Vegas or Bust: A Family Man Takes On the Poker Pros

Journalist Kampis debuts with an entertaining memoir of how he uprooted his family and chased his dream of playing in the World Series of Poker Main Event. A decade after he was knocked out of the 2006 competition, Kampis and his wife, Amy, decide to spend a summer in Las Vegas so he can compete again. He plans to take two gambles: risking $10,000 in the tournament and bringing their autistic six-year-old son to a highly stimulating unfamiliar situation. Kampis weaves the stories of both ventures together. His hand-by-hand account of the tournament will please poker enthusiasts while informing readers less familiar with “a game of the masses” that’s full of big blinds, rivers, satellites, and buttons. (The jargon is always well explained but can get tedious.) Kampis interviews other players, writers, historians, and power-brokers, giving insight into the state of the game. The family gamble also pays off as both their children thrive during the summer. The most winning aspect of the book is Kampis’s new perspective, transformed from 2006’s lonely young poker fanatic to 2016’s family man who appreciates his good fortune in having another kind of full house. Agent: Sheree Bykofsky, Sheree Bykofsky Associates. (May)