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Summary: Not just poker..life, philosophy and more.
Review: An incredible journey of a writer who not only explores the ins and outs of the world series of poker but also goes into the history and legend of Binions, murder and the history of what high stakes no-limit poker is and what it takes to play the game.
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Summary: Temptation in Sin City
Review: If you ever wanted to know about the world of high stakes poker, this is the book. McManus is a legitimate writer and his style is excellent and unobtrusive. He weaves several diverse threads together into a wonderful story. Like all good books this is a book about a lot more than just its main subject.Mr. McManus puts you into the center of the action and deftly explains what is going so even the merest poker dunce will be enthralled as he tells his tale of gambling in poker paradise.
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Summary: Hard to Put Down
Review: The author is a well known writer who gets an assignment from Harper's Magazine to go to Las Vegas and cover both the Ted Binion Murder Trial and the 2000 World Series of Poker. This he does in a most spectacular fashion. McManus takes some of his $4,000 in expense money and buys his way into a one table satellite. He wins it but makes a saving deal at the end using up the rest of his bankroll. However, his Vegas odyssey has just begun. When it's over, we have read not only a fascinating description of the trial, but have looked over Jim's shoulder as he manages a fifth place finish in the $10,000 No-Limit Championship that includes a quarter of a million dollar win. We meet many of the important people associated with poker and Las Vegas, and feel the tension and pressure of high limit tournament play. This is the best book of it's type I have ever read, and once you start reading, it's hard to put down.
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Summary: Author's holdem knowledge in doubt
Review: The title is a blatant "tell"regarding the author's holdem acumen."Fifth Street" is a stud term,any holdem player worth his salt knows the last community card is called the river.
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Summary: The Best Poker Book I have EVER read!
Review: Positively Fifth Street is the best book about poker I've ever read, and I've read just about all of them. The history of card art, of poker, of Binion's World Series, of the science and technology of the game as it's being played now. And if you ever doubted that an average or above-average home player could "catch up" to the pros using primers and computer
programs, this book will definitely change your mind. The strip club and courtroom scenes are pretty good, too. READ THIS BOOK! The author is now such a strong player that he routinely dares to tempt fate and play the great no-limit maestro K-REX heads up.
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Summary: The ultimate insider's guide
Review: Fifth Street replaces "The Biggest Game in Town," as the ultimate insider's guide to the World Series of Poker. There is no better chronicle of the multi-million dollar event in or out of print today. McManus has accomplished something that no other poker player/writer could - he went to Vegas to write about the biggest poker game in the world - and he almost won it. For that reason alone, his book has to be considered the most authentic volume on the subject. It's also a pretty captivating piece of journalism. Andy Bellin
Author of Poker Nation
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Summary: royal flush nonfiction
Review: Harper's magazine hired novelist James McManus to write an article on the World Series of Poker. The magazine is interested in the relatively new phenomena especially the impacts of female players, information technology on the game, the murder of Ted Binion of the host family, and the subsequent arrest and trial of a stripper and her boyfriend. Once McManus arrives at Las Vegas' Horseshoe Casino he rationalizes that to truly write this article, he must participate. Being an apartment house player, McManus risks his advance to join at the table. POSITIVELY FIFTH STREET: MURDERERS, CHEETAHS, AND BINION'S WORLD SERIES OF POKER provides great depth into the mindset of the cast (not just the card players, but also the groupies) than the original article that Harper's magazine published. Mr. McManus is at his best when he reports his guilt over the hedonistic pleasure of the game and side benefits while leaving at home his wife and daughters. The rest of the story, mostly fulfilling what his editors want as described in the paragraph above, is well written and engages the audience through the use of poker vernacular and metaphors. Still the first-hand account at the table draws the final card in a royal flush nonfiction that casual card players will enjoy. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Bad Deal
Review: To quote Kenny Rogers: "You've got to know when to hold, know when to fold." Sent by "Harpers" to cover both the World Series of Poker and the trial for Ted Binion's accused murderers, McManus had unexpected success as an actual player while failing in his book-length effort to capture the combined essence of the two events. Despite beginning with a lurid, fictionalized account of Bionion's actual demise, he quickly makes it clear that his interest lies in the game and he embarks on a rambling, self-indulgent description of his long-time fascination with poker, combined with a detailed report of his progress to the final table for the Series. There are desultory attempts to provide further details on Binion, his accused and the demimonde they inhabit but the author's intent seems to be to convey the thrill of high-stakes gambling. Whether the recapitulation of poker hands makes for an engrossing read perhaps depends upon the individual reader's own interests. It struck me as tedious and lacking in the tension which presumably attended the actual event.
Dealt a challenging double assignment, McManus sought to parlay the experience into a winning book. His professional work as a writing instructor did not serve him well in this attempt. Deficiencies in structure and foccus detract from the finished product. Better he should have folded.
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Summary: Stream of Consciousness
Review: McManus' Harpers article was supposed to do three things: Cover the World Series of Poker; more specifically, cover female professional poker players; and cover the Ted Binion murder trial. The first ten pages cover the murder; and there are approximately five more pages throughout the book that are really relevant to the trial. There are maybe a total of three pages in the book that talk about female poker players, and the vast majority of that is descriptions of their breasts. I am not making this up. There *is* poker in here, and it's pretty entertaining. However, here's my reconstruction of how this book was "designed". McManus went to Vegas, and kept detailed stream-of-consciousness notes. When he got home, he filled out the notes with research... and left absolutely *nothing* out. The result is unbelievably boring. Boring history of cards, for no reason; boring life stories of several poets, for no reason; ridiculously puerile comparisons between poker and sex, for no reason. On and on and on and on. I would not have thought it possible for a description of a lap dance to be tedious. Turns out it is quite possible. The only way to have a positive experience with this book is to leaf through it, and read only the passages describing actual poker play. Even then, you have to be prepared for obvious errors in terminology (e.g., according to the Appendix, a "blank" is the same as a "rag," false) and betting sequence (according to the seating chart, McManus must already have acted, but he has himself fold later in the round).
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Summary: Great Premise - Disappointing Results
Review: "Hey," I thought when I saw this book at a local store - "What a neat idea for a book!" Interested in gambling and all things Vegas, I bought it. The author is a good storyteller and he weaves adroitly between the tales of his unexpected run at the World Series of Poker and the trial of the two people charged with murdering casino operator Ted Binion, whose Binion's Horseshoe Casino hosts the annual WSOP. For poker fans, including the thousands (millions?) of new enthusiasts introduced to the game by all the recent televised poker, it's a good read. The author also provides a decent account of the trial and the events leading up to it. But where he fails is in his interjecting of his own strong personal views about the principals involved. His blatant dislike of the defendants (he finds them both "guilty" in the book's opening pages), their attorneys (including the mayor of Las Vegas), and others, taints the story and attemtps to influence opinion instead of just presenting the facts. I was further disappointed at the author's political railings, which are totally unrelated to the story, at the end of the book. Nonetheless, the poker and courtroom action are quite revealing and interesting. If the author had stuck more to the tournament and the trial and less to his political beliefs and family history, this could have been an even better read.
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