Buy used: $9.00

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Tuesday, January 3 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon

Or fastest delivery Tuesday, December 20. Order within 18 hrs 12 mins

Arrives before Christmas

Select delivery location

Used: Like New | Details

Sold by Lee Digital Ltd

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Follow the Author

Ben Mezrich

Straight Flush: The True Story of Six College Friends Who Dealt Their Way to a Billion-Dollar Online Poker Empire--and How It All Came Crashing Down . . . Hardcover – May 28, 2013

by Ben Mezrich (Author)

302 ratings

Editors' pick Best Nonfiction

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$13.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$9.00

$9.99

$1.58

Paperback

"Please retry"

$15.55

$11.55

$1.83

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House—the sources for the film The Social Network and 21—comes the larger-than-life rags-to-riches tale of a group of University of Montana frat brothers who turned a weekly poker game in the basement of a local dive bar into AbsolutePoker.com, one of the largest online companies in the world.

Based on extensive insider interviews and participation, Straight Flush tells of the company’s initial operations in the exotic jungle paradise of Costa Rica—where its founders embraced an outrageous lifestyle of girls, parties, and money—and of the gray area of U.S. and international law in which they created an industry. Soon, the U.S. Department of Justice was gunning for them… Should they fold—or double down and ride their hot hand? Impossible to put down, Straight Flush is an exclusive, never-before-seen look behind the headlines of one of the wildest business stories of the past decade.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

William Morrow
Publication date

May 28, 2013
Dimensions

6 x 1.01 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0062240099
ISBN-13

978-0062240095
See all details

Ben Mezrich
765
Paperback
362 offers from $0.99
Ben Mezrich
1,393
Paperback
Editors' pickBest Nonfiction
79 offers from $2.20
Ben Mezrich
1,962
Hardcover
Editors' pickBest Biographies & Memoirs
117 offers from $1.44
Ben Mezrich
248
Hardcover
84 offers from $1.79
Ben Mezrich
295
Paperback
103 offers from $1.28
Ben Mezrich
266
Hardcover
99 offers from $1.95

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The reigning cowboy of creative nonfiction.” — The Oregonian

“A breakneck retelling of how a bunch of closely knit fraternity brothers built an online poker empire. … Fast-paced and wild.” — Kirkus Reviews

“A near-perfect specimen of pulp nonfiction.” — New York Times

“The action is nonstop. ... Mezrich follows [the] friends from their University of Montana frat house to Costa Rica and Canada as the young entrepreneurs’ extravagant lifestyle of booze, fast cars, and hot women spirals into death threats, auto accidents, 24-hour bodyguards, and federal indictments.” — Booklist

“Engrossing. ... I can’t wait for the movie.” — Boston Globe

From the Back Cover

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House—the sources for the films The Social Network and 21—comes the larger-than-life true tale of a group of American college buddies who brilliantly built a billion-dollar online poker colossus based out of the hedonistic paradise of Costa Rica.

One problem: the U.S. Department of Justice was gunning for them. . . .

Based on extensive insider interviews and participation, acclaimed author Ben Mezrich's Straight Flush tells the captivating rags-to-riches tale of a group of University of Montana frat brothers who turned a weekly poker game in the basement of a local dive bar into AbsolutePoker.com, one of the largest online companies in the world, on par with some of the behemoths of the Internet. At its height, Absolute Poker was an online empire earning more than a million dollars a day, following savvy business strategy and even better luck. Its founders set up their operations in the exotic jungle paradise of Costa Rica, embracing an outrageous lifestyle of girls, parties, and money.

Meanwhile, the gray area of U.S. and international law in which the company operated was becoming a lot more risky, and soon the U.S. Department of Justice had placed a bull's-eye on Absolute Poker. Should they fold—or double down and ride their hot hand? Impossible to put down, Straight Flush is an exclusive, never-before-seen look behind the headlines of one of the wildest business stories of the past decade.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow; First Edition ~1st Printing (May 28, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0062240099
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062240095
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.01 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #956,815 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #482 in Poker (Books)
- #1,393 in Company Business Profiles (Books)
- #5,306 in Entrepreneurship (Books)

Customer Reviews:
302 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Ben Mezrich

