Lost Vegas: The Redneck Riviera, Existentialist Conversations with Strippers, and the World Series of Poker. . . Las Vegas lures you to shed moral responsibility and piss away your money on indulgences like decadent food, entertainment, gambling, and sex. If you don't enjoy these pastimes, then what's the point of visiting the land of compromised values? Where else can you get a cheap steak, crash a Mexican wedding, get cold-decked in blackjack by a dealer named Dong, play video poker for thirteen straight hours, drink pina coladas out of a plastic coconut, bum a cigarette from an 85-year-old woman with an oxygen tank, speed away to the Spearmint Rhino in a free limo, get rubbed by a former Miss Teen USA, puke in the back of a cab driven by a retired Navy SEAL, snort cheap cocaine in the bathroom at O'Sheas, and then catch a lucky card on the river to crack pocket aces and win a poker tournament? Only in Las Vegas.
{"itemData":[{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":12.78,"ASIN":"0557500079","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":12.87,"ASIN":"0312545703","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":16.16,"ASIN":"0983236666","isPreorder":0}],"shippingId":"0557500079::utXXxF0Xy9k9VbuYwTKbl4veLxIcVWJMbfB4u60koWo4Rpn6EtXMg99XQKZrkS%2Fj2g6q3GdXahKJAZgX6tRGGVBdE0BgKcS8xO7qcDGvZPWb53K06H4tvA%3D%3D,0312545703::52ZxdSw7YlDCZmvcdKHlQmLkZCskL7X0EUU%2ByIoK7P0ETBn0WGVn89Hl89s0pSCcIWfsuQY2xTSF28pHjF9tZIpzPXR2q3y0Dshtvc71fDtrDXwpaiQdkw%3D%3D,0983236666::%2BTSPXbs1cqaXK25L%2Bwebq%2BCvP5bq1%2FooiFYjLhJfWPmI8CSCadtghTRtkNJD%2BqEFpv4BeOC5lORt7j6Yw3WdK6Gp%2F4Vj0vzp714bDc5OqzfkB7Ky531OsA%3D%3D","sprites":{"addToWishlist":["wl_one","wl_two","wl_three"],"addToCart":["s_addToCart","s_addBothToCart","s_add3ToCart"],"preorder":["s_preorderThis","s_preorderBoth","s_preorderAll3"]},"currenyCode":"USD","shippingDetails":{"xz":"same","yz":"same","xy":"same","xyz":"same"},"tags":["x","y","z"],"strings":{"addToWishlist":["add to wishlist","Add both to Wish List","Add all three to Wish List"],"addToCart":["Add to Cart","Add both to Cart","Add all three to Cart"],"showDetailsDefault":"Show availability and shipping details","shippingError":"An error occurred, please try again","hideDetailsDefault":"Hide availability and shipping details","priceLabel":["Price:","Price for both:","Price for all three:"],"preorder":["Pre-order this item","Pre-order both items","Pre-order all three items"]}}
Pauly gives us his unique take on the bright lights and fast money of the Vegas we all know, as he illuminates the dark corners we don't, or don't want to, see with his driving prose, original voice and impeccable eye for detail. --Joe Speaker
Strippers, killers, cheats, drug fiends, and idiots rub shoulders from page to page with the honest working class, dreamers, family men, the quasi-religious, and the invisible. --Brendan Murray
Pauly has the chameleon-like ability to be the fly on the wall, or the eye of the hurricane when it comes to the crazy stuff that goes on in the poker world. --John Caldwell
About the Author
Paul 'Dr. Pauly' McGuire is a writer originally from New York City. He has lived in Las Vegas, NV on and off since 2005. He covered the World Series of Poker and numerous other major poker tournaments for Tao of Poker, LasVegasVegas.com, Bluff Magazine, Poker Player Newspaper, Fox Sports, Poker News, and Poker Stars Blog. His poker travels have taken him to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Atlantic City, Connecticut, Spain, Denmark, Monte Carlo, Australia, New Zealand, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Hungary, Mexico, the Bahamas, Argentina, Costa Rica, Uruguay, and the UK.
Paul 'Dr. Pauly' McGuire is a writer originally from New York City. He has lived in Las Vegas, NV on and off since 2005, yet currently resides in San Francisco, CA.
McGuire covered the World Series of Poker and numerous other major poker tournaments for Tao of Poker, Fox Sports, MSN, High Roller Magazine, Bluff Magazine, Poker Player Newspaper, LasVegasVegas.com, Vegas Seven, Poker Stars Blog, and PokerNews. His poker travels have taken him to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Atlantic City, Connecticut, Spain, Denmark, Monte Carlo, Australia, New Zealand, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Hungary, Mexico, the Bahamas, Argentina, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Peru and the UK.
