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| famous gamblers in history: Famous Gamblers, Poker History, and Texas Stories Johnny Hughes, 2012-08-21 You have a great writing style, very credible, and entertaining. Those were dangerous times. Almost all of the guys are gone. A great book!... Doyle Brunson, Poker Hall of Fame, author. Hes as good a writer as he is a player. When it comes to poker tales...Johnny Hughes is your man.... Anthony Holden, London, President of the International Federation of Poker, author ... a captivating raconteur and avid historian...brings them to life with a unique flair and panache...(He) paints word pictures with witty, lush brush strokes reminiscent of Tom Wolfe... Paul Dr. Pauly McGuire, author ..the William Manchester of poker historians...a Hughes narrative is like lighting a lantern into the darkest recess of pokers subculture...provides the very best portrait of these unique real-life characters of anyone on record... Nolan Dalla, Media Director. World Series of Poker, author. ...the true story...of the beginnings of the phenomenon that poker has become... Crandell Addington, Poker Hall of Fame. Reading...is only paralleled by listening to him tell those stories in real time...like putting yourself in the same room as it all unfolded...when the mob ruled Las Vegas...the real stories... Ryan Sayer, OnTilt Radio, C.O.O.,and Host. www.JohnnyHughes.com |
| famous gamblers in history: Famous Gamblers, Poker History, and Texas Stories Johnny Hughes, 2012-08 You have a great writing style, very credible, and entertaining. Those were dangerous times. Almost all of the guys are gone. A great book!... -Doyle Brunson, Poker Hall of Fame, author. He's as good a writer as he is a player. When it comes to poker tales...Johnny Hughes is your man.... -Anthony Holden, London, President of the International Federation of Poker, author ... a captivating raconteur and avid historian...brings them to life with a unique flair and panache...(He) paints word pictures with witty, lush brush strokes reminiscent of Tom Wolfe... -Paul Dr. Pauly McGuire, author ..the William Manchester of poker historians...a Hughes narrative is like lighting a lantern into the darkest recess of poker's subculture...provides the very best portrait of these unique real-life characters of anyone on record... -Nolan Dalla, Media Director. World Series of Poker, author. ...the true story...of the beginnings of the phenomenon that poker has become... -Crandell Addington, Poker Hall of Fame. Reading...is only paralleled by listening to him tell those stories in real time...like putting yourself in the same room as it all unfolded...when the mob ruled Las Vegas...the real stories... -Ryan Sayer, OnTilt Radio, C.O.O., and Host. www.JohnnyHughes.com |
| famous gamblers in history: The Man with the $100,000 Breasts and Other Gambling Stories Michael Konik, 2000 In 26 essays, Konik introduces readers to the quirky subculture of high rollers and hustlers as he profiles professional, compulsive, and possibly insane gamblers. 8-page photo insert. |
| famous gamblers in history: The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told Mark Paul, 2020-01-06 The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told is an inspiring personal narrative about a filly named Winning Colors who broke through the male-dominated world of horseracing, and a trio of gamblers who embark on an unforgettable adventure as epic as the horse's historic victory. It's Seabiscuit meets Narcos, and the best true-life gambling story ever tol |
| famous gamblers in history: The History of Gambling in England John Ashton, 1898 Difference between Gaming and Gambling-Universality and Antiquity of Gambling-Isis and Osiris-Games and Dice of the Egyptians-China and India-The Jews-Among the Greeks and Romans-Among Mahometans-Early Dicing-Dicing in England in the 13th and 14th Centuries-In the 17th Century-Celebrated Gamblers-Bourchier-Swiss Anecdote-Dicing in the 18th Century. Gaming is derived from the Saxon word Gamen, meaning joy, pleasure, sports, or gaming-and is so interpreted by Bailey, in his Dictionary of 1736; whilst Johnson gives Gamble-to play extravagantly for money, and this distinction is to be borne in mind in the perusal of this book; although the older term was in use until the invention of the later-as we see in Cotton's Compleat Gamester (1674), in which he gives the following excellent definition of the word: -Gaming is an enchanting witchery, gotten between Idleness and Avarice: an itching disease, that makes some scratch the head, whilst others, as if they were bitten by a Tarantula, are laughing themselves to death; or, lastly, it is a paralytical distemper, which, seizing the arm, the man cannot chuse but shake his elbow. |
