I'm reading the fascinating article in CCTN "When Vice was King" by Jim Linduff with Roy Klein and Larry Trapp and am stumped by this reference. "Bust-Out operation" that is. Shoot, it's probably in the archives as being asked and answered but run it by me again if you please.

I noticed a couple of names in the artcle. They were changed slightly but showed up in Richard Jessup's book Cincinnati Kid. I'm nutty for that movie and read the book as background. In Jessup's book the big match takes place in St. Louis rather than New Orleans so names and places associated with the article are contemporary in the book.

As literature Jessup's Cincinnati Kid is pretty awful. Apparently the guy made some sort of living as a writer of short-story pulp detective stuff. He also claims to have been a card dealer at houses in Harlem. There is worth in the novel in his descriptions of gamblers and the mores and customs of that life. Norman Jewison set the film in N.O. because it made a better movie but it was the genius of the screen writers that made the story work. Jessup named his Man, Lancey Hodges. Hodges. Kinda gets stuck in your throat doesn't it. Lancey Howard. Not much of a change, just a lot smoother, a little more poetic. The screen writers also stuck in the Big Secret. Find the Big Secret and you'll know why guys like Eric Stoner (The Kid) will only be second best as long as guys like Lancey Howard are around. Big clue in the scene portrayed below.

Oh yeah, what's a bust-out joint please?