It was in the February 1958 issue of Redbook.
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Has Anyone Read Walter Tevis’s, “Sucker’s Game”?
- Thread starter Chicagoplayer
- Start date
Looks like he had a collection of pool short stories:
Here is the Man from Chicago:
Blue Book v100 n03 [1955-01] : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Bluebook [v100 #3, January 1955] ed. André Fontaine (McCall Corporation, 25¢, 128pp, side-stapled letter, cover by Frank McCarthy) From this issue the title...
archive.org
Here is Sucker's Game:
Redbook 1958-02: Vol 110 Iss 4 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Redbook 1958-02: Volume 110, Issue 4.Digitized from IA1628813-04.Previous issue: sim_redbook_1958-01_110_3.Next issue: sim_redbook_1958-03_110_5.
archive.org
(maybe someone else can track down the others in the first link)
Here's an Amazon reprint (which I just ordered):
Here's the table of contents, which has several of the pool stories in the link above:
Here's the table of contents, which has several of the pool stories in the link above:
This was fabulous & very informative. Thank you @kling&allen for the links!Looks like he had a collection of pool short stories:
Here is the Man from Chicago:
Blue Book v100 n03 [1955-01] : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Bluebook [v100 #3, January 1955] ed. André Fontaine (McCall Corporation, 25¢, 128pp, side-stapled letter, cover by Frank McCarthy) From this issue the title...archive.org
Here is Sucker's Game:
Redbook 1958-02: Vol 110 Iss 4 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Redbook 1958-02: Volume 110, Issue 4.Digitized from IA1628813-04.Previous issue: sim_redbook_1958-01_110_3.Next issue: sim_redbook_1958-03_110_5.archive.org
(maybe someone else can track down the others in the first link)
Good work by you in finding these works. I was aware that the Hustler ran partially as a magazine serial (as noted by Lou) but didn't know he had other short stories related to pool.
I actually digitized some of his short stories. The punctuation and spellings errors were horrendous, though. "The Best in the Country" was in Esquire, and "The King is Dead" was in Playboy. "Pool Hustlers" was in Nugget.
In Bluebook, January 1955, "The Man from Chicago" was my favorite. Here's a snippet:
And then the stranger made his big play.
He pulled out his billfold, jerked out a wad of bills, peeled a 50 off the top, threw it down on the table, and then started counting 10s and 20s from the rest of the pile, and talking—only it was more like spluttering.
"By golly," he said, counting off his money, "By golly, I'm not a gambling man, but I'll be switched if I know I can't beat your brand of luck pool."
He stacked $100 in bills together on the table and then started counting off another $100. Charlie didn't say anything. You could see he was fascinated. As a matter of fact, we all were. I just happened to notice that it was almost four o'clock, and I looked over towards the wall, and there was Hustler Curtiss, sitting his usual chair. He was leaning back, watching the money-counting routine like it might have been on television, and he was just kind of smiling. And when he saw me looking at him, he did something I had never seen him do before. He winked at me, still smiling. I didn't understand, then, what the smile and the wink meant.
The stranger had finished counting out another $100 from his roll—and the roll was still pretty big—and he was glaring at Charlie, and he said, "By golly, this is two weeks' commissions and expenses, but I'll lay you the whole $200, on just one more game, that I can still beat your kind of luck."
It was perfect. Even for Charlie, it was too perfect to chicken out on. I think maybe it was the talk about "commissions and expenses" that did it. Everybody knows there's no better sucker than a traveling salesman. Of course, what we didn't know then was that there's maybe 20 fast-shooting hustlers on the road that carry sample cases into poolrooms with them—and carry the money out. Only this stranger wasn't that kind. He didn't carry a sample case.
So Charlie bit. "Okay, mister," he said, "You've got you a game." Then he racked the balls.
In Bluebook, January 1955, "The Man from Chicago" was my favorite. Here's a snippet:
And then the stranger made his big play.
He pulled out his billfold, jerked out a wad of bills, peeled a 50 off the top, threw it down on the table, and then started counting 10s and 20s from the rest of the pile, and talking—only it was more like spluttering.
"By golly," he said, counting off his money, "By golly, I'm not a gambling man, but I'll be switched if I know I can't beat your brand of luck pool."
He stacked $100 in bills together on the table and then started counting off another $100. Charlie didn't say anything. You could see he was fascinated. As a matter of fact, we all were. I just happened to notice that it was almost four o'clock, and I looked over towards the wall, and there was Hustler Curtiss, sitting his usual chair. He was leaning back, watching the money-counting routine like it might have been on television, and he was just kind of smiling. And when he saw me looking at him, he did something I had never seen him do before. He winked at me, still smiling. I didn't understand, then, what the smile and the wink meant.
