Author to Write Poker Column

[Originally posted on Thursday, June 23, 2005]

Seems that The New York Times is getting into the poker craze. Editor & Publishers is reporting that James McManus has been signed to write a weekly column about the game. The report states ???The newspaper promises the column will ???cover the world of poker including its lore, lingo, home games, games held online, and major tournaments.??? McManus will write for both aficionados and the newcomers.???

McManus (not to be confused with JOHN McManus that profiled here on Slushpile) is the author of the novel Going to the Sun and the nonfiction book Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion???s World Series of Poker. I have his novel and I???m afraid that I have to admit I still haven???t read it. But his nonfiction book about the World Series is interesting in the way that he combines his own experiences with the history of the tournament as well as coverage of the murder trial of the people who allegedly killed tournament sponsor Ted Binion.

McManus, a writing teacher at the School of Art Institute of Chicago, wrote Positively Fifth Street while on assignment for Harper???s magazine. He was supposed to cover the competition for the magazine, but actually entered a satellite tournament and parlayed a $4,000 stake into a fifth place finish out of 512 entrants, with total winnings of $250,000.

McManus???s column is scheduled to appear weekly in The New York Times, in the Sports section on Saturdays.

Buy Positively Fifth Street here.