| famous gamblers in history: The Gambler William C. Rempel, 2018-01-23 NATIONAL BESTSELLER “Offers an entertaining look at Kerkorian’s outsize life… an interesting portrait of a billionaire.” – Wall Street Journal The rags-to-riches story of one of America’s wealthiest and least-known financial giants, self-made billionaire Kirk Kerkorian—the daring aviator, movie mogul, risk-taker, and business tycoon who transformed Las Vegas and Hollywood to become one of the leading financiers in American business. Kerkorian combined the courage of a World War II pilot, the fortitude of a scrappy boxer, the cunning of an inscrutable poker player and an unmatched genius for making deals. He never put his name on a building, but when he died he owned almost every major hotel and casino in Las Vegas. He envisioned and fostered a new industry —the leisure business. Three times he built the biggest resort hotel in the world. Three times he bought and sold the fabled MGM Studios, forever changing the way Hollywood does business. His early life began as far as possible from a place on the Forbes List of Billionaires when he and his Armenian immigrant family lost their farm to foreclosure. He was four. They arrived in Los Angeles penniless and moved often, staying one step ahead of more evictions. Young Kirk learned English on the streets of L.A., made pennies hawking newspapers and dropped out after eighth grade. How he went on to become one of the richest and most generous men in America—his net worth as much as $20 billion—is a story largely unknown to the world. That’s because what Kerkorian valued most was his privacy. His very private life turned to tabloid fodder late in life when a former professional tennis player falsely claimed that the eighty-five-year-old billionaire fathered her child. In this engrossing biography, investigative reporter William C. Rempel digs deep into Kerkorian’s long-guarded history to introduce a man of contradictions—a poorly educated genius for deal-making, an extraordinarily shy man who made the boldest of business ventures, a careful and calculating investor who was willing to bet everything on a single roll of the dice. Unlike others of his status and importance, Kerkorian made few public appearances and strenuously avoided personal publicity. His friends and associates, however, were some of the biggest names in business, entertainment, and sports—among them Howard Hughes, Ted Turner, Steve Wynn, Michael Milken, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley, Mike Tyson, and Andre Agassi. When he died in 2015 two years shy of the century mark, Kerkorian had outlived many of his closest friends and associates. Now, Rempel meticulously pieces together revealing fragments of Kerkorian’s life, collected from diverse sources—war records, business archives, court documents, news clippings and the recollections and recorded memories of longtime pals and relatives. In The Gambler, Rempel illuminates this unknown, self-made man and his inspiring legacy as never before. |
| famous gamblers in history: Beating the Wheel Russell T. Barnhart, 1992 With 170 wheels in Las Vegas, 144 in Atlantic City, thousands in Europe, and hundreds in the Far East, roulette is undoubtedly the world's most popular casino game. But can the game be beaten, except by luck? Yes, says Russell Barnhart, an expert in gamblilng strategies and a roulette winner far more than thirty years. In Beating the Wheel, he shares his valuable strategy. |
| famous gamblers in history: The Betrayal Charles Fountain, 2016 A new account of one of the most famous scandals in sports history shows how the 1919 fixing of the World Series forever changed the way America's pastime was both managed and perceived. |
| famous gamblers in history: Gardena Poker Clubs: A High-stakes History Max Votolato, 2017 Poker capital of the world--Page [4] of cover. |
| famous gamblers in history: The Gambler Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 2020-09-28 |
| famous gamblers in history: Gambling and the Law I. Nelson Rose, 1986 Discussions in this book include taking gambling losses and expenses off your taxes, how to avoid paying gambling debts, what to do if you feel you are cheated, whether a home poker game is legal, what to do if you are arrested, your rights in a casino,can counting cards be legal, how to keep from being blacklisted by casinos, getting a gambling license, reducing taxes if you win big in the lottery and more. |
| famous gamblers in history: Winner Takes All Christina Binkley, 2018-11-06 From Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and culture critic Christina Binkley comes an updated edition of her New York Times bestselling account of sex, drugs, and the rise of Las Vegas. With a new prologue on the rise and fall of Steve Wynn. The Strip. Home to some of the world's grandest, flashiest, and most lucrative casino resorts, Las Vegas, with its multitude of attractions, draws millions of tourists from around the world every year. But Sin City hasn't always been booming: modern Vegas exists largely thanks to the extraordinary vision, and remarkable hubris, of three competing business moguls: Kirk Kerkorian, Dr. Gary Loveman, and Steve Wynn. And in the wake of #MeToo revelations, not all empires survive. Having had personal access to all three tycoons, Binkley explains