Brick 14
Sunday 5/3160 Min Low Intensity Cardio
Rest
Flex's Book Club
Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on EverythingKevin Cook
This week's book is about a subject I know a lot about, hustling. Having been in the pool world for 10 plus years I've been on both sides of many hustles and prop bets. Kevin Cook does a phenomenal job telling the life story of the best hustler of all time, Alvin "Titanic" Thompson. From a young age Titanic had a knack for moving money from other people's pockets into his.
From poker, to golf, to billiards and prop bets the man rarely booked a loser. He would bet a man that he could throw a watermelon onto the roof of a 10 story building. Knowing that this was an impossible task, the sucker would take him up on his offer. Titanic would then go to the roof of the 11 story building next door and toss the watermelon across the alley onto the roof of that 10 story building.
He got his name when he walked into Snow Clark's poolroom and beat all the regulars. He then asked who the best stick in the house was, Snow of course, and took him for $500. To give him a chance to get even, Ti bet him $500 that he could jump over a pool table without touching it. Young Alvin walks to the dirtbag motel down the street, brings back a mattress and lays it down beside the table and dives headfirst over it. Somebody asked Snow who the kid was, he says I don't know but they oughtta call him Titanic cause he sinks everybody.
The first thing you learn in the poolroom is if somebody comes to you with a proposition, no matter how impossible it may seem, you never take the bet. This quote from the book sums it up perfectly. "Son, no matter how far you travel, or how smart you get, always remember this: Someday, somewhere, a guy is going to show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal has not yet been broken. This man is going to offer to bet you that he can make the jack of spades jump out of the deck and squirt cider in your ear. Now son, do not bet this man, for as sure as you stand there, you are going to wind up with an earful of cider."
If you have the Netflix you should check out Hustling America. Magic expert Alex Conran travels the country trying to get marks to fall for some of Titanic's best tricks.
