Lately, you might have heard of the book “Ship it Holla Ballas,” which was released in recent days and has featured a media blitz that has included a spot on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” a review in the New York Daily News, and interviews from several poker media outlets. Here on PocketFives, we’ve been busy giving away free copiesof “Ship it Holla Ballas” as part of a special promotion to non-U.S. readers. PocketFives sat down with one of the book’s co-authors, Storms Reback, to talk about the reception.

Yes, his first name is Storms, which is quite possibly one of the most awesome names we’ve ever come across. If my son weren’t already named John, I would totally name him Storms. The book’s subtitle is “How a bunch of 19-year-old college dropouts used the internet to become poker’s loudest, craziest, and richest crew.” As you can tell, the whole publication is a little bit off-kilter, which makes it unique. Rather than being a dry strategy book, “Ship it Holla Ballas” is an engaging poker story.

“It’s amazing how much thought, debate, and discussion went into it,” Reback said of the title. “Just the idea of having an exclamation point in the title was something we threw around and it felt perfect. This is what this crew was all about – they weren’t afraid of getting attention. They were brilliant at using the media to help them get their careers going. At the time when they started, there were thousands of players making as much money as they were. They needed to separate themselves in order to get these opportunities. An online sponsorship was the grand prize, but how does an online poker site pick from among everyone crushing cash games and tournaments?”

The two main characters in the book that PocketFivers will recognize are Andrew good2cuRobl (pictured) and David RaptorBenefield. The former created the Ship it Holla Ballas website. According to Reback, “Andrew is an integral part of this. I used to be an editor at a magazine and interviewed him for a story. It was five questions for a professional player and traditionally we had done it with live tournament pros. I was the one there who wanted to write about young, online cash game players. I did a story about Bodog Ari that I really enjoyed.”

Robl has managed to stay quite relevant. In fact, a few days ago, he took down the Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge, defeating Igor “Lechuckpoker” Kurganov heads-up for a million bucks. Then, he quickly hopped on a plane to play poker in Macau.

“In poker literature, it seems like 90% of what’s out there are strategy books,” Reback explained of the current market. “Players want to learn how to beat the game and figure out the secrets, but we wanted to tell stories that would appeal to a mainstream audience. We went out of our way not to get bogged down in hand descriptions or try to make some sort of specific statements about poker acumen. We wanted to attribute their success to coming together as a crew.”

A couple of years ago, Jonathan Grotenstein and Reback discussed writing and publishing something similar to “Ship it Holla Ballas,” but didn’t have a starting point. The duo ultimately discussed featuring Jason Strassa2 Strasser, but the poker pro ended up on Wall Street. Reback recalled, “I mentioned Andrew to Jon and Jon found the Ship it Holla Ballas website. Andrew was on board right away.”

What’s the point of the book? What’s in it? “What we tried to do was tell the story of online poker through the eyes of this crew,” Reback (pictured) commented. “We started the book with an older member of the Two Plus Two forum meeting Raptor. As the story evolves, all of the guys who were on the Two Plus Two Sit and Go Forum meet up in Vegas in 2006. Andrew and David are the two main characters of the book. By focusing on those guys, it worked perfectly. By trying to tell everyone’s story in the crew, it would have been too much.”

The book’s marketing agency got the word out to 400 media outlets, including PocketFives, and reached out to television. “We’re used to the rhythms of writing books and the marketing of them,” Reback contended. “When we talked to Andrew and pitched the idea to him, we said we were trying to hit a home run and wanted to appeal to a mass audience. We were mentally prepared for this book’s success.” Grotenstein has written 10 books already.

Reback and Grotenstein dove deep into Robl’s and Benefield’s lives, so we asked what surprised them the most. Reback responded, “It’s the same thing for both of them – so much time has passed and they’ve made this money, so I expected them to be cocky and standoffish. I expected them to have their heads in the clouds, and that wasn’t the case at all. They’re down to earth, have grown up really quickly, and they’re mature and responsible. They would make any parent proud.”

If you’re from outside of the U.S., learn how to get a free copy of “Ship it Holla Ballas” through PocketFives. You have until Monday to do so. If you’re in the U.S., the book is available for purchase through sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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