Review: Positively Fifth Street

[grapes]

Positively Fifth Street: Murders, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker - James McManus

McManus is a writer for Harper's Magazine, assigned to write a short piece about women players at the 2000 WSOP, and at the same time cover the Ted Binion murder trial. As his trip unfolds, his short assignment (2500 words I think?) becomes much longer, eventually resulting in this book.

He arrives in Vegas with $4,000, an advance on his expenses from his Harper's editor. He has some casual home game poker experience, but rationalizes that he has to play at least some poker for "journalistic integrity", to get a better feel for the game, to be able to write about it accurately. This is partly just an excuse to justify "spending" thousands on poker to his wife, as he wants badly to play in the WSOP, just like any other poker player. He enters a couple $1000 single table satellites, and ends up with a seat in the $10,000 main event. A week later, he finds himself at the final table.

The book covers his whole trip, weaving his poker experiences in the WSOP main event, and the Ted Binion murder trial, into two main story lines, often switching chapter by chapter between them.

The poker part of the story, the main part of the book, is very interesting, and excellently written. Lots of drama, with insight as to what is going through his head during key hands, as he progresses through the tournament. McManus also does a good job bringing to life the personalities of lots of interesting players and people from the world of poker: TJ Cloutier, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Hasan Habib, Linda Johnson from Card Player, and Becky Behnen, to name a few. Before the tournament, and each night during, he studies Cloutier's no-limit book in his room... and then ends up at the same table with Cloutier at several points, fighting heads up for key pots, including at the final table. Lots of the stories are first-hand accounts, like conversations with Chris Ferguson at his celebration dinner the night he wins the Big One, and going to the court house with Becky Behnen (Ted's sister) to hear the verdict read.

This is not exclusively a poker story by any means, however. The book starts with McManus's own ideas about how the Ted Binion murder took place, based on the facts available but taking some liberties in piecing it together. The murder, the personalities of the key players, and the trial play a key part in the story all the way through, though separate from the poker.

McManus also incorporates many interesting asides into the story, including his own poker education, his takes on other poker books, both strategy, and other non-fiction books by A Alvarez and Anthony Holden, probably the closest to his own in the genre, as they are also writers first and poker players second. A lot of the other stories he weaves are interesting and appropriate, but some are taken too far. He spends several pages discussing psychological aspects of gambling, including theories of the rush gambler's get having the same basis in the brain as sexual arousal. Interesting to some maybe, but I don't think he's particularly qualified to say anything new on the subject, and it doesn't really fit anywhere in the story. Another example is when he talks about his own poker background, he somehow ends up quoting passages from great grandfather's naval diary from the turn of the last century, and discussing summers at his grandparent's places while growing up. Who cares? After about ten pages of this, I gave up and moved to the beginning of the next chapter, where the poker content continued. I'm not saying it can't be interesting if poker's not involved, just that this particular part seemed to drag on, with little point.

Overall, "Fifth Street" is interesting and well-written. Don't expect any poker strategy insights, but it is a fascinating account of a regular guy living out what is a dream for most casual players. There is also a lot of good "meta-poker" material, why people play, etc. McManus tries to make it generally accessible, and I think he does a good job here. He doesn't take much for granted, even giving poker hand rankings near the beginning, and explaining poker terms like "bad beat" and "dominated hand". This is quick and breezy though, easily skipped over by experienced players, and then after that it's not dummied to the point that of frustrating serious players, while remaining accessible and interesting to those who have rarely or never played. This balance is hard to achieve, and McManus deserves credit here. "Fifth Street" won't become "must reading" or achieve mythical status like "Big Deal" or "The Biggest Game in Town", but it's still a fascinating read for those with any interest in the game, no matter their experience level.

[MrDannimal]

I accidentally had this on my Amazon wishlist in the audiobook version instead of the print, and I think I'm glad I did.

McManus reads it himself, and I think it adds to the experience. Specifically in the asides, because it's a lot easier to take when it sounds like a guy you've come to be enraptured by is making an aside then when you're reading tangential stuff.

Also, I think that we tend to slow down when reading stuff we're not as interested in (or at least, I do. I get distracted and have to re-read spots). Jim reads at a constant pace, so the dead spots don't really bog the listener down.

I loved it, and I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much in print. In fact, I've listened to the last side (the final table and the trial ending) more then once, just to hear him retell some of those hands.

[youtalkfunny]

[ QUOTE ]
...he somehow ends up quoting passages from great grandfather's naval diary from the turn of the last century, and discussing summers at his grandparent's places while growing up. Who cares? After about ten pages of this, I gave up and moved to the beginning of the next chapter, where the poker content continued.

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL, I did too.