Shut Up and Deal: A Novel [Deckle Edge] [Paperback]

Jesse May (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 1998

In 1987, there was legalized poker in Nevada and in one county of California. Author Jesse May was seventeen years old and already hooked. By 1996, poker could be legally played in casinos in over twenty states of the union and five countries in Europe. Legalization changed the face of poker, and as the game came of age, so did May, who by 1989 had dropped out of the University of Chicago after one year due to irreconcilable differences between Tuesday- and Thursday-morning classes and Monday- and Wednesday-night poker games.

Based on his experiences in the strange world of poker, May's debut novel Shut Up and Deal is the story of a nontraditional '90s slacker, a dropout with an incurable obsession and incredible stamina, who makes a career in a profession where the only goals are to stay in action and to not go broke. In Shut Up and Deal, a professional poker player takes readers along on his adventures over several years in and out of casinos and card rooms in locales such as Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Amsterdam.

Told in a catching, likeable voice, this story offers up one rip-roaring poker-table drama after another, with narrator Mickey ultimately finding himself in a spot that jeopardizes his entire bankroll and calls into question his morals, such as they are. In rhythmic, high-octane prose that is as addictive as the game it describes, Shut Up and Deal zooms in on the swirling, feverish microcosm of the contemporary poker world from its very first line and never cuts away.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The vignettes in Shut Up and Deal are a bizarre mingling of Damon Runyon and David Mamet. Mickey, the book's narrator, is always playing cards with people who have monikers such as Uptown Raoul, Hot Mama Earl, Johnny World, and Vinnie the Greek, and he himself generally wears at these card games something like "yellow pants and a green double-breasted jacket from the seventies and a green and yellow flowered shirt with dark sunglasses" in order to sucker the unsuspecting mark into maybe thinking that he is not such a good poker player and that his money can be easily won, which it usually cannot. Yet the dialogue, relecting life on the professional poker circuit, is stark and brutal, as in Mickey's advice to a dilettante who is considering following in his footsteps: "All I can tell you is that it's lonely out there, real fuckin' lonely, and your play doesn't matter so much as how tough you are and whether or not you fall apart."

The plot, like poker itself, is a transitory affair. "I been playing for over six years now," says Mickey, the narrator of Shut Up and Deal, "and I still try and start each day as a new day, pick myself off the floor and get focused." This works fine when you're sitting at the poker table, where no given hand means anything in the context of any other given hand, but readers who enjoy traditional narrative, where events have a causal relationship to the events immediately preceding, will face a stiff challenge in the unrelenting cycle of hands won and lost with no visible grander scheme of things in which player--and reader--might take solace. --Ron Hogan

From Publishers Weekly

May's speedy, coming-of-age debut unfolds in the insular, all-male world of high-stakes professional poker, where staying in the action is everything and money is just a way of keeping score. Narrator Mickey, who joins the pro circuit at the age of 21, is surrounded by a large cast of eccentrics with stereotypical nicknames like Vinnie the Greek, Fresca Kid and Uptown Raoul. They're all constantly searching for the next "big game," moving like nomads across America as if it were no more than a barren desert speckled with casino oases like the Mirage in Las Vegas, Taj Mahal in Atlantic City and Foxwoods in Connecticut. In a world where you are who you pretend to be, image, bluff and reputation are as important as talent and luck: Mickey opts for sunglasses and garish Salvation Army clothes, makes a place for himself on the circuit during the early 1990s and then feels it slipping away. As he reels off one tale after another about hitting it big or going broke, Mickey's voice rings true, his obsession, insecurity and self-delusion barely hidden beneath a thin mask of bravado. Yet the price for accuracy is a lot of jargon: rudimentary knowledge of poker is not enough to understand the repetitive, blow-by-blow accounts of games like 10-20 Hold 'em, Pot Limit Omaha and Seven Stud Hilo. "There is no reality away from the poker table," Mickey says. He may be right, but that exclusionary attitude will keep most readers standing "on the rail," watching the play without anteing a stake of their own.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Anchor; 1st Anchor Books ed edition (April 13, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385489404
• ISBN-13: 978-0385489409
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #295,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Horrific honesty, September 20, 2000

By 

roGER - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shut Up and Deal: A Novel (Paperback)

First, (most important) if you don't play poker you won't get much out of this book, if you do play... read on.