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

With a writing career spanning 19 years, Mezrich has authored twenty books, with a combined printing of over 6 million copies, including the wildly successful Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, which spent sixty-three weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, and sold over 2 million copies in fifteen languages and was adapted into the #1 Box Office movie 21. His book, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal – debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List and spent 18 weeks there in hardcover and paperback, as well as hit bestseller lists in over a dozen countries. The book was adapted into the movie The Social Network and was #1 at the box office, won Golden Globes for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best score, and was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 3 including Best Adapted Screenplay. Mezrich and Aaron Sorkin shared a prestigious Scripter Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as well. Mezrich is the only non-fiction author to have two number one box office movie adaptations which has earned him the title of Sexiest Author on People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive List.

Ben Mezrich cracked the Hollywood Reporter’s annual hot list: Hollywood’s 25 Most Powerful Authors. This power list of authors touted to be “the industry’s most sought-after word nerds” is based on stats like Mezrich’s multiple movie deals in production such as Woolly, Seven Wonders, Once Upon a Time in Russia, and The 37th Parallel.

Ben’s newest book Bitcoin Billionaires chronicles the second act of wonder twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss as they claw their way through Silicon Valley and come out on top as the first bitcoin billionaires after an unlikely-to-win battle with the omnipotent Empire–Facebook.

Ben co-writes a middle grade fiction series Charlie Numbers with his wife Tonya, their newest book: Charlie Numbers and the Woolly Mammoth will hit shelves November 5th, and is slated to be produced for the big screen by Ellen Pompeo.

Mezrich recently joined the Writers Room for the hit Showtime TV show Billions as Consulting Producer for season 5.

Customer reviews

5 star		49%
4 star		29%
3 star		10%
2 star		8%
1 star		4%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Kelly

Very enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 21, 2014

Verified Purchase

A very entertaining read and well-written. Ben Mezrich is one of my favorite biographers; it's easy to see that he embelishes details a little to make for a better read, but he still does a great job capturing the events of what happened and providing insight into a world that I knew nothing about. The ending felt a little rushed, cramming several key events into a short space. After doing more research on my own, I would have liked to see more about the cheating scandal from absolute poker's pov, but it's still a great book. He didn't gild the lily, and presented the antagonists in all their unsympathetic glory, but still managed to make it engaging. Well worth it, and the kind of book I'll likely wind up reading again!

Helpful

mark.s.cross

For Entertainment Purposes Only

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 12, 2013

Verified Purchase

A boat hit an iceberg due to negligence by an overconfident captain. Several factors, including poor emergency planning and resources, lead to loss of life during the sinking of the vessel. A fact-based, textbook account of the Titanic is a boring storyline. There is a community of poker players and readers of poker strategy, history and statistics who do not want you to read this book because it is not a fact-based textbook examination of the day-to-day operations of a controversial business. This is not "Positively Fifth Street." It will not make you a better poker player and, if you were unfortunate enough to lose money on black Friday in 2011, this book is not a skewering of those responsible.

Ben Mezrich has written this book in a similar style to his other hits "Bringing Down the House" and "The Accidental Billionaires" which is to say, he is not the Britannica of business. He is not Zig Ziglar. This novel is not meant to be a course on how to generate a successful start-up. He is not Upton Sinclair. No one is fighting for the poor souls of the internet age who were robbed of their hard earned funds.

Now what we know this book is not, for anyone who is considering purchasing this allow me to give an opinion to what it is: It IS a highly entertaining look at how a group of friends and family with almost no knowledge of the internet or computers developed a near billion dollar business out of a basement. It IS an easy read, and as others have noted, a little light topics other than drugs, women, sex and money. If you want to read a book about frat brothers who live the dream that all of us in a frat dreamed of, it's worth a look.

