Summary of Kevin Cook's Titanic Thompson

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 Alvin’s family lore says that his father, Lee Thomas, was a poker player who left when Alvin was born. His mother, Sarah, married a hog farmer who had a plot near Rogers, Arkansas. They shared a three-room cabin with Alvin and his brothers.
#2 Alvin grew up in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. He was a very precocious child, able to throw a coin so that it landed flat against a wall. He could make the coin lean on the wall if he wanted. He was also very good at card tricks.
#3 When no one was looking, Alvin would pitch pennies at a tin cup. After hundreds of tosses, he grooved a soft underhand motion. He could now offer a crazy-sounding bet: I can make nine out of ten from five paces.
#4 Alvin’s first stop after leaving Rogers was Monett, Missouri, the town of his birth. He thought he might pick up his father’s trail there, but instead he met a man who sold colorful accordion maps of the United States.

Sujets

• Sport
• Autour du sport
• Histoire du sport
• Sports
• Lettres et linguistique
• Biography
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 11 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9798822505933
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Kevin Cook's Titanic Thompson
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Alvin’s family lore says that his father, Lee Thomas, was a poker player who left when Alvin was born. His mother, Sarah, married a hog farmer who had a plot near Rogers, Arkansas. They shared a three-room cabin with Alvin and his brothers.

#2

Alvin grew up in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. He was a very precocious child, able to throw a coin so that it landed flat against a wall. He could make the coin lean on the wall if he wanted. He was also very good at card tricks.

#3

When no one was looking, Alvin would pitch pennies at a tin cup. After hundreds of tosses, he grooved a soft underhand motion. He could now offer a crazy-sounding bet: I can make nine out of ten from five paces.

#4

Alvin’s first stop after leaving Rogers was Monett, Missouri, the town of his birth. He thought he might pick up his father’s trail there, but instead he met a man who sold colorful accordion maps of the United States.

#5

Alvin learned that card rooms were like churches, brothels, and mad dogs: every town had at least one. He began selling maps in towns along the river, and soon became known as a good little player.

#6

The boy, Alvin, shot Bogardus, who was the world’s champion, and won his trust. He then took over as the trick shooter for the Bogardus Miracle Medicine Show.

#7

The medicine show toured four states, with Alvin shooting pie tins, cabbages, and tomatoes while the captain spoke from his wagon. He sold bottles of goop that cured nothing but alleviated a good deal of suffering. He never could carry a tune, but that didn’t stop him from croaking his favorite songs.

#8

In 1910, Alvin was itching to move on. He had spent a year with the medicine show, and was ready to move on to something else. One night, he heard about a man who was unbeatable at dice.

#9

In 1911, Alvin Thomas, a young black man, traveled to oil towns on the Texas-Louisiana border and cleaned out several white men at poker games. When he was done, he returned the money and said, You’re my daddy, and I’m giving you your money back.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

In 1912, Alvin became the best gambler in America, and he did it by cheating his way to success. He then went on to cheat in a pool hall in Joplin, Missouri, and help a man named Mr. Polston get back at the sharps who had been cheating him for years.

#2

After a week of playing poker, Alvin had lost almost all of the money he had brought to town. He decided to start betting on the horses. He began coddling the local card players, giving them drinks, and measuring the distance from Joplin to the new road sign. When the two Joplin boys asked him to go fishing with them, he jumped at the chance.

#3

Ti spent fifty dollars off the top on a gabardine suit a shade of green on the more conservative side of frog. In Shreveport, he peered up at a brand-new skyscraper, the ten-story Commercial National Bank building.