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Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids: How a Gang of Geeks Beat the Odds and Stormed Las Vegas
If you think a gang of real-life geeks can’t take on the world and win big . . . think again. And whatever you do, don’t sit down across a gaming table from Jon Finkel, better known as Jonny Magic. Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids is his amazing true the jaw-dropping, zero-to-hero chronicle of a fat, friendless boy from New Jersey who found his edge in a game of cards–and turned it into a fortune.
The ultimate bully-magnet, Finkel grew up heckled and hazed until destiny came in the form of a trading-card game called The Gathering. Magic exploded from nerdy obsession to mainstream mania and made the teenage Finkel an ultracool world champion.
Once transformed, this young shark stormed poker rooms from the underground clubs of New York City to the high-stakes tables online, until he landed on the largest card-counting blackjack team in the country. Taking Vegas for millions, Finkel’s squad of brainy gamers became the biggest players in town. Then they took on the town’s biggest game, the World Series of Poker, and walked away with more than $3.5 million.
Thrilling, edgy, and ferociously feel-good, the odyssey of these underdogs-turned-overlords is the stuff of pop-culture legend. And David Kushner, acclaimed author of Masters of Doom , masterfully deals out the outrageous details while bringing to life a cast of characters rife with aces, kings, knaves . . . and more than a few jokers. If you secretly believe every player has his day, you’re right. Here’s the proof.
The ultimate bully-magnet, Finkel grew up heckled and hazed until destiny came in the form of a trading-card game called The Gathering. Magic exploded from nerdy obsession to mainstream mania and made the teenage Finkel an ultracool world champion.
Once transformed, this young shark stormed poker rooms from the underground clubs of New York City to the high-stakes tables online, until he landed on the largest card-counting blackjack team in the country. Taking Vegas for millions, Finkel’s squad of brainy gamers became the biggest players in town. Then they took on the town’s biggest game, the World Series of Poker, and walked away with more than $3.5 million.
Thrilling, edgy, and ferociously feel-good, the odyssey of these underdogs-turned-overlords is the stuff of pop-culture legend. And David Kushner, acclaimed author of Masters of Doom , masterfully deals out the outrageous details while bringing to life a cast of characters rife with aces, kings, knaves . . . and more than a few jokers. If you secretly believe every player has his day, you’re right. Here’s the proof.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
13 people are currently reading
201 people want to read
About the author
David Kushner
28 books229 followersDavid Kushner is an award-winning journalist and author. He is a contributing editor of Wired, Rolling Stone, and Spectrum and is an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
November 15, 2007
So some might say I'm little bit biased, since I am the subject of the book and all. But to be honest, I found the subject fascinating, and the protagonist is a modern hero in the truest sense of the word.
September 27, 2011
This book was pretty disappointing. I'm a fan of games in general and Magic: The Gathering and Poker in particular. The true story of a geeky outcast who rises to the ranks of professional Magic, then takes on Vegas as a professional poker player, then card counter, should be a fun and fascinating read. But Kushner's cheesy prose and superficial coverage of events falls flat.
The target audience should be card players who understand the games reasonably well, but Kushner goes for the lowest common denominator, so we get no play-by-play description of individual Magic matches or poker hands, and thus no insight into what really makes Finkle special. I can't help but feel that the story is interesting in spite of Kushner's telling.
Also, I was generally rooting for Finkle through most of the book, even though at times he does come across as a bit of a douchebag. But I listened to the audio version, which includes an actual interview with Finkle, and it kind of sealed the deal. Both he and the author come across as superficial goofs, and the interview is almost painful to listen to.
The target audience should be card players who understand the games reasonably well, but Kushner goes for the lowest common denominator, so we get no play-by-play description of individual Magic matches or poker hands, and thus no insight into what really makes Finkle special. I can't help but feel that the story is interesting in spite of Kushner's telling.
Also, I was generally rooting for Finkle through most of the book, even though at times he does come across as a bit of a douchebag. But I listened to the audio version, which includes an actual interview with Finkle, and it kind of sealed the deal. Both he and the author come across as superficial goofs, and the interview is almost painful to listen to.
June 21, 2025
Picks up in the second half but quite hard to read in the first.
Written poorly...
