FATE DEALS A HAND The Slippery Fortunes of Titanic's Professional Gamblers George BEHE The History Press - 2023

When Titanic struck a North Atlantic iceberg on the night of 14 April 1912, the gentlemen of the first-class smoking room barely noticed. Quickly returning to their games of poker and bridge, they failed to realise that playing among them were three professional gamblers, American con men who had travelled to England for the sole purpose of returning on the ship’s maiden voyage. George Brereton, Charles "Harry" Romaine and Harry "Kid" Homer were part of a whole complement of "sporting men" who worked the lucrative transatlantic crossings of the early twentieth century. From port to port, they mingled with their fellow passengers and manipulated unsuspecting targets into high-stakes card and dice games they were guaranteed to lose. These men were such a scourge in White Star Line smoking rooms that the company repeatedly warned its passengers about them. The result of years of research by historian George Behe, "Fate Deals a Hand" tells the slippery stories of Titanic’s infamous sharps, including their true identities, backgrounds, methods, wins, losses and – ultimately – their fates after tragedy struck.