Gambling’s Sure Things: The Colorful Characters

Think you’re a tough guy? A Vegas-class gambler? Well try this bet on for size. Would you get surgical breast implants (size 38C) and wear them for one year for $100,000?

A Canadian named Brian Zembic took this bet, won the money and, it turns out, gained some rare masculine insight into feeling objectified by both men and women.

Zembic is just one of many colorful characters populating the bizarre landscape of Michael Konik’s new book, appropriately titled “The Man With the $100,000 Breasts and Other Gambling Stories” (Huntington Press). The title reveals the roots of the Los Angeles author, who began writing fantasy letters for pornographic magazines and later earned a certain renown for his gambling column in Cigar Aficionado magazine.

Konik’s book isn’t all about breasts, however. It’s about gambling--in the casino, at the racetrack or on the golf course. You meet everyone from the world’s greatest golf hustler (he’s worth more than $10 million) to America’s biggest bookie (minimum bet $10,000).

It all sounds like fiction, but it’s not. Want to bet?