad Jim.. something vaguely dumb and smelling slightly of a need for therapy like that...) this story of his making it to the final table of the World Series of Poker contrasted against the Ted Binion murder trial (he was the son of the man who ...more
McManus mixes his account of the Binion murder trial with his experience as a "newbie" to tournament poker - in the midst of the granddaddy of poker tournaments - expertly, in a way that made me want to keep reading. You can watch poker being played on the TV, knowing what everyone has, and get sort of a sense of excitement by wondering what a player is going to do, but the way McManus wrote about the hands he experienced first hand in the WSOP, without the knowledge of a "Hole C...more
Hold 'em? check.
Adulterous murder? got that
WSOP blow by blow, by a journalist who also has played a lifetime of poker...you betcha!
What you have here, is a great piece of investigative Journalism, what Fear and Loathing might have been if Hunter didn't do all the drugs and had actually driven in the races he was sent to and missed covering. I suppose McManus could have gone Gonzo with it, but in no way would he have made the final table tripping balls...so, scotch that sugge...more
Adulterous murder? got that
WSOP blow by blow, by a journalist who also has played a lifetime of poker...you betcha!
What you have here, is a great piece of investigative Journalism, what Fear and Loathing might have been if Hunter didn't do all the drugs and had actually driven in the races he was sent to and missed covering. I suppose McManus could have gone Gonzo with it, but in no way would he have made the final table tripping balls...so, scotch that sugge...more
I have quite a collection of poker books, from the "how-to" instructional types, to studies of gambling psychology, to works more akin to cultural history, like this 2004 book by James McManus, who attended the World Series of Poker on an assignment from Harper's Magazine and ended up finishing fifth in the famously difficult-to-win world championship.
It's a marvelous read, if gambling, Las Vegas and the seedy side of life intrigue you -- all written about through a New Yor...more
It's a marvelous read, if gambling, Las Vegas and the seedy side of life intrigue you -- all written about through a New Yor...more
The author goes to Vegas in 2000 to cover two stories: the brutal murder of seedy blacklisted casino mogul Ted Binion by his girlfriend and her lover; and the rise of female poker players at the Big One. Like nearly all journalists, he goes to play as well as observe, so blows his entire "Harper's" advance on an entry fee, and actually makes it to the final table.
Part autobiography, part meditation on the rush of thrill seeking and the cut-throat world of professional poke...more
Part autobiography, part meditation on the rush of thrill seeking and the cut-throat world of professional poke...more
James McManus was sent by Harper's to cover the 2000 World Series of Poker (hereafter in this review to be referred to as the WSOP) in Las Vegas and to also report on the trial of the couple accused of murdering Ted Binion, son of the WSOP founder Benny Binion. This dual assignment was apparently not enough for McManus, a lifelong poker enthusiast, who could not resist the temptation of playing in the main event himself. With an advance less than half of the entry fee, he won his way in though ...more
Ted Binnion's murder or untimely demise happend not long after I moved to Las Vegas, and I became obsessed with the news coverage for the next couple of years. McMannus's book captures the time, and life of that period in Positively Fifth Street. He warns the reader to read closely the chapter on poker play early in the book, which I skimmed, only to find myself studying when the game got interesting. I enjoyed this book immensely and even found that I could follow a poker game on TV from hav...more
Andrew Hecht
rated it
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review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
poker players and enthusiasts
Shelves:
public-library,
non-fiction
There can be no finer book to pick up in the middle of the TV coverage of Binion's WSOP. McManus's tales of how he parlayed his 4G advance from Harper's first to a seat at the WSOP Big Game and then made it all the way to the final table all with the backdrop of the heroin laced/circus sex Ted Binion murder trial. It makes for a compelling read. But it's McManus's literary flourishes, his background as a Catholic altar boy that inform his decision making on so many levels, his references to Dant...more
This is another example of a potentially good story that was badly edited. Or, more likely, not edited at all. The story was, or at least I think was supposed to be, about Ted Binion's murder and the author's experience playing in World Series of Poker at Binion's casino in Las Vegas.