how their audacious efforts to reach the top-and to top one another-shaped the city as it stands. She takes us inside their grandest schemes, their riskiest deals, and the personalities that drove them to their greatest successes, and their most painful defeats. In this updated edition, she reveals the inside story of how Steve Wynn, the winner who took all, ultimately lost everything-twice. Sharp, insightful, and revealing, Winner Takes All is the gripping story of how billions of dollars and the unparalleled drive for power turned dreams into larger-than-life reality. It's a great drama on the greatest stage. . . Wynn, Kerkorian, and Loveman represent three opposing business personalities, three styles of achieving success. On the Vegas Strip, they're pitted against one another like gladiators, and we've got front-row seats. Kapow! - bestselling author Po Bronson |
| famous gamblers in history: Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi George H. Devol, 1892 A cabin boy in 1839 could steal cards and cheat the boys at eleven stock a deck at fourteen bested soldiers on the Rio Grande during the Mexican war won hundreds of thousands from paymasters, cotton buyers, defaulters and thieves fought more rough and tum |
| famous gamblers in history: The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King Michael Craig, 2014-07-01 A tale of outsized egos, appetites, and ambitions, this completely true, heart-stopping story tells of one man, 20 million dollars, and the most expensive game of poker ever played. |
| famous gamblers in history: Fortune's Formula William Poundstone, 2010-06-01 In 1956, two Bell Labs scientists discovered the scientific formula for getting rich. One was mathematician Claude Shannon, neurotic father of our digital age, whose genius is ranked with Einstein's. The other was John L. Kelly Jr., a Texas-born, gun-toting physicist. Together they applied the science of information theory—the basis of computers and the Internet—to the problem of making as much money as possible, as fast as possible. Shannon and MIT mathematician Edward O. Thorp took the Kelly formula to Las Vegas. It worked. They realized that there was even more money to be made in the stock market. Thorp used the Kelly system with his phenomenally successful hedge fund, Princeton-Newport Partners. Shannon became a successful investor, too, topping even Warren Buffett's rate of return. Fortune's Formula traces how the Kelly formula sparked controversy even as it made fortunes at racetracks, casinos, and trading desks. It reveals the dark side of this alluring scheme, which is founded on exploiting an insider's edge. Shannon believed it was possible for a smart investor to beat the market—and William Poundstone's Fortune's Formula will convince you that he was right. |
| famous gamblers in history: Pathological Gambling National Research Council, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Committee on Law and Justice, Committee on the Social and Economic Impact of Pathological Gambling, 1999-09-03 As states have moved from merely tolerating gambling to running their own games, as communities have increasingly turned to gambling for an economic boost, important questions arise. Has the new age of gambling increased the proportion of pathological or problem gamblers in the U.S. population? Where is the threshold between social betting and pathology? Is there a real threat to our families, communities, and the larger society? Pathological Gambling explores America's experience of gambling, examining: The diverse and frequently controversial issues surrounding the definition of pathological gambling. Its co-occurrence with disorders such as alcoholism, drug abuse, and depression. Its social characteristics and economic consequences, both good and bad, for communities. The role of video gaming, Internet gambling, and other technologies in the development of gambling problems. Treatment approaches and their effectiveness, from Gambler's Anonymous to cognitive therapy to pharmacology. This book provides the most up-to-date information available on the prevalence of pathological and problem gambling in the United States, including a look at populations that may have a particular vulnerability to gambling: women, adolescents, and minority populations. Its describes the effects of problem gambling on families, friendships, employment, finances, and propensity to crime. How do pathological gamblers perceive and misperceive randomness and chance? What are the causal pathways to pathological gambling? What do genetics, brain imaging, and other studies tell us about the biology of gambling? Is there a bit of sensation-seeking in all of us? Who needs treatment? What do we know about the effectiveness of different policies for dealing with pathological gambling? The book reviews the available facts and frames the intriguing questions yet to be answered. Pathological Gambling will be the odds-on favorite for anyone interested in gambling in America: policymakers, public officials, economics and social researchers, treatment professionals, and concerned gamblers and their families. |
