Once A Gambler: The Drift

4/5 ( ratings)

It was supposed to be a year dreams are made of. Toasting with the girl of his dreams on his twenty-second birthday, Miikka is looking forward to a breakout year. He's just scored a big sponsorship deal, he writes the most successful blog in the country, and he's landed his dream job on the side. In that moment, not one person in the world could've convinced Miikka that 2009 would, in fact, be the worst year of his life. The Drift is a mesmerizing chronicle about compulsive gambling, loss, grief, heartache and degeneracy, told through the eyes of a man on a mission to chase his dreams at all costs. The Drift might break your heart, but it's a must-read story for anyone interested in the dark side of gambling ‒ or, really, anyone who's ever regretted a choice in the past.

~~Once A Gambler~~

Miikka Anttonen has been a high stakes poker professional for close to a decade, with $2.4 million in career winnings plus a world championship title under his belt. He's long been known as a top poker instructor, strategist, and writer, but under the surface he's lived a completely different life – one plagued by addiction, turbulent relationships, insecurity, and costly mistakes. In his three-part memoir, he's telling the whole story for the first time. Once A Gambler provides the reader with a unique view of both sides of the gambling world, as Miikka goes from dropping out of high school to jet-setting around the world, nights on park benches to $100,000 dollar paydays, and from being a sponsored professional who appeared on magazine covers and talk shows to becoming the black sheep of the entire poker-playing community. Once A Gambler has received acclaim from both readers and the media, currently holding a 4.2/5 average rating on the world's largest book review website, Goodreads. Short excerpts from Miikka's story have already been read over 3,000,000 times, and they've garnered widespread attention around the internet. Once A Gambler has frequented Amazon's bestseller lists ever since its release.