THE EARLY TRAIN (part 2)
The next day, Gus and Jason had to catch the 10:50 train
because they had a wedding to attend at 3:30. The first thing
that was out of Ralph's mouth was "Yeah, we might make the first
train out of here." It was 9:30. Well showers were SHORT, bagels
were INHALED, and orange juice was SUCKED down. It was now
another race to catch the train. Sean said, "We're never going to
make it." They got to Grand Central fifteen minutes late and
assumed that the train left. They went outside and decided to go
down to the camera section and look for a zoom lens. Between the
four of them, there was probably at least $600. They walked down
a couple of blocks. The next thing that happened was something
the four of them would not forget for a long time. They were just
walking casually down the street. They came across a black man
who was dealing three cards face down. Three men were watching
what was going on. Gus stopped them to observe. They saw a man
who was watching very intensely to the man who was dealing.
"There's just three cards. All you gotta do is pick the red
card. You win, you double your money." The dealer would shuffle
the cards quickly, yet, it seemed almost as though it was slow
enough to follow without any problem. The four of them had
probably, at one time or another, seen this man as one of the
many illegal gambling dealers on the CBS news at 7:00 with WALTER
CRONKITE. All of them had known about the caution that had been
advised here.
* * * TRANSFERRING TO 1ST PERSON (GUS) * * *
I watched intensely and I had a card in mind. It looked to
me almost for sure that it was the middle card. The person who
made the bet picked another. He was wrong. I changed my mind and
told Ralph that it was one on the right. He agreed. The bettor
gave the dealer his money with a look of disappointment. The
dealer then asked someone else for their guess. An oriental man
raised his hand and picked the middle card. The dealer turned
over the Queen of Hearts. The four of us all looked at each other
to see each others reaction. The betting continued. It was very
quick. Every bet was about a 1/2 minute apart. The man was
pressuring for time. Again the dealer asked for a bet. Another
man was ready to make the bet and placed $20 in front of him. The
dealer said, "you can't bet $20. $40 is the minimum bet!" Jason
and I both stood watching with no intent of trying it. $40 was
half of my weekly rent. $40 was something Jason didn't have.
About 5 bets took place and soon about 10 people were standing
around this table watching. I didn't expect anyone of us to play.
I must admit that some of the bets were very tempting. They
looked easy and the people who were playing were picking the
wrong cards. At about the fifth bet, something happened that I
didn't expect. Ralph brought out his wallet. I didn't stop him
from betting, but I thought that he was sure of himself. Someone
yelled out which card it was. I imagined that Ralph was smart
enough to listen to his own intuition. He was correct. The others
were wrong and he won $40. But it wasn't put in his hand. What
happened next was unclear to all of us. Before he got his money,
another man who was standing right next to him said something
about betting again with $80. I thought that the man was going to
put out $40 with Ralph and if Ralph won again, he would win a
total of $120. The dealer then dealt the cards once again and
Ralph picked a card. He was wrong. He gave the dealer $120. I
don't know why. He swore loud and walked away not arguing. I
didn't realize that he lost that much until he told me. We all
could not believe that he had just lost $120 in less than 3
minutes. As we walked away, an older man came up to us as Ralph
kept saying over and over, "I can't believe it. SH__!!!" The man
sounded like he was gay and said, "Don't you know? They're all
working together. All of them. There's 3 of them with a dealer.
They all work together." As he was walking away, we all seemed to
get a great sense of awakening, especially Ralph. The same three
people were still standing next to the dealer. The men all looked
different. The dealer was black, one of the street persons was
Asian, one was fat about 30, and the other was an older man who
could pass for a bum (about 45). Everyone had something to say
about it. Ralph didn't want to hear it. He obviously should have
ignored the guy who offered to "go in" with him on the bet.
We walked for a couple of blocks west and past a few shops.
We turned around at one point and walked back in the opposite
direction. After about 2 minutes of walking, we saw another
dealer. Ralph just lowered his head. Ralph pointed that the
gambler he had lost to was right in front of him. We were 2
blocks away from the first bet when we came across the same three
men who were there who earning their academy award acting like
ordinary people. It was another dealer! They were all over the
place!!! The next thing I knew was that I saw Sean rip out his
wallet. This was crazy! Again, like Ralph, he won the first bet
and again the money was never put into his hand. The dealer asked
him that if he put another $40 down he would win an additional
$40. All he had to do was pick one of 2 cards. He was sure of
which card it was as we all were. Then, we all watched him bring
out another $40. That was a big mistake. Ralph kept trying to
tell Sean not to do it. But Sean was too busy Sean picked the
wrong card and he he gave the dealer $80! He walked away not
saying anything. Ralph yelled, "Can you believe it? We've lost
$200 in about ten minutes." My chances for a lens were now
getting worse. Now it was time to cross examine Sean. We realized
that the red card had been switched while we were all watching
Sean take out his money. Ralph realized once again that everyone
had rooted for Sean to pick the wrong card. But why did Sean just
hand the guy another $40? Had he collected his win, he still
would have bet with $80 but he only would have lost $40. He
should have ignored the temptation of betting on two cards. We
stopped in Burger King to get some large sodas. I said something
like, "Well, seems how you've both lost out on your money, I
might as well as do the same thing. What the hell is $40? I'm
rich I make all kinds of money!" Of course, I was being sarcastic
as hell. I then began to think somewhat seriously about it. I
wasn't going to lose. I wasn't going to bet unless I was sure of
myself.
