June 2012
Nick Wealthall on egoThis column is about ego. I actually mean this month’s column specifically, although I can understand why you might have thought I’d just come clean about my whole raison d’être.
May 2012
Titanic Thompson: America's Most Famous Gambler, Part 3By Johnny Hughes
In 1939, there was an oil boom in Evansville, Indiana, and the poker game at the McCurdy Hotel had $25,000 pots. Name gamblers playing included Titanic Thompson, Hubert Cokes, Minnesota Fats, and high roller Ray Ryan.
Warning: Your brain is trying to kill your poker gameBy Nick Wealthall.
During my time playing poker and interviewing, or being coached by, some of the best poker players in the world, I made a shocking discovery. You naturally suck at poker. In fact, your brain is trying to kill your poker game.
Titanic Thompson: America's Most Famous Gambler, Part 2 of 3By Johnny Hughes
Titanic, Nick the Greek, and Hubert “Daddy Warbucks” Cokes were all in New York at the end of the 1920s, a golden time. Titanic and Cokes were backing a teenage New York Fats, later to become Minnesota Fats after the movie The Hustler came out in 1961. Cokes was called Daddy Warbucks after the character in Little Orphan Annie. He was tall, bald, very rich and had an ever-present cigar.
April 2012
Titanic Thompson: America's Most Famous Gambler, Part IBy Johnny Hughes
Titanic Thompson, aka Alvin C. Thomas (1892-1974), grew up in rural Arkansas in a gambling family. As a child he pitched pennies at the line, hunted small game with his .22 rifle, threw rocks at targets, hunted birds by throwing rocks and played poker, dominoes and checkers.
March 2012
America's Richest Gambler, Murdered Over a Poker GameBy Johnny Hughes
Arnold Rothstein (1882 to 1928) was called “the Brain” and “the Big Bankroll”. He owned many gambling houses, was the biggest bookmaker in New York, and owned a fancy casino in Saratoga, New York, called the Brook.
Dunwoody on CheltenhamThe excitement for National Hunt racing fans at this time of the year always hits fever pitch with the Cheltenham Festival and the Aintree Grand National Meeting, the two biggest events on the jump racing calendar, and this year’s no different.
February 2012
Road Gambler - Benny Binion, Part IIBy Johnny Hughes.
The Texas Centennial in 1936 celebrated Texas’ independence from Mexico. It was depression-era, hard times, and the political bosses of Dallas and Ft Worth allowed wide-opening gambling. Benny flourished in hard times, first bootlegging, then dice, then the policy wheels. Benny said, “Tough times make tough people.”
January 2012
A Pain in the Alias"What's in a name? That which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2) - William Shakespeare
Benny Binion: Texas Boss Gambler by Johnny HughesBy Johnny Hughes
So, I've turned 21 and can get a police card to work in a casino, if need be. After misadventures travelling from our beloved West Texas all along Route 66, the Mother Road, America's Highway, my poker and road partner and I are beating Las Vegas and Fremont Street hard on the free sandwiches, cigs, mixed drinks.