One of the websites I’m regularly checking out these days is Arnold Snyder’s www.write-aholic.com. I always knew Snyder was a gifted writer (But who knew he was an old hippie?) and I find a lot of his insights fascinating. His review of Jim Thompson’s The Grifters inspired me to pick up the book. I’m not going to be repeating the stuff Snyder wrote, so I recommend you start from:www.write-aholic.com/book-review-the-grifters-by-jim-thompson-regency-1963/.
I hadn’t read the book before this year. When it came out in 1963, I was a 16-year-old chemistry major in my first year of college and didn’t read any fiction that wasn’t required for an English class. Although I played several games competitively (chess, Scrabble), I had no idea I’d ever be a gambler. The picture of dice on the cover of the book would have held no attraction to me.
I saw the 1990 Martin Scorsese version of the movie with John Cusack, Annette Bening, and Anjelica Huston when it came out. By that time in my life, I’d played competitive backgammon for 15 years and was making regular trips to Vegas to take advantage of certain blackjack opportunities. I definitely had an interest in gambling. By that time Arnold Snyder was one of my blackjack heroes and I had no idea that a couple of decades later I would know him a friend and colleague.
A grifter is a type of con-artist. The short-con is a hit-and-run type of affair. The long-con takes more planning. I knew that some of my backgammon opponents occasionally took grifter-type shots at me. I went to see the movie as a sort of research. I wanted to know what these guys were doing so that I could avoid being caught up in their hustle.
It turns out that none of the grifts described in the book or shown in the movie (they are similar but not identical) have been tried on me. (Although others have. Some successful. That’s a subject for a future column.) What I gained from the book and movie is insight into the mindset of grifters. It’s not identical to the mindset of advantage players, but it’s not completely different either.
What are the similarities? Learn your craft well through practice, practice, and more practice. Learn as much as you can about your ‘mark’ (i.e., the target, or in our case, the casino). Keep moving and don’t keep showing the same move to the same people over and over again. Have a variety of moves in your repertoire. Always work to improve your skills and individualize the way you go after the ‘mark’. Be really careful about whom you trust with your secrets. Have a store of cash in a safe place in case things go south. Sometimes you may pretend to be somebody you’re not.
What are the differences? The biggest one is that advantage players I respect are not doing anything illegal, although sometimes the dividing line between legal and illegal isn’t clear cut. Usually, getting caught as an advantage player means getting thrown out of a place — or maybe having your name and picture published so other casinos can be aware of your reputed skill. Today, advantage players are rarely arrested or physically hurt (or killed). (As the movie Casino detailed, when Thompson wrote his book advantage players weren’t treated as gently as they now are. Thank you Bob Nersesian!)
I enjoyed the novel. Snyder claims the value of Thompson’s book is that it opens young minds to the world of literature. That probably says more about Snyder than it says about Thompson. I find it hard to believe that most of Thompson’s readers were teenagers. My mind is no longer young — although I try to keep it active. After reading this book, I will check out any other Jim Thompson books I can find in the library. Who knows what else I’ll be able to learn?
Author’s note: Two days after this is first published, Arnold Snyder will be our guest on Gambling with an Edge, 7-8 p.m. Pacific Time on radio station 1230 in Las Vegas — or live from www.klav1230am.com from anywhere. Shows are archived on www.bobdancer.com/radio.cfm. Snyder will be discussing his new novel Risk of Ruin, published by Huntington Press.