| famous gamblers in history: Doyle Brunson's Super System Doyle Brunson, 2018-05-09 This classic book is considered by the pros to be the best book ever written on poker! Jam-packed with advanced strategies, theories, tactics and money-making techniques no serious poker player can afford to be without this hard-hitting information. Includes fifty pages of the most precise poker statistics ever published. Features chapters written by pokers biggest superstars, such as Dave Sklansky, Mike Caro, Chip Reese, Bobby Baldwin, and Doyle two world champions and three master theorists. Essential strategies, advanced play, and no-nonsense winning advice on making money at 7-card stud (razz, high-low split, cards speak, and declare), draw poker, lowball, and hold'em (limit and no-limit).This is a must-read. 605 pages |
| famous gamblers in history: Frontier Gambling G. R. Williamson, 2012-05-15 E-Pub edition |
| famous gamblers in history: The Lady Was a Gambler Chris Enss, 2007 AMERICAN HISTORY: C 1800 TO C 1900. Amidst the mining camps, cattle ranches, desolate landscapes, and gold mining towns of the Wild West were a succession of women who survived dangerous gambling games against ruthless men whose pride was staked on always having the upper hand.The Lady Was a Gambler presents a collection of action-filled portraits of fifteen infamous women gamblers from the Old West.Among those profiled are Poker Alice Ivers, the finest player bar none from Deadwood to Tombstone; Eleanora Dumont, the West's hottest twenty-one dealer; and Lottie Deno, the beautiful faro dealer who gambled all the way from Texas to Alaska. |
| famous gamblers in history: Knights of the Green Cloth Robert K. DeArment, 1990 The English essayist Charles Lamb once said, “Man is a gaming animal.” If he had known the American frontier gamblers depicted in this book, he might have added “in spades,” referring to the avidity with which these “knight of the green cloth” pursued their profession. All of the pioneers who ventured into the American West of the nineteenth century were gamblers in a sense, betting on the land, the future, and themselves. They risked their fortunes and, sometimes, their very lives. And for those too impatient to wait for the bonanza of a rich ore strike, or for the cattle to multiply, or for the town to develop, the gambling table offered an opportunity for instant riches. The almost universal acceptance and popularity of gambling games on the frontier was predictable, and the rise of the professional gambler inevitable. It was a time of almost unlimited personal freedom in a tolerant society, with few to call gambling a sin, a crime, or a folly. The American public was introduced to the frontier gambler very early when a number of them became folk heroes and were interviewed in the popular press of the time. Later, fictional characters made known the western gambler stereotype now seen in movies and on television. Seeking to separate the myth from the reality, Robert K. DeArment gives us more than fiction in this book. Here we meet the long vanished and almost forgotten historical frontier gamblers who, between the years 1850 and 1910, were to be found playing their trade in every settlement from the Gulf of Mexico to the Klondike, Not many found fortunes, but some discovered at the tables an exciting way of life, a calling true and real for them as the law, medicine, or the clergy was for others. DeAement’s research into the lives of the well-known and less-known frontier gamblers provide a story replete with the color and excitement if the Old West. The Good Guys, the Bad Guys, and their women—wives, mistresses, and colleagues in gambling establishments—are here, honestly described in a refreshing, readable manner. |
| famous gamblers in history: How to Make $100,000 a Year Gambling for a Living David Sklansky, Mason Malmuth, 1997 Is there really such a thing as a professional gambler? The answer is an unequivocal, Yes! This book's authors are but two examples. Many thousands of people around the country make a good living exclusively from gambling. It is not easy, but it can be done. The key is to understand which games are beatable and know how to beat them. David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth have spent many years writing about the finer points of poker, blackjack, and other beatable games. As you will see in the book, those other games are horses, sports, progressive slots and video poker, casino tournaments, and special promotions. They don't include craps, roulette, keno, or baccarat for reasons they'll explain. This book, was written for the not quite as experienced aspiring gambler. It shows you everything you need to learn and do if you want to gamble for a living from both the practical and the technical standpoints. The rest is up to you. |
