Vegas or Bust: A Family Man Takes On the Poker Pros

by Johnny Kampis Narrated by Chris Abernathy

Overview

Can a former semi-pro win against the best poker players in the world?



In 2006, Johnny's pie-in-the-sky dreams of becoming world champion were dashed when his kings ran into aces in the World Series of Poker Main Event. But lady luck was with him when he met Amy, the woman of his dreams, who soon became his wife.



Like many players, he drifted away from the game after Congress passed a law later that year that cut off funds to online poker and harkened the decline of the game. But even as Johnny returned to the working world, the itch remained.



A decade later, now with two small kids in tow, Johnny convinces Amy to take a six-week family trip from their home in rural Alabama to Las Vegas, where he will risk his $10,000 bankroll in hopes of playing in the Main Event again and winning millions. Along the way, he examines how the game has changed since 2006. Although the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was the beginning of the end of the poker boom, the game still thrives, and WSOP is Exhibit A. Johnny also muses on the outlandishness of the adult fairyland that is Vegas.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

05/07/2018
Journalist Kampis debuts with an entertaining memoir of how he uprooted his family and chased his dream of playing in the World Series of Poker Main Event. A decade after he was knocked out of the 2006 competition, Kampis and his wife, Amy, decide to spend a summer in Las Vegas so he can compete again. He plans to take two gambles: risking $10,000 in the tournament and bringing their autistic six-year-old son to a highly stimulating unfamiliar situation. Kampis weaves the stories of both ventures together. His hand-by-hand account of the tournament will please poker enthusiasts while informing readers less familiar with “a game of the masses” that’s full of big blinds, rivers, satellites, and buttons. (The jargon is always well explained but can get tedious.) Kampis interviews other players, writers, historians, and power-brokers, giving insight into the state of the game. The family gamble also pays off as both their children thrive during the summer. The most winning aspect of the book is Kampis’s new perspective, transformed from 2006’s lonely young poker fanatic to 2016’s family man who appreciates his good fortune in having another kind of full house. Agent: Sheree Bykofsky, Sheree Bykofsky Associates. (May)

From the Publisher

Kampis tells a new kind of poker story — that of the grown-up family man taking a shot at the Granddaddy of them all, the World Series of Poker Main Event. Full of heart and humility, this isn’t a Positively Fifth Street noir-ish tale of murder and millions, but an honest look at the post-boom poker world through the eyes of a family man that understands that his real bankroll isn’t tied to his tournament winnings. A winner of a tale, told from the perspective of an Everyman of Poker. Kampis hit the jackpot with this story of love, hope, life, and poker.” — John Hartness, author of the Quincy Harker novels

Product Details

BN ID:	2940192334126
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	06/25/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

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