Doesn't seem to know it's audience at all. I imagine the majority of it's readers have a base knowledge of MTG however it is explained in great detail.
Author obviously has a problem with the way other people look and obsessively mentions how fat and greasy these people are whilst also putting them on a pedestal as "athletes of the mind".
Written poorly...
Doesn't seem to know it's audience at all. I imagine the majority of it's readers have a base knowledge of MTG however it is explained in great detail.
Author obviously has a problem with the way other people look and obsessively mentions how fat and greasy these people are whilst also putting them on a pedestal as "athletes of the mind".
March 3, 2015
Very interesting subject. If you can see through the writing there is some interesting content. The author seems to have greatly misjudged his audience though and the result is rather unfortunate. Kushner writes as if he was expecting his audience to be people who know nothing about competitive magic, blackjack, or even just general nerd-culture. I don't understand why anyone without a working knowledge of those subjects would have any interest in reading this book. I do think there is a great story to be told, but this book only offers highlights of Jon's life amidst a very disappointing narrative.
January 14, 2017
Like many books that address subcultures, this one was quite crap. It wasn't really really crap, like many things written about subcultures, and it wasn't totally awesome like Stefan Fatsis's book on Scrabble. The author was somewhat sympathetic towards the players, but his descriptions of the play were still quite poor, and he tended to want to allocate all the characters to stereotypes. Geek lives are just as nuanced and meaningful as any other human's, and I didn't feel that that came through in this story, when it should have. Nevertheless it's nice to see a book that's pretty much sympathetic to geek culture.
November 2, 2011
It started out really good but towards the end I noticed that the language used was just really weird. He went from the "geek" to wanting to "crush" everyone in card games. It was just not fun to read towards the end. It was like listening to that guy brag in the class about his luxury weekend. We get it, you went from being uncool to having "hot babes" in Vegas. I wanted to learn more about poker, but I obviously picked up the wrong book.
May 4, 2017
I haven't read an entire book in one day in a long time. This was so good, couldn't put it down. If you are into MTG at all, it's a must read. Great history, and a wonderfully told story about Jonny Magic.
October 1, 2025
This is another book on geek culture from David Kushner. This book follows the career of Jon Finkel as he grew up as a geek, learned the game of Magic: The Gathering and used his knowledge to storm the world of gambling. I found it interesting how so many of the poker and blackjack players who were storming the world in the mid-to-late 2000's came from the game of Magic: The Gathering. Fun read.
January 7, 2019
An interesting book on a card player
I had no idea who Jon was before I read this book but still quite liked it! Even though I don’t know much about Magic, Poker or Blackjack I thought this was quite entertaining. Made me curious on reading more on the history of MTG
I had no idea who Jon was before I read this book but still quite liked it! Even though I don’t know much about Magic, Poker or Blackjack I thought this was quite entertaining. Made me curious on reading more on the history of MTG
May 31, 2021
As a writer of nonfiction and a Magic: the Gathering player, I found this book a great insight into the person widely regarded as the greatest player of all time. Jon Finkel comes alive in this book, not just for his technical prowess but for his all-too-human struggles and foibles.
May 2, 2020
A satisfying and entertaining underdog story about my favorite game. How could I not give it five stars?
September 19, 2022
Good, but not as good as some of his other stuff. My opinion may be colored by the fact that I am a MTG player and the MTG parts make it clear that Kushner is not. Still overall very entertaining.
March 31, 2023
I enjoyed a good portion of this. Not being a poker or blackjack player the latter bits in a few spots weren't as gripping. Overall not a bad book. But compared to Masters of Doom a 3/5
March 9, 2017
Love, love, love it! Great writing. I love the true stories of social outcasts embedded in nerd culture, rising to the top of the world. It also made me want to play some cards.
August 14, 2007
These days, you can't throw a stick in a bookstore without hitting a gambling book. Poker tournaments are becoming regular sights on network TV, and online poker sites grow more and more popular. And if you watch those TV tourneys, you'll notice one thing: the final table is often filled with guys who look like they might still be in college. David Kushner, author of Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture tells us who those guys are and how they came to be there in a story that should warm the cockles of any true geek's heart.
Johnny Magic and the Card Shark Kids is many things, among them a history of D&D culture and an account of the creation and subsequent pop culture explosion of the game Magic: the Gathering. But first and foremost, it's the story of Jon Finkel, a prototypical uber-geek who harnesses his massive brain to the study of Magic and goes farther than anyone would have believed.
