''Straight Flush: The True Story of Six College Friends Who Dealt Their Way to a Billion-Dollar Online Poker Empire—and How It All Came Crashing Down'' is a book by

Ben Mezrich Ben Mezrich ( ; born February 7, 1969) is an American author. Early life and education Mezrich was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Molli Newman, a lawyer, and Reuben Mezrich, a chairman of radiology at the University of Maryland Schoo ...

. The text was published on May 28, 2013, by

William Morrow and Company William Morrow and Company is an American publishing company founded by William Morrow in 1926. The company was acquired by Scott Foresman in 1967, sold to Hearst Corporation in 1981, and sold to News Corporation News Corporation (abbrev ...

. ''Straight Flush'' tells the story of a group of

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fal ...

students who turned their weekly poker game into AbsolutePoker.com, one of the largest online gambling companies in the world.

Reception

''Straight Flush'' received mixed to scathing reviews.

James McManus } James "Jim" McManus (born March 22, 1951) is an American teacher, writer and poker player living in Kenilworth, Illinois. He is a professor in the Master of Fine Arts program for writers at the Art Institute of Chicago. Poker and ''Positi ...

wrote in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' that ''Straight Flush'' was "not just a book about clueless adolescent venality, 'Straight Flush' is that sorry thing itself, and in spades." Haley Hintze, a writer who helped uncover the Absolute Poker scandal, labeled the book a "literary fraud" in an eleven part series. Don Oldenburg writing in ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' notes one of the book's problems is "how much Mezrich himself seems in awe of" the sordid activity he is describing.USA Today: All bets are off in 'Straight Flush'
/ref>

References

External links

* Poker books 2013 non-fiction books William Morrow and Company books Non-fiction books about gambling {{gambling-book-stub

Reception

See also

References

External links