Players: Con Men, Hustlers, Gamblers, and Scam Artists

Once I hear the clatter of chips I almost go into convulsions," said Dostoyevsky, while Anatole France wrote, "The gambler is driven by the fascination of danger at the bottom of all great passions." The characters the reader meets in Players — chess grand masters, poolroom hustlers, or street-hardened practitioners of the short con — are all alike propelled by the ecstasy of risk. "The stake is money," France wrote, "in other words, immediate, infinite possibilities." In fact, as the reade...