Finkel's story resonates with the reader because we've all been there, to some degree. We've all felt alienated and alone, and a good many of us have turned, like Jon did, to the welcoming arms of SF, fantasy, and D&D. Watching Jon grow and change from a lonely, troubled teen into a successful and happy adult is an uplifting experience, and Kushner does a great job telling his story.
Kushner is equally adept at telling the story of Richard Garfield and the creation of Magic: the Gathering. We get it all, from idea to inception. Plus, Finkel's story is so intertwined with the story of Magic that we end up with a pretty good history of the cultural phenomenon that the game became.
People like Garfield and Finkel leap off the page, as do the more minor characters -- Kushner is adept at capturing their voices and letting them speak to the reader.
Everything about the book works, from story to design. It even includes appendices on the basics of Magic: the Gathering, Blackjack, and Texas Hold 'em. There's an author afterword where Kushner lays out his own geek credentials, and I'm tempted to believe that this is the secret to the book's success: Kushner is one of us. The story rings true not just because it's factual, but because the author really understands his subject. It's Kushner's gift to be able to share that knowledge in a way that makes us all able to understand as well.
Johnny Magic and the Card Shark Kids is many things, among them a history of D&D culture and an account of the creation and subsequent pop culture explosion of the game Magic: the Gathering. But first and foremost, it's the story of Jon Finkel, a prototypical uber-geek who harnesses his massive brain to the study of Magic and goes farther than anyone would have believed.
Finkel's story resonates with the reader because we've all been there, to some degree. We've all felt alienated and alone, and a good many of us have turned, like Jon did, to the welcoming arms of SF, fantasy, and D&D. Watching Jon grow and change from a lonely, troubled teen into a successful and happy adult is an uplifting experience, and Kushner does a great job telling his story.
Kushner is equally adept at telling the story of Richard Garfield and the creation of Magic: the Gathering. We get it all, from idea to inception. Plus, Finkel's story is so intertwined with the story of Magic that we end up with a pretty good history of the cultural phenomenon that the game became.
People like Garfield and Finkel leap off the page, as do the more minor characters -- Kushner is adept at capturing their voices and letting them speak to the reader.
Everything about the book works, from story to design. It even includes appendices on the basics of Magic: the Gathering, Blackjack, and Texas Hold 'em. There's an author afterword where Kushner lays out his own geek credentials, and I'm tempted to believe that this is the secret to the book's success: Kushner is one of us. The story rings true not just because it's factual, but because the author really understands his subject. It's Kushner's gift to be able to share that knowledge in a way that makes us all able to understand as well.
December 23, 2013
“You are contaminated.”
Thus ends the first biography of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Finkel Jon Finkel [my Hero] by author David Kushner [Masters of Doom]. A Casino Pit Boss has seen the author chatting with a known card counter, and Mr Finkel wants to remain uncontaminated thus Mr Kushner must move on so Mr Finkel can continue to play…A pretty perfect ending to a not so perfect book…
Jonny Magic is a quick read—ideal for anyone interested in background information on the greatest game created in the last 30 years or one of the greatest athletes of our generation. This book is fun to read—a lot of the early bullying stories and later gambling tales are really eye opening. Mr Kushner has unearthed some interesting background details & covers most of the high points in Finkel’s life.
However, this book mostly misses the point when trying to draw larger social conclusions that are so far not evident in the facts of Mr Finkel’s life. Mr Kushner would have done better with more subjects and more time in the trenches with Magic Players. The book would have been rewarded by a more laser like focus on Magic and less discussion of poker and black jack—chapters of why some people play magic for reasons other than money, would have been refreshing.
More focus on Jon Finkel and why “when he plays a card it is amazing, and when you play the same card it is just ok”—the story of what makes Finkel the best Magic Player requires more analysis of what makes a good Magic player and what playing Magic means. That story, which is the story I bought the book to read, is not meant to be the story of this book and still remains to be written.
What is evident in Finkel’s life so far is that he is the best magic player ever. How he got there is detailed, what he did while he was at the top of his game is discussed, where is he is today is addressed. Unfortunately, what exactly that means is left to the reader to figure out.
