That one, to me, was one of the weaker SSR stories.
I very much _would_ like to read a story in which the SSR goes up against another con man, as skilled as he is, but evil.
The early stories in which he met Angelina in her sociopathic murderer stage are almost like that.
Being able to identify the good part of one's opponent, and cause them to cultivate that is almost a religious point with me. Slippery Jim could recognize and cultivate the good in Angelina, just as I the reader had to recognize the good in Slippery Jim. Handy symmetry, there.