Ben Mezrich appears to write his own 5-star book reviews on Amazon

[Dan Druff]

"Jonathan Soroff" 5 star review today almost certainly from Boston (google his name)
"The cupcake Queen" 5 star review almost certainly from Boston (other review mentions Boston)
"E. McDonagh" 5 star review; what other books has "E." reviewed - well that would be The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich!

In fairness the other 5 star reviews look a lot more legit.

I think it's a friends-and-family effort. Using Mezrich's own style:

The phone rang in a small Cape Cod bungalow, where a retired couple admired a morning flock of seagulls seeking a fresh meal. "Mom!" cried Mezrich's nasal voice over the connection. "Those online poker players are being mean to me on Amazon! You've got to help!"

Soroff doesn't Tweet much any more, but he's for sure a personal friend:

Jonathan Soroff ‏@Jonathan_Soroff 7 Jul 11
is off to Ben Mezrich's launch party for "Sex on the Moon."
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Agree.

Mezrich must have put the word out to as many friends/family as possible to help counter this.

Pathetic.

[haleylh]

Annnnnd... though not as convincing an evidentiary link, "The cupcake Queen" looks to be a close friend of Tonya Mezrich's, if it's not Tonya herself. Here's Tonya talking about uniforms for the same Boston-area Sweet Cupcakes shop as in that book review (it's the name of the shop). Only takes like five minutes to find these connections....



At least they're happily blatant about it. Soroff already admitted he was cross-pimping for Mezrich, since Mezrich provided a blurb for Soroff's book.

[Daly]

I think it's a friends-and-family effort. Using Mezrich's own style:

The phone rang in a small Cape Cod bungalow, where a retired couple admired a morning flock of seagulls seeking a fresh meal. "Mom!" cried Mezrich's nasal voice over the connection. "Those online poker players are being mean to me on Amazon! You've got to help!"

Soroff doesn't Tweet much any more, but he's for sure a personal friend:

Jonathan Soroff ‏@Jonathan_Soroff 7 Jul 11
is off to Ben Mezrich's launch party for "Sex on the Moon."
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Agree.

Mezrich must have put the word out to as many friends/family as possible to help counter this.

Pathetic.

I get it. Fuck this guy and his book, its half truths at best.

But as far as having friends/family come out and support him... it would be no different then if any one of us wrote a book and asked for support. If there was proof he paid some people or hired a firm to do this I'd get the "outrage".

[aarongreenspan]

If there was proof he paid some people or hired a firm to do this I'd get the "outrage".

FYI, benmezrich.com is registered to Barry Rosenberg, his (presumably paid) PR agent.

Here's Barry Rosenberg's review of The Accidental Billionaires:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1UJEXVY09O06S

"sweetpea" is Tonya Mezrich's Amazon.com account. She deleted her fake review of The Accidental Billionaires, but not before I put it before the First Circuit Court of Appeals:

http://www.aarongreenspan.com/filing...nrehearing.pdf

(See page 29 of the PDF if you have any doubts.)

[aarongreenspan]

Curious to know how you think sales for this book to date are doing?

Perhaps compared to other Mezrich books or some other measure.

Wow, that's nothing I have any area of concern over. It could be selling a thousand copies or a million copies and it wouldn't make a difference. The book's a fraud no matter how many copies it's sold. I think Mezrich Tweeted something early on that it had made the top ten of some bestseller list (NY Times??) for a week but I don't have enough interest in stuff like that to look it up.

It's hard to tell since Ben's publishers have a tendency to buy copies of their own books in bulk to propel them to the top of best sellers' lists.

[haleylh]

Hey, Aaron, two questions:

1) Can I excerpt some stuff from that PDF linked above for a blog post somewhere?

2) I tried to create an account at that legal-records site of yours, but unfortunately all of my e-mail accounts are from major providers, and not the .edu or .gov you seem to need to verify. Any suggestions?

[aarongreenspan]

Court documents are in the public domain. You can do whatever you like with them, and you don't even need my permission (which I would happily grant in this case).

If you send your e-mail to help@plainsite.org I can add it to our database.

[haleylh]

Court documents are in the public domain. You can do whatever you like with them, and you don't even need my permission (which I would happily grant in this case).

If you send your e-mail to help@plainsite.org I can add it to our database.

I know they're public domain. I just didn't know if you'd mind some of this stuff being brought back up. :-)

[Dan Druff]

I don't believe it's any kind of best seller at the moment.

Look at Amazon.

It has 78 reviews, many of which were from the poker community.

Amazon is a huge site, and a big selling book would have thousands of reviews.

78 reviews suggests that this book is falling flat.

[Dan Druff]

Wow, look at this review from "Mike Reed":

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1PKINL...cm_cr_rdp_perm

Mike Reed is reggiman/STUCKINPGH, former Donkdown owner.

There is another Mike Reed in poker (more of a blogger, writes for Pokerati), so I suppose it could also be him.

Anyway, this guy gave the book 5 stars and seems to be completely unaware of the truth. I guess it's possible this could happen if the person does not actively follow the scandal news.

I should text him and ask if this was him.

[Deal]

I don't believe it's any kind of best seller at the moment.

Look at Amazon.

It has 78 reviews, many of which were from the poker community.

Amazon is a huge site, and a big selling book would have thousands of reviews.

78 reviews suggests that this book is falling flat.

The most likely reason is not that the 10% of the poker community that knows it misses the mark in terms of facts has successfully influenced the general public away from buying it. Instead it supports the theory that the mainstream public just doesn't give a rats ass about poker/gambling history. You can be sure that if Mezrich writes a storybook about the Kardashians the American public will eat it up.

[haleylh]

Heh. This seeming Boston-area friend of Mezrich's couldn't even get the title right.

Ryan Benharris ‏@RyanBenharris 16h
Just finished @benmezrich 's Royal Flush. An absolute must read for any poker fans. Truly humanizes the face of who suffered on Black Friday
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[sinner]

video has 42 views and was uploaded june 14 so im guessing it hasnt been posted yet

[BeerAndPoker]

If I'm out of line here by all means delete my post but if anyone wants this book it's been leaked and I found some links for it:

http://hugefiles.net/ext6er0wsvmm/Be....mobi.rar.html

or

http://rapidgator.net/file/e20265b9f....mobi.rar.html

You will need to unrar the file and have a mobi reader if viewing on PC which their are several free ones out there just go google free mobi reader.

[JimmyG_415]

video has 42 views and was uploaded june 14 so im guessing it hasnt been posted yet

who is that interviewing him?
she said she was there and knew all the players in the book?

She is fucking hot, from what I can see.