This is not the first book about the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the most prestigious poker tournament, held every year since 1970 at Binion's Horseshoe Casino in downtown Las Vegas. Al Alvarez (The Biggest Game in Town) wrote about the WSOP 1981, the year Stuey Ungar won for a second time, Anthony Holden (Big Deal) covers the Championship event 1989 and David Spanier devotes a chapter in his book The Hand I Played to the 1991 WSOP. Interestingly all three are British journalists and good friends (David Spanier died in 2001). James McManus has an advantage over his predecessors in that he not only played in the main event but he made it to the final table adding to the drama (Holden finished 90th, Spanier didn't survive the first day and Alvarez didn't participate in the main event).

McManus was sent by Harper's magazine to Las Vegas to cover the World Series of Poker and the Ted Binion murder case. Ted Binion, the son of Benny Binion, was found dead in his house on September 17, 1998 with what looked like an overdose of heroin. The Ted Binion case is similar to the O. J. Simpson case. It seemed to be obvious who the perpetrators are but it was hard to prove it. McManus has no doubts that Sandy Murphy, Ted Binion's girlfriend, and her lover Rick Tabish killed the 55 year old drug addict to get his money. On May 19th 2000 the jury found Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and or robbery and guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon. McManus comments dryly: "Use of a deadly weapon confers double jail time, so no steak tonight for Rick Tabish. No lap dances, either, from Sandy." Obviously the case is less clear than McManus thinks. Since the book was written, the Nevada supreme court has rescinded the judgment against Murphy and Tabish and ordered a new trial.

"The murder convictions of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish were overturned today when a divided Nevada Supreme Court found fault with the trial that sent the two to jail for drugging and killing former Las Vegas casino executive Ted Binion.
Sandy Murphy, a topless dancer, and Rick Tabish, a trucking contractor, were convicted three years ago of drugging and then suffocating Binion in a conspiracy to loot the $50-million estate of the onetime Horseshoe Casino executive. His family still owns the establishment.
Prosecutors said Murphy two-timed Binion with Tabish, then plotted with him to steal Binion's $8-million fortune of silver hidden in an underground vault in the Nevada desert.
The court ruled 4-3 that Murphy and Tabish should face a new trial on the counts of murder, robbery, burglary and larceny that they were convicted of on May 19, 2000." (Los Angeles Times, July 14, 2003)

Whoever killed Ted Binion, McManus skillfully integrates the story into his book. He begins the book with what he thinks really happened the day Ted Binion died and closes with the court decision. The most thrilling part of the book is McManus' description of the final $10,000 no-limit championship event. Most players don't pay the $10,000 buy-in but enter the event by winning a satellite or super-satellite mini-tournament. McManus is no exception. He won the first satellite he entered. Good for him and even better for the reader because we get the players' view of the final event. McManus describes the key hands he played, his thought process, the outcome and he is very critical about has own play. Interestingly the first days he played weak-passive which means he called too much and didn't raise often enough but made it to the final table. E. g. he called a large raise with 9♥8♥ from the big blind. "Jennifer [his wife] and I had our first date in 1989, and Beatrice was born '98. Since then I've always played 8-9, especially when it's in hearts. Even now? Even now. Maybe even especially now ..." He flopped two pair and won the pot. At the final table he played perfectly but was eliminated shortly in fifth position.

At the beginning of the final day the chip count was as following:

First place money was $1.5 million, second place paid $896,500. Three of the players tried to make a six-way deal: $1,000,000 for Chris Ferguson and $552,000 for the remaining players. The deal never came off because the player that would have gained the most, T. J. Cloutier, declined. T. J. backer (Lyle Berman) doesn't allow him to make any deals. After Chris Ferguson won the championship McManus asked him if he would have agreed to the deal. "In any event Chris says he would have declined. 'Not with the chip lead I had. No way.'" Without a doubt Ferguson's chip lead was impressive but in no-limit things can turn around rather quickly.