| famous gamblers in history: The Winning Horseplayer Andrew Beyer, 2007 This advanced guide to handicapping, which includes a new Foreword by the author, is chock-full of the wit and wisdom that have made Beyer a legend in the sport. The Winning Horseplayeroffers the sophisticated bettor invaluable advice on handicapping and betting. (Beyer) is the grand guru . . . of handicapping.--Boston Globe |
| famous gamblers in history: The Book on Games of Chance Gerolamo Cardano, 2015-11-04 Mathematics was only one area of interest for Gerolamo Cardano ― the sixteenth-century astrologer, philosopher, and physician was also a prolific author and inveterate gambler. Gambling led Cardano to the study of probability, and he was the first writer to recognize that random events are governed by mathematical laws. Published posthumously in 1663, Cardano's Liber de ludo aleae (Book on Games of Chance) is often considered the major starting point of the study of mathematical probability. The Italian scholar formulated some of the field's basic ideas more than a century before the better-known correspondence of Pascal and Fermat. Although his book had no direct influence on other early thinkers about probability, it remains an important antecedent to later expressions of the science's tenets. |
| famous gamblers in history: Horse Racing the Chicago Way Steven A. Riess, 2022-06-08 Chicago may seem a surprising choice for studying thoroughbred racing, especially since it was originally a famous harness racing town and did not get heavily into thoroughbred racing until the 1880s. However, Chicago in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was second only to New York as a center of both thoroughbred racing and off-track gambling. Horse Racing the Chicago Way shines a light on this fascinating, complicated history, exploring the role of political influence and class in the rise and fall of thoroughbred racing; the business of racing; the cultural and social significance of racing; and the impact widespread opposition to gambling in Illinois had on the sport. Riess also draws attention to the nexus that existed between horse racing, politics, and syndicate crime, as well as the emergence of neighborhood bookmaking, and the role of the national racing wire in Chicago. Taking readers from the grandstands of Chicago’s finest tracks to the underworld of crime syndicates and downtown poolrooms, Riess brings to life this understudied era of sports history. |
| famous gamblers in history: The Smart Money Michael Konik, 2006-11-14 A riveting inside look at the lucrative world of professional high-stakes sports betting by a journalist who lived a secret life as a key operative in the world's most successful sports gambling ring. When journalist Michael Konik landed an interview with Rick Big Daddy Matthews, the largest bet he'd placed on a sporting event was $200. Konik, an expert blackjack and poker player, was no stranger to Vegas. But Matthews was in a different league: the man was rumored to be the world's smartest sports bettor, the mastermind behind the Brain Trust, a shadowy group of gamblers known for their expertise in beating the Vegas line. Konik had heard the word on the street -- that Matthews was a snake, a conniver who would do anything to gain an edge. But he was also brilliant, cunning, and charming. And when he asked Konik if he'd like to make a little money during the football season, the writer found himself seduced . . . So began Michael Konik's wild ride as an operative of the elite Brain Trust. In The Smart Money, Konik takes readers behind the veil of secrecy shrouding the most successful sports betting operation in America, bypassing the myths and the rumors, going all the way to its innermost sanctum. He reveals how they -- and he -- got rich by beating the Vegas lines and, ultimately, the multimillion-dollar offshore betting circuit. He details the excesses and the betrayals, the horse-trading and the paranoia, that are the perks and perils of a lifestyle in which staking inordinate sums of money on the outcome of a single event -- sometimes as much as $1 million on a football game -- is a normal part of doing business. |
| famous gamblers in history: Beat the Dealer Edward O. Thorp, 1966-04-12 The Book That Made Las Vegas Change the Rules Over 1,000,000 Copies in Print Edward O. Thorp is the father of card counting, and in this classic guide he shares the revolutionary point system that has been successfully used by professional and amateur card players for generations. This book provides: o an overview of the basic rules of the game o proven winning strategies ranging from simple to advanced o methods to overcome casino counter measures o ways to spot cheating o charts and tables that clearly illustrate key concepts A fascinating read and an indispensable resource for winning big, Beat the Dealer is the bible for players of this game of chance. **Bring these strategies into the casino: Perforated cards included in the book** |
| famous gamblers in history: Hoyle's Rules of Games Philip D. Morehead, 2001 Provides rules, strategies, and odds for card, indoor, and computer games. |
