Some years ago, in the Rampart district, a dangerous, gang-infested neighborhood in Los Angeles, cops busted a chess game being played in a doughnut shop by some elderly men. The cops apparently had no idea what chess was and thought it was some sort of gambling game.
Dem chess hustlers! Actually, remember reading the autobiography of a chess player (I know) some years ago. He started out playing club games in lower Manhattan, which definitely were played for stakes, and pretty substantial stakes, some people could make a living at it.
Anyway, he acquired a reputation in the club and was rated the second best player. The best player was an older professional, who never played in tournaments for master points or international rating. The author sought out the ‘master’ and played him every time there he had an open dance card. They played pretty evenly, but eventually, the older man said to him, “Look, kid, sharks don’t eat sharks. Why don’t you leave me alone and make some easy money.”
When I was in (Catholic) high school I used to play bridge at the Midway Bridge Club in Forrest Hills. Almost all the players were middle-aged Jews, but I played in the penny ante games and made about 20 bucks for a couple of hours “work”. My father wasn’t making 20 bucks a day in those days. They soon got tired of my antics and kicked me up into the high stakes game, the ‘quarter point’, actually, 0.0025 cents per point, a quarter for a 100. The competition was much better and I got beat like a drum, losing my entire twenty buck stake. I decided that card playing was too hard a way to make a living and went to college instead. (I knew Huck Seed’s cousin, Huck was a Cal Tech drop out. That’s another story.)