My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
Jonny Magic & the Card Shark Kids: How a Gang of Geeks Beat the Odds and Stormed Las Vegas
If you think a gang of real-life geeks can’t take on the world and win big . . . think again. And whatever you do, don’t sit down across a gaming table from Jon Finkel, better known as Jonny Magic. Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids is his amazing true story: the jaw-dropping, zero-to-hero chronicle of a fat, friendless boy from New Jersey who found his edge in a game of ...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
August 29th 2006
by Random House Trade Paperbacks
(first published 2005)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
85)
This book was pretty disappointing. I'm a fan of games in general and Magic: The Gathering and Poker in particular. The true story of a geeky outcast who rises to the ranks of professional Magic, then takes on Vegas as a professional poker player, then card counter, should be a fun and fascinating read. But Kushner's cheesy prose and superficial coverage of events falls flat.
The target audience should be card players who understand the games reasonably well, but Kushner goes for the l...more
The target audience should be card players who understand the games reasonably well, but Kushner goes for the l...more
It’s possibly a common dream among mathematically gifted but socially challenged high school outcasts that traits for which they were shunned will someday emerge as acclaimed talents. Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids is the tale of one such transformation. Dismissed as the weird fat kid, Jon Finkel discovers the card game, Magic: The Gathering, and quickly becomes world champion before turning to blackjack and poker. Re-named Jonny Magic, a couple of hundred pounds lighter and a few millio...more
So some might say I'm little bit biased, since I am the subject of the book and all. But to be honest, I found the subject fascinating, and the protagonist is a modern hero in the truest sense of the word.
It's an interesting book in the sense that it identifies the correlation between Magic The Gathering and some of the more successful and young poker players who have made Televised final tables in recent years. It's a case study in the transition of one of the early world champions of MTG tournament play into tournament poker via Atlantic City cash games.
One caveat I'd point out is that most people even if they are poker playing enthusiasts (or MTG for that matter) probably won't re...more
One caveat I'd point out is that most people even if they are poker playing enthusiasts (or MTG for that matter) probably won't re...more
These days, you can't throw a stick in a bookstore without hitting a gambling book. Poker tournaments are becoming regular sights on network TV, and online poker sites grow more and more popular. And if you watch those TV tourneys, you'll notice one thing: the final table is often filled with guys who look like they might still be in college. David Kushner, author of Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture tells us who those guys are and how they came to be...more
It started out really good but towards the end I noticed that the language used was just really weird. He went from the "geek" to wanting to "crush" everyone in card games. It was just not fun to read towards the end. It was like listening to that guy brag in the class about his luxury weekend. We get it, you went from being uncool to having "hot babes" in Vegas. I wanted to learn more about poker, but I obviously picked up the wrong book.
This would be my biography if I was a) good at Magic: The Gathering b) good at enough and c) ballsy enough to become a card counter in Vegas.
What a great book.
just started....
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This is a biographical account of John Finkel, a fat friendless boy from New Jersey who discovered his unique abilities at card games starting with Magic, which is a card game designed to appeal to the Dungeons and Dragons crowd. He progressed to teams of Black Jack card counters and wound up as one of the Greats of the Texas Hold'em crowd.
A fun read if you're already familiar with the names in the book and know the games - good for nostalgic stories. For someone not familiar with either, it's probably far less interesting.
An easy read and a unique look into the world of Magic, blackjack, and poker
This book is what pushed me to play Magic: The Gathering.
Good book, i read it during a period of poker obsession.
It's about my cousin. How can it NOT be on my list??
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
David Kushner is an award-winning journalist and author. He is a contributing editor of Wired, Rolling Stone, and Spectrum and is an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University.
More about David Kushner...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
