Overview

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.

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9781843440130

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"""Never mind all the anecdotes, the local colour, the good talk and the gambling savvy. What's most impressive about the book is the way the author toys with its form. It's like watching a poker player bluff his opponents and then draw to an inside straight. And it left me smiling hopelessly, hustled but happy"" - The New York Times ""A fine rogues gallery of near and complete charlatans - compiled with splendid relish."" - George Plimpton ""Whatever happened to reporters who could actually write? Or to writers with the elegantly askew reporter's eye? Jaunty fellows, buccaneer boulevardiers, whose writing seems to have been salvaged from a life close to some rakish edge? Perhaps there never were that many. And now Jon Bradshaw is dead at the unripe age of forty-eight. Damn."" - Vanity Fair"

Never mind all the anecdotes, the local colour, the good talk and the gambling savvy. What's most impressive about the book is the way the author toys with its form. It's like watching a poker player bluff his opponents and then draw to an inside straight. And it left me smiling hopelessly, hustled but happy - The New York Times A fine rogues gallery of near and complete charlatans - compiled with splendid relish. - George Plimpton Whatever happened to reporters who could actually write? Or to writers with the elegantly askew reporter's eye? Jaunty fellows, buccaneer boulevardiers, whose writing seems to have been salvaged from a life close to some rakish edge? Perhaps there never were that many. And now Jon Bradshaw is dead at the unripe age of forty-eight. Damn. - Vanity Fair

Author Information

Jon Bradshaw was one of the most distinguished journalists of the 1960s and 1970s - a professional writer and an amateur gambler. He was a regular contributor to Esquire and New York magazines. His other books include Backgammon: The Cruellest Game. He died in 1986

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