James "Jim" McManus (b.
March 22 1951 in
Manhattan
) is an American
poker player, teacher and writer living in Kenilworth,
Illinois
.
Poker and Positively Fifth Street
McManus is best known as the author of the book
Positively Fifth Street: Murderers,
Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker (ISBN
0-374-23648-8).
The book is based on his trip to Las
Vegas
to cover the progress of women in the 2000 World Series of Poker (WSOP)
and the death of Ted Binion.
He used his advance to enter a satellite tournament for entry into
the Main Event, defeating the likes of
Hasan
Habib to qualify for the seat. He made the final table of the
Main Event, finishing in 5th place and winning $247,760. He
credited his success in the tournament to the book
Championship
No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold'em (ISBN 1-58042-127-X) by
T. J.
Cloutier and
Tom McEvoy. Cloutier, Habib and
Chris Ferguson were also at the same final
table.
The book is dedicated to his son, James McManus (1979-2001).
McManus made the quarter-finals of the 2006
National Heads-Up Poker
Championship, where he was eliminated by Ferguson. McManus
continues to play live poker when not teaching and raising two
young daughters with his second wife, Jennifer Arra. He also plays
online three or four nights a week on
Full Tilt Poker.
As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed
$740,000.
Other works
Fiction
- Going to the Sun (winner of the Carl Sandburg Award)
- Ghost Waves
- Curtains
- Chin Music
- Out of the Blue
Non-fiction
- Physical: An American Checkup (2006)
- Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker (October 2009)
serialized in Card Player magazine
Poetry
- Great America
- Antonio Salazar Is Dead
Journalism
He has also written for
The New
York Times,
The Boston
Globe,
Harper's Magazine, and
The New Yorker among others.
His
Esquire article on
stem cell research was featured in
The Best American Science and
Nature Writing 2005 and was a finalist for the National
Magazine Award.
He has been the poker columnist of the
New York Times and
currently writes the history column for
Card Player. He
has spoken about the game at Yale, Harvard, Google Inc., Goldman
Sachs, and on numerous media outlets.
His work has also appeared in
The Best American Poetry,
Best American Magazine Writing,
Best American Sports
Writing,
Best American Political Writing,
Best
Erotic Writing in Modern Fiction,
The New Kings of
Nonfiction,
Richter 858,
The Book of Irish
American Poetry, and other anthologies. He has received the
Carl Sandburg Prize, the
Peter Lisagor
Award for Sports Journalism, fellowships from the Guggenheim and
Rockefeller foundations, and other awards.
Film
Played the roll of
Richard Nixon in
the film
Black Dynamite (2009)
Personal life
McManus
pursued undergraduate degrees from Loyola
University Chicago
and University of Illinois Chicago
. He received a
Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974 and a
Master of Arts degree
in 1977, both from UIC. He teaches at the
School of the Art Institute
of Chicago, as well as the history section of Harvard's new
online poker university.
References
- Hendon Mob database
-
http://chronicle.com/article/What-Poker-Can-Teach-Us/48641/
- Please Stand By While the Age of Miracles Is
Briefly Suspended
External links
Wikis
Quiz
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