At the end of the day before the game was seven-handed. Discovery Channel who recorded the event wanted the final table to be six-handed so the play had to continue until one more player was eliminated. At that point Jeff Shulman had a commanding chip lead. Then the following hand came up. Shulman on the button raised, the small blind folded and Chris Ferguson in the big blind moved all in. Without much thought Shulman called. Pair of sixes for Ferguson, pair of sevens for Shulman. Indeed a beautiful call by Shulman who was now a 4.5 to 1 favorite. Unfortunately for him Ferguson flopped a six and instead of being eliminated he doubled up and was now the new chip leader. The very next hand Ferguson went all in and Shulman called him again. This time pocket aces for Ferguson and pocket kings for Shulman. The best hand held up and Shulman went in two hands from being the chip leader to being eliminated. Back to the final table deal that never materialized. I don't know what you would have done in Ferguson's position when someone had offered you a deal that guaranteed you $1,000,000 which is more then the price money for second place. I, for my part, would have accepted within two seconds despite the large chip lead.

There is no question that you want to read this book if you are interested in poker though it has its deficiencies. First of all the book has some dragging passages especially in the first half. It takes the author 200 pages until the cards are finally in the air and the tournament begins. Instead we read things like this: "I swallow my Zocor and Trazodone with the dregs of stale mineral water, brush my teeth, gargle while I take off my clothes, urinate, spit, get in bed." Yes, everyday life is full of banality but who wants to read this - in a poker book? With tiring regularity McManus mentions that he took his Zocor and Trazodone, that he loves his wife Jennifer and how much he misses her. On three pages he describes how he bought a ring costing $2600 for Jennifer. The book contains a lot of filler material like that. Most of the anecdotes McManus mentions, the game between Johnny Moss and Nick the Greek, the history of the WSOP or the origins of poker you have probably read a dozen times before.

Most annoying is McManus' tendency for poor comparisons. Drawing comparisons between Ted Binion and Fjodor Dostoyevsky, as McManus does, is completely out of proportion. Ted Binion was a self-destructive drug addict whose addiction finally killed him. Dostoyevsky on the other hand was a literary genius who was able to overcome his gambling addiction and reflect on it in his masterpiece, The Gambler.

Psychoanalyst have long written that gambling has a strong sexual component. You probably know the old saying "The next best thing to playing and winning, is playing and losing" but have you ever heard that a poker player got an erection because he lost as McManus tells us? Besides poker and writing about himself, sex is another main theme in McManus' book. He likes to write about sex, almost in an obsessive way. Describing how Ted Binion died he fantasizes that Sandy and Rick used handcuffs to restain Binion, then drugged him and had sex in front of him. "But the plan to sexually taunt their handcuffed friend while he slowly gave in to the drugs never quite got off the ground. Even after Sandy's elaborate striptease, Rick couldn't keep his erection 'because of the vibe around here'. No faggot, no warlord, Rick still had no spur (in the cowboy or Shakespearean sense) to prick the sides of his intent, but only his vaulting ambition - his ambition, punning enough, to loot Teddy's vault, shove his prick into his woman. But his half-erect penis had accidentally grazed Ted's warm hip, zapping both men with a nastier shock than they'd get from leather soles on the carpet - this as Sandy pushed open one of Ted's eyelids, just to make sure he at least caught a glimpse of their triumph." About McManus' coming home from Vegas to his family we read: "Once we drove home and the girls have gone to sleep, we order Thai food and Singha beer, toast the check, make love on the living room carpet." And he doesn't forget to add: "If anything, our sex life has gotten even smokier." Yes, McManus is an incredible guy and a real man. but I have the strong impression that this is a man having a midlife crisis who tries to literary overcompensates his declining sexuality.

No question, if you are interested in poker in general and poker tournaments in particular you want to read this book though it is not in the same league as the Alvarez (or Holden) book.

(Tristan Steiger)

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