Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
 

Is this book any good?

Here's the synopsis from Amazon:

[ QUOTE ]
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 cards–and turned it into a fortune!

The ultimate bully-magnet, Finkel grew up heckled and hazed until destiny came in the form of a trading-card game called Magic: The Gathering. Magic exploded from nerdy obsession to mainstream mania and made the teenage Finkel an ultra-cool world champion.

Once transformed, this young shark stormed poker rooms from the underground clubs of New York City to the high-stakes tables online, until he landed on the largest card-counting blackjack team in the country. Taking Vegas for millions, Finkel’s squad of brainy gamers became the biggest players in town. Then they took on the town’s biggest game, the World Series of Poker, and walked away with more than $3.5 million!

Thrilling, edgy, and ferociously feel-good, the odyssey of these underdogs-turned-overlords is the stuff of pop-culture legend. Acclaimed author David Kushner masterfully deals out the outrageous details while bringing to life a cast of characters rife with aces, kings, knaves…and more than a few jokers. If you secretly believe every player has his day, you’re right. Here’s the proof.

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
 

I got a email from Amazon about this, it looks very intresting.

Maybe Paluka or one of the other big Magic guys on the board will come and weigh in on how good they might think it would be.

Re: Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
 

I can't read this book. Every time I read the name Finkel I think, "Laces out! Die Dan!"

Re: Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
 

I haven't read the book, but I can't really imagine it's all that good. The blurb there seems pretty misleading and the truth seems somewhat stretched. I do remember the fat dorky 16 yr. old Finkel and he's come a long way. I was recommended this book by amazon via email and I almost died laughing. Maybe Paluka read it but I somehow kinda doubt it.

The WSOP felt like an old time Magic players reunion this year which was pretty fun. Can't wait till next year.

Re: Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
 

[ QUOTE ]
Magic exploded from nerdy obsession to mainstream mania and made the teenage Finkel an ultra-cool world champion.

[/ QUOTE ]

i'm pretty sure magic was never mainstream mania, and jon finkel was never ultra-cool

Re: Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
 

I knew those kids when I played magic. they all cheated.
edit: I did not know Jon Finkel, but have met him on many occasions, I mistaked him for someone else. But a lot of the magic players who went on to poker cheated religiously.

and its "pikula" not "paluka"

Re: Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
 

[ QUOTE ]
I knew those kids when I played magic. they all cheated.
edit: I did not know Jon Finkel, but have met him on many occasions, I mistaked him for someone else. But a lot of the magic players who went on to poker cheated religiously.

and its "pikula" not "paluka"

[/ QUOTE ]

You know less than you think you know. 'Round here it is "paluka"

Re: Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
 

What, his username? I was referring to how to spell his last name, sorry. And I apologize for my comment, all the members of team deadguy(jon finkel, chris pikula, etc) were on the straight and narrow. I had a brain fart.

Re: Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
 

Just another note on this book, the author also wrote a lovely poker bot paranoia piece in Wired this month, that can't be anything but negative for us as online players.

At any rate I was going to buy the book, but becasue of this article in Wired, I am not giving this guy a dime. I ask you to think about doing the same on general principle.

Re: Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
 

There was a similar piece in the LA Times that got my dad all freaked out.

Re: Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
 

[ QUOTE ]
There was a similar piece in the LA Times that got my dad all freaked out.

[/ QUOTE ]

There have been many of them, the deal with this one that irks me the most, is the guy who wrote this is also trying to sell a book that his key demographic for sales would be people like me who had played Magic and now play online poker. Its insulting that he would need the cash bad enough to write a crap article in a widely distributed magazine that is only going to enhance the paranoia about bots. Especially writing about the piece of excrement that is WinHoldem, which people have shown on this forum is inferior and can't even turn a profit at .5/1 even with loads of programming.

Re: Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
 

Guerilla marketing?

I received this email today, reproduced in its entirety other than the sender's name & contact information:

[ QUOTE ]
i hope random emails from strangers with company e-mail addresses doesn't freak you out too much, but i was googling "jonny magic and the card shark kids" today, and your post on 2+2 asking whether or not it's good came up.

i'm the publishing assistant here at Listen & Live Audio, until tomorrow, when i'm leaving to pursue other things. anyway, we did the audio version for the book, and i had to proof-listen to it (think proof-read, but listening instead). to be totally honest, i liked it. granted, i am neither a pro poker player, nor am i an old school magic : the gathering player, but i have dabbled in both and consider myself a bona fide geek. so this story was inspiring for me. i don't know about you or your tastes, but it's a pretty quick read and it tells an interesting story. and you probably won't believe this as an unbiased opinion, but i thought it made a better audiobook than a book.

Listen & Live has an interview between Finkel and Kushner that they did last month after the audio was recorded, and it's up on our website for anyone to listen to. i think the interview's the best part, personally. and if the whole "paying Kushner money even though he did dinky articles in Wired and the LA Times" bothers you, it's a good way to get the gist of the book without having to pay money on it.

anyway, back to googling our latest audiobook title to see if it's received any reviews. (hey, it at least LOOKS i'm working these last two days...)

[/ QUOTE ]

Anyone else get a hit like this?

Re: Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
 

[ QUOTE ]
Guerilla marketing?



[ QUOTE ]
"paying Kushner money even though he did dinky articles in Wired and the LA Times" bothers you, it's a good way to get the gist of the book without having to pay money on it.



[/ QUOTE ]

Anyone else get a hit like this?

[/ QUOTE ]

Didn't get this, though I was the negative one in the thread so I doubt they are going to hit me with this.

I find it funny the person uses "dinky", "Hacking Online Poker" is on the cover of the magazine. The story is across 4 pages, its hardly a dinky 1/4th column note.

Maybe they are slightly concerned because the first non-bookstore website in Google about the book is this forum and this thread.

** You were the only one I am sure, in this small thread about this book, your profile is the only one with a email addy in it.

Flashback
 

[ QUOTE ]
I am not giving this guy a dime. I ask you to think about doing the same on general principle.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
"Jules, if you give that fuckin' nimrod fifteen hundred dollars, I'm gonna shoot him on general principles."

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids
 

Finkel never cheated, and for what it's worth he was probably the best guy to talk to on the PT. There were a lot of assholes in that scene but Finkel wasn't one of them. He did use to eat his boogers though [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]