Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 06 August 2010 / Leave a Comment

Things happen fast in poker. Much can change in a very short time. Players making their initial splash on the professional circuit frequently get pegged as grizzled vets within just a year. The same might be said about members of the poker media, with those who stick at it longer than a year or two often likely to find themselves considered part of the "old guard," relatively speaking.

Paul McGuire's new book, Lost Vegas: The Redneck Riviera, Existentialist Conversations with Strippers, and the World Series of Poker, offers the perspective of one member of that so-called "old guard" in the form of a riveting chronicle of the author's experiences covering the WSOP. Focusing primarily on the post-"boom" years of 2005-2008, McGuire's book offers a fascinating glimpse into the life of a poker reporter, tracing his journey from a somewhat starry-eyed newcomer to a seasoned, respected -- and at times even cynical -- commentator.

As the reader of Lost Vegas soon learns, McGuire -- a.k.a. "Dr. Pauly" -- has written about poker and the WSOP for numerous sites and publications over the last half-dozen years. However, McGuire is best known in the poker world for his frequently updated personal blog, Tao of Poker, begun way back in 2003. Indeed, most who pick up Lost Vegas will likely be familiar with Tao of Poker, where one can find in the archives earlier versions of some of the anecdotes and episodes that appear in the book.

In fact, one way of describing McGuire's book would be to compare it to other "blog-to-book" projects, although it should be noted that Lost Vegas does a nice job organizing the author's Vegas adventures into a relatively formal structure as opposed to their more journal-like presentation on McGuire's blog.

The book is arranged in four parts, with each mostly concentrating on a single summer at the WSOP. The book begins with McGuire's initial invitation by Flipchip and the Poker Prof -- the first of many real-life people with monikers sounding like fictional characters -- to help them report on the 2005 Series for their site, LasVegasVegas.com. "I desperately needed some sort of direction in my life," explains McGuire, who therefore quickly "dove head first down the rabbit hole" to accept the assignment.

The first chapters then rapidly introduce a few of the book's primary themes. There's the personal story of McGuire finding that needed "direction" and becoming a full-time professional writer (a story that culminates, in a sense, with the publication of Lost Vegas). The often-less-than-ideal working conditions faced by the WSOP reporter are given attention here, too, symbolized early on by the unsavory (and dangerous) extended-stay hotel at which the author lived that first summer, dubbed by McGuire the "Redneck Riviera."

Another theme sounded right from the start is that of the potentially self-destructive enticements one finds on offer in "Sin City." "Las Vegas lures you to shed moral responsibility and piss away your money on indulgences like decadent food, entertainment, gambling, and sex," writes McGuire. "If you don't enjoy these pastimes, then what's the point of visiting the land of compromised values?"

It's a paradox McGuire personally faces time and again throughout the book while also witnessing and reporting on others' similar struggles. How does one survive (or thrive) for any length of time in a place that appears to have been explicitly designed -- like a craps table or roulette wheel -- to guarantee long-term failure?

The rest of the book moves back and forth between documenting McGuire's personal journey as a reporter writing for different outlets and broader reporting from the WSOP. Along the way McGuire includes most of the major stories from the 2005-2008 WSOPs here, including a few eyebrow-raising, behind-the-scenes tales from each of those summers at Binion's Horseshoe (in 2005) and the Rio.

Poker author Lou Krieger (whom I interviewed here earlier this year) often likes to refer to Dr. Pauly as the "Hunter S. Thompson" of poker, and indeed, Lost Vegas will probably reaffirm that association for some readers. Thompson, best known for his free-form, subjective style of reporting, provided an earlier document of hedonism in the Nevada desert, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972), a book with which Lost Vegas shares affinities in both style and subject.

In Thompson's book, the author (as "Raoul Duke") travels with a certain "Dr. Gonzo" to Vegas to cover a minor sporting event, with the journey exploding into an epic, drug-fueled odyssey about Vegas, the written word, and the search for meaning in this life. It's a story with which Lost Vegas often resonates, with McGuire in the role of Duke and various others -- more real-life people with "character" names like Grubby, Otis, and Nicky -- sometimes appearing to take on the "Dr. Gonzo" role as McGuire's fellow adventurer.

Speaking of those "characters," Lost Vegas also might be regarded as a lengthy homage of sorts to McGuire's fellow poker bloggers, a truly interesting cast of talented and witty people who populate almost every chapter of the book. (Indeed, nearly all of the bloggers I assembled for my WSOP Bloggers Roundtable back in May appear in Lost Vegas.) Even the nifty cover was designed by a blogger -- Kat "Katitude" Goodale.

McGuire does well to highlight these other writers' stories as he tells his own, while also explaining the strong sense of fellowship that develops among those covering the WSOP. "Because we worked in close quarters, an instant camaraderie developed, and on the good days the job seemed like we were at summer camp," explains McGuire. He then shares analogies suggested by others -- it's like being on a movie set (says Wil Wheaton), or a bunch of plane crash survivors (Dan Michalski), or a collection of "grunts entering the jungle for the first time" (Flipchip).

"All I know," McGuire concludes, "is that I'd gut salmon in a frigid Alaskan fishery seven days a week for sixteen hours a day (without piss breaks) if one of them asked."

Ultimately Lost Vegas marks an important contribution to WSOP history, joining books like The Biggest Game in Town by Al Alvarez, Big Deal by Anthony Holden, and Positively Fifth Street by James McManus as another worthwhile volume on that shelf. It additionally provides an insightful commentary on Las Vegas, circa early-21st century, that most intriguing American city that so often seems to provide the perfect context in which to demonstrate life's many absurdities.

Lost Vegas also a highly compelling read that should prove rewarding to anyone with an interest in poker, the WSOP, Las Vegas, or the craft of writing.

For information about ordering Lost Vegas, visit the book's website.

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