Good poker is a boring, often frustrating business, and this "novel" (like most first novels, it's fact thinly disguised as fiction) struggles with that reality.

Narrated by a jaded, yet moderately sucessful young pro named Mike (in the original manuscript he was probably called Jesse) its a frank honest look at the "glamourous" world of professional poker. Poker is a game of skill in the long term, but because of the high chance element, can be anything but skill day-to-day. As Mike says early on "the skill ain't hard, its mastering the luck that's difficult."

As the novel progresses we gradually realise that Mike isn't really going anywhere. At times he's quite wealthy, at other times he can hardly make the buy-in for a medium stakes game, but the only thing that distinguishes him from other skilled players, is his persistence; the gritty resolution to ride out the streaks of bad luck and keep going.

Like any cardroom, the book has its "regulars" - players who appear over and over again. Among them is the vividly drawn Bart Stone, who may be the devil - a reckless evil conman with occasional flashes of charm. Opposed to him is John, a mellow, amazingly talented player who's blown his winnings on cocaine and is making a comeback. The two play several times, eagerly watched by Mike, but the end result, like many a poker game, is less about winners and losers, and more about a few bucks up or down due to the cards on the day.

People complain (rightly) that "Shut Up and Deal" has no plot, and doesn't go anywhere. But its this honesty that makes the book so real. Pro poker players don't go anywhere - they work in the cardrooms, they put in long hours, and for obvious reasons they don't make many friends and their working hours don't encourage a social life. Casinos are magnets for misfits and this strange sub-group are no exception. The locations can change but the games, and even some of the players remain the same. If Jesse May can't plot this novel very well, he's got no such problems with description and atmosphere - you can see, feel, and even smell the grubby glitter of the casino cardrooms where the action takes place.

The final section of the book is the best description of being "on tilt" (i.e. playing badly from frustration, and not necessarily realising it) that I've ever read. Familiar to anyone whose played cards seriously for any length of time, the helpless reader is drawn into the irrational yet compelling innner voice of Mick, explaining everything away...

Flawed, yet very powerful and honest, "Shut Up and Deal" is the perfect antidote to yet another sugar-sweet article in "Card Player" magazine. Its also a must-read for anyone contemplating a professional career in poker.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Only if you play, January 16, 2001

By 

Carl Skutsch (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shut Up and Deal: A Novel (Paperback)

For non poker players, I can't imagine that this is worth buying. It is completely focused on the world of poker playing, mostly in east coast casinos. For poker players looking for advice, techniques, and ways of winning, this book won't help much. It's not about poker strategy, it's about the poker world, or one part of it.

But if you are interested in that poker world, this book is fantastic. I swallowed it in one grim, exciting, painful gulp. As previous reviewers said, there is no real plot, no real story, just poker and the strange world it creates. It's almsot philosophical. It tries to figure out what makes people keep on playing, what separates the live-ones from the sharks (and how easy it is to cross back and forth from one to the other), it's zen and poker. As a poker wannabe I found it to be a powerful warning of where I could go if I tried to walk in May's footsteps.

I'd also love to meet the guy, which I think says something about his book.

Whatever you do, don't play with a guy named Bart.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally! A peak on the personal daily diary of a rounder!, February 13, 2002

By 

"abayyari" (Little Rock, AR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shut Up and Deal: A Novel (Paperback)

I agree with the other reviewers that this book is for poker players only! The author uses lots of poker terms and jargon that is familiar mostly to poker players. And it's hard for a non-"rounder" to understand what's truly going on in the authors mind.adrenaline, excitement, bluffs, and that one critical decision that separates winners from losers! Personally, as a poker player, I enjoyed the book all the way to the end, got my adrenaline pumped up several times from just reading some of the action and decision making in the story.

Like I said, this book can be really entertaining if you are a rounder, however, the storyline lacks a progressive organized story plot, not terribly bad for a person who doesn't write for a living but the story and character development could've used some refining. It's more of a personal daily diary than a true novel...just keep that in mind while reading the book and you'll enjoy it.