Sigh Gumroad, the only two times I've seen them being down ever have been immediately after the releases of both of my books. Should be pretty quick tho.

The Gumroad one is a PDF, which you can import to Kindle. It's the exact same as the Amazon version, with the only difference being that it's password protected.

If you want to import it to Kindle, instructions:

Buy the PDF from Gumroad, copy the password in the email to your clipboard
Click download
Open the file in any reader/browser
Click "Add to..." -> Kindle
Kindle will launch and ask for the password
Voila!

Takes about 10 seconds.

Note: If you have a VERY old version of Kindle you may need to update it first.


As for the Amazon release, it should be out in 2-3 weeks, depends on how long Amazon takes mainly. But the document is the exact same thing anyway. If you end up buying the PDF version and it by some miracle doesn't work on your Kindle, you can hit me up and I'll send you the Amazon version once it's out.

A few notes on The Drift, Once a Gambler part 2 :

- Definitely an enjoyable journey, one which sees our hero go through the promised rollercoaster ride And like it has been mentioned a few times by different sources, you catch yourself saying, as hero is about to step into yet another pit/downfall, : "no man, don't do it ". Of course, most of us poker players have been down a similar path - if not as pronounced... - and can thus easily relate.

- Interesting and fun insight into the northern European poker scene during the lated 2000s boom.

- I told you this before Miikka, but you definitely have a knack for spontaneous/surrealistic wall of texts I thought the narrative/style to be simple, yet effective. If there is anything I would criticize about the writing, is just that, its simplicity (despite you making the most of it). I would of liked to see more a poetic feel to it... Perhaps some added semantic fields, dreamlike sequences or metaphors, maybe... Really liked the description about you passing out with the hotdog licking your face in the morning, for instance

- Man, you are the king of cliff hangers

- That is definitely an interesting life that you experienced, thx for sharing Looking forward to the third instalment, when will it be released?

edit : forgot to add, but would be really curious to read some other project of yours with a different structure/narrative (that is not as autobiographic) and how your writing style transpires in such a project... I think you mentioned in your PG & C about a screen play (was it?)...

Hey and thanks for writing a review, I really appreciate taking the time to do so.

-I'm glad you enjoyed the scandi poker boom insight - I've been pretty lucky to be around both early boom kids (Ziigmund, Lodden, LarsLuzak) and the late ones (Jeans89 etc), I always thought including them would be one of the biggest reasons why people might find the book interesting. One morning you wake up in Portugal with Jens after a drunken night out, the next he's the biggest winner of all time on PokerStars. Crazy stuff.

-Re: writing style - basically, when I started writing the book, I knew pretty much exactly what story I wanted to tell, and how to tell it. My writing background is all in journalism (I had never even tried to write fiction until this year), and I was confident I could tell a captivating story using the style I ultimately chose. I'm a huge fan of the things you mentioned, and man I'd love to be able to be the guy who added dream sequences to his memoir and made it work. But I just wasn't comfortable enough with experimenting with that stuff for this project. Whenever I publish something fictional, I'm sure going to experiment a lot, but since this is already a 600-page autobiography of a relative nobody, it just didn't seem like the time and place for it. I mean, it is a pretty good story as it is, and I didn't want to risk ruining it by trying to make it something it's just not. I do agree with you that it could be even better by adding stuff you mentioned if done right, but I just wasn't comfortable and didn't want to reach for things I wasn't sure I could pull off. As it is, I think OAG is a pretty entertaining read, people usually say they read through the whole thing in a couple of days. While my long-term goal is to create something that would take longer to digest, with regards to this project specifically, I'm actually pretty happy with it just being enjoyable reading.

-Haha yeah, pretty brutal cliffhanger eh? It'll get sorted in part 3, I promise... which is due at some point in early 2017, as is the paperback version of the whole book. I think that cliffhangers can generally come across a bit cheap, which is why I didn't do it for part 1 (the ending of that book, imo, is really great and leaves virtually nothing open), but I thought it worked pretty well here.

-Re: next projects, I don't yet know what my next "big" project will be - I've written a long script this year that I may or may not try to get some execs to read at some point (still needs some fine-tuning though). I think I'm writing approximately 7 novels and short stories at the same time as well, but I don't really have a goal or one precise project I'd be working on. We'll see what happens. The only thing I'm actively publishing now is the article series on UpswingPoker, which should be somewhat weekly.


Thanks again for writing the review!

Miikka

Book two is now available at Amazon for Kindle. Just bought. Will review once I get a chance to read.

Just finished book two on my New Orleans trip this weekend. Definitely an interesting read, but I see why it's called "The Drift." Chuck seems to be (perhaps excessively) "going with the flow" during the period covered by this book, though it is not the flow of a placid English river, more of an exuberant Rocky Mountain stream.

I really enjoyed the narrative device of anchoring the 2011 Barcelona EPT as "now" in the books, and teasing back to it as a surprise end to this one works nicely.

I have to say I read this book always afraid of running in to "the big scandal" at ay moment. I didn't know what Chuck had done that made him a pariah in the Finnish poker community, but given the other things that he shared in his original "somewhat different poker story" thread, I figured that it had to be pretty bad, as he would only allude to it in the thread, and when he got to the period it included, the thread basically stopped updating. It was clear to me that this is something that he is really ashamed of, and I kept reading thinking "Oh God, does it happen here? How about here?"



I really liked this installment, but it definitely does not stand alone, as book one does. It is a continuation, not a sequel.

Also, I was proud to see that my edit made it in.

Nice review, I loved especially the "exuberant Rocky Mountain stream", sums it up perfectly.

I'm happy you thought anchoring the book two years forward to Barcelona was a good idea, I too really think it works but it was obviously a big decision to use the narrative device of going back and forth like that instead of just moving chronologically. But I wanted to do it because I think it makes the read more interesting as our "Hero" is clearly grounded and doing well in 2011, yet he's a complete mess for the vast majority of the book. So as a reader you're meant to be asking yourself "wait, how do we go from this to THAT"?



Your edit was an awesome one, I'm very thankful for that one. I owe you a beer or two!

Any update on part three's schedule? And any more discussion of a print edition?

Agreed. I never got round to writing a review, but my feelings were in line with what you wrote a few posts above.
I'm looking forward to part three.

Hey,

Sorry, I haven't been following this thread much. We had some pretty ****ty health scare stuff in the family recently, and I've been unable to focus on much of anything lately. Things seem to have taken a sharp turn for the better, though, and I'm slowly but steadily starting to function as well.

Not having had the energy to do post-production postponed the releases of part 3 / paperback by ~2 months, but I'm pretty confident I'll be able to catch up a little once I get my groove on. I'm very confident the paperback will hit the stores well in time for Christmas, and part 3 will be out as an e-book some time before it.

There's a little sneak peek article on UpswingPoker that was published today. To clear; this is not an excerpt from the book or anything, just a small taster of what's to come. It contains a couple of spoilers, but not really anything any reader wouldn't have guessed anyway imo.

Have a good summer, everyone! I'll post ITT when I have more concrete information, and will be happy to answer any questions meanwhile.