Saturday, October 24, 2015

Jack Pots

Eugene Edwards - Jack Pots: Stories of the Great American Game (1900)

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I don't like poker but that's clearly a minority opinion so for everybody else here's a collection of stories about the game.  Des Wilson, author of Ghosts at the Table, says he can't tell if the stories are true or fictional but in either case they aspire to the condition of short story.  Herbert Asbury referenced the book in Sucker's Progress.  Edwards had two later books of poker stories, A Million Dollar Jackpot and Tom Custer's Luck (both 1901), though they were possibly reprints from this volume.  I can't find anything about the author.