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The Hand You're Dealt
The Hand You're Dealt
The Hand You're Dealt
Ebook146 pages1 hour

The Hand You're Dealt

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

2.5/5

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When Huck Porter's dad suddenly dies, it feels like nothing will ever make sense again. Huck's "best friend" thinks that Huck should just get over it, the girl he likes won't give him the time of day, and his mom now works all hours at a roadside diner to make ends meet. The only thing that still makes sense for Huck is the game his dad taught him, the game they spent hours playing together: Texas hold'em.

Worse than all of that, though, is Huck's math teacher, Mr. Abbott -- a hungry card shark with an ego to match his appetite. He now wears the local poker tournament's first prize, a silver watch that Huck's dad wore proudly for three years. So Huck hatches a plan to knock Abbott off his throne and win back the watch. Only, bluffing his way into the tournament will mean lying to everyone Huck knows. But as Huck gets deeper in the tournament and starts to lose himself in the cards, he begins to wonder who he'll be when the last hand is played.

Raw and gritty, Paul Volponi's novel about grief, family, and poker is an adrenaline rush that starts with a bang and doesn't let up until the final page is turned. A coming-of-age story set at a card table, The Hand You're Dealt will leave readers wondering what they would risk in a game.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 30, 2008
ISBN9781416964742
The Hand You're Dealt
Author

Paul Volponi

Paul Volponi is a writer, journalist, and teacher living in New York City. Mr. Volponi is also the author of Black and White, Rooftop, and Rucker Park Setup. He holds an MA in American Literature from the City College of New York and a BA in English from Baruch. Visit him at www.paulvolponibooks.com.

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Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Huck Porter is a poker prodigy, having been groomed by his father from a young age (much to the chagrin of his mother). Every year the local church hosts an annual Texas Hold'em tournament and sends the winner to Las Vegas to play in a high stakes tournament. The standing agreement is that whatever money is won will be split between the winner and the struggling community. Huck's father has been the tournament champion for the last three years and it's only as his father is dying that a new tournament champion is named: Mr. Abbott, the meanest math teacher to ever dust an eraser. When Mr. Abbott stiffs the town by refusing to split his earnings, Huck sees this as an insult against his father who once donated all of his winnings to the town. As a result, Huck decides it's time to humble Mr. Abbott both in the classroom and at the poker table. While the opening chapter offers a lot of promise (Huck and the other poker players are being robbed at gun point in an elevator), it quickly lost momentum from there. I thought the premise of a small time, small bets poker tournament being used as a means of sustaining an economically depressed community was a little far fetched and Mr. Abbott was almost cartoonishly evil in his tyranny over the classroom. In addition, Huck is dealing with some pretty heavy conflicts, but they're glossed over and resolved in simplistic ways. For the target audience, which I assume to be 13-15 year old boys, this is probably a good read (especially for struggling readers) for all the reasons that I didn't like it. While the chapters are short and keep the action moving along, there's not a lot of description or character development, and there are several implausibles that will probably sneak right on past a young reader. While I will certainly recommend the book to my students, it's not something that offers satisfaction to a more sophisticated reading audience.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    If you like books about gambling and sizinp up people as a gambler you will love this book.

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The Hand You're Dealt - Paul Volponi

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