Titanic Thompson The Man Who Bet On Everything

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.

Titanic Thompson' is a rollicking biography of one of the most charismatic characters in twentieth-century America. Like Howard Hughes or Bonnie and Clyde, Alvin 'Titanic' Thompson was one of the great figures of this freewheeling era; the difference between them: hardly anyone knows Titanic's name today. Travelling only with his golf clubs, a .45 revolver, and a suitcase full of cash, this is the legendary story of a man who was married five times to five different girls, the oldest just eighteen on her wedding day; of a man who murdered five men, though he'd say 'they'd all agree they had it coming to them'; and of a man who won and lost millions - when a pro golfer would earn $10,000 a year, he was playing single holes for $20,000.

Since its first publication twenty years ago, The Biggest Game in Town has become a sought-after cult classic. Acclaimed writer and critic Al Alvarez delves into the murky and compelling world of high-stakes Vegas poker, where 'the next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing'. Uncovering an exotic underground rich in ambiance and eccentricity, The Biggest Game in Town is a real one of a kind, deftly capturing the skewed psyches and peculiar rites of professional poker players who descend every year for the World Series of Poker. It's a world that seems almost too surprising and bizarre to be true. 'A cool, precise, sharply witty, vivid evocation of a place and people, their appearances, behaviour and speech..Mr Alvarez is a shrewd analyst of the psychology of gamblers and a cleverly selective recorder of their bizarre talk with which, directly and indirectly, they reveal their secure grasp of unreality and their insane courage' Sunday Telegraph 'It will have most readers sitting on the edge of their seats' Sunday Times 'A new classic on gambling...it's quite brilliant' Time Out 'This is a magnificent book. Beyond the straights and full houses, Alvarez has written about people who are extremely good at what they do, and about America' San Francisco Chronicle

Amarillo Slim Preston has won $300,000 from Willie Neslon playing dominoes and $2 million from Larry Flynt playing poker. He has shuffled, dealt, and bluffed with some of twentieth-century's most famous figures. He beat Minnesota Fats at pool with a broom, Bobby Riggs at table tennis with a skillet, and Evel Knievel at golf with a carpenter's hammer. Amarillo Slim has gambled with 'em all, and left most of them wishing they hadn't. The memoirs of a living American icon, Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People is the story of life as a Texas road gambler and the discovery of the Wild West. It's also the story of how Slim won the World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe, became a worldwide celebrity, and brought poker from smoky backrooms to mainstream America. Just let him tell it: "If there's anything I'll argue about, I'll either bet on it or shut up. And since it's not very becoming for a cowboy to be arguing, I've made a few wagers in my day. But in my humble opinion, I'm no ordinary hustler. You see, neighbor, I never go looking for a sucker. I look for a champion and make a sucker out of him ..." "I'm fixing to tell you a few things that I've been keeping to myself for a lot of years. If you're not careful, you just might learn how to get rich without ever having a job."

First biography of the greatest card player of all time. Stuey Ungar was a true original, a mass of contradictions and a god among gamblers. As a high school dropout, Ungar soon developed a reputation for talent and raw nerve in playing gin. A nonstop gambler he was soon conquering Las Vegas. One of a Kind chronicles Stuey's spectacular rise as the most feared tournament player in poker history to his tragic fall. Compelling and riveting, this is the first ever look at the man behind the legend.

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.

Through The Eyes Of The Lizard, a book conceptionalized and written by Steve Smith is the Ralph Waldo Emerson of the pool and billiard world. Steve Smith, affectionaly known as "sneaky Lizard" explains and demonstrates the metaphysical-spiritual sense of competitive pool combat always knowing he will win and take down the money. Sneaky Lizard, writes from his heart, and soul and is completely truthful with respect to all the events and characterization throughout the book. Steve Smith is a genius, even as a pool hustler. As Emerson stated: " Each of us has been born with a genius. There is something that each of us do very well. It has been assigned to us, and yet many of us every really pause in life to discover it deeply and then apply the other necessary ingredient. And that is drill. That is practice. That is taking that which is good and making it great. That is pursuing your niche. That is unveiling your uniqueness. That is finding your voice and learning how to vocalize -not like everybody else- but your way. that requires you to at times to swim upstream, to go against the flow, to stand out in the crowd declaring--Here I am, here is what I offer to create a much better world, -that is now better because I have not hidden my gift--and have risked rejection by bringing it forth in public." HARRY Platis Hall of fame inductee (action player)

On the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking, a prominent Titanic researcher offers a final chance to see the ship before it disappears forever The Titanic was the biggest, most luxurious passenger ship the world had ever seen; the ads proclaimed it to be unsinkable. When it sank in April 1912 after hitting an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 people, the world was forever changed and the public has been spellbound ever since. Now, a century later, the Titanic is about to disappear again: its infrastructure is set to collapse in the next few years. In this book, scientist Charles Pellegrino offers what may be the last opportunity to see the ship before it is lost to the seas for eternity. The last book to be written while survivors were still alive and able to contribute details, Farewell, Titanic includes many untold stories about the sinking and exploration of the unsinkable ship. Author Charles Pellegrino provided source material for James Cameron's Oscar-winning Titanic film, which is being re-released in 3D at the same time as the book Includes 16 pages of never-before-published full-color photographs of the sunken vessel Includes all-new information about the Titanic research that has been carried out in the last decade Written by a New York Times bestselling author who participated in the post-discovery analysis of the Titanic's remains during the expedition that immediately followed Robert Ballard's Titanic discovery in 1985