The Cincinnati Kid

by Richard Jessup

Most people know The Cincinnati Kid from the film but it was an original novel. It has a mistake in it. By which I mean it has this preposterous poker hand at the end like the hand in Casino Royale. Everyone has this enormous hand and it’s statistically impossible. A poker player watching Casino Royale assumes there’s going to be a plot twist about cheating because the cards are so unlikely, but it’s just to make it more exciting, of course. But if you can overlook that in The Cincinnati Kid the rest is incredibly authentic. The bitterness and fear of the players, the screwed-upness of the life, the difficulty of having normal relationships. And the fantastic thing is – I don’t want to ruin it for people who haven’t read it, but everyone’s seen the film – that he doesn’t win.