Titanic Thompson

Ken_4fun

Ken_4fun

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Just finished reading a biography on Titanic Thompson, for about the fifth time. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.

While only a small amount of it is actually about pool, there are some bits and pieces that as pool players we know about.

While like most stories, I believe some of it, there are items that may be true, but seems so far out there I have a hard time.

If you are a golfer, you would really enjoy as a considerable amount of it has golf stories in it.

For a poor boy from Arkansas, Titanic, really turned the gambling world upside down.

Ken
 

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A few years ago I was at a pool tournament and noticed that this book had just been published. I had heard stories about Thompson all my life. I eagerly bought a copy and started to read it. At one point I was sitting on a sofa in the lobby of the hotel reading and a young audience member asked me if the book were any good. I said to him that it was terrific. He said that he was going to get a copy.

As I read the book, I discovered that a lot of what Thompson pulled off was a scam. He certainly knew how to "nobble a horse," meaning to fix it so that a race is not fair. It's one thing to bet someone that you can throw a golf ball the length of a football field when it is really a golf ball that you are throwing. It is quite another to bet someone that you can throw a pecan a certain distance when actually what you are going to throw is a pecan that has been hollowed out and filled with lead. A lot of guys got into card games and golf games and other things with Thompson, according to this book, in which they didn't know what game was actually being played.

I have too many books in my house already, and when I finished the book a day later I decided to give it to the young man who had asked me about it. I put this inscription in the flyleaf in the front: "Enjoy the tournament. Don't try any of this s**t yourself." Then I passed the book along to him.

A day or two later I passed the young man in the corridor. I asked him how the book was. He said that it was great but that what was happening was unfair. I asked him how that was. He said that when he had taken the book back to his room his roommate had snatched it away from him and begun reading it. Now the roommate insisted on reading out loud to him the best parts!
 
My friend, Vernon Elliott, was known by those who really knew him to be quiet a character himself in addition to his pool notoriety. He was aquainted with Titanic Thompson. Not many people overly impressed Vernon and even less in awe of......except Titanic Thompson. Of all the people Vernon told me stories about TT was the only one Vernon said he wouldn't gamble with......at anything. That spoke volumes to me about Titanic Thompson.
 
I bought a copy last week, just waiting on the amazon seller to get it to me. I read a teaser excerpt, and although many of his bets were cons and scams I'm impressed by the planning and creativity that went into them.
 
There are lots of good scams and hustles in this book, but I really like the story about the dog getting the rock.
 
Well I agree and disagree with the points made.

Not all of his "hustles" were by cheating. He was an incredible golfer with either hand, as well as a student of odds. He wasn't robbing car washes, and the book lays out that he practiced hundreds of hours.

He also understood egos, and like a great movie, just when you think you had it all figured out, there is still a twist.

Ken
 
I haven't read this book yet and it sounds great. An earlier book which I highly recommend is called "The Unsinkable Titanic." You just can't put it down.
 
Tobermory said:
A few years ago I was at a pool tournament and noticed that this book had just been published. I had heard stories about Thompson all my life. I eagerly bought a copy and started to read it. At one point I was sitting on a sofa in the lobby of the hotel reading and a young audience member asked me if the book were any good. I said to him that it was terrific. He said that he was going to get a copy.

As I read the book, I discovered that a lot of what Thompson pulled off was a scam. He certainly knew how to "nobble a horse," meaning to fix it so that a race is not fair. It's one thing to bet someone that you can throw a golf ball the length of a football field when it is really a golf ball that you are throwing. It is quite another to bet someone that you can throw a pecan a certain distance when actually what you are going to throw is a pecan that has been hollowed out and filled with lead. A lot of guys got into card games and golf games and other things with Thompson, according to this book, in which they didn't know what game was actually being played.

I have too many books in my house already, and when I finished the book a day later I decided to give it to the young man who had asked me about it. I put this inscription in the flyleaf in the front: "Enjoy the tournament. Don't try any of this s**t yourself." Then I passed the book along to him.

A day or two later I passed the young man in the corridor. I asked him how the book was. He said that it was great but that what was happening was unfair. I asked him how that was. He said that when he had taken the book back to his room his roommate had snatched it away from him and begun reading it. Now the roommate insisted on reading out loud to him the best parts!
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Even with all the scams he pulled at the race tracks they seem to have always been way ahead of him [like every other horse player I ever met}.
I knew one guy who almost beat that system by getting in and breeding someones superhorse on the sly for a piece of the offspring.
It netted him several million dollars but he eventually gave it all back betting .
 
I own the same book pictured and it's one of the best gambling related books I've ever read :thumbup:
 
For those intrested the National Geographic Channel has a series "Hustling America" hosted by Alex Conran. I have only seen two episodes Tytanic Thompson and Amarillo Slim. Both shows were entertaining and intersting.

Bert
 
row21097 said:
For those intrested the National Geographic Channel has a series "Hustling America" hosted by Alex Conran. I have only seen two episodes Tytanic Thompson and Amarillo Slim. Both shows were entertaining and intersting.

Bert
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I saw the one on Titanic, pretty good.
 
I read The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson by Carlton Stowers back in the early 90's. I don't imagine that these two books written some 20+ years apart can be too different. I did enjoy the Stowers version.
 
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