Quote Me

I’ve been working on reading all of Nelson Algren’s books, most for the first time. I ran across this little golden nugget, which I would call, Advice to the young dice cheat. It is the real deal. As magicians, we tend to romanticize the world of cheats and cheating. In reality, as this piece shows, it is much more crude and cruel.

If you wanted to use phony dice, slip them to a sucker and let the sucker make the passes. Ride with him for a half dozen passes, then grab your hat and let the sucker try talking his own way out. Let the suckers take the beating. That’s what suckers were for.

--Nelson Algren, The Children, Published in the short story collection, Neon Wilderness