Becoming Bobby

He quit his job. He abandoned his wife. He left his home and checked in at the Nirvana Hotel and Casino. In Michael Konik's darkly satirical debut novel, an American Humbert Humbert is overwhelmed by fantasies of becoming a Vegas big shot. The "Dean of the World's Gambling Writers," Konik is a former Cigar Aficionado columnist and TV poker analyst. The best-selling author of three acclaimed gambling-story collections, he brings his vast knowledge of the casino world to the pages of this viciously funny (and strangely inspiring) evisceration of our modern aspirational lifestyle.

A former professional sports gambler and gaming columnist, Michael Konik has served as expert commentator on more than 100 televised poker broadcasts and penned several highly acclaimed books on gambling, including Telling Lies and Getting Paid, The Smart Money, and one of the Wall Street Journal’s “Five Best Gambling Books of All Time” — The Man With the $100,000 Breasts. Konik’s writing has appeared in hundreds of newspapers and magazines on every continent, including the New York Times, Travel & Leisure, Sports Illustrated, and virtually every special-interest publication extant. He was the regular gambling columnist for Cigar Aficionado, where he earned the honorific “Dean of the World’s Gambling Writers,” and for more than 10 years he penned the golf column for the Delta Air Lines in-flight magazine, SKY. More recently Konik has turned his hand to fiction, with Becoming Bobby, Instructions for My Funeral, Making It, and Year 14.