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editor
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 Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2007 11:23 am Post subject: The Gambler's Code |
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WELCOME!
The Gambler's Code:
Angels, Mobsters & Narco-Terrorists
The Rising Menace of Global Criminal Empires
Hardcover
By Antonio Nicaso & Lee Lamothe
| Quote: | ...The rules of the vory v zakone include the following:
. A vor must support another vor in any and all circumstances.
. A vor can only live on what he has stolen or conned from a "citizen" or has won while gambling.
. A vor lives above and beyond the rules of State law.
. A vor must never serve in the armed forces.
. A vor must never defend himself in court, if charged with a crime of which he is innocent.
. A vor must take from other prisoners while in custody.
. A vor must agitate against the State while in custody; whenever he can he should exploit the weaknesses of his captors.
. A vor must find and train new young criminals and, if they're suitable, arrange for their acceptance into the underworld.
. A vor must find and train new young criminals and, if they're suitable, arrange for their acceptance into the underworld.
. A vor must never marry before the State; semi-permanent relationships are permitted; and a marriage involving a vor is akin to a master-slave relationship.
. A vor must donate money from his activities to an obshchak, a fund for the assistance of the other Thieves.
. A vor mustn't gamble more than he has; all gambling debts must be settled. (Vory V Zakone at p. 138) |
A film we'd like to see:
Vor (The Thief)
DVD
Link to this entry
http://pokerpulse.com/news/viewtopic.php?p=3228#3228
Last edited by editor on Tue Oct 13, 2009 12:26 pm; edited 5 times in total |
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editor
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| Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2007 11:25 am Post subject: |
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Blackbeard
America's Most Notorious Pirate
Paperback
By Angus Konstam
| Quote: | The rules they laid down covering the division of plunder followed the democratic lines by which they made decisions, and as the former ship's cook Barnaby Slush noted, captains had to work hard for their extra portion of the loot: "Pyrates and Buccaneers, are Princes to [sailors], for there, as none are exempt from General Toil and Danger; so if the Chief have a Supream Share beyond his Comrades, 'tis because he's always the Leading Man in e'ry daring Enterprize; and yet as bold as he is in all other attempts, he dares not offer to infringe the common laws of Equity; but every Associate has his due Quota."
What is interesting is the use of words "Enterprize" and "Associate," as if they were a business rather than a ship filled with cutthroats. It shows just how seriously they took the notion of equality, and how important their pirate articles were to them, a businesslike bill of rights and profit that ensured everyone would benefit. The most detailed set of pirate articles that has survived was drawn up by the mutinous crew of the merchantman Rover (later the Royal Fortune), who turned pirate in 1721 and elected Bartholomew Roberts as their captain. Captain Johnson quotes the document in "The Life of Captain Roberts":
I. Every man has a Vote in Affairs of Monument, has equal Title to the fresh Provisions, or strong Liquors, at any Time seized, & use them at pleasure, unless a Scarcity make it necessary, for the good of all, to Vote a Retrenchment.
II. Every man to be called fairly in turn, by List, on Board of Prizes, because they there on these Occasions allow'd a Shift of Cloaths: But if they drauded the Company to the Value of a Dollar, in Plate, Jewels, or Money, MAROONING was their punishment.
III. No Person to game at Cards or Dice for Money.
IV. The Lights & Candles to put out at eight o'Clock at Night. If any of the Crew, after that Hour, still remained inclined for Drinking, they were to do it on the open Deck.
V. To Keep their Piece, Pistols, & Cutlash clean, & fit for Service.
VI. No Boy or Woman to allow'd amongst them. If any Man were found seducing anny of the latter Sex, and carried her to Sea, disguised, he was to suffer Death.
VII. To Desert the Ship, or their Quarters in Battle, was punished with Death, or Marooning.
VIII. No striking one another on Board, but every Man's Quarrels to be ended on shore, at Sword & Pistol Thus: The Quarter-Master of the Ship, when the Parties will not come to any Reconciliation, accompanies them on Shore with what Assistance he thinks proper, & turns the Disputants Back to Back, at so many Paces, Distance. At the Word of Command, they turn and fire immediately, (or else the Piece is knocked out of their Hands). If both miss, they come to their Cutlasses, and then he is declared Vic in their Service, tor who draws the first Blood.
IX. NO man to talk of breaking up their Way of Living, till each has shared £1000. If in order to this, any Man shall lose a Limb, or become a Cripple he was to have 800 Dollars, out of publick Stock, and for lesser Hurts, proportionably.
X. The Captain and Quarter-Master to receive two Share of a Prize; the Master, Boatswain, & gunner, one Share and a half and other Officers, one and a Quarter.
XI. The Musicians to have Rest on the Sabbath Day, but the other six Days and Nights, none without special Favour.
... The articles designed to reduce the chances of rancor among the crew - sex, gambling, drinking, and disturbing shipmates' sleep - were laid out in some detail. It is even more revealing that the most expansive article covers the settling of arguments, making the procedure so involved and open to chance that many would have settled their differences before th epirate ship could find a suitable spot to fight the duel. (From A Pirate's Life, pgs. 55-57) |
Link to this entry
http://pokerpulse.com/news/viewtopic.php?p=3229#3229
Last edited by editor on Sat Dec 08, 2007 12:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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editor
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| Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2007 11:44 am Post subject: |
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Koba the Dread
Laughter and the 20 million
Hardcover
By Martin Amis
This book, published in 2002, represents the darkest and most terrifying account of Stalinist Russia we've come upon so far. It's written in the first person by Brit wit Amis, who augments recollections of conversations between the famous old man and his legendary cronies back when Martin was still the privileged and youthfully unconsciousness whelp - back before
with exhaustive footnotes revealing a whacking great Russian history blog.
