Rating: 
Summary: Well Written Regardless of Your Knowledge of Poker
Review: This is a great book. The author is a breath of fresh air in his writing style. Even if you have never played poker you will enjoy this book. It is a book that will keep you up as I could not put it down. The last third of the book will keep you on the edge of your chair. It does read like a novel and the author is not one to stay the course and there are some chapters you may not like....I skimmed the chapter on how he learned to play poker. And if you have an interest in poker you will want to keep it in your library. I would highly recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Cold Blood for the New Millenium
Review: By coincidence, while McManus is playing in the World Series of Poker (to enhance his journalism, of course), a block from Binion's Horseshoe is the courthouse where Ted Binion's mistress is on trial with her lover--Ted's pal--for murdering Ted in a gruesomely kinky way (she Burked him--read the book). McManus interweaves the story of the trial with the story of the tournament and the game itself. Along the way he explores the more feral nooks and crannies of humankind. I don't think I can do the book justice other than to say it's like Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil--only this is great writing from someone who was there. A better comparison is with In Cold Blood, Capote's groundbreaker. Positively Fifth Street is Cold Blood for the new millenium, a factual account that reads like a novel. I don't care if you've never even played a hand of solitaire. This book will take you by the throat and keep you reading and won't let go. The book's ancestors, like Tony Holden's Big Deal and Alvarez's Biggest Game, are excellent. But they never transcend the subject, nor do they try to. McManus has hit on something so specific but so universal it's Shakespearean. Literary journalism at its peak.
Rating:
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.
Rating:
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.
Rating:
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.
Rating: 
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.
Rating:
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.
Rating:
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
Rating:
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: Enjoyed it, but too much discussion of his family...
Review: I enjoyed reading Positively Fifth Street. I began playing Texas Hold 'Em two years ago and consider myself addicted. The majority of the book covers his tournanment experience and the Ted Binion murder trial; both areas were intersting. However, his editor should have deleted the sections on his family history and relationship; they really dragged down the story when it was getting interesting. Did he think he was still writing for Harper's? I got the impression he was writing a book and "thought it would be cool" to write about his family history and his relationship with his wife (whom he also included a photo of for some reason).
I will recommend it to my Poker buddies, but I will tell them to skip the family history chapter.
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