Titanic Thompson: America’s Greatest Gambler

A swindler, gambler, golfer, and murderer, Titanic Thompson is considered among America’s greatest gamblers. Outside of gambling circles, and historians, Alvin Clarence Thomas isn’t hugely well known, and there are no films or prominent works about his controversial life. There is a book, Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything, by Kevin Cook, that details Thompson’s hell-raising life.

He was a man who lived for gambling, betting on virtually anything and using a rare combination of skills, cunning and charm. Thompson’s gambling prowess was marred with a life of controversy, often being a man in the wrong place at the wrong time, and narrowly escaping many dangerous situations. Though he was compelled by an almost manic determination to gamble and wager. And Thompson’s life was packed with outrageous claims, wagers and fine margins.

Who Was Titanic Thompson

Thompson was born in 1892 in Missouri to a poor family. His education was limited, but Thompson had a keen mind for studying and a gift for deception. He left home at the age of 16 with less than a dollar in his pocket, and unable to read or write. Yet he nurtured a host of other skills. Such as shooting, dealing cards and learning how to deal cards and how odds work in card games.

Thompson served in the US army during the First World War, but didn’t see any action. Though he honed his card and gambling skills in the army, allegedly winning over $50,000 in cash by the end of the war. Card dealing and games were his forte, but Thompson’s greatest hustle was his ability to set up fake prop bets and con people out of their money.

Hustling and Gambling Success

Travelling across the country, Thompson’s main hustles were achieved by illusion and deceiving his victims into betting on things he had set up. For instance, he would bet he could throw a walnut over a building. And Thompson could pull it off, but he used a walnut that was filled with lead to make it easier. Or, he would bet that a road mileage sign didn’t have the right distance measured. Of course it didn’t, but this was because Thompson had moved the sign beforehand.

Thompson had hundreds of similar types of cons, and his slight of hand and ambidextrousness helped him sucker punch his victims into placing these outrageous bets. A natural element of charm was needed to pull off these cons, and Thompson was really born for the part. He had the gift of the gab and the charisma to entertain all sorts of wagers to unsuspecting gamblers. For instance, he would go around talking about how he won $500 off Al Capone. Or how he threw Amelia Earhart over the Brooklyn Bridge or shot J Edgar Hoover, or even hit a golf shot into Babe Ruth’s beer.

Charismatic and Talented Endeavours

People could never quite tell where the truth ended and the fiction began. But Thompson used his charm and tall tales to lure in the gamblers. In many ways, he had the casino psyche nailed to a point. He knew how to offer the illusion of control in a bet, offering props bets that were a no brainer. Only instead of using a house edge, he practically rigged the game to always win.

And Thompson was a skilled cards player too. Card decks and probability came as second nature to the hustler, something he took full advantage of when playing poker. This could easily have helped Thompson gain an edge over his fellows, as he was very well routined in cards probability. And with his charm, bluffing and outwitting his peers wouldn’t have been too difficult either.

Thompson’s Great Gambling Weakness

But even the greatest gamblers have weaknesses. Thompson may have conned and outskilled his opponents, but when playing against the house, he couldn’t influence or rig the games to his liking. His one Achilles heel was betting on horse races. Horse racing was, and remains, extremely appealing for its long odds and huge array of tactics that can be applied. Yet even if he used exotic wagers, boxed bets, or even came up with a staking system. Thompson admitted that horse racing was his one real weakness. And one that he lost millions of dollars on in his life.

Perhaps the success of his other feats gave Thompson a kind of gambler’s conceit. Or it was the drive to outskill and beat something that he had no control over. He also lost money through dice games or in high-stakes poker matches where he didn’t have an edge either.
He was not just addicted to winning, but to gambling itself. The risk of uncertainty and adrenaline that came with it was something Thompson really lived for. And despite his own gambling hustles being, for the most part, set up and fraudulent, he was not immune to the vices of gambling and addiction.

Murders and the 1928 Arnold Rothstein Case

Danger was an ever-present part of his life. Thompson was involved in 5 killings, but the charges against him were dropped as they were all deemed to be made in self defense. His first killing was made when a man called Jim Johnson accused Thompson of cheating at a game of dice. They were playing on a boat, and Johnson threw Thompson overboard. A physical altercation ensued, which ended when Thompson struck Johnson on the back of the head with a hammer. Then, Thompson threw Johnson into the water, where he drowned.

Appearing before the sheriff, Thompson was told to either stand trial or leave the town, which he did. The next four killings happened in self-defence, as people tried to rob Thompson’s gambling winnings. Even his caddy at a golf country club in Texas tried to hold him at gunpoint. But Thompson carried a gun on his person and defended himself.

But he wasn’t ever far from danger. In 1928, Thompson was playing at a poker cash game where Arnold Rothstein was murdered. Rothstein, the head of the Jewish Mob in New York, lost money at a fixed poker game, which led to an altercation. And guess who rigged the poker game?

Titanic Thompson earned plenty from the scandal, and even claimed to know who killed Rothstein. Though his role in the scandal and resulting murder was not discovered until much later.

An Alternate Life

Thompson was not just a keen gambler, but he was also very athletically skilled and was an adept golfer. He took up golfing in his early thirties, and turned out to be a natural. At the time, professional golf didn’t pay well, and instead of trying to go pro, Thompson used golf in many of his swindlers. He was ambidextrous and could play either right handed or left. And this led to many trick shots and proposition wagers in which Thompson switched hands and pulled off a seemingly impossible shot.

He was also married 5 times in his life, fathering 3 boys. Apart from his second wife, who died in a freak road accident, all of Thompson’s other wives divorced him. So big was his drive to get on the road and hustle, he often left his wives behind after living with them for a few months.

How Titanic Thompson Got His Name

According to his own story, Alvin Thomas got his nickname because of a stunt he performed in 1912, shortly after the news of the Titanic sinking. The stunt was one he pulled off quite a lot in his early career. He would bet that he could jump across a pool table without touching it.
After winning the bet, somebody asked his name. “It must be Titanic, he sinks everybody”, replied Snow Clark, who had just lost $500 to Thompson.

The Ultimate Gambler – or a Dangerous Conman

Calling Titanic Thompson the greatest gambler is quite a paradox in itself. The majority of his stunts and gambling efforts were staged or setups that he had rigged to win. His modus operandi was nearly always the same. Selling a wager that seemed a practically sure thing. Such as throwing a lemon on top of a building. And this would lure in gambling bystanders as it felt like the easiest way to win money.

But on Thompson’s side, he wasn’t truly gambling, by the real definition of the word. Perhaps he is better described as a swindler, or conman, who took advantage of the psychology of gamblers. He too was one of them, but when he played games that he hadn’t personally rigged, he never really won anything substantial.

There have been several characters like Titanic Thompson, but none who have gone to such extents or come up with such a creative assortment of fixed wagering opportunities. His legacy remains one of intrigue and mystery to this very day. We may never know exactly how much he won. But Thompson mastered the psyche that drives us to gamble. And for that reason alone, he is right up there with the greatest gamblers in America.