Jonny Magic & the Card Shark Kids by David Kushner

Jonny Magic & the Card Shark Kids by David Kushner

If you think a gang of real-life geeks can't take on the world and win big . . . think again. And whatever you do, don't sit down across a gaming table from Jon Finkel, better known as Jonny Magic. Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids is his amazing true story: the jaw-dropping, zero-to-hero chronicle of a fat, friendless boy from New Jersey who found his edge in a game of cards-and turned it into a fortune.

The ultimate bully-magnet, Finkel grew up heckled and hazed until destiny came in the form of a trading-card game called Magic: The Gathering. Magic exploded from nerdy obsession to mainstream mania and made the teenage Finkel an ultracool world champion.

Once transformed, this young shark stormed poker rooms from the underground clubs of New York City to the high-stakes tables online, until he landed on the largest card-counting blackjack team in the country. Taking Vegas for millions, Finkel's squad of brainy gamers became the biggest players in town. Then they took on the town's biggest game, the World Series of Poker, and walked away with more than $3.5 million.

Thrilling, edgy, and ferociously feel-good, the odyssey of these underdogs-turned-overlords is the stuff of pop-culture legend. And David Kushner, acclaimed author of Masters of Doom, masterfully deals out the outrageous details while bringing to life a cast of characters rife with aces, kings, knaves . . . and more than a few jokers. If you secretly believe every player has his day, you're right. Here's the proof.

From the Hardcover edition.

David Kushner is a journalist and novelist who has won numerous awards. He has written for publications such as Wired, New York Times Magazine, New York, GQ, and Details, and is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone. On National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday, he was the digital-culture expert. He is an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University and has been published in The Best American Crime Reporting and The Best Music Writing.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780812974386
ISBN 10	0812974387
Title	Jonny Magic & the Card Shark Kids
Author	David Kushner
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	2006-08-29
Number of pages	240
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.