Thus ends the first biography of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Finkel Jon Finkel [my Hero] by author David Kushner [Masters of Doom]. A Casino Pit Boss has seen the author chatting with a known card counter, and Mr Finkel wants to remain uncontaminated thus Mr Kushner must move on so Mr Finkel can continue to play…A pretty perfect ending to a not so perfect book…
Jonny Magic is a quick read—ideal for anyone interested in background information on the greatest game created in the last 30 years or one of the greatest athletes of our generation. This book is fun to read—a lot of the early bullying stories and later gambling tales are really eye opening. Mr Kushner has unearthed some interesting background details & covers most of the high points in Finkel’s life.
However, this book mostly misses the point when trying to draw larger social conclusions that are so far not evident in the facts of Mr Finkel’s life. Mr Kushner would have done better with more subjects and more time in the trenches with Magic Players. The book would have been rewarded by a more laser like focus on Magic and less discussion of poker and black jack—chapters of why some people play magic for reasons other than money, would have been refreshing.
More focus on Jon Finkel and why “when he plays a card it is amazing, and when you play the same card it is just ok”—the story of what makes Finkel the best Magic Player requires more analysis of what makes a good Magic player and what playing Magic means. That story, which is the story I bought the book to read, is not meant to be the story of this book and still remains to be written.
What is evident in Finkel’s life so far is that he is the best magic player ever. How he got there is detailed, what he did while he was at the top of his game is discussed, where is he is today is addressed. Unfortunately, what exactly that means is left to the reader to figure out.
February 15, 2010
It's an interesting book in the sense that it identifies the correlation between Magic The Gathering and some of the more successful and young poker players who have made Televised final tables in recent years. It's a case study in the transition of one of the early world champions of MTG tournament play into tournament poker via Atlantic City cash games.
One caveat I'd point out is that most people even if they are poker playing enthusiasts (or MTG for that matter) probably won't recognize the main protagonists and this underlines a weakness that dates the work. Their style is generally called the Loose Aggressive style and while they may have met with initial success the field in poker tournaments is much wider and that style is a difficult one with which to succeed. Thus their success is a bit of that was then this is now story and they are not really all that prevalent. They are not Phil Ivey, Phil Helmuth, or even Chris Ferguson famous and though they might disparage these older players it says something that even half a decade on they are not the well known figures.
It does demonstrate the disparate backgrounds that can make it rich in poker.
One caveat I'd point out is that most people even if they are poker playing enthusiasts (or MTG for that matter) probably won't recognize the main protagonists and this underlines a weakness that dates the work. Their style is generally called the Loose Aggressive style and while they may have met with initial success the field in poker tournaments is much wider and that style is a difficult one with which to succeed. Thus their success is a bit of that was then this is now story and they are not really all that prevalent. They are not Phil Ivey, Phil Helmuth, or even Chris Ferguson famous and though they might disparage these older players it says something that even half a decade on they are not the well known figures.
It does demonstrate the disparate backgrounds that can make it rich in poker.
February 18, 2010
It’s possibly a common dream among mathematically gifted but socially challenged high school outcasts that traits for which they were shunned will someday emerge as acclaimed talents. Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids is the tale of one such transformation. Dismissed as the weird fat kid, Jon Finkel discovers the card game, Magic: The Gathering, and quickly becomes world champion before turning to blackjack and poker. Re-named Jonny Magic, a couple of hundred pounds lighter and a few million better off, he’s still doing the rounds of card playing gigs.
His tale has enough troughs, breezy feel-good episodes, and moments of tension and excitement to make a good story, but Kushner has a habit of slowing the pace by labouring the misfit-loner-turned-superstar point with repeated references to Finkel’s former state. I was hoping to pick up some tips, but don’t think my days of playing poker for matchsticks are over just yet.
His tale has enough troughs, breezy feel-good episodes, and moments of tension and excitement to make a good story, but Kushner has a habit of slowing the pace by labouring the misfit-loner-turned-superstar point with repeated references to Finkel’s former state. I was hoping to pick up some tips, but don’t think my days of playing poker for matchsticks are over just yet.
