Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People by Amarillo Slim; Poker Nation by Andy Bellin; Phantoms of the Card Table by David Britland - review by Charlie Campbell

Charlie Campbell

Slim’s Pickings

Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People

By

Yellow Jersey Press 270pp £12 order from our bookshop

Poker Nation

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Yellow Jersey Press 258pp £8) order from our bookshop

Phantoms of the Card Table

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High Stakes 256pp £25) order from our bookshop
 

Gamblers Anonymous has a list of twenty questions that aims to identify those with a gambling problem. Anyone answering 'yes' to more than seven questions is deemed compulsive. Where then does the dedicated gambler fit in? And how would one categorise Amarillo Slim, the self-styled 'greatest gambler who ever lived' and co-author of Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People (Yellow Jersey Press 270pp £12)?

Slim is a legend in his time, a character to rank with any in gambling mythology. He has the outlandish manner and speech of a Damon Runyon character, and the dress sense of a line dancer - only the late Dodi Fayed can have owned more cowboy boots. Under this

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