Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything

Author: Kevin Cook
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393080595
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Book Description
Capturing the spirit of a freewheeling era, this rollicking biography brings to life the gambler-hero who inspired Guys and Dolls. Born in a log cabin in the Ozarks, Alvin "Titanic" Thompson (1892-1974) traveled with his golf clubs, a .45 revolver, and a suitcase full of cash. He won and lost millions playing cards, dice, golf, pool, and dangerous games of his own invention. He killed five men and married five women, each one a teenager on her wedding day. He ruled New York's underground craps games in the 1920s and was Damon Runyon's model for slick-talking Sky Masterson. Dominating the links in the pre-PGA Tour years, Thompson may have been the greatest golfer of his time, teeing up with Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Lee Trevino, and Ray Floyd. He also traded card tricks with Houdini, conned Al Capone, lost a million to Minnesota Fats and then teamed up with Fats and won it all back. A terrific read for anyone who has ever laid a bet, Titanic Thompson recaptures the colorful times of a singular figure: America's original road gambler.

Gambling in America

Author: William N. Thompson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 719

Book Description
This one-volume reference provides a comprehensive overview of gambling in the Americas, examining the history, morality, market growth, and economics of the gaming industry. This is the most complete encyclopedia of gambling, covering the industry in great detail including the players, the games, the venues, and the surrounding social issues. Updates in this second edition reveal the impact of technological advances on the games, the growing legislation regulating the industry, and the expanding global footprint of gambling across the world—from Manitoba to Montana. Author William N. Thompson postulates on the impact of gambling on local communities and shows how the U.S. gaming industry is tied to the global market, most notably gaming expansion in Macau and Singapore. The book addresses the various forms of gaming, such as casino-based and online gambling, sports betting, and lotteries. Additional content examines the social issue of problem and pathological gambling and addresses the rehabilitation programs available for the mitigation and treatment of gambling problems.

A Night to Remember

Author: Walter Lord
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780805077643
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Book Description
A cloth bag containing eight copies of the title.

Fast Company

Author: Jon Bradshaw
Publisher: High Stakes
ISBN: 9781843440130
Category : Gamblers
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Introduction by Nick Cohn. In this classic book, Jon Bradshaw follows six full-time gamblers who never lose, including three legendary poker players Johnny Moss, Pug Pearson and Titanic Thompson; tennis player Bobby Riggs; pool player Minnesota Fats and backgammon player Tim Holland. His evocation of ambience and his dramatic description of the games themselves are fascinating, but Bradshaw also deftly probes their minds and hearts as he attempts to define what makes some men winners and most men losers.

Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir

Author: Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393651657
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 199

Book Description
A Finalist for the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography "Deliciously bizarre and utterly American.…[A] Coen brothers movie come to life.…I couldn't put it down." —Caitlin Doughty, best-selling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Sounds Like Titanic tells the unforgettable story of how Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman became a fake violinist. Struggling to pay her college tuition, Hindman accepts a dream position in an award-winning ensemble that brings ready money. But the ensemble is a sham. When the group performs, the microphones are off while the music—which sounds suspiciously like the soundtrack to the movie Titanic—blares from a hidden CD player. Hindman, who toured with the ensemble and its peculiar Composer for four years, writes with unflinching candor and humor about her surreal and quietly devastating odyssey. Sounds Like Titanic is at once a singular coming-of-age memoir about the lengths to which one woman goes to make ends meet and an incisive articulation of modern anxieties about gender, class, and ambition.

The Red Planet

Author: Simon Morden
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1639361766
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Book Description
Uncover the mysteries, wonders, and history of Mars—as close to an eye-witness perspective of the incredible Red Planet as any reader can get. The history of Mars is drawn not just on its surface, but also down into its broken bedrock and up into its frigid air. Most of all, it stretches back into deep time, where the trackways of the past have been obliterated and there is no discernible trace of where they started from or how they travelled, only where they ended up. From the planet’s formation 4.5 billion years ago, through eras that featured cataclysmic meteor strikes, explosive volcanoes and a vast ocean that spanned the entire upper hemisphere, to the long, frozen ages that saw its atmosphere steadily thinning and leaking away into space, planetary geologist Dr. Simon Morden presents a tantalizing vision of our nearest neighbour, its dramatic history, and astonishing present.

Unplayable Lies

Author: Dan Jenkins
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385539762
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 187

Book Description
In Unplayable Lies, Dan Jenkins takes us on a tour of the links as only he can do it. Here, Dan delves into the greatest rounds of golf he's ever seen, the funniest things said on a golf course, the rivalries on tour and in the press box, the game's most magical moments--and its most absurd. Filled with well-known characters like Tiger Woods, to others like Titanic Thompson--gambler, golf hustler, accused murderer, legendary storyteller--Unplayable Lies is an ode to the game of golf and the people who play it. But it is Dan Jenkins, so nothing--even the game itself--can escape his wrath, his critical eye, or his acerbic pen. This is Dan Jenkins at his best, writing about the sport he loves the most.

Drive for Show, Putt for Dough

Author: Leon Crump
Publisher: William Morrow
ISBN: 9780062701718
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Book Description
In 1958, Leon Crump took a week off from his job to play golf, fell in with a group of gamblers and won $1,300. He hasn't gone back to work since. For almost 40 years now, he's been golfing his way around the South in a renegade career filled with rollercoaster highs and lows. On his best day, he's won a years salary; his worst set him back almost that much. Filled with high drama and deadpan humor, this compulsively readable book tells how Crump became America's preeminent golf hustler. Along the way, it also reveals some hard-earned truths to help readers battle their way through their own weekend wars. There are hints on how to psyche yourself up and "read" opponents; advice on when and how to bet; and ingenious tricks such as "doctoring" clubs or driving balls out of Dixie cups. Offering a fresh, offbeat approach to golf, Drive For Show, Putt for Dough is sure to be a hit with today's crop of take-no-prisoners players.

The Hound of Heaven

Author: Francis Thompson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 74

Book Description

Looking For Atlantis

Author: Colin Thompson
Publisher: Random House Australia
ISBN: 1742748538
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Book Description
Grandfather left his grandson a seafarer’s chest, a parrot called Titanic and a dream – the dream of looking for Atlantis. “Atlantis is right here all around you,” Grandfather said, “you have to learn how to look for it.” So when Grandfather dies, the boy starts looking: in the chest, on shelves, in books, under the stairs. Colin Thompson’s dazzingly detailed pictures richly illustrate the boy’s magical journey of discovery.