| Quote: | It was on board the ships that the "politicals" -- a.k.a. "the 58s" (after Article 58 of the Ciminal Codex), "the counters" (counter-revolutionaries), and "the fascists" -- would usually receive their introduction to another integral feature of the archipelago: the urkas. Like so many elements in the story of the gulag, the urkas constituted a torment wthin a torment. Mrs. Ginzburg sits in the floating dungeon of the Dzhurma: "When it seemed as though there was no room left for even a kitten, down through the hatchway poured another few hundred human beings...[a] half-naked, tattoed, apelike horde..." And they were only the women. The urkas: this class, or caste, a highly developed underground culture, "had survived," writes Conquest, "with its own traditions and laws, since the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and had greatly increased in numbers by recruiting orphans and broken men of the revolutionary and collectivation periods." Individually grotesque, and, en masse, an utterly lethal force, the urkas were circus cutthroats, devoted to gambling, plunder, mulilation and rape.
In the gulag, as a matter of policy, the urkas were accorded the status of trusties, and they had complete power over the politicals, the fascists -- always the most scornedand defenseless population in the camp system. The 58s were permanently exposed to the urkas on principle, to increase their pain. And one can see, also, that the policy looked good ideologically. It would be very Leninist to have one class exterminating another, higher class. How Lenin had longed for the poorer peasants to start lynching all the kulaks...Imprisoned theirves were amnestied under Lenin, as part of his "loot the looters" campaign in the period of War Communism. As Solzhenitsyn says, the theft of state property became and remained a capital crime, while urka-bourgeois theft became and remained little more than a misdemeanor. Apart from the new privilegentsia and a few "hereditary proletarians," the urkas were the only class to benefit from Bolshevik policies. The urkas, who played cards for each other's eyes, who tattoed themselves with images of masturbating monkeys, who had their women assist them in their rapes of nuns and politicals. In Life and Fate Vasily Grossman writes almost casually of an urka "who had once knifed a family of six." The gulag officially designated the urkas as Socially Friendly Elements. (On Soviet slave ships, p. 67) |
Link to this entry
http://pokerpulse.com/news/viewtopic.php?p=3231#3231 |
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editor
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Joined: 09 Nov 2003
Posts: 2940
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| Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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Shoot Pool
Hardcover
By BBC Foreign Correspondent Ian Pannell
We are stumbling to the challenge of both English and draw and perfecting both our top- and back-spin after this thin, illustrated (with drawings and photos) how-to manual. A must-read for anyone serious about the game.
We especially liked the section on basic pool rules, which ought to be in neon for the yobs at our local establishment:
| Quote: | * Never obstruct you opponent's game. Stand back from the table and leave your comments until his innings is over. Some house rules will actually award the game to your opponent if you cause him to miscue or foul stroke.
* Never deliberately play out of turn.
* Never play a shot when the cue ball or any other ball is in motion.l Again, some house rules will award the game to your opponent.
* Never smoke over the table or leave your drink balanced on the rails. If you spin a coin to decide the first break, spin the coin away from the table. (-- p. 114) |
Link to this entry
http://pokerpulse.com/news/viewtopic.php?p=3465#3465
Last edited by editor on Wed Jan 30, 2008 2:23 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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editor
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Posts: 2940
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| Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 2:20 pm Post subject: |
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Rififi
DVD
Classic French film noir
| Quote: | Opening scene: dark, dingy Paris cafe late at night with the heist crew hunched and scowling over cards in a game of five-card stud that would not easily tolerate four-flushers like us.
Uncredited gambler: Deux pour moi.
Another uncredited gambler: (lays out a full house)
Tony le Stéphanois: (choking over the requisite Gauloise) Paulo, stake me.
Paulo: (clearly uncomfortable saying no to a gangster of such obvious import) Impossible, Tony. Not during a game.
Tony: OK, I'll call for cash. |
Heist scene is outdone only by the final car chase, one of the best ever!
Link to this entry
http://pokerpulse.com/news/viewtopic.php?p=3481#3481 |
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editor
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Joined: 09 Nov 2003
Posts: 2940
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| Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:24 pm Post subject: |
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The Napoleon of Crime
The Life and Times of Adam Worth,
Master Thief
Hardcover
By Ben Macintyre
| Quote: | | Defining what it took to be a gentleman at the various levels of society was trickier, since, as Anthony Trollope observed in his Autobiography, any attempt to do so was doomed to failure, even though everyone would know what was meant by the term. One historian has written that a Victorian gentleman was "expected to be honest, dignified, courteous, considerate and socially at ease; to be disdainful of trade and ... to uphold the tenets of 'noblesse oblige.' A gentleman paid his gambling debts, did not cheat at cards and was honourable towards ladies" - all of which qualities Worth displayed to the full, with the sole exception of the first: honesty. Added to to this was the general perception that the less obvious industry a man expended and the greater his expenditure, the higher his rank on the social scale. As far as his neighbors and noncriminal associates could tell, Henry Raymond did not a hand's turn of work and spent money at a rate that might have been suspicious had it not been so thoroughly satisfying to the Victorian sense of priorities. As Oscar Wilde remarked: "It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances." Worth built himself a shell of glittering wealth and possessions to hide his humble beginnings and crimes, and he remained a sober, even punctilious figure, laying on a lavish dance but watching his creation from one remove, forever an outsider, a prototype for Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby. (From Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Worth, p. 72) |
Link to this entry
http://pokerpulse.com/news/viewtopic.php?p=3662#3662 |
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