Daniel Barbarisi

This extraordinary account grows on me the more I think about it. Prior to reading, I had no preview into the world of real-life treasure hunts. I know there have been expeditions to locate lost treasures from long ago, but orchestrating a manufactured treasure hunt on a scale such as what's recounted here in Chasing the Thrill is almost too unreal to be believed. It's hard to see how the logistics would work.

The steps are simple in theory, but try to imagine how this would play out. 1.) Own some kind of treasure that's legitimately valuable. 2.) Hide said treasure somewhere in the wild (officially and legally giving up ownership), and in such a way so that it reliably stays hidden indefinitely and is reasonably weatherproof. 3.) Announce your hidden treasure to would-be fortune-seekers in the form of clues and rules. 4.) Prepare for events to come undone in unpredictable ways, and more so the longer the hunt lasts.

Point #4 is what gives this books its subtitle "Obsession, Death, and Glory." The hunt's main architect, the wildly eccentric Forrest Fenn of Santa Fe, New Mexico, wasn't expecting to live much longer and with his legacy in mind he dreamed up one last exciting adventure. He assembled a literal treasure chest of some of his most prized collected artifacts. He then hid it somewhere "in the rocky mountains, north of Santa Fe."… (altro)

DUELING WITH KINGS by Daniel Barbarisi provides in-depth insight into the world of DFS, Daily Fantasy Sports, through Barbarisi's detailed research of the history of DFS and at the same time telling his story of becoming a full time "professional" DFS player.
The story in infectious; a man bored with his job as a sports journalist stumbles upon a world he never knew of, DFS. He starts cautiously and carefully, researching the history of it and interviewing people involved with DFS, but like a kid whose discovered a new video game, he eventually can't help himself and almost recklessly jumps in with both feet and almost immediately it becomes part of who is he and what he thinks about daily. Seeing this as a form of gambling, Barbarisi does stop to look inward several times to consider the ramifications of being a gambling addict and whether he is one or will become one. All the while, he is giving us a sorted history of DFS and how the governmental opinion and legal status of the DFS is still evolving and changing. I immediately found myself cheering for Barbarisi and wanting to get to know as many of the characters of DFS as possible, from his teachers, to his fellow competitors, to the DFS gurus who now educate more than play, to his wife, who happily helped him and put up with her former journalist/current fulltime DFS player of a husband through all of his succesSes and failures along the way. The climax of the book, where Barbarisi is trying to win a major DFS tournament, was great; I found myself reading fasting and harder towards the end and even audibly reacting a couple of times.
A entertaining book written in a style that anyone can understand and connect to. While I'm not a big hockey fan and that was Barbarisi's sport of choice in the world of DFS, he gave me enough that I understood and followed all of his ups and downs. If you've every played fantasy sports, and most of us in the United States have by now, you will enjoy DUELING WITH KINGS.
Thank you to Touchstone, Daniel Barbarisi, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!… (altro)