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…
Written by Ben Mezrich
Narrated by Sean Pratt
4/5
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About this audiobook
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House—the sources for the films The Social Network and 21— comes the larger-than-life true tale of a group of American college buddies who brilliantly built a billion-dollar online poker colossus based out of the hedonistic paradise of Costa Rica.
One problem: the U.S. Department of Justice was gunning for them. . . .
Based on extensive insider interviews and participation, acclaimed author Ben Mezrich's Straight Flush tells the captivating rags-to-riches tale of a group of University of Montana frat brothers who turned a weekly poker game in the basement of a local dive bar into AbsolutePoker.com, one of the largest online companies in the world, on par with some of the behemoths of the Internet. At its height, Absolute Poker was an online empire earning more than a million dollars a day, following savvy business strategy and even better luck. Its founders set up their operations in the exotic jungle paradise of Costa Rica, embracing an outrageous lifestyle of girls, parties, and money.
Meanwhile, the gray area of U.S. and international law in which the company operated was becoming a lot more risky, and soon the U.S. Department of Justice had placed a bull's-eye on Absolute Poker. Should they fold—or double down and ride their hot hand? Impossible to put down, Straight Flush is an exclusive, never-before-seen look behind the headlines of one of the wildest business stories of the past decade.
Ben Mezrich
Ben Mezrich graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991. He has published twelve books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Accidental Billionaires, which was adapted into the Academy Award-winning film The Social Network, and Bringing Down the House, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies in twelve languages and became the basis for the Kevin Spacey movie 21. Mezrich has also published the national bestsellers Sex on the Moon, Ugly Americans, Rigged, and Busting Vegas. He lives in Boston.
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Reviews for Straight Flush
33 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Boy, I got this wrong. I thought this book was going to be about those guys who had a card-counting scheme going and made beaucoup bucks playing in casinos. Whoopsy!Nope, this book was full out some guy's gripe about the US government nailing their company for setting up an online gambling company. How totally unfair, dude, like... wow, man, the government is so unfair to shutdown their company and leave some other companies alone. I mean, even though they know it's wrong, and even though they use daddy's money for the startup money and hit up their frat bros & friends for big bucks (to the tune of $100,000) and even though they look for loopholes to skirt the edge of legality, that's totally hard work man! This is, like, grass roots, bro, they *earned* their money for sure... and women, and booze... and gambling... and drugs... (but not in the house, strictly verboten! they're not like the scummy Costa Ricans who live around them, no way). Yup, a true hardworking rags to riches story, minus the rags, and minus any ethical values. Basically, it's an absolutely perfect example of US entitlement.In all fairness, the book flows pretty fast, is easy to read, and the audiobook narrator is excellent. Definitely recommend this book to all frat bros who also want to make big bucks fast and live a totally shallow life.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I really wanted to like this book, but I was immediately turned off by the annoying frat-boy characters. I ended up really disliking the whole thing. I am disappointed.