Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids

Description

An exhilarating zero-to-hero tale of the card shark kids who make millions at the blackjack and poker tables, in the tradition of Ben Mezrich's Bringing Down The House A magnet for bullies at school, Jon Finkel grew up heckled and hazed until he discovered the trading-card game Magic- The Gathering. As Magic exploded from nerdy obsession into the mainstream, the teenage Finkel emerged as its first world champion. The young shark - now known to his friends and rivals as Jonny Magic - moved on to storm poker rooms, from the underground clubs of New York City to high-stakes tables online, until he landed on the largest card counting blackjack team in the country, taking Vegas for millions and becoming one of the biggest players in town. Finally, they took on the biggest game of all - the World Series of Poker...

David Kushner is the author of Masters of Doom- How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture. He is a contributing editor of Rolling Stone and Wired. His work has appeared in numerous other publications including The New York Times, Spin, Salon, and New York. He lives in New Jersey. Visit his website at www.davidkushner.com.

Praise for Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids "Nerd's Revenge...David Kushner tells the stirring tale of the geeks who stormed Las Vegas" Rolling Stone Thoroughly engaging...As underdog heroes go, Jon Finkel has got to be among the best of our age...It is a story worth cheering about...Kushner knows how to tell a story, plus he writes - and reads - with gusto and charm." Philadelphia Inquirer Praise for Masters of Doom: 'Terrifically told... The storytelling is so fluid, so addictive, that your twitching thumbs keep working the pages.' * Washington Post * 'Kushner's portrait of Carmack is lustrous and gripping... An impressive and adroit social history.' * New York Times *