Well, now it was my turn. I was now looking for a gambler. I
felt like a derelict, but I did want to try it. I told them "I
shall return." Right after I crossed the street to watch, a black
man came up to the dealer and said, "Play it cool." The dealer
dropped his cards and lowered the table stand to the ground. He
did it quickly and left with one of the players. I turned around
to look for a cop and sure enough within 10 seconds there was
one. Now I figured that there was probably at least 6 maybe 7
people involved in each operation. Ralph, Sean and Jason came
over and had seen what happened.
We continued to walk down the street for another block and
came across another dealer. A woman was in the middle of her bet
and she picked a card. The dealer apparently picked up the wrong
card for her. She lost. She proceeded to argue saying, "Oh no, I
was right. Give me my money back, I want my money back!!" There
was about 10 people standing around watching this argument. The
dealer then asked the woman where her husband was. She said that
he was working. That answer didn't change anything. She then
threatened to call the cops. The dealer said, "Go right ahead
lady, you won't get your money back. Your gambling and that's
illegal." They were right behind a bus. There was a big black guy
who was standing right next to the woman who kept telling her
that she lost. She was persistent though, and no one helped her
argue it out. The dealer finally said, "Here lady, you want your
money? Go get it." He threw it under the bus right behind him.
The woman wouldn't pick it up and continued to persist on her
money. I thought about picking it up myself, but decided to keep
out of it. Then another woman who had a baby in her arms and
another child with her walked over towards the bus. She said,
"Well, I'll get the money for that woman." She said it loud
enough for everybody who was watching to hear it. The big black
man who was standing next to the dealer walked up to her quickly
stopping her motion and yelled, "YOUR NOT PICKING UP SH__ LADY!
JUST MIND YOUR OWN F---ING BUSINESS!" I was quite glad that I had
kept my mouth shut. She was kicked by the dealer when she bent
over to pick it up. I didn't think that I would've been as lucky
as the lady had I won.
We finally came across a dealer who seemed much better. I
watched him for a little while and then Ralph pulled me over to
talk. He reminded me not to pick the card that everyone would be
rooting for. He also pointed out that the man right next to me
was an actor. The dealer would throw the cards on the table in a
braided pattern using his finger tips on opposite edges. It was
very hard to tell if he was throwing down the top or the bottom
card. This dealer was not bending his cards like some of the
other dealers. This had been another trick. They would bend the
red card before shuffling. During shuffling, he would straighten
it out and bend another. I finally raised my hand on a bet in
which I was sure of, but he picked it up too fast. He must have
sensed it. He said, "Wait I'll give you the chance on the next
one." He asked for a decision. I hesitated. I knew that it was
one of the two cards and everyone was shouting that it the one on
the left. Ralph said that it was on the right. I blocked
everybody out and went with the left card. I was wrong. Nobody
could believe it. The dealer grinned and he took my money. It was
one of those moments that really makes you wish you could have
been there to relive. The three of them wanted to kick my ass
because I hadn't listened to them. I just shook my head and
walked away from it. The actor came up to me and said, "You lost
you're money man, why don't come back and get it. $40 is a lot of
money for you to lose." I said, "It's not as much as $120...
Yeah, okay I'll come back and get my money. Maybe NEXT year!" I
didn't want to say anything to nasty because I was afraid of
getting my head blown off. Then I yelled out, "YEAAAAAAAAH!!! We
just lost $240 in the last 45 minutes. Forget the damn lens." We
were running out of time and we had to start heading back toward
the train station. Well at least we had enough money to get back
on the train. Sean found out what track we were taking and we
left at 12:30.
We talked about the geniuses on the side street. They had
quite a system. Of course, it was probably something they had
done for a long time, and like basketball, you didn't have to be
smart to play well. You just had to live it, breath it, and
digest it. How much money did they make an hour if they didn't
get caught? $3000/hour? Who knows? It was all in our mind of
trying our own business. When we got off of the train we all
thought about going back to work. Even Jason thought about
working. He owed me $20.
We had all experienced the sight of side-street gambling in
the greatest city in the world. One of the questions that
pierced in the back of my head was: "WHO WAS THE STUPIDEST?"
Well there was Ralph who was the first victim. He was the
first to experience the gambling without having any first hand
inside knowledge, but yet, he lost a ridiculous amount of money
of $120. Then there was Sean who made a decision that cost him
the medium amount of loss of $80 after analyzing Ralph's
experience the first time. And finally, there was me. I had seen
this dumb involvement on the news and saw both of my good friends
lose. I insisted that I was going to try to win the money back
having practically learned everything about it. I jumped to a
decision and failed to listen to Jason, Ralph, and Sean on
ignoring the card everyone else was yelling for, but I only lost
$40. I would say that we were all equally stupid.
In the back of our minds was the greatest rock concert that
would last for SOME time. But also in the back of our mind was
something that would last for a LONG time. That was the famous
line that probably came from the CBS news at 7:00 with WALTER
that:
"THE ONLY WAY TO WIN AT GAMBLING
IS NOT...TO GAMBLE...AT ALL!"