Produkt

KlappentextA Gambler's Tale consists of a collection of memories from the incredible gambling life of Stevie Thomas. From casinos to poker and everything in between, this book is a fascinating insight into the radical existence of a gambling family complete with some extraordinary tales. This book details stories from all over the world, well known names and faces, as well as providing a brief history of the gambling scene in London.

This is the first book, a collection of memories and musings, by the writer Stevie Thomas.

Details

Weitere ISBN/GTIN9781915785121

ProduktartE-Book

EinbandartE-Book

FormatEPUB

Format HinweisePub Wasserzeichen

FormatE101

Verlag

Clink Street Publishing

Erscheinungsjahr2024

Erscheinungsdatum30.01.2024

Seiten290 Seiten

SpracheEnglisch

Dateigrösse2808 Kbytes

Artikel-Nr.13504448

Rubriken

Genre9201

Inhalt/Kritik

Leseprobe

I have always said that if I had a chance to write about gambling stories it would be a very intriguing and exciting book indeed. This book will include some of the experiences I have encountered on my travels. I have read a few books on gambling stories and I felt that I could write a book of my own! I will share these experiences with you but obviously I will change some of the names and some of the places to protect those concerned. Everything you will read in this book is true. If you have read any gambling books in the past you will find this book quite incredible.

I said to my wife some time ago, I would like to write a book on all these fascinating events that have taken place in my life and it was she who suggested that I should sit down and put pen to paper. What happened was, when we used to entertain at dinner parties, I used to always tell a story that I had experienced in my life about gambling and throughout the evening I used to tell one or two stories that were funny and my wife said to me, You made everyone laugh tonight, you could write a book. So it was then that I decided to sit down and start. I said to her, It would take a very long time indeed to start all my adventures, going back to when I was possibly four to five years old. She said, Well you are in no rush! So, I sat down, probably a couple of years ago now, probably about the year 2000. We then bought a PC and we found some software that you could dictate to as it would be a lot easier because I can t type. Well in the beginning it was great but then the software packed up halfway through and it started spelling certain things wrong and I decided to call it a day because everything was getting on top of me. Then my wife started typing a bit for me, my sister started typing a bit for me and then my niece started typing a bit for me but eventually everything faded out and we got nothing done.

It wasn t until by pure chance one day that I met a very nice chap called Dave English who gave me the number of a lady who would sit down and do the manuscript, and it seems now that we are finally going to get something done, so I am going full steam ahead to write this book.

I started at 39 years old, I m already 41 and we still haven t got the final copy finished. This book will include stories of some of the biggest gambling cash games, even by todays standard. I know that the $10,000 Hold em Event in Las Vegas is the biggest competition in the world and I know the prize money is probably $2 million now, which is about £1million but in a lot of my stories I am talking about hard cash not tournament chips. The size of those games was well ahead of their time. Also there was a poker game that I was involved in, dealing, that was the biggest game to be known, but one slight thing, it was 35,000 ft up in the air, but I will tell you about that later on. Myself, I ve played poker all around the world. UK, Australia, Hong Kong, Cyprus and many, many other places. Wherever there has been Five Card Stud and me knowing that there is a good straight open game, I want to get involved. I have also dealt in the biggest games in the world, for their time, and even in today s standard as I said, they would be considered very large indeed.

My stories will include some of the top Professional Five Stud poker players and then some other stories; will consist of some modest amateur very weak poker players. Both can be quite amusing! I suppose with a book, the only problem is where do you start. My wife said to me, Well, why don t you start at the beginning and I said to her Where is the beginning? She said, The beginning of your gambling stories.

So I had to think quite hard and the harder I was thinking the younger I was getting. In my mind I kept thinking of experiences of when I was young and then younger and younger. Well I can tell you I ended up at five years old and that s when it all started.

My dad owned a casino in 1965. It was called the Wembley Spinner Club. It was a casino well ahead of its time. Wembley in those days was a very nice area with a large Jewish community. It was quite classy; I would probably say it was on a standard to Stanmore, Radlett or Elstree.

