5 comments about Phantoms of the Card Table (High Stakes: Cards).

1. This is not really a book for absolute beginners, and it's important that you have read "Phantom of the Card Table" (no "s" after Phantom) if you want to understand it.

   This book is amazing. It's not entirely a historical book, and not entirely a technique book, it's a bit of each. I won't write what it's about, you can read that above somewhere. You will read things about some of the greatest card magicians that you did not know. If you have an involved knowledge of card sleights, you will be tipped off on some of the most subtle yet powerful work ever used. If you own the original "Phantom of the Card Table", you will learn about the information that Scott HELD BACK from McGuire, tiny details that were hugely important to his system, stuff that would freak most magicians and laypeople out, because it's been largely forgotten.

   Scott was an interesting man, he lived quite a life! And Gazzo is my new hero, and not simply for his magic, but because of his experiences and what he went through to meet Walter Scott and write this book. I learned things about him that i just didn't know. The last section of this book was heart wrenching, i cried as i read it. Gazzo rules and deserves a very high place in magic history/present/future. Thanks to Britland and Gazzo, this book reads like a brilliant piece of fiction, but the fact is that it actually happened, and this makes it all the more amazing. It would make one helluva film.

   Every card magician who cares about the history of the art should own this book and re-read it at least once a year. It's that important.




2. I would like to tell who ever might be interested in gambling to buy this here book. This book is really a 10 on a scale of 1 - 5. I know this to be true because I've been a student of Walter Scott for over 13 years now and I'm the real thing. Next to Gazzo, I'm the best at this technique in the country.

   Steve Forte who's the best all around cheat in the country wrote in this book that he never seen anyone do Walter Scott's punch deal in play until he met me. Since this book was already in the process of being published when he actually saw me do this technique, he couldn't change his statement.

   I'm the only known gambler today who actually uses Walter's technique in play. Don't get me wrong, other cheats do this move but they do not use Walter Scott's Punch or Technique.

   So I said all that to say this, since I'm one of the top 10 cheats in the country and I'm living Walter Scott's life at the moment (as "The New Phantom of the Card Table)," you can take it from me, everything that he says about cheating and the life we live in this book is true.

   I'm sorry to say that this book is so good and informative that I don't want you to buy it because of what I do for a living; but hey, it has to be told that this is an excellent and I mean excellent book. If you cheat, you want this book on your shelf as part of your gambling collection.

   I'm going on record to date and saying that if anyone don't like this here book after reading it and don't think that this is true, you don't know what real gambling is and you don't know what you're talking about.

   D.O.C.

   Dealer of Cards

   The New "Phantom of the Card Table" Has Spoken




3. Enjoying the occasional game of poker myself, I was immediately interested in this book on card cheats and their techniques. This book begins with a discussion of some of the original sleight of hand artists that were considered experts in their days. There is also a large wealth of information on the book, life, and mystery of S. W. Erdnase, author of "The Expert at the Card Table." From there, the main character, Walter Scott is brought into the book as the greatest card manipulator there was. It was interesting reading about the abilities of this man, but what was equally interesting was leaning about the correspondence, jealously, and relationships that existed between magicians and manipulators.

   The middle section of this book introduces the co-author Gazzo and his pursuit to find Walter Scott. Fortunately, for the book, he does and the real Walter Scott is finally revealed. Perhaps the best part of the book is reading how Scott viewed his friendship and rivalry with magicians, his abilities, and his career choice as a cheater and musician.

   The book concludes with a reprint of many of the techniques that Scott employed such as the second and bottom deal, peek methods, and his guarded edge work. While I fiddled around with the techniques, I am still unable to perform any of them correctly.

   This book is a great for anyone interested in cards, magic, or con men. After reading it you feel you want to know more about the techniques, and that is my reason for purchasing the Erdnase book often referred to as the best card manipulation book ever.




4. You mention the original 'phantom of the card table' but who is it by? is it 'phantom at the card table' by eddie mcguire or someone completely different. tough to find without the author's name.



5. I could not put down this book. I read it at home, at my Son's swim meets, in the car and on my lunch break. I am an amateur magician and I bought this book for the sleight of hand teaching it contains. Instead, I was totally fascinated by the history presented therein on Dai Vernon, Walter Scott and Eddie McGuire. This is a must-read for those who want to quickly pick up the history of close-up magic and of the obsessive behavior of both the magician and the card cheats from whom they learn their craft.
   