| famous gamblers in history: At the Sands: The Casino That Shaped Classic Las Vegas, Brought the Rat Pack Together, and Went Out With a Bang David G. Schwartz, 2020-08-26 The lights are coming down. Frank, Dean, and Sammy are about to take the stage. This is the moment we remember, when Las Vegas became classic. And it was at the Sands. Built in 1952 over the ashes of Hollywood Reporter publisher Billy Wilkerson's last chance in Las Vegas, the Sands was a collective effort. Underworld figures like Meyer Lansky, Doc Stacher, and Frank Costello provided the cash. Beloved Texas gambler Jake Freedman was the public face. Manhattan nightclub king Jack Entratter kept the Copa Room filled and made the party happen, every night. Carl Cohen, esteemed as the greatest casino manager in the history of the business, made the team complete.No matter how well your casino is run, you need a good hook to get the gamblers through the door. Casino owners were learning that entertainment was a pretty fair hook. Entratter, who broke into the entertainment business as a bouncer at the Stork Club, had risen to become manager of the Copacabana, one of Manhattan's hottest hot spots, before heading to Las Vegas. At the Sands, Mr. Entertainment brought many of the brightest stars of the day to the casino's showroom, named the Copa Room. The Copa was the hottest ticket in America and, for performers, one of the most coveted stages in the nation. Headlining at the Sands-or even opening there-meant that you had made it.For gamblers, the Sands was paradise. For tourists, it was a chance to see some sophistication-and maybe run into a famous singer or actor. The resort itself became a celebrity. Early on, the Sands hosted numerous radio and television broadcasts, bringing the casino into American households coast to coast when gambling was still not entirely reputable. Las Vegas is a city built on public relations, and the Sands' Al Freeman was one of its early masters.The Sands did more than showcase stars: it made them shine brighter. In 1960, while filming Ocean's 11, the Rat Pack (though they were never called that in those days) came together onstage at the Sands, creating a cultural icon that would define the era. Behind the scenes, Davis and Sinatra resisted the prevailing segregationist mindset of Las Vegas and helped to overturn Jim Crow on the Strip. With Sinatra as its star, the Sands reached its highest point, hosting everyone from John F. Kennedy to Texas oilmen to Miami bookmakers.Yet the Sands wasn't all comps and curtain calls. Behind the scenes, the casino's connection with reputed mobsters made it a target. For years, the FBI tried to penetrate the casino, including a disastrous wiretapping operation that turned into a public embarrassment for the Bureau. And Frank Sinatra-at one point a 10 percent owner of the Sands-would divest his interests after a highly-publicized feud with Nevada gaming regulators over his friendship with alleged Chicago mob kingpin Sam Giancana.thanksAfter Howard Hughes bought the Sands in 1967 (with Frank Sinatra explosively departing soon after) the Sands lost some of its allure, but the casino soldiered on under Hughes and other owners before being sold to Sheldon Adelson, who closed the property in 1996 to make way for the Venetian mega-resort, along the way doing for conventions what Jack Entratter had done for entertainment in Las Vegas four decades earlier.In the end, the Sands went out with a bang-an implosion that brought down its hotel tower. It had a wild 44 year run. Along the way, a host of characters, including the Rat Pack (and their many friends) in all their glory, author Mario Puzo, Apollo astronauts, wealthy arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, and President Ronald Reagan passed through the Sands' doors.At the Sands tells the story of how one of the most fondly remembered classic Las Vegas casinos beat the odds to become a success, staged some of the Strip's most memorable spectaculars, and paved the way for the next generation of Las Vegas resorts. The Sands may be gone, but it did not fade away. |
| famous gamblers in history: Seven Games: A Human History Oliver Roeder, 2022-01-25 A group biography of seven enduring and beloved games, and the story of why—and how—we play them. Checkers, backgammon, chess, and Go. Poker, Scrabble, and bridge. These seven games, ancient and modern, fascinate millions of people worldwide. In Seven Games, Oliver Roeder charts their origins and historical importance, the delightful arcana of their rules, and the ways their design makes them pleasurable. Roeder introduces thrilling competitors, such as evangelical minister Marion Tinsley, who across forty years lost only three games of checkers; Shusai, the Master, the last Go champion of imperial Japan, defending tradition against “modern rationalism”; and an IBM engineer who created a backgammon program so capable at self-learning that NASA used it on the space shuttle. He delves into the history and lore of each game: backgammon boards in ancient Egypt, the Indian origins of chess, how certain shells from a particular beach in Japan make the finest white Go stones. Beyond the cultural and personal stories, Roeder explores why games, seemingly trivial pastimes, speak so deeply to the human soul. He introduces an early philosopher of games, the aptly named Bernard Suits, and visits an Oxford cosmologist who has perfected a computer that can effectively play bridge, a game as complicated as human language itself. Throughout, Roeder tells the compelling story of how humans, pursuing scientific glory and competitive advantage, have invented AI programs better than any human player, and what that means for the games—and for us. Funny, fascinating, and profound, Seven Games is a story of obsession, psychology, history, and how play makes us human. |
