Meet the Rookie, a suave, smooth-talking, hard-drinking gambler on a mission to topple the country's biggest names in poker. From Northbridge to Melbourne, the Rookie experiences the exhilarating highs and catastrophic lows of the underground poker circuit. Beyond material concerns, the Rookie rides on the hard edge of existence in his struggle to defeat Indersmith. Beyond poker, beyond caring, the Rookie exists only for the moment.

Damned Good achieves a fusion between technical and literary writing, and will appeal to aficionados of poker and of quality writing alike.

“Hard-core poker players know well the highs and the lows, the ecstasies and the agonies, the challenges and the frustrations of the game. DeCeglie takes the reader on a journey through this world on the back of a man who surrenders his existence to the whims of the poker gods, with a writing style as raw, hard and beautiful as the game itself.”
BLAIR RODMAN - WSOP bracelet winner and co-author of
Kill Phil: The Fast Track to Success in No-limit Hold’em Poker Tournaments

"DeCeglie knows all too well how often men seek meaning in life's dark corners, then find they've cornered themselves. He wields his strong, original voice dexterously through the shadowy corridors of his protagonist's world, with prose so sharp it often cuts you on the way past. Damned Good is a must-read for poker fans and those who can't help but flirt with the dark side."
Patrick O'Neil, author of Sideways: Travels with Kafka, Hunter S. and Kerouac

"The novella as I love it - Steinbeck, Kafka, Capote, Hemingway, Conrad, Kerouac - is a hard literary act to pull off. "Damned Good" is unapologetic writing reminiscent of the tough son of a bitch poetry of Frederick Seidel. DeCeglie is a man who knows his literary tools and how to use them - just the ones he needs. This is a voice that's heard clear above the loud-mouthed D-lister literary grant huggers, presenting us with a magnificent concatenation of mens games."
James Phelan, critically acclaimed bestselling novelist.

"...The unrelenting descriptions and razor-sharp psychological insights got me from the first sentence. This is more than poker fiction, its about being the very best you can no matter who or where you are, and that is important."
Jeff Lisandro - Four Time WSOP Bracelet Winner & 2009 WSOP Player of the Year.

"DeCeglie has balls roughly the size of Bukowski’s. Damned Good is goddamned good”
Jimmy Jack - Winner AFI Award for Best Screenplay

About the Author

J.J. DeCeglie is a 28 year-old enigmatic writer residing in Fremantle, Western Australia.

Reviews from Deceglie's previous novel, 'The Sea is Not Yet Full':

PATT VAGG - QUASIMODO
“I will compare him to Bret Easton Ellis and classic Kerouac, he is one of the voices of this new generation and must be heard”.

MONIQUE ROTHSTEIN - PELICAN
“..touches on human emotion like few have been capable of achieving. Nothing is censored and it is refreshingly authentic. There is so much about this book that is universal. It does something few authors have been able to do - move me to tears”.

NATHAN HOBBY - THE FUR
“squalid and brilliant. It reads to me like James Joyce getting blind drunk with bret Easton Ellis. I dont recall a novel which has captured the breadth and depth of the city - from freeway to Fremantle, river to beach - with such scope and energy. It is a blooded, passionately despairing portrait, a testament not just to passion but to talent”.

GUY SALVIDGE
"J. J. Deceglie has written the first Beat novel about Perth.."