   Daniel F. D'Attomo, Esq.

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5 comments about Marlon Brando.

1. This was a very quick and engrossing read. If, like myself, you know very little about Brando's life, this book will be a revelation. Brando is one of the most fascinating personalities of our time. This book does a good job of shedding light on the forces that helped shape his personality. His alcoholic mother and philandering and bullying father created a depressing family environment. It seems that he could never quite break free from their destructive influence despite years of psychotherapy. A sad story.



2. This was a revelation - a wonderful, wonderful biography
   for which I am extremely grateful. It's touching, deft, and
   I liked the fact that she focused on Brando the artist. I'm
   sure he would like this book - I would, if I were him. It is
   not at all condescending nor overly fawning.

   I really felt for the man and the brilliant communicator of emotions, whose movies have always taught me about being an artist myself. Now I want to go and see all his films again. especially Mutiny on the Bounty. And my heart goes out to Marlon Brando, the neglected child of alcoholics, the big-hearted giver, the best friend of some very special people, including Wally Cox and Stella Adler,
   the co-dependent son and father, the compulsive overeater who really should join O.A.

   The book zips along, thanks to Bosworth's fine writing. And I'd like to say that it's a lesson in the efficacy of the brief biography. I'm so sick of trying to wade through tomes that tell you about everything from the kindergarten teacher who inspired the star to his toenail clipping habits. This little
   book synthesized a complex life in a very dignified way.
   Hats off to Patricia Bosworth.




3. A vivid portrait of the man and his acting genius. Bosworth does a bang up job depicting his life and the development of his enormous talent. He is one of the world's greatest artists and we get a clear unencumbered picture of the man and his life in clear, practical, prose. Really fascinating.



4. Hey, I like Brando tremendously as an actor and have read his biographies for years. I particularly like his autobiography SONGS MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME. There is certainly nothing wrong with Ms. Bosworth as a writer. The book is an interesting, easy read. My objection is not to Ms. Bosworth but to the constraints of the format of Penguin LIVES. It appears to me that a writer cannot do an in-depth examination of someone's life in such a short book-- assuming that anyone will ever get much into the inner recesses of Mr. Brando's mind. Perhaps his private life should remain private. For instance, do I need to know that he has taken the drug librium for years? I think not. Additionally I would have liked to see footnotes. Ms. Bosworth makes a lot of statements about Brando with not the slightest hint of where shes got such information. Granted, she does list other biographies she consulted as well as the people she interviewed for writing this bio. I assume that extensive footnotes would have make the book too long. Having said all that, I am now in need of a Brando film festival, having finished the book. Ms. Bosworth made me want to revisit the Brando movies I've seen and see others for the first time.



5. "Marlon Brando" by Patricia Bosworth is a well written and intriguing biography. I enjoyed reading it very much and I enjoyed that it was fairly nicely balanced and included details of Marlon's on-screen and off-screen life.
   
   I think Marlon took some serious and unfair hits in his life - personally, with tragedies that befell him and his family and, professionally, as a result of other peoples' misjudgments regarding his having taken stands for important humanitarian causes and against social injustices. He was a human being that cared deeply for others and one who tried to put that caring into positive action. He was also the greatest actor ever to grace the stage or screen.
   
   It is sad to me that Marlon was alone at the end of his life. He had his children who loved him and cared about him, but he reportedly lived alone. I have always wondered if the rejections he suffered throughout his life marked him so deeply that he felt unworthy and, thus, rejected the idea of having someone there loving him, caring for him, and supporting him physically, emotionally, and spiritually through his illness at a time in his life when things may not have been as "pretty" as they once were. He WAS worthy, despite his possibly not knowing that at the time.
   
   I appreciate Marlon's statement that people who are deeply sensitive are more easily brutalized than most. I think this is very true. Pain is felt much more deeply and is more deeply internalized by those who are the most sensitive. It can leave one feeling unworthy and untrusting and all of the money and fame in the world cannot repair the damage. It is a spiritual thing, not a thing of earthly possessions or material accomplishments.
   
   Marlon was a sensitive soul who needed to be cared for differently than he was during so many parts of his life.

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