| famous gamblers in history: Roll the Bones David Schwartz, 2013-01-07 Roll the Bones tells the story of gambling: where it came from, how it has changed, and where it is now. This is the new Casino Edition. which updates and expands the global history of gambling to include a greater focus on casinos, from their development in European spas to their growth in Reno and Las Vegas. New material chronicles in greater depth the development of casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and their spread throughout the United States. A new chapter better places Atlantic City's casinos into their correct context, and new material accounts for the rise of casinos in Asia and online gaming. From the first modern casino in Venice (1638), casinos have grown incredibly. During the 18th and 19th century, a series of European spa towns, culminating in Monte Carlo, hosted casinos. In the United States, during those same years, gambling developed both in illegal urban gambling halls and in the wide-open saloons of the western frontier. Those two strands of American gambling came together in Nevada's legal casinos, whose current regime dates from 1931. Developing with a healthy assist from elements affiliated with organized crime, these casinos eventually outgrew their rough-hewn routes, becoming sun-drenched pleasure palaces along the Las Vegas Strip. With Nevada casinos proving successful, other states, beginning with New Jersey in 1976, rolled the dice. From there, casinos have come to America's tribal lands, rivers, and urban centers. In the last decade, gambling has moved online, while Asia--with multi-billion dollar projects in Macau and Singapore--has become a new casino frontier. Reading Roll the Bones, you'll get a better appreciation for how long casinos and gambling have been with us--and what they mean to us today. |
| famous gamblers in history: Galveston Gary Cartwright, 1998 Number eighteen: The TCU Press Chisholm Trail Series of significant books dealing with Texas, its life and history. |
| famous gamblers in history: The Gambler Wife Andrew D. Kaufman, 2022-08-30 FINALIST FOR THE PEN JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY “Feminism, history, literature, politics—this tale has all of that, and a heroine worthy of her own turn in the spotlight.” —Therese Anne Fowler, bestselling author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald A revelatory new portrait of the courageous woman who saved Dostoyevsky’s life—and became a pioneer in Russian literary history In the fall of 1866, a twenty-year-old stenographer named Anna Snitkina applied for a position with a writer she idolized: Fyodor Dostoyevsky. A self-described “girl of the sixties,” Snitkina had come of age during Russia’s first feminist movement, and Dostoyevsky—a notorious radical turned acclaimed novelist—had impressed the young woman with his enlightened and visionary fiction. Yet in person she found the writer “terribly unhappy, broken, tormented,” weakened by epilepsy, and yoked to a ruinous gambling addiction. Alarmed by his condition, Anna became his trusted first reader and confidante, then his wife, and finally his business manager—launching one of literature’s most turbulent and fascinating marriages. The Gambler Wife offers a fresh and captivating portrait of Anna Dostoyevskaya, who reversed the novelist’s freefall and cleared the way for two of the most notable careers in Russian letters—her husband’s and her own. Drawing on diaries, letters, and other little-known archival sources, Andrew Kaufman reveals how Anna protected her family from creditors, demanding in-laws, and her greatest romantic rival, through years of penury and exile. We watch as she navigates the writer’s self-destructive binges in the casinos of Europe—even hazarding an audacious turn at roulette herself—until his addiction is conquered. And, finally, we watch as Anna frees her husband from predatory contracts by founding her own publishing house, making Anna the first solo female publisher in Russian history. The result is a story that challenges ideas of empowerment, sacrifice, and female agency in nineteenth-century Russia—and a welcome new appraisal of an indomitable woman whose legacy has been nearly lost to literary history. |
| famous gamblers in history: Kings Nathan Thompson, 2014-06-01 10th Anniversary Edition |
