Deadman's Poker: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: James Swain
Publisher: Fawcett
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
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Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 136466
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0345475496
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780345475497
ASIN: 0345475496
Publication Date: April 25, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Some wear on book from reading, spine creases, wear on binding and pages, we guarantee all purchases and ship all items via USPS mail.
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Product Description
Tony Valentine is an expert at spotting cheats. He’s tossed them out of gambling casinos from Atlantic City to Las Vegas and Monaco. But though Tony has never met a scam he couldn’t crack, his son and partner, Gerry, has just walked into one with a body count.
What started with a conman’s deathbed confession turns into a deadly Las Vegas grudge match during the world’s biggest poker tournament. While Gerry and his shady friends tangle with the Vegas mob, Tony enlists the aid of an aging grifter who’s fleecing suckers with a dazzling array of improbable betting stunts. Tony’s been hired to save the tournament (and stop a blind player who’s out to heist it), while Gerry’s just trying to stay alive–now that murder is in the cards.
Featuring insider tips for catching poker cheats, as well as a glossary of card hustler terms!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 30 more reviews...
 First of Two-Parter January 28, 2008
lb136 (New York, NY USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Another in the author's series of novels featuring Tony Valentine, who consults with casinos and law-enforcement about gambling scams and scammers.
In this tale, he and his son Gerry go to Las Vegas to discover how a blind poker player is scamming a poker tournament, which is being televised nationally by an ESPN-like cable sports network.
A few of the regular characters reappear, and there are two great new ones--a female reporter for the network, who Valentine develops a relationship with, and a 72-year-old grifter named Rufus, who among other "wagers" bets a mark that he can beat a horse and jockey in a 100-yard race.
There's a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor, with one chapter concluding with a plea to bring over a flamethrower. Wait for it.
Warning: at the end of the novel Valentine is halfway to the solution, but the sequel, "Deadman's Bluff," has been published. Some may object to this carving-up of a single tale, but really--the side stories are as interesting as the main plot, so I, for one, don't much mind.
 Half a book July 23, 2007
J. Lee (Newport Beach, CA United States)
The writing is great and the build up to the end is great but there is no payoff. We have to buy the next book to figure out what is going to happen (I think). Frustrating and disappointing.
 You gotta know when to fold 'em June 22, 2007
Andrew Manikas
Based on the first third of this book, I would give this 4 stars. The characters were interesting, and I was enjoying myself. Then the story really slowed down, with lots of side stuff. Then I figured out I would need to get the next book Deadman's Bluff to finish the story. So minus 1 star for taking a single 1 book story and splitting into 2 books to extort money. And clearly, it would have been 2 short books so filler was added. Another minus star for boring side stories; the Rufus scammer character is interesting in moderation, but after the fly, horserace, golf, ping pong, cat, x-ray vision, etc. scams, it was tiring. They didn't add anything, other than the mildly entertaining "how he tricked the Greek" variety. But they were too long as side stories, and it was ludicrous that the main character and his tacked-on "love" interest kept saying "there's no way he can do this" over and over again. Look, Rufus is a grifter, he will win not by playing by the rules. No reader was saying "yeah, there is no way" rather it was, "ok, what dumb trick will he use." So the dialog seemed contrived to try to make these side stories more dramatic. Didn't work. And in the end, the way that the tournament cheating was done, you probably will have figured out, and it isn't very "wow" to justify buying and reading 2 books. Even though my review sounds negative, I was impressed with the beginning of this book, and I assume that the rest of this book and the 2nd one were boring because the author (editor/publisher) were trying to stretch this out to sell twice as many books. If you just read this book and not the 2nd you really will be unhappy (1 star happy). However, given the good beginning of this book, I'm going to try Mr. Lucky and give this author 1 more chance. I think he is better than whomever told him to stretch this thin story to two volumes. The author seems to have a great sense of gambling, Atlantic City, and grifters. If these 2 books were 1, and tightened up by dropping a ton of Rufus stuff, this would be 4 stars!
Here comes a another one March 1, 2007
Charles J. Marr (Cambridge Springs, Pa USA)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I really like Swain. I really like Valentine. I even kinda like his kid. I'm not too sure about this novel. You see it's not finished. There's some strange, fatal method of winning at poker - maybe like what killed that Russian spy_ but after a lot of novel we do not yet know. Nor does Tony. I sure hope no one climbs up a rope and disappears in the follow up. You see, there is an old con man who makes and wins absurd bets with gamblers in Las Vegas. I suspect the chances of getting away with those bets would be about the same as not experiencing leg breaking ,cause they are on the order of "Betcha I can tell you where you got them shoes." So here we are anticipating a resolution to the surefire poker win and are only half the way there while being entertained with side shows. Maybe Swain needed some cash and had only half the novel done. After all, the carnie makes as much geeking as on the midway. I hope that's it cause now I am waiting for the follow up. Hooked I guess.Decide for yourself. Double or nothing. Watta bet!!!
Beware...#1 of a Two parter January 19, 2007
Padre Pete (Alexandria, VA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The problem with some author's today is that they decide (or their publishers encourage them) to write a 2 part-er. Then, they do not let you knw this on the cover (probably so if you read the paperback, you can then buy the hardcover). The problem with these books is that the 2nd part usually spends a lot of time covering the same ground as the first book, and (as reviewers already state for book #2 - Deadman's bluff - you do not even need to read this one to appreciate that work!).
Otherwise this would get 4 stars. Swain's writing is much better, and his plot points no longer carry the huge unbelievable stretches of imagination (like actual mind reading monkeys) that his earlier works do. One good aspect of Swain's books is that the author allows us to enjoy Vegas while at the same time not hiding his personal distain for the gambling mecca.
I recommend this, as long as you know it is #1 of 2 and though side plot points will be solved, the main case will not until you read "bluff."
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