LAS VEGAS – Poker player, Walter “Chip” Shonky, better known on-line as ‘shonkythedonkey999’ is threatening to sue author Jeff Norburn, claiming that his poker manual, “Triple Barrel” caused Shonky to lose his bankroll.
“I was saving that money to buy new hair plugs,” said Shonky, a 47 year old unemployed dog walker and part time poker player. “It was getting to a point where I thought I might have a new head of hair by Christmas, but then I picked up Norburn’s book and lost my entire bankroll in three days.”
We contacted author Jeff Norburn at his palatial home in Quesnel, Canada but he denied any knowledge of Shonky’s pending lawsuit. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “Triple Barrel is a novel. It’s not a manual. Nobody should be using it as an instructional guide for anything.”
Norburn admits that some of the confusion may have come from the fact that there is a character in ‘Triple Barrel’ who plays poker and the novel contains a number of poker scenes. He insists though that no one could mistake his novel for an instructional guide – unless their goal was to lose all of their money. “I deliberately made the character of Gavin Taylor a terrible poker player who loses every time he plays,” he said. “As someone who plays a bit of poker, I found it amusing to model Gavin’s play on some of the worst players I’ve played against in home-games and at the casino.”
Poker expert and Vegas playboy, Antonio Negreanu noted that the poker scenes in ‘Triple Barrel’ are surprisingly realistic. “I’ve seen a lot of movies and read a lot of books where the poker scenes are obviously written by people who don’t play the game,” he said. “Norburn seems to know what he’s talking about. I hear that he’s someone to watch out for in those on-line ‘$1.50 Sit & Goes’.”
Negreanu went on to add, “The poker scenes may be realistic but I have to agree with the author – it clearly isn’t a poker manual – I mean, it has full frontal nudity.”
When asked if he considered himself to be a good poker player, Norburn said that he ‘does alright’, noting that he’d taken the ‘Phil Hellmuth Quiz – What Poker Animal are You?’ and it said that he was a lion. “I may not be an eagle like Phil, but a lion is the next best thing and I think that gives me credibility in the poker community.”
Shonky acknowledged that he was impressed by Norburn’s status as a lion but said he still blames the author for the loss of his bankroll.
When asked if it was possible that Triple Barrel wasn’t a poker manual at all, Shonky admitted, “It’s unconventional, that’s for sure.”
“Most poker books spend a lot of time on concepts like expected value calculations, implied odds, and game theory optimal, but ‘Triple Barrel’ is different,” he said. “Every time I expected the next chapter to deliver a new insight that would improve my game, somebody would get murdered or blackmailed or steal something.”
“The poker advice was terrible,” Shonky added. “And I was confused by all the murder and mayhem in the book – most of which didn’t seem to be poker related – but I couldn’t stop reading it. As a poker manual – it’s terrible, but it really is a great read.”
Triple Barrel, a fun, fast paced, and wildly entertaining work of fiction that also happens to feature some realistic (but non-instructional) poker scenes, is available on Amazon. Click the links below to get your copy:
The Norburn Shuffle 