Kansas City, 1929: Myrtle and Jack Bennett sit down with another couple for an evening of bridge. As the game intensifies, Myrtle complains that Jack is a "bum bridge player." For such insubordination, he slaps her hard in front of their stunned guests and announces he is leaving. Moments later, sobbing, with a Colt .32 pistol
in hand, Myrtle fires four shots, killing her husband.
The Roaring 1920s inspired nationwide fads-flagpole sitting, marathon dancing, swimming-pool endurance floating. But of all the mad games that cheered Americans between the wars, the least likely was contract bridge. As the Barnum of the bridge craze, Ely Culbertson, a tuxedoed boulevardier with a Russian accent, used mystique, brilliance, and a certain madness to transform bridge from a social pastime into a cultural movement that made him rich and famous. In writings, in lectures, and on the radio, he used the Bennett killing to dramatize bridge as the battle of the sexes. Indeed, Myrtle Bennett's murder trial became a sensation because it brought a beautiful housewife-and hints of her husband's infidelity-from the bridge table into the national spotlight. James A. Reed, Myrtle's high-powered lawyer and onetime Democratic presidential candidate, delivered soaring, tear-filled courtroom orations. As Reed waxed on about the sanctity of womanhood, he was secretly conducting an extramarital romance with a feminist trailblazer who lived next door.
To the public, bridge symbolized tossing aside the ideals of the Puritans-who referred derisively to playing cards as "the Devil's tickets"-and embracing the modern age. Ina time when such fearless women as Amelia Earhart, Dorothy Parker, and Marlene Dietrich were exalted for their boldness, Culbertson positioned his game as a challenge to all housebound women. At the bridge table, he insisted, a woman could be her husband's equal, and more. In the gathering darkness of the Depression, Culbertson leveraged his own ballyhoo and naughty innuendo for all it was worth, maneuvering himself and his brilliant wife, Jo, his favorite bridge partner, into a media spectacle dubbed the Bridge Battle of the Century.
Through these larger-than-life characters and the timeless partnership game they played, "The Devil's Tickets" captures a uniquely colorful age and a tension in marriage that is eternal.

"From the Hardcover edition."

Omaha poker has long been a favourite game in Europe. Now comes the definitive guide to winning big at this exciting, and potentially highly lucrative game.

Imagine sitting beside a world-class bridge player and being able to listen to his thoughts as each hand develops... you can help but improve your own game! Every hand in this fascinating book comes from actual play; many of them are taken from the author's own experience in world-level competition. Fred Gitelman believes that there is something to be learned from every bridge hand, whether you are a novice or an expert, and he proves it here. Just as fascinating as the bridge, however, are Fred's observations on his partners and opponents, who range from world champions to famous amateurs like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

Fred Gitelman (Las Vegas) has a trophy case full of world championship medals, many of them earned playing for his native Canada. He is known throughout the world as a leading designer and producer of bridge software, while his web site, Bridge Base Online, is the most popular bridge-playing site on the Net.

Test Your Skills with real-game situations!
Includes bonus chart of which starting hands win the most!
The Illustrated Guide to Texas Hold?em takes you from novice to skilled player fast. This low-limit Texas Hold?em book puts you in the game, giving you actual situations where a decision must be made, and you make the next move.
Author and former gambling pro Dennis Purdy shows you the right answer to each hand with a clear explanation about whether you chose correctly-or not.
Whether you?re an absolute beginner or an experienced player looking to hone your skills, The Illustrated Guide to Texas Hold?em will have you betting smarter-and winning more money-in no time!
Dennis Purdy moved to Las Vegas at the age of 25 to undertake a career as a professional gambler. Although he retired from full-time professional gambling in 1983, he still uses his skills to supplement his income. Dennis lives in Tacoma, Washington.

Each book this series is a collection of bridge problems which provide a fun way to practice and develop your skill in an important cardplay technique at bridge. These books are designed to add an extra dimension to the detailed instruction contained in Bridge Technique series (Bird & Smith), which won the American Bridge Teachers' Association Book of the Year award in 2002.

A fascinating collection of the 'best of the best', selected by one of the world's top bridge writers. Taken from nearly a hundred years of bridge history, these deals will provide any bridge player with hours of fascinating reading. Each of them has its own unique point of interest, sometimes deriving from a brilliant maneuver in the play or bidding, sometimes from the historical circumstances surrounding the deal or its consequences. Some of these deals decided a world title, some were important only to those who took part, and at least one ended in murder.

In this eighth collection of stories featuring the bridge-crazy monks of St Titus, the pompous and self-important Abbot suffers more than his fair share of the game's aggravations. The world's worst house guest, Brother Herman from Australia, pays the monastery a visit. A team of attractive girls arrives at St Titus, playing unexpectedly well and unsettling the monastery novices. A disastrous start sends the Abbot to the bottom row of Swiss Teams, where he receives unwelcome advice from Josie Threlfall, a local teacher of the game.

For many decades, Jose Saramago has been a staunch defender of the role of literature to both serve and be perceived as public discourse. When, in October 1998, he became the first Portuguese-language author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, his conviction was supported by the assurance that, at any rate, this particular writer's literary discourse was guaranteed to be widely (and globally) publicized. If, as Wlad Godzich has claimed, the severely limited possibility of public discourse in the contemporary world is compensated by the ever-multiplying variety of ways to publicize discourses ("Workshop"), Saramago has taken full advantage of the opportunities offered in this respect by the Nobel prize as probably the most effective institutionalized instrument of publicity that high literary discourse which is produced worldwide has at its annual disposal. His international visibility greatly amplified, Saramago could be seen in the last two years shuttling the globe and making globally publicized statements on behalf of the many political causes that have attracted his attention and support.

Your favourite characters from Dunder Mifflin Paper Company have assembled to appear on this unofficial deck of high-quality playing cards. If you don't love The Office, the chances are you don't actually have a pulse and should seek immediate medical treatment. It's the greatest sitcom ever made, period. That's why we're making these celebratory (and practical) playing cards, to immortalise our undying love for The Office. Printed on high-quality card material, this deck is a standard poker set, with the four classic suits. Each suit celebrates our favourite The Office characters. Regional Manager Dwight Schrute is spades; the lovebirds Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly represent clubs; Ryan Howard takes diamonds; and Michael Scott is hearts because, well, we just love to love him. But of course, it's Creed Bratton himself who is the joker of the deck.

Holden is an experienced poker player who does not pretend to be as expert as the world's top pros; but he can write better than them - and he knows most well enough to milk them for personalized advice, tips and subtle strategies. HOLDEN ON HOLD'EM thoroughly analyses the difference between home and casino play, between cash and tournament play, between internet poker and the real thing against real human beings. Amid definitive charts and tables of odds, probabilities and other statistics, sample hands, advice on etiquette and other niceties, there will be sections on bluff, tells and the nuances of 'position' and 'outs', as well as a brief history of the game and anecdotes about its great players. This book can claim to be the first really readable manual in the history of poker! An entertaining, anecdote-packed and invaluable companion to the narrative poker classics BIG DEAL and BIGGER DEAL.

The West was a wild place in the latter half of the 19th century! Lawmen pursued treacherous outlaws; frontiersmen braved weather and wild animals to explore the untamed land; Indian chiefs led their tribes in defending their rights against new settlers. Engage in one of the favorite pastimes of the Old West -- playing cards -- while learning all about the people and events that shaped the legendary history of the Wild West. All single decks contain 54 cards.

Thirteen pioneers who personified the spirit and excitement of the Old West are portrayed in this deck.