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[ultracapper]

I bought the book "Six Secrets of Successful Gamblers" when it came out over 10 years ago, but never got down to really reading it cover to cover. I've picked it up and opened it and started reading where I opened dozens of times, but never committed to just sitting down and reading it. Until tonight.

In the introduction, the authors are introducing the gamblers that they interviewed for the book, and one of the gamblers is a man named Paul Braseth. He was a teacher in the state of Washington before he became a professional gambler in 1980.

Well, he was a teacher, of Washington State history, at James Monroe Junior High in 1977, the year Seattle Slew won the Triple Crown. I know this, because I was one of his students, and remember numerous times his discussing Longacres with us students before he'd begin classes. His conversations about horse racing never interested me much as a teenager, but at that time I'd never "tasted blood" at the track, my first visit to Longacres not occurring until Memorial Day 1982.

I'm wondering if anybody here knows him, and knows whether he is still playing the horses somewhere. Heck, this was 40 years ago when he was a teacher, and he definitely was a full grown adult at that time, though I couldn't even venture to guess his age at that time, as all teachers seemed ancient to this 14 year old student at the time.

Just startled me when I saw the name. Braseth. That's him. Mr. Braseth, Washington State history teacher at James Monroe Jr. High School in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle Washington in 1977.

Oh yeah. He worked the windows during the summer at the track also. I remember him telling us stories of guys cashing tickets for what seemed like ungodly amounts of money at that time.