Shut Up and Deal

Cheating, shooting angles, hustling -- whatever you want to call it, its what poker is really all about, and in the tradition of Mario Puzo's Fools Die, that's what is at the heart of the drama of this riveting first novel told by a nontraditional 1990s kid with an incurable obsession, an outrageous wardrobe, and a knack for staying in action.
He smokes a lot of pot, hides behind mirrored sunglasses, and practices yoga. But appearances are deceiving -- he may look like a live one, but he has not gone broke. He has made his way from teenage games in the basements of New Jersey suburbs, to professional games across America and Europe. Perhaps this is because he understands something most people just don't get: "Poker is a combination of luck and skill. People think mastering the skill is hard, but they're wrong. The trick to poker is mastering the luck. That's philosophy. Understanding luck is philosophy, and there are some people who aren't ever gonna fade it. That's what sets poker apart. And that is what keeps everyone coming back for