The Greatest Gambling Stories Ever Told; Thirty-One Unforgettable Tales of Risk and Reward

by edited by Paul Lyons

• ISBN13: 9781592283187
• ISBN10: 1592283187
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2004-06-01
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

Whether your vice be a tame game of bingo or a visit to the local horse track, a friendly game of poker with friends or a tense match of billiards in a smoky parlour, chances are that you, at one time or another, have gambled on something. And nowhere is man's fascination with gambling more clearly evident than in the massive profits amassed each year by illegal bookmakers and the lavish casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and abroad. In The Greatest Gambling Stories Ever Told, editor Paul Lyons has compiled thirty-one of the finest writings, both fact and realistic fiction, ever penned about our collective gambling vice, which has been a part of our history and culture since ancient times. This is an entertaining and enlightening collection sure to appeal to anyone who has ever picked up a cue, cards, dice, or racing form.

Author Biography

Paul Lyons, an English professor at the University of Hawaii, has written about gambling in three novels, Table Legs, Going for Broke, and Button Man (page 10), and is the editor of The Quotable Gambler. He enjoys a friendly poker game and is a former winner of the Hawaii State Backgammon Tournament.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
from The Gambler	p. 1
from The Hustler	p. 13
from Fool's Die	p. 41
from The Cincinnati Kid	p. 65
The Rocking-Horse Winner	p. 87
Man from the South	p. 103
The Queen of Spades	p. 113
from Memoir of a Gambler	p. 137
Gambling: Remembrances and Assertions	p. 153
The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County	p. 161
from The National Football Lottery	p. 167
A Jolly Game	p. 185
Goodbye Watson	p. 189
The Babylon Stakes	p. 195
from Tracks	p. 199
from The Man with the $100,000 Breasts	p. 205
from Shut Up and Deal	p. 217
from Bob the Gambler	p. 231
Slots and Thrall	p. 251
from Oscar and Lucinda	p. 263
from Four-and-Twenty Hours in the Life of a Woman	p. 269
Na Kupa Hati M'Zuri	p. 277
Things I Have Learned Playing Poker on the Hill	p. 289
Five-Card Draw, Jacks or Better	p. 295
from Billy Phelan's Greatest Game	p. 309
Penny Ante	p. 319
Three Cushions	p. 329
The Talisman	p. 343
High Stakes	p. 351
A Story Goes With It	p. 371
A Day at the Races	p. 383
Permissions Acknowledgments	p. 397
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.