Straight Flush audiobook

Straight Flush charts the rise and rise of the online poker gaming industry, and how a bunch of frat boys developed a multi billion dollar business during the dot com boom. The start up of the Absolute Poker website reads like a script for a movie – there’s certainly lots of sex, drugs and intrigue when they leave everything behind and bank their investment in some dodgy banks in Costa Rica with the intent of creating an online poker environment that is just as enticing as the real deal.However throughout the extraordinary accounts of excess and pure luck (many a car accident is had where all parties involved come out unscathed), you are waiting for an abrupt fall from grace. The people involved are continuously questioning ‘is this legal’? And there’s an expectation that it’s all going to come crumbling down. The majority of the book covers a three year period where they were biding their time before they floated the business on the Stock Exchange. Some ill timed legislation created a chain of events that pushed Absolute Poker’s luck to the limit, and there are some tense moments where Pete is running from Canadian Mounties, websites are hacked, and Scott and Brent are forced to choose between life on the run, or time in prison for their roles in Absolute Poker. If you’re looking for a run down on poker online and how the software works (and how they snuffed out cheating) then this book is just a basic overview of this information. Same goes for the morality of business with third party banks and money facilitators, a grey area in the early 2000’s on the internet. What we get instead is an overall view of a tenuous legal situation, without the hard core legalese that can weigh down a book with too much jargon. What’s left is all the awesome high flying intrigue that makes great reading.

Going all in!This is the story of the rise a fall of a online poker business empire that was started by friends from university following from a passion discovered whilst there by one of the main protaganists.Having previously read his book about the building of the Facebook empire I was intrigued to read some of his other work as I really enjoyed that book. For me this wasn't as good. I think the main reasons for this lie with the facts that the characters and subject matter come across as being a little bland. It felt as though the author had to do quite a lot of fluffing and exaggerating to make them seem more interesting than they actually were.The story for the most part wasnt exactly ore inspiring. In terms of intrigue the online poker industry comes across as being a bit one dimensional, without much to really give it an edge. The characters in addition came across as fairly stayed, white collar, law abiding buisinessmen, at odds with the rock and roll, hedonistic personas they were also being portrayed as having. I didnt really engage or like their personalitys for the most part. I found them to be quite obnoxious and arrogant, lacking any real depth of personalityHaving said all this it is still an interesting read. It did keep my attention in general throughout, which I think is a credit to the authors easy, engaging writing style, it does get a tad more interesting and worthwhile as the book develops. I wouldnt read it again but probably would recommend it to anyone who had a real interest in online poker but not really to anyone else.

Another Mezrich hit! Busting Vegas meets Accidental Billionaires. Straight Flush offers a behind the scenes look at the genius behind Absolute Poker, the online poker explosion, and the rise and fall of the major US online sites. For someone who was captivated by the poker boom, this book offers interesting insights. And, as a student of human nature, it is an especially fascinating glimpse inside a different kind of mind. While so many, upon first exposure to poker, online or otherwise, wanted to dive in and play, with dreams of a bracelet dancing in their heads, Tom Scott just wanted to be the guy raking a couple percent out of lots and lots of pots.The only problem with Mezrich is that you can't put his stuff down. Once again, I finished it the day I picked it up.

An interesting story from the author of The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal and in a similar style. Details the roller coaster ride by the founders of the Absolute Poker internet poker empire. I have my own opinions about how the government has handled online poker, and if anything those views were just strengthened by this read. Recomended to fans of Ben Mezrich or anyone interested in Poker and online entrepreneurship.

Took me back to the good days of online poker! It was fun to reminisce about sites, bonuses, ideas, and games long gone. Also interesting to see it from behind the scenes. Without having been a player back in those days myself, though, it wouldn't have been so interesting.

Wonderful book about absolutepoker.com since all I did in high school was play Texas Hold'em and learned how to play other games of poker on gaming sites like this, I loved the back story.It is a wild ride.

I'm a fan of Ben Mezrich's books, so you can guess the outcome of this review. Mezrich conveys facts in a suspense narrative that is fun to read and easy to imagine the events as they take place. Straight Flush follows a group of college students who design an online poker game that becomes very popular, making them millionaires very quickly. You take part in their venture by way of Mezrich's descriptive writing, and feel the excitement of the good years and the gnawing pain of impending disaster as the US government establishes laws that wreak havoc on the industry. Their story is a tense balance of creative excitement and worrisome ethics. In the end, you empathize with this group and wonder if you'd done it any differently. A lesson gambling, finance, morals, and legalities. Very enjoyable, until you see the photos near the end. A very good read.

This book is written for a niche market. The world of modern poker players. Specifically online poker players. It is the true story of how six university students fell in love with Texas Hold ‘em.They turned their last Vegas for the game into a billion dollar empire...until Black Friday. Black Friday the day when the US government declared ALL online poker (playing for real money) illegal. That edict, issued in a federal court for the Southern District of New York ruined the businesses of hundreds of online poker sites and destroyed the livelihood of thousands of poker players throughout the US.Black Friday marked the death of Absolute Bet, the online poker room these ambitious young men thought of, planned for and created. It was a billion dollar enterprise that, in one day, went up in smoke.

It's the kind of story that Ben Mezrich is great at telling, and it shows. It's a fun romp through crazy business stories, a little like The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal.

I am a big fan of how Ben Mezrich approaches telling these stories - Bringing Down the House, Accidental Billionaires, Bitcoin Billionaires, etc. - about kids in their early 20s with their fingers on the pulse of a major innovative disruptor. This particular story felt a little bit different, removed somehow, focusing more on the narrative and less on the personal sides. Perhaps because it involved so many main characters? While it was not germane to the story, it was still odd that details about getting married and having babies merited a single sentence.

I really enjoyed this book, but Mezrich does what he does in every one of his books- he identifies too much with his subjects and obscures the realities to make them appear in a better light. He is, in many ways, a gonzo journalist and, in that way, a participant in the debauchery and corruption which he chronicles. The factual problems within this book are well documented and I don't need to list them here. As a work of fiction of questionable non-fiction, Straight Flush was quite good. As a work of journalism, it would be a 1 star.

Facinating story about a group of SAE fraternity brothers that started a multi-million$ online poker business that was questionably legal and the drama that surrounded this development. They traveled all around the world to skirt away from the law but some could not escape fate. Would make a great movie, maybe one worth going to the movies about.

Ben Mezrich has a way of finding interesting stories that revolve around business dealings that are not traditional. This is no different. As a poker player, I recall many of the events happening from the side of a user. This is a look into the development of on-line poker and its eventual demise.

The excitement of a start up, the passion and the headiness of success. Brilliantly captured. Playing with the greys in the legal framework, with the aid of lawyers and bankers and then crumbling down when the heavy hand of the law comes down. A roller coaster . And the cast of characters well etche

Entertaining readThis was a really enjoyable book. I've read three or four Mezrich stories, and all of them are a lot of fun. This was also a fun flashback to the internet poker days. I spent many hours playing online poker, and it did feel like the wild west. I also remember the internet poker boom ending almost overnight. Anyway, i would recommend this book.

Good read, leaves you thirsting for more. Fast paced with good historical content. Ben Mezrich has great style and say with words to engrossing you into his stories. Straight flush is no exception.

Solid. Well paced and intriguing. Does about all he can do with the story which, in total, makes a better blog post than book.

similar story to other Mezrich books but still fun.