On the ground floor there were three roulette tables, a dice table and two blackjacks, on the first floor there was a poker room, & we always had buffet nights. Now it was my dad back in the 60s that introduced free drinks, free coffees and free buffets. The spread he used to put on was quite incredible. We still look at some of the Cine films today and are quite impressed. Once a week they used to hold a raffle and the first prize was a brand-new Escort car. Needless to say, on these special nights, the club used to get extremely busy. What with the complimentary drinks, food and a chance to win a car, can you imagine? In those days there were hundreds and hundreds of casinos dotted around the London area. It was quite easy to get a licence. It was not until 1969-70 the Gaming Board restricted the licences.

When I was five years old, my mum used to take my brother, sister and me into the casino on a Sunday afternoon and I remember until this day sitting on my dad s knee watching him play poker. I also remember a couple of the players at the time because I played with them 20 to 25 years later. Sonny, French Alan, Italian Gino, to name a few, they all had nicknames. Dad also told me there was a very big Poker Player by the name of Kuros. Now Kuros has died but he owned a couple of restaurants in the West End and Kuros was a fearless poker player. Dad was telling me, he could possibly lose £10-15 grand in one night. Now you are talking about in the mid-60s. In those days a three or four bed-room house was about £6000.

They all used to play Five Card Stud Strip Deck. Five Card Stud is the mother of all poker games. It was played in the 30s, 40s and 50s back in America, but it soon died a death, because with 52 cards the action used to get a little slow and boring. When the game hit London in the mid-50s, the Cypriots and the Italians discarded the 2s, 3s and 4s and ended up with a 40-card deck. This used to give the game a little more action. It used to be a no limit game , which can be a very dangerous game indeed like the no limit game they play in Las Vegas at the moment with Texas Hold em. Players out there currently know that in this kind of game, you could put your entire cash at stake at any time. When the 60s came around that structure seemed to die off. What happened to the game next was that they took the 5s and the 6s out and left a 32-card deck & also changed the structure to a Pot Limit Game, so you could only bet the size of the pot, which definitely gave you a lot more action and you were able to buy a lot more cards for your money in the course of the game. With this structure you could build pots, knowing you could not lose all your money in one pot. Strip Deck, as is now known was born. The Americans have never played Strip Deck Poker; it never took off within the States. If you go to a couple of the card clubs in Los Angeles, you will find it in some of the rooms and they call it Asian Stud . They still play it over there in the Asian Section, but they still play No Limit. I have played it in America for three or four years and I have made money. However, I feel that you have to play very tight indeed, but I will tell you about those stories later on in the book. There was still a lot of Five Card Stud Strip Deck right up until the mid-90s but the game died and Hold em took over. Now it seems that Hold em has died and is being taken over by Omaha Poker. Any Omaha player will tell you, that game has got a lot of action. I will argue with anybody out there that has played in a very good Five Card Stud Strip Deck game that Five Card Stud has just as much action as Omaha.

Now, I am going to begin with one of my stories. My dad told me this story many years after it actually happened. It s actually quite an amusing one, so I thought I should definitely share it with you.

When he had the casino between 1965-70, there used to be a customer who went there every single night of the week at 6 pm. He used to have a confectionary shop, a sweet shop. He would never leave the casino until he had lost every single penny. His sweetshop used to be around the corner and he used to walk into the casino with about £40-£50 every single night. Now you re talking about the mid-60s, and he would never ever win! One night my dad was at home with us and he rang the casino and spoke to the manager, whose name was Sollie and asked Any Poker players in yet Sollie? to which Sollie replied, Not yet Max, but our first customer in tonight was the sweet-shop man and he s winning a couple of hundred pounds. Dad said to the manager, No problem, I ll call you in an hour and I ll find out roughly what time the poker will start, disregarding what Sollie said about the sweet-shop man . Dad called him back in about an hour s time and before he asked any questions, Sollie informed Dad that the sweet-shop man was now winning about £2000. My dad still replied to Sollie, No problem Sollie, he ll be there all night. Don t forget in those days it was 24 hours. Dad knew that this guy was an...

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Thomas, Stevie

This is the first book, a collection of memories and musings, by the writer Stevie Thomas.

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