Positively Fifth Street

I have to admit that it was very helpful to accidentally play in a no-limit Texas Hold'em poker tournament at a friend's bachelor party while reading Positively Fifth Street. This is a truly great book, and you will probably enjoy reading it even if you don't play poker. But if you do play, or have a competitive spirit and at least know the basics of the game, then you might love this little number by the infamous professor James McManus.

McManus tells the true story of his trip to Las Vegas in the spring of 2000 to cover both the World Series of Poker, and the murder of Ted Binion - a former owner of the casino that hosts the annual tournament.

As McManus continues to win, the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas increasingly reveals itself to him, and an elite group of Vegas insiders begin to open their arms and welcome him into the fold. James's success in the poker tournament opens the doors, and his eyes, to Ted Binion's Vegas lifestyle - a lifestyle that ultimately led to Ted's murder at the hands of two of his closest companions. Apparently they were bluffing.

Ironically, it is his unanticipated success in the tournament that helps him cover the murder trial so well. Normally marathon sessions of poker would eat into an investigative reporter's most precious commodity - time. But McManus parleys his poker skills into key relationships with the victim's family members, and gains unbelievable insight into the events surrounding Ted Binion's macabre death.

James McManus manages to make a game that is obnoxiously boring to watch on ESPN seem like a blockbuster adventure movie. And from the time he sets foot in the hotel at the beginning of the book you get the feeling that the two stories he is telling are cosmically linked. His writing is superbly intelligent and readable, and both plot threads teach us about each other. If you asked me today how a murder trial can possibly relate to a poker tournament, I couldn't tell you - but it does, and McManus brings it all together in masterful style. Part of the magic here is that McManus is so honest about his life and what is going through his head that I was really surprised to find him still married at the end of the book.

Writing like this leaves a mark. And in the end there really is something about the game of poker that is intimately linked to the notion of life and death. If you aren't betting money, then it really isn't poker, and if no one ever died, then it wouldn't really be life, would it? In transcending his subject matter, James McManus has crafted a book that winds up being a lot more about people than murder or poker. No, that's not quite right; I think the truth is that murder and poker both really get at what it is to be human. What you represent you have in your hand is often very different than what you actually do have. Especially when the stakes get high.

McManus's sense of humor does keep you rolling, yet what I really remember about the book is his insight into himself, the other players, and the people who surrounded Ted Binion. Do yourself a favor and read this book - I bet you learn something about yourself.