McGuire has also written for the UK Racing Post, Sportsbetting News, the OnGame Zone, the Borgata Casino, Las Vegas Business and Politics, Poker Pro Europe, PokerNews Magazine, Online Poker Pro, Poker From the Rail,Rise Poker, Wicked Chops Insider, Coventry Music, and Tao of Fear,
Las Vegas. The glitz and glamour as bright as the lights on the Strip. An adult's playground where lady luck may smile on you and give you a jackpot on the slot machine or a run of good luck at the blackjack tables. Where food is king and fun runs abundant.
But like all cities, there is the belly of the beast. The things that happen off the strip. The people that walk the sewers and scrounge the alleys, devising schemes to take your money. No one in Vegas wants to talk about the dark side. Until now.
Paul has a unique style of describing what is 'behind the curtain'. He doesn't pull punches and calls it like he sees it, painting a vivid picture in your mind that makes you feel like you are there. Best of all, it is real. Nothing in this book is made up. Paul doesn't need to when the dark side does the job itself.
From the Redneck Riviera to the World Series of Poker, each tale told is more magnificent than the one before it. Lost Vegas is a book that once you start, you won't put down.
Yeah I read the title--I truly did. I knew it was going to be about poker somewhat--but it's about poker a lot, and if that's your thing, you will love it. It's a funny story, and I love LV so I liked reading about the city, but really it's centered heavily on poker--just FYI.
Super-addictive, gut-wrenchingly funny and even - yes - touching, Pauly's adventures to the dark side of big-time tournament poker and Las Vegas is a must-read for poker players, gamblers, and all degenerates in general. A long-time coming, Lost Vegas joins the ranks of "Biggest Game In Town", "Big Deal", and "Positively Fifth Street" in the pantheon of great non-instructional poker literature.
As someone that has read Pauly's blogs for some time now, I anxiously awaited the release of this book on Kindle format and I was not disappointed. It's a great read for anyone interested in the world of Poker and Las Vegas. It also shed a lot of interesting light on some of the things that Pauly has blogged about for years.
A great book probably/hopefully will not be his best or last because if you've ever visited Paulie's Web site Tao of Poker you know there is a good chance Mr. Paulie will grace us with a masterpiece someday. The guy has the chops to deliver the goods. Amid the poker reporting there are glimpse's of sheer brilliance, we can only hope between wandering around casinos and stalking Phish Mr Paulie is hard at work with his next opus....get busy
Like most, I found "Lost Vegas" through Pauly's Tao of Poker blog (which can't be recommended highly enough). It's a tome that describes temptations (be they of the flesh, of the pharmaceutical or the felt). But there are many books like that... folks, this one is different... "Lost Vegas" doesn't glamorize the poker world and the many broke "TV superstars" within, but it certainly doesn't demonize it like so many cautionary tales. Pauly simply relates the facts from within. He has seen the highest level of poker supremacy while also witnessing the lowest level of gambling degeneracy. He's seen and lived through the many powerful pills (among other chemical options) that one can find in Sin City. McGuire gives an honest (while often depressing) account of the gentleman's clubs as he experienced them through him and his friends. But there are a glutton of books about the gambling lifestyle out there... "Lost Vegas" will most appeal to those of us who get pushed to our limits every day and may or may not live to tell the tale after the fact. The average Joe who spends one weekend per year in Vegas and sets aside a bankroll, has wife in tow, while avoiding the shadier side of the town won't relate as well to the book as those of us who can't understand moderation and for whom life is a day to day adventure to be maximized or else. It's cliche to compare "Lost Vegas" to Hunter S. Thompson's works, but McGuire actually LIVES this lifestyle and gives a hilarious and honest portrayal of how the house always wins in the end, yet we all keep coming back for more.
For several years, I have been reading Paul "Dr. Pauly" McGuire's poker blog, Tao of Poker every morning. His book is a very funny, behind-the-scenes look at the World Series of Poker. Pauly is the Dean of Poker writers, especially where comedy and personal exploits are concerned. You'll love this book, and it would make a great gift.
Pauly is a stylist writer in the vein of Bukowski, Kerouac, and Tom Wolfe. He has been to poker tournaments all over the world, and brings a unique insight into the whacky world of poker. He is one of my favorite writers. Buy this book and learn why.
