Fast company

Poker players Johnny Moss, Pug Pearson, and Titanic Thompson; tennis player Bobby Riggs; pool player Minnesota Fats; and backgammon player Tim Holland have come away with their pockets filled and their sense of infallibility intact. The dramatic descriptions of the ambience and the games are riveting, but more intriguingly, Jon Bradshaw deftly probes these gamblers’ minds and hearts as he attempts to define what makes some men winners and most losers.