casino executive Ted Binion. The trial coincided with the 2000 WSOP, which McManus entered. He won a satellite tournament into the Main Event, and reached the final table, placing fifth. The book is a two-track memoir of his coverage of the trial interspersed with and finally subsumed by the poker tournament.

The book's title was inspired by Bob Dylan's 1965 single "Positively 4th Street".