The stranger had finished counting out another $100 from his roll—and the roll was still pretty big—and he was glaring at Charlie, and he said, "By golly, this is two weeks' commissions and expenses, but I'll lay you the whole $200, on just one more game, that I can still beat your kind of luck."
It was perfect. Even for Charlie, it was too perfect to chicken out on. I think maybe it was the talk about "commissions and expenses" that did it. Everybody knows there's no better sucker than a traveling salesman. Of course, what we didn't know then was that there's maybe 20 fast-shooting hustlers on the road that carry sample cases into poolrooms with them—and carry the money out. Only this stranger wasn't that kind. He didn't carry a sample case.
So Charlie bit. "Okay, mister," he said, "You've got you a game." Then he racked the balls.
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I just ordered three as gifts. Thank you for the share! I'm curious to see if the punctuation and spellings were corrected.
Walter Tevis also wrote the great novels "The Man Who Fell To Earth" and "The Queen's Gambit." He was considered a World Class writer!
This book turned out to be a hidden gem, it has some great pool stories.
Mine arrived yesterday. I bought one for a friend who is a global traveler on the pool tournament trail quite often. I figured the short stories would provide good reading material in an airport while waiting to board.
I briefly compared some of the stories to ones I digitized from magazine prints, and some of the punctuation and spelling errors are still there. Oh well! Nobody would notice that except me, probably.
Here's a few tidbits about the book.
I briefly compared some of the stories to ones I digitized from magazine prints, and some of the punctuation and spelling errors are still there. Oh well! Nobody would notice that except me, probably.
Here's a few tidbits about the book.
An interesting read about Walter Tevis (previously posted on AzBilliards Main Forum in 2016).
When Toby Kavanaugh was in sixth grade, he befriended Walter Tevis, a new kid who had just moved to Lexington from California.
Tevis, an aspiring writer, was of humble means and quickly became a fixture in the luxurious Kavanaugh home, devouring the science fiction magazines and other books he found in the home and taking a keen interest in an old pool table in the basement that came out of the Lafayette Hotel.
"My mother always liked Walter," Kavanaugh said. "He came over to our house to eat a lot because he didn’t have anything to eat at home."
Tevis dedicated his best-selling novel, The Color of Money, to Kavanaugh "for teaching me to play pool."
As a tribute to this friendship, Dr. Billy Forbess, the current homeowner of the Georgian-style home in Lexington where it all took place, keeps his pool table in the revered spot in the basement.
"There’s a scene in The Hustler when Paul Newman plays a pool tournament in the basement of a big house," Forbess said. "That was copied after this house."
Read more here --> SOURCE: Stunning Georgian manor on Ashland Avenue is steeped in history, grandeur
When Toby Kavanaugh was in sixth grade, he befriended Walter Tevis, a new kid who had just moved to Lexington from California.
Tevis, an aspiring writer, was of humble means and quickly became a fixture in the luxurious Kavanaugh home, devouring the science fiction magazines and other books he found in the home and taking a keen interest in an old pool table in the basement that came out of the Lafayette Hotel.
"My mother always liked Walter," Kavanaugh said. "He came over to our house to eat a lot because he didn’t have anything to eat at home."
Tevis dedicated his best-selling novel, The Color of Money, to Kavanaugh "for teaching me to play pool."
As a tribute to this friendship, Dr. Billy Forbess, the current homeowner of the Georgian-style home in Lexington where it all took place, keeps his pool table in the revered spot in the basement.
"There’s a scene in The Hustler when Paul Newman plays a pool tournament in the basement of a big house," Forbess said. "That was copied after this house."
Read more here --> SOURCE: Stunning Georgian manor on Ashland Avenue is steeped in history, grandeur
Got mine yesterday from my wife. I wonder how long ago some of these were actually written.
I couldn't find Sucker's Game at that link. Anyone have a link?Looks like he had a collection of pool short stories:
Here is the Man from Chicago:
Blue Book v100 n03 [1955-01] : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Bluebook [v100 #3, January 1955] ed. André Fontaine (McCall Corporation, 25¢, 128pp, side-stapled letter, cover by Frank McCarthy) From this issue the title...archive.org
Here is Sucker's Game:
Redbook 1958-02: Vol 110 Iss 4 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Redbook 1958-02: Volume 110, Issue 4.Digitized from IA1628813-04.Previous issue: sim_redbook_1958-01_110_3.Next issue: sim_redbook_1958-03_110_5.archive.org
(maybe someone else can track down the others in the first link)
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There are nine more short stories in "The King is Dead," but none of them is about pool.
If you scroll down on that link, you will see it. "Sucker’s Game” appeared in Redbook, February 1958, illustrated by Mac Connor. Eddie walks into a poolroom and selects a fat man named Turtle to hustle. But Eddie is about to get a big surprise.
It is also on page 105 in "The Kind is Dead" book.