Instead it was about blah blah blah. Seriously, I have no idea how many pages in the hundred or so I read (except to say *many*) where in my head I read "blah, blah, blaaaaah". I skimmed an...more
Instead it was about blah blah blah. Seriously, I have no idea how many pages in the hundred or so I read (except to say *many*) where in my head I read "blah, blah, blaaaaah". I skimmed an...more
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 Mc...more
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 Mc...more
Read it as I was getting into poker along with the other million morons out there...and liked it. As much as I don't appreciate Las Vegas for anything other than a sociological and urban experiment in extravagance and surface glitz (and the poker), McManus's novel allowed me to acknowledge why. The story of Binion's sordid family tribulations is Geraldo Rivera - tabloid - popcorn. The real goods, however, are the insider perspective on the World Series of Poker and the high level of play of t...more
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.
It's funny, the WSOP as portrayed here seems almost quaint compared to what it is now, and seems downright insulting to compare it to what it was a few years ago. Still, what McManus accomplished by doing so well is impressive and makes for a fascinating story on its own right, so the digressions, murder trial and otherwise, really put it over the top. I'm sucker for any poker book, for the most part, but this isn't any old poker book. Great read.
I enjoyed the book quite a bit. It's a great thriller where the suspense is more about the poker than the murder trial.
Ostensibly about both the World Series of Poker and a dirty murder trial related to it, the book is really more about what it's like to be IN the WSoP. And in that, it excelled. I am by no means a great poker player, but I was thrilled by the tales of the table.
Some of the author's observations seem a little dated, since the world of poker has changed sig...more
Ostensibly about both the World Series of Poker and a dirty murder trial related to it, the book is really more about what it's like to be IN the WSoP. And in that, it excelled. I am by no means a great poker player, but I was thrilled by the tales of the table.
Some of the author's observations seem a little dated, since the world of poker has changed sig...more
If you’ve watched ESPN at any time over the last two years, I’m sure you’ve caught some glimpse or mention of the World Series of Poker. This book details the journey of a professional journalist (Jim McManus) paid to cover the 2000 event who turns over his advance check so he can enter the tournament. His writing makes individual poker hands exciting, and reading the book allows you to actually become a better poker player (Coincidence? After finishing the book, I managed to win $300 two weeks ...more
Another poker classic but this one has parallel narratives: the Binion murder case and the 2000 World Series of Poker. McManus dropped his freelance fee for Harper's on the buy-in for the WSOP and improbably made the final table. At the same time, the Ted Binion murder trial was taking place (Binion was an heir to the Binion casino fortune, which included hosting rights to the WSOP). I especially enjoyed McManus's literary allusions, which provided nice dissonance with his subject matter. I did,...more
A magazine dispatches to Vegas a doughy middle-aged white guy who's obsessed with letting you know how hot his younger wife looks in her underwear. He enters the World Series of Poker on a whim, makes it very far, gets excited and treats himself to a lap dance. Also there's a murder trial and his younger wife is not very happy about the lap dance. Something something, poker as metaphor for the human condition.
This is based on a true story about a guy who loves Texas Hold 'Em, and is commissioned by Harper's magazine to go cover a real live murder of Ted Binion, whose grisly death was blamed on Binion's former stripper-girlfriend and her ex-linebacker beau. Oh, darn.. the World Series of Poker (2000) is taking place at the same time the trial is set to play out in court! Man, what a ride this is! Fabulous!
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boulder Book Club: Positively Fifth St. | 5 | 12 | Oct 17, 2011 02:30pm | |
| twenty dollar words | 1 | 14 | Feb 13, 2009 08:11am |
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James "Jim" McManus is an American poker player, teacher and writer living in Kenilworth, Illinois.
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