If you want to hear some stories from the master of proposition bets, there's an old autobiographical article in SI by Titanic Thompson: http://www.si.com/vaul

If you want to hear some stories from the master of proposition bets, there's an old autobiographical article in SI by Titanic Thompson: http://www.si.com/vault/1972/10/09/618832/soundings-from-titanic http://www.si.com/vault/1972/10/09/618832/soundings-from-tit... (The risk being that half of it is made up, but he definitely had a reputation for this sort of thing.) "You might wonder why, if I was the best golfer in the world, like I say I was, I didn't turn pro and win all the championships? Well, you were liable to win a golf bag if you won a tournament in those days. A top pro wouldn't win as much in a year as I would in a week as a hustler. People would get to know a pro, and I wanted to keep my skill a secret as far as possible. I didn't care about championships. I wanted the cash."