Forty Years: A Gambler on the Mississippi

A cabin boy in 1839 could steal cards and cheat the boys at eleven stock a deck at fourteen bested soldiers on the Rio Grande during the Mexican war won hundreds of thousands from paymasters, cotton buyers, defaulters and thieves fought more rough and tumble fights than any man in America and was the most daring gambler in the world. George H. Devol was the greatest riverboat gambler in the history of the Mississippi. Born in Ohio in 1829, he ran away from home and worked as a cabin boy at age ten. At Fourteen he could stack a deck of cards. Over the years, he bilked soldiers, paymasters, thieves, cotton buyers and businessmen alike. He fought more fights than anyone and was never beaten. This is his story.