James McManus, Columnist

Duck, Duck, Loser: My Failed Bid for $10 Million

I had 105,000 chips at the World Series of Poker. Here's how I blew it.

July 11, 2014 at 5:30 PM UTC

James McManus is the author of "Positively Fifth Street" and "Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker." He has written about the game for the New York Times, Harper's, the New Yorker, Foreign Policy, Esquire and Grantland. He teaches writing and literature at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Writers worry about transitions all the time. We want to find the most seamless -- or arrestingly abrupt -- move from Point A to Point B, from a summary of the myriad events at a massive poker tournament, say, to the intricate details of a subtly contested hand. From the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat, in some cases.

That's the kind of thing that's been occupying me since I arrived at the Rio casino in Las Vegas on June 24 to play in and cover a few World Series of Poker events. I didn't play in the Big One for One Drop tournament, of course, because I didn't have a million dollars to buy into it. But I did play in four smaller events, and I had one tiny cash win of $3,900. After that, I focused on the Main Event, which began July 5.