<p>From Ben Mezrich, the <em>New York Times</em> bestselling author of <em>Accidental Billionaires</em> and <em>Bringing Down the House</em>—the sources for the films <em>The Social Network</em> and <em>21</em>—comes the captivating tale of a group of college buddies who turned a weekly poker game in the basement of a local dive bar into AbsolutePoker.com, one of the largest online companies in the world, on par with the behemoths of the Internet. At its height, Absolute Poker was an online empire earning more than a million dollars a day. Its founders set up their operations in the exotic jungle paradise of Costa Rica, embracing an outrageous lifestyle of girls, parties, and money.</p><p>Meanwhile, the gray area of U.S. and international law in which the company operated was becoming riskier, and soon the U.S. Department of Justice had placed a bull’s-eye on Absolute Poker. Should they fold—or double down and ride their hot hand? Impossible to put down, <em>Straight Flush</em> is an exclusive, never-before-seen look behind the headlines of one of the wildest business stories of the past decade.</p>