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!"