| famous gamblers in history: Where the Action is Erving Goffman, 1969 |
| famous gamblers in history: Sucker’s Progress Herbert Asbury, 2016-10-21 From the great raconteur of the American underworld, and author of The Gangs of New York, comes Sucker’s Progress: An Information History of Gambling in America. From Midwestern Riverboats to East Coast Racetracks, Herbert Asbury explores the legal and illegal history of gambling in pre-WWII America. Describing notorious gambling havens like Chicago and New Orleans, as well as lesser-known outposts in cities like Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Cincinnati, Ohio, Asbury examines the gambling houses, big and small, which peppered the American landscape. Also presented are the lives of some of America’s most famous gamblers, including Mike McDonald, John Morrissey, and Richard Canfield, as well as their infamous counterparts like “Canada Bill” and “Charley Black Eyes,” men who made their names as grifters and con men. Asbury also explores the games these men played, describing the rules and origins of dozens of dice and card games. From $1 lottery tickets to thousand dollar pokes antes, America’s love of gambling thrives today, but it was during Asbury’s era that gambling was established as an American passion. “Asbury embarked on what seems in retrospect an extraordinary mission: to document the entire underworld of America, from New Orleans to San Francisco....His studies of gambling, of the racial politics of the New Orleans French Quarter, and of the history of Chicago crime remain monuments to an ambition that was then confined to the fringes of pop history. Sucker’s Progress, his history of gambling and swindling in America, is dense with facts about a subject one would have thought persisted only as rumour and tall tale.”—A. GOPNIK, The New Yorker One of the best American books of its kind. He tells the story of the New York underworld of the past century, and his narrative is excellently presented in a book adorned with amusing pictures from the weeklies and newspapers.”—E. Pearson, The Sat. Rev. of Books |
| famous gamblers in history: According to Doyle Doyle Brunson, 2013-09-25 Learn what it takes to be a great poker player by climbing inside the mind of poker's most famous champion. Fascinating anecdotes and adventures from Doyle's early career playing poker in roadhouses and with other great champions are interspersed with important lessons one can learn from the champion who has made more money at poker than anyone else in the history of the game. Readers learn what makes a great player tick, how he approaches the game, and receive candid, powerful advice from the legend himself. Foreword by America's foremost poker authority, Mike Caro, who says, Brunson is the greatest poker player who ever lived, and this book shows why. |
| famous gamblers in history: Efficiency of Racetrack Betting Markets Donald B. Hausch, Victor S. Y. Lo, W. T. Ziemba, 2008 A reprint of one of the classic volumes on racetrack efficiency, this book is the only one in its field that deals with the racetrack betting market in-depth, containing all the important historical papers on racetrack efficiency. As evidenced by the collection of articles, the understanding of racetrack betting is clearly drawn from, and has correspondingly returned something to, all the fields of psychology, economics, finance, statistics, mathematics and management science. |
| famous gamblers in history: The Georgian Art of Gambling Claire Cock-Starkey, 2013 The Georgian Art of Gambling takes the reader on a miscellaneous tour through high and low society to reveal all aspects of gambling in the Georgian era. Descriptions of the most fashionable card and dice games of the day are interspersed with snippets of contemporary anti-gambling pamphlets, descriptions of the most famous (and degenerate) gambling houses, and accounts of the ruination of many high-profile aristocrats. The Georgian Art of Gambling covers wagering on sports such as cockfighting, bull baiting, boxing and cricket to the more sedentary pleasures of the card table. Both the civilised (card games portrayed in the novels of Jane Austen) and the debauched (card sharps and loaded dice) are explored, offering the reader a fascinating glimpse into the extent of gambling in Georgian Britain. |
| famous gamblers in history: The Economics of Sports Betting Plácido Rodríguez, Brad R. Humphreys, Robert Simmons, 2017-07-28 This unique book delves into a number of intriguing issues and addresses several pertinent questions including, should gambling markets be privatized? Is the ‘hot hand’ hypothesis real or a myth? Are the ‘many’ smarter than the ‘few’ in estimating betting odds? How are prices set in fixed odds betting markets? The book also explores the informational efficiency of betting markets and the prevalence of corruption and illegal betting in sports. |
| famous gamblers in history: Life's a Gamble Mike Sexton, |
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