bookshelf

MONEYMAKER

Name: MONEYMAKER
Author: Chris Moneymaker
ISBN: 0-06-076001-X

HOW AN AMATEUR POKER PLAYER TURNED $40 INTO $2.5 MILLION AT THE WORLD SERIES OF POKER

by Chris Moneymaker with Daniel Paisner ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2005

“There is no justice in poker,” says Moneymaker, and it’s true. But bring some smarts, guile, intuition, experience—and...

bookshelf

An inexperienced Internet poker fish tangles with the best at Binion’s World Series of Poker—and wins big.

Our tyro on the hot seat is surnamed Moneymaker, so you might say it was in the cards. Though an amateur by Binion’s standards, the author has been drinking and gambling since an early age. He nearly tanked at the University of Tennessee, where his eyes were mainly glued to multiple televisions as he followed his sports betting and amassed a tidy little bundle of debt. He then became involved in online betting and managed to secure himself a seat at Binion’s. Moneymaker and coauthor Paisner can get lost in the detail of hands, which tends to throw water on the gathering fire. But their razor-quick prose does a good job of getting us inside Moneymaker’s head to explain why he did what he did. Mind you, as this pleasingly feckless character is quick to admit, “there were so many holes and shifts in my tournament strategy that it’s probably a stretch to even call it a strategy.” It’s great fun to watch Moneymaker mature, gathering his cool at the table where the game is Texas Hold ’Em, no fools are suffered, and “over time, the player with the most smarts and guile and intuition and experience, and the biggest balls, is always going to win.” (The vernacular is shorthand for courage, as there are dozens of crack women playing.) He learns to read certain tics of the great players, though not enough to avoid some big, blunt hits that teach him about patience, perhaps a player’s greatest asset. And he plays well enough to be graced with touches of luck just when they count most.

“There is no justice in poker,” says Moneymaker, and it’s true. But bring some smarts, guile, intuition, experience—and luck—to the table, and it can be as much fun as this firsthand account.

Pub Date: March 1, 2005

ISBN: 0-06-076001-X

Page Count: 240

Publisher: HarperEntertainment

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

bookshelf

TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

bookshelf

An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.