Poker Author James McManus Scripts TED-Ed Poker History Animation‘Positively Fifth Street’ Author Also Discusses TED Talk, Other Projects |
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Card players saw some nice time in the mainstream spotlight last week with the release of a TED-Ed animation focusing on the history of poker. James McManus, author of Positively Fifth Street and Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker, wrote the script for the animation after being contacted by the group about a year ago.
“Their brief history of chess had racked up millions of views, and they wanted to make a similar one for poker,” he told Card Player. “Someone there had read Cowboys Full and thought I could do a good job.
“TED’s entire production team is top-notch. I think the animator, Chintis Lundgren, did a wonderful job with her signature, gently humorous style. The target audience is roughly grades 5-12, the next generation of online poker players, or anyone who’s curious about the provenance and evolution of the game. The toughest part for me was deciding what to leave out of a 525-page book, since their videos must be under six minutes.”
Poker Featured In Popular Series
TED-Ed comes from the team behind the popular TED Talks series and offers award-winning animated shorts with supplemental learning materials. The history of poker is just the latest and has already racked up more than 163,000 views in four days.
The animation touches briefly on the history of poker in the Old West, cheating methods utilized in the old days, how to play no-limit Texas hold’em, the mathematics behind the game, and more. McManus’s relationship with the group now expands to another project as well.
“I plan to cover more aspects of poker history in a TED Talk, in which you have 18 minutes and can show slides to make it more vivid,” the author says.
TED Talks has featured other poker players in the past as well, including the multi-talented Liv Boeree, who gave lessons on probability, decision making, and the dark side of competition in AI.
More On The Horizon
Beyond his own talk, McManus has even more in the works, including a multi-part documentary focusing on poker’s complete 200-year history.
Fans of Positively Fifth Street are also in luck. The book chronicles the 2000 Ted Bunion murder trial in Las Vegas as well as McManus’s run through the WSOP main event, where he ultimately finished fifth for $247,760.
Screenwriter and producer Ben Cavell is also back working on a Positively Fifth Street limited series now that the actors’ and writers’ strikes are over. The author is also now writing a sequel titled Good Luck, Everybody.
Longtime Card Player readers will be familiar with McManus’s work. His original history of poker writings were serialized in the magazine, and he has also documented the history of the WSOP as well.
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