June 28, 2014
I thought Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids was a good read. David has a knack for making unlikable, socially awkward, nerdy people somehow likable in his books. Taking a kid who is a champion magic player and then showing people that this kid is smart and applied his knowledge from a more high scale, less accessible card game like Magic to Poker and Blackjack was fun to read about.
Jonny Magic starts out as a super unlikable personality, to the point where in the first couple chapters I asked myself, why am I reading about this person? But then, as he started to grow up and transform into the card shark he became, it was obvious why reading about him was fun.
For anyone looking for a good triumph story for a kid that goes from absolute nerd to card shark poker champion, this is definitely one to check out!
Jonny Magic starts out as a super unlikable personality, to the point where in the first couple chapters I asked myself, why am I reading about this person? But then, as he started to grow up and transform into the card shark he became, it was obvious why reading about him was fun.
For anyone looking for a good triumph story for a kid that goes from absolute nerd to card shark poker champion, this is definitely one to check out!
December 11, 2012
Kushner's writing style makes this story feel like one of those weekend's morning movies about the underdog/geek/nerd becoming a champion, even if it lacks the hard beatdown part where our hero is punished for beating the system.
Apart from some inaccurate technicalities from the author, and the sporadic cheezy commentary, Jonny Magic & the Card Shark Kids will let every reader wondering if he could be the next hero in town, be it the young kid with Yu-Gi-Oh, the 30'ier in a casino or elderly on sport betting. As fantasy has told us, the Magic is inside all of us.
Apart from some inaccurate technicalities from the author, and the sporadic cheezy commentary, Jonny Magic & the Card Shark Kids will let every reader wondering if he could be the next hero in town, be it the young kid with Yu-Gi-Oh, the 30'ier in a casino or elderly on sport betting. As fantasy has told us, the Magic is inside all of us.
November 14, 2014
The writing in this book was overwrought and kind of annoying. Even the concept -- that it was somehow surprising that nerds who played magic were good at poker -- was pretty flawed. You can also tell which parts of the book the author witnessed (those were convincing) and which were based on the nostalgic recollections of the characters (those weren't.) But if you're interested in the worlds of competitive cards, professional sports betting, or nerdom in general, it's worth putting up with that stuff because this is a great story.
February 24, 2012
I don't play poker nor do I play Magic: The Gathering, but I did enjoy this non-fiction look into the creation of the very popular card game and how a group of its fanatics have adapted to the world of professional poker. Even after reading this, I don't want to play poker or Magic, but that shouldn't be seen as a slight against David Kushner's lively, breezy history of the game and profiles of various devotees of Magic. This is a fun one that registers high on the geek ladder.
December 28, 2007
This is a biographical account of John Finkel, a fat friendless boy from New Jersey who discovered his unique abilities at card games starting with Magic, which is a card game designed to appeal to the Dungeons and Dragons crowd. He progressed to teams of Black Jack card counters and wound up as one of the Greats of the Texas Hold'em crowd.
February 17, 2008
The biography of Jon Finkel, who went from random fat geeky kid to one of the best Magic: The Gathering players ever to cleaning house in Vegas.
The Magic: The Gathering play parts are pretty badly written and at times it seems to random segue into backstory on the game's creation and its creator (Richard Garfield), but overall its a decent bio.
The Magic: The Gathering play parts are pretty badly written and at times it seems to random segue into backstory on the game's creation and its creator (Richard Garfield), but overall its a decent bio.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 5, 2013
Great book for the layman about Magic the Gathering, Blackjack card counting, and the early days of the poker boom. If you're eye glaze over when most people try to explain Magic, this is book to read. Also, a great story about a misfit finding his place in the world through gaming.
August 10, 2014
This was not amazing as a book; it had a weird writing style. Also the magic terminology used was strange. But I really wanted to read the story of Jon Finkel, so I stuck through it.
Also, after I finished it I started to get into poker.
Also, after I finished it I started to get into poker.
May 19, 2016
Basically Story Of An Introvert Person Social Growth Develops Skills In Living! Success In Card Games Makes Logic Due Not Athletic! Brains To Advance In Life's Learning Is A Process! Smart Guy Struggles Adjust To Life People Skills Is A Good Read!
Want to read
April 5, 2007It's about my cousin. How can it NOT be on my list??
September 27, 2008
This book is what pushed me to play Magic: The Gathering.
February 8, 2009
What a great book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews