Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids - Tapa blanda

From zero to hero...A magnet for bullies at school, Jon Finkel grew up heckled and hazed until he discovered the trading-card game Magic: The Gathering. As Magic exploded from nerdy obsession into the mainstream, the teenage Finkel emerged as its first world champion. The young shark - now known to his friends and rivals as Jonny Magic - moved on to storm poker rooms, from the underground clubs of New York City to high-stakes tables online, until he landed on the largest card counting blackjack team in the country. Taking Vegas for millions, Finkel's team of gamers became the biggest players in town. Finally they took on the biggest game of all - the World Series of Poker - and walked away with more than $3.5 million...Thrilling, edgy, and riveting, the odyssey of these underdogs-turned-overlords is the stuff of pop-culture legend. Kushner brings to life a cast of characters rife with aces, kings, knaves, and more than a few jokers. If you secretly believe every geek has his day, you're right. Here's the proof.

David Kushner is the author of Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture. He is a contributing editor of Rolling Stone and Wired. His work has appeared in numerous other publications including The New York Times, Spin, Salon, and New York. He lives in New Jersey. Visit his website at www.davidkushner.com.