Consumer Alert.

Steven Seagal has a novel out, The Way of the Shadow Wolves.  Don't read it.  Why?  Just read this review.  Having said that I'm sure reading this book might be of benefit to some would be writers.  After all if Stevie can get such a badly written piece of nonsense published their much better stuff might stand a chance.

Reviewing Available.

Got a book, movie, TV show, or audio recording you're desperate to have reviewed online? Drop me a line at the e-mail address at the top of the blog and we can work something out. I'm serious, this is more than just a lame attempt to get free stuff.

Moneymaker

As part of my ongoing effort to learn a bit more about poker this week I read Moneymaker by Chris Moneymaker and Daniel Paisner. Its a first hand account of how Moneymaker went from being an unknown amateur no one would have considered even a minor threat to winning the 2003 World Series of Poker. Its a pleasant and quick read. What's interesting is that Moneymaker had been gambling in one form or another since he was a little kid, and that his college and after college gambling had left him in debt. Whether one could call Moneymaker an addict is debateable, but his gambling debts were such that only the promise of money from a friend lead him to win a free seat to the World Series via an online poker tournament instead of in effect throwing the tournament so he would win the second prize of $8000. A free seat at the pinnacle of US poker events was far less valuable than actual money that could go a long way to paying off debts a young accountant with a wife and baby couldn't afford. Equally ironic was that winning the 2.5 millon dollar grand prize ended Moneymaker's financial problems, yet introduced a whole new set of tensions that proved equally as hard on his personal life as being in debt had been. Definitely an interesting case to consider when you see the jubilation of the winner of such an event.