POKER INFO - PROILE - James McManus

Lol, this is the only person who hasn't had a whole thread of smack talking, consider yourself special.

Jim, love to see that you're hangin' with the masses. happened to come across this site...isn't it crazy this thing called POKAH? to the fans: this man wrote the book on poker...but his showdown with ellix is what he'll be remembered for!

im soo glad you called that elix powers out. you were absolutely right in doing so. i was soo happy to see u take more than a 100k in chips from him with trips a few hands later. love the book. keep up the good work

Just wanted to say that you're article for Harper about the WSOP was an inspiration to me not only as a poker player but as a hockey player and an individual as well. One other thing, how scary was it to have TJ staring you down for the first time?!

hey jim i still dont have the fullstory on your next book, what is it about again

Mr. McM,I'll try again, sorry.All the very best to you and your family this Christmas and many to come. At 67 I like to think I've been around the horn and seen more than most. I've been going to Vegas for over thiry years, met Benny and Jack Binion and been comped by both so please take it for what its worth. I've read your book three times, two from the library and finally I bought one for reference. I appreciated your candor and insight as well as visiting with your family through your prose. You are a lucky man and a good story teller. I find no fault with you in squaring away anyone at a table that doesn't respect our game, any game or institution, that has a code that that serves the whole. After all not only have you you've proved yourself as a written spokesman but you've paid your dues as a committed player. Good on you. Thanks for many hours of enjoyment,lessons well taken and mistakes hopefully averted. BK.

Happy New Year, oh my brothers! Bilk, Eldan, Bacon, GMan, Big SLick, Norm, Poker Lover: Straight flushes in 2005! Jim McManus

Mr. M, has there been any consideration on your part about possibly turning the book into a film? I am currently working on a script that I have run by numerous people, and have gotten great feedback. It's based loosely on a true story, an I suppose now would be the time to get it out there. Poker is at the highest point I have ever seen it. Best wishes for a healthy, wealthy, and wise new year...Matt

Mr. McManus I tried this through email as well but in case it doesn't find it's way to you I'm going to post here too. Others, I'm sorry for wasting your time. My name is Robert Biedrzycki and I'm an MFA candidate in the creative writing program at Columbia College Chicago. I'm currently enrolled in a Creative Non-Fiction course and one of our projects involves contacting a creative non-fiction author you admire and doing a presentation on them. I chose you and was hoping that I might be able to do a quick Q & A with you through email. Most of my bio research I've done through reading your work, I was just wondering if you might be able to spare a few minutes of your time to speak with me about your writing process. Once again sorry to take up post space with this request people, and Mr. McManus thank you for your time.Bobby

Hey Jim,I was your student at SAIC for a couple of years, '86-'87. Recently I saw on a friend's blog that she'd read PFS by you. I've been meaning to pick it up ever since. I've been loving the hell out of watching hold 'em tourneys on TV for the last few years but seeing you tonight on a rerun of the above-mentioned game was a real treat. Great to see you again after all these years and still kickin' ass. A great '05 to you and yours. -john

Jim, I thought you were a "poker snob" on WSOP, but I have heard so many pros complain about the heavy TV editing, and hearing your side of the story, I now want to read your book! Unfortunately, they made you look bad on tv, but it did make for good ratings. Maybe you can write a book on how tv distorts the poker world. Good luck in 2005 and beyond.

Jim, It may be redundant I know but after just finishing your book I have to tell you how much I loved it. I can't help but feel compelled to write. With all the exposure poker is getting now it just seems like sky's the limit as far as just how popular it's going to get. After seeing you on T.V. again I began to wonder just how your life has changed since WSOP. Do people recognize you everywhere? and do you find you have MORE or LESS family time as a pro? I lived the WSOP through your book and one day wouldn't mind taking a shot myself...thanks for being an inspiration.P.S. A PFS movie does sound like a great idea to me.-poker canuck

Mr. McManus, I just watched the wpt event that you just called ellix powers and you were right when you said ellix got to you. Wpt only shows the part where you say he disrespects the game. At first, I thought you were rude and I figured you were out of line by saying that when he betted in the dark but since now I read on, disrespecting David Chiu is a no no. Even disrepecting you is a no no also, both of you are well rounded and respected players, the difference with Ellix is that he didn't care if he came in 6th but that is him, I would definately be upset with winning 40,000 if I had a chance to win a lot more than that. Hope you get more success and hope to read your next book. Enticing!

Dear Jim,I hope to play Ellix Powers someday and steal a large portion of his bankroll. This would allow me the opportunity to offer him a stake so he can play US in a WSOP event of OUR choice and tear himdown again! (The money would be well worth it!) This guy is a punk who thinks he's right up there with Doyle, Howard and Slim. He's NOT. I only wish that YOU had a better set of hole cards to have taken him out yourself! If you ask ME, I think the years he spent on the street left him starving for ATTENTION more than anything else...

Mr.Manus that was a brilliant read on TJ and a bold call by you with just a jack kicker. Also your book filled a gap that needed to be filled in the poker world keep up the good work and good luck.

Dear Mr. McManus,You probably cringe everytime someone reads PFS and tells you the book inspired him or her to take up poker or gambling. While I am not entering tournaments or casinos, the book has more eye-opening in understanding people in general, their motivations and various philosophies. As a spine physician, understanding people as it relates to their joys and pains are critical to caring for symptoms. Thanks for the insights. I would like to thank the person that first mentioned your book to me with an autographed hardcopy. I am in the Chicago area. Please email me with instructions. Thanks. Good Luck with more books and tournaments. Mark

i don't like your book. it's pretty boring and has nothing with the "meat and potatoes" of poker. I guess I am use to reading poker books of higher caliber and not books about the binions, etc. I think before someone creates a book they should really know what the **** they are talking about. I mean I could have written a similar book when I cracked my first home game at the age of 19. Seriously, if someone is going to write a book on poker, please don't go on a jack high tilt. If you truly cardplayer (not just play cards), please analyze that hand over and over again before you even touch a pen.

Hello Mr. Mcmanus,i Understand You Have Connections With The Wpt Or Any Other World Poker Association.i Ellix Powers Say To You Or Them That Talk Is Cheap.i Think Your Like Jerry Quarry.any Black Man That Can Walk The Walk And Make The Walk,you Want To See Fail,but In This Day And Age You Have To Cover Yourself By Apologizing To Me By Patronizing Me.i Wish You Would Contact Me With Any Association That You Have In Poker And If They Will Put Up A Purse I Will Play You Any Time Anywhere,and I Will Give The World A Show Better Than "the Thrilla In Manilla".now Go Ahead And Call That Bluff !!

A few words to James:We'll begin with the good. I received "Positively Fifth Street" as a Xmas gift from my sister. The portions of the book about your experiences at the table were riveting. You did your job as author, perfectly--you bled on the page. Thank you for allowing me to feel every emotion within you. Now we move on to the bad. Normally, I never would have read enough of your book to reach the "good." The only reason I did is because I knew my sister would grill me on the gift, so I kept reading. It wasn't the writing that put me off--you know you can write. It was characters. I know that Binion, Murphy, and Tabish were real, but to the serious readers of the world, they weren't. How could anyone identify with such oddities? Without an anchor to the heart, the staid reader closes the book. They aren't interested in freak shows. Finally, it's time for the ugly. I came upon this site on a search to find out if Good Jim had written anything of substance lately. I decided to write this micro-tome after I found out that you were the gonzo numbskull who talked on the sanctity of the game. I'm sorry James, but when I heard you in that infamous TV episode, I laughed until my bladder let go. What you were you thinking? "Sanctity" and "Poker" in the same sentence? How many people have in history have lied, cheated, and died over a poker game. How many children have gone hungry because some parent decided to plunge their paycheck into the sanctity of the game. So, I guess there's Good Jim, Bad Jim, and Pluto Jim. Please James, come back to earth. We both are comfortably into our fifties, and our genes aren't that good. Make that u-turn and come back to earth and find your dreams again. What happened to that need to reach the pinnacle--the one that ends with a Pulitizer or a Nobel? Especially at this time in your life, don't be seduced by that game. Do you really want to be rich, famous, and alone?Thanks for the opportunity to speak to you. There's no need to reply. I won't be back. All the best. R.

To jack high. I cannot believe you would insult Jim McManus' playing ability and question that he knows what he's talking about. Have you made it to the final table of the Main Event. Also, don't tell me it was a fluke, he made at least one other WSOP final table that i know of. Possibly more. Besides, finishing 5th in a field of hundreds of the best players alive requires a lot more then luck. So go back to playing your 10 buy in games and talk trash when you finish high in the money in the WSOP. Jim is a great writer and a great player. That's all.

Great book, looking forward to your next look into the world of poker.

Mr. McManus--Loved Positively 5th Street and the article that preceeded it. I made sure to give it to all of my poker buddies. Would you be so kind as to post the reading list from your literature of poker class?

Hi Sachs74: thanks for your very kind words about PFS. The reading list is Alvarez's Poker and his Biggest Game in Town, Harrington on Hold'em, Super System 2, Read Em and Weep anthology, American Buffalo by David Mamet, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennesee Williams, "Full House" by David Sedaris, Theory of Poker by Sklansky

Hey Jim. Just finished PFS. Excellent work, my man; I loved how the whole book read like a Hold' em board-- intriguing flop (opening chapters), thrilling turn (the tournament itself), and shattering river (your honesty in the wrap up chapters). I just wanted to tell you, as a novelist myself, I thought the last line of the book was brilliant on multiple levels, but in particular this one: it comes off exactly like the river. You know it's over, you know where you stand, and you're absolutely blown away by the beauty of the game. Nice hand! (btw, I just found out about the film, that's awesome--been racking my brain who will play the lead-- Tom Hanks? A slightly grizzled Tom Hanks? Any thoughts? td

to canadian bacon: just so you know, i finished 7 out of 1300 @ the commerce. 135,000.

Aloha Mr. McManus. Let me begin by stating that your book is my all time favorite piece of poker literature. I read a lot....with that said....I've only read two books twice in my life...PFS and "on the road" by Kerouac. PFS will probably be the first I read three times thru. I gave your book out to many friends as a Xmas gift as my "book of the year". I grew up in Montana, which made some many of the characters and stories that much more interesting. Any thought of adding "poker nation" by Andy Bellin to your reading list? I love watching the limit hold 'em final table this year on ESPN. I have it permanently on my Tivo. It had to feel amazing to crush ole Powers and his mediocre 7's when you showed him the "number of the beast".Finally, I'm a huge fan of Sedaris and Ira Glass...what are the odds that we'll see either one of them at a Final Table at this year's World Series?pH.

Hello Mr. McManus. Almost finished PFS....50 pages to go. Just wondering what kind of reactions/comments you've gotten from professionals about the book and your strategy you used. Thanks for your time. Surly

Dear Mr McMaus, I was able to meet Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and all my other heros (with the exception of you) at NBC's taping of the heads up event at the nugget in Vegas this month. The one thing I like about Chris, yourself, and anyone else that respects the game and has class... is that it is still a game of chance and there is never any reason to be dis-respectful of the game or most importantly another human being. I found all the pros I met to be kind and professional. I have rounded for over 20years NL hold'em for the past year. I want to do what you did and have read all the books and play every night. The one thing that I hope I never lose touch with is human decency and respect. My parents taught me to walk across the tee-ball diamond and shake hands win or lose. Chris understands and I know you do also. I just wish everyone could remember what it is like to lose... especially when you see how someone acts when they win. Thank you for your book it is fantastic and congrats on all your wins and the money. But all that aside it is what you stand for and represent (values) that makes you a winner in any situation. Thanks, KentP.S. I notices you memorialize your son in the front of your book, however, there is no information about what happened... is there anything you can share? If not... I respect that.

I am enjoying my first reading of your book. I have recently developed an interest in Texas Holdem (Who Has Not), which led me to your book, having rmembered past references to it. I have just read the chapter in which you mention Benet Acad related to a dream. I graduated from St Procopius in 1966 and my sister graduated from Benet about 8 yrs later. She is a realtor in Colorado and has been trying to write the GAN for many years. She is active in writers circles in her area. I was just curious if you were at Benet around the time she was. She knows a lot of writers and a lot about writers. Maybe she knows you. Though this book is not likely to be on her radar, other than she likes mysteries. If I get an Email back from you that you were at Benet around the time she was, I know she would enjoy the information. We grew up in Naperville.Thanks for a good read, and have a great day.

Hello James,I read your book recently, and I enjoyed it. It reminded me a bit of Hunter without the long tangents.two questions:What's your usual routine for early tournament play?What's the most common tell you notice from novice players?If there's anyway you can CC your reply to my email, it would be greatly appreciated.take care,