Imprint: No Exit Press
Category: Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary
Not since Mario Puzo’s cult classic, Fools Die, has there been a truly great novel about the gambling life. Shut Up and Deal is a wild and stormy trip into the booming casino industry of the 1990s, told by Mickey, an obsessed young poker pro. He’s the Cincinnati Kid all tricked out for the ’90s and his story is poker, pure poker, brought to life by a cast of shrewd, outlandish characters, all of whom give him a run for his money. Here is a world in which the anarchy of chance comes into cold, harsh focus and Mickey navigates his way through it with an unusual combination of guile and virtue.
Wacky, funny and intense, with a breathtaking voice and rhythmic prose that will make you tap your foot to the beat, Shut Up and Deal is not just for gamblers but for anyone who likes a good story about the forces of good and evil and the mysteries of luck.
RRP: £16.99
ISBN: 9781901982565
Published: February 22, 1999
Extent: 217 pages
‘Few poker players can write and even fewer can play poker. Jesse May is a rare master of both infernal arts’
author of Big Deal
‘This book is quick and tough and stinks of the poker room, the casino, the hotel room, the lights that buzz all the time when you’re trying to recover the two grand you lost last night. It’s a gambler’s book. Reading it is being there’
author of Bob the Gambler
‘A marvellous read, easily the best novel I have ever read on poker’
European No Limit Hold'em champion