I do wish he would have spent more time on the other end of the spectrum (as he did interviewing the investigators in "Bringing Down the House"). It drags on at times, setting up scenes that all seem to end with hookers. However, the writing he has become famous for is putting the reader in the moment. He does an amazing job of transporting the reader along for the journey. I agree it is at best highly biased, and at worst a complete fabrication, but a great way to pass the time on a flight to Vegas.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

K C

Good

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 7, 2021

Entertaining

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 8, 2015

Verified Purchase

A good read. Mezrich tells the reader immediately that this story if written from the perspective of the Absolute Poker founders. Apparently many of the reviewers lost money playing online poker (there's a shocker) and now blame these guys. Maybe justly but when their reviews are filled with invective and extreme dislike then I take them with a grain of salt. If you liked Mezrich's other books like I do you'll enjoy this one. It's a breezy account of a bunch of frat boys who caught the Internet gambling wave and got bit by the tiger.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Phil Simon

A fast-paced, interesting read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 6, 2013

Verified Purchase

I hadn't read a Mezrich book in a few years-and I'm glad that I read this one. I remember the online poker boom of the early aughts but didn't know all of the details behind it. I can understand some of the other reviewer's comments about this book being similar to Mezrich's others. Still, the pace is quick and the story compelling. Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions is still my favorite Mezrich book, but this one is no slouch.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

N. J. Marchiano

Easy come - Easy Go!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 30, 2013

Verified Purchase

Although the background Costa Rican story fill is a bit exaggerated and not believable to one who has lived for over 30 years in Costa Rica as I have, the State side story line and legal machinations sound plausible and most of the "Sports Book" operations in San Jose are now closed so there must be something to the reported fact that the USG is actively pursuing these operations. The book focuses on a poker played over the internet and how it was thought of as a skilled activity and not a game of chance...to this non gambler's mind a real stretch, but so the story goes...that when the folks in the book started their operation and transferred it to Costa Rica, there was no law against it....until the U.S. DOJ decided that poker was really a game of chance and that's when the plot thickens..... Its an interesting read...just don't believe all of the hype about how untrustworthy and unprofessional Costa Rica employees are.....simply not true!

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

the architect

iPad battery died because I couldn't stopped reading!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 28, 2013

Verified Purchase

I've read Rigged by Mezrich, it was fantastic - so I had high hopes for this one. I won't say this is better than Rigged because it's on par with it. A great book - fascinating story - deep character development - it draws you in and places you square in the group of frat brothers the story revolves around. Lots of technical detail without getting too 'technical' and the personal stories envelope you in the lives of each of the players & protagonists. Excellent, a must read if you like any of Ben Mezrich's other books.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Ben

Going all in!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 30, 2020

Verified Purchase

Having previously read the book about the building of the Facebook empire I was intrigued to read some of his other work as I really enjoyed that book. For me I didnt enjoy this as much. I think the main reasons for this lay in that the characters and subject matter come across as being quite bland. I felt as though the author had to do quite a bit of fluffing and exaggerating to make them seem more interesting. Giving the book a fictional feel despite it being a real life story.

The story on the whole wasnt exactly ore inspiring. The online poker industry comes across as being somewhat one dimensional without much to give it an edge. The characters in addition came across as fairly stayed, white coller, law abiding citizens even though they were depicted as being rock and roll with their shorts and t-shirts. I found them to be arrogant and obnoxious for the most part lacking any real depth of personality.

Still well written though with an easily accessible style. Recommended to anyone with an interest in Online poker and gambling who want a not so serious depiction of the building of a global poker enterprise, warts and all.

tom

Good quick read but nothing overly exciting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 29, 2017

Verified Purchase

Like all of Ben Mezrich's books they are written in a style that's easy to get into and moves at a good pace.

But just found the story a bit boring, didn't really find myself caring what happened to the characters. In these sorts of stories I always find the struggle to make it big the most interesting part.

But first 25% of the book introducing the characters. Next 25% of the book they've got someone else to build the site and they're taking in tens of thousands a day.

The stories about wild parties and women are entertaining but ultimately nothing you haven't heard before and didn't really have any shock factor for me. Would rather it more focused on the business journey.

Definitely worth buying if you have a long plane/train journey and want a quick bit of entertainment.

MR D HOGAN

Mickey Mouse Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 18, 2013

Verified Purchase

There is very little factual information in this book. It reads like some kind of film screenplay, and presumably with Mezrichs history, he's looking to make a film out of this. You could speed read this book in an afternoon.

This is aside from the fact there is no mention of the dodginess of the way they ran the business. But it is clear from the content that they were running the company by the seat of their pants, and barely in profit at any stage. No wonder the lavish lifestyle was funded by player funds, seems like the site barely broke even.

I wouldn't pay any more that £4-5 for this book. Very little meat in the book.

2 people found this helpful