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[thaskalos]

There was a guy at my local OTB who often sat at the table next to mine. We would nod to one-another...but we seldom spoke even a single word to each other for many months. And then one day when the place was crowded, we both ended up at the same table...and a race was run that ended up with a 2-4-3 result. The trifecta paid a couple of hundred dollars...and he turned to me as if he wanted to say something. After a little hesitation, he said to me..."don't you hate it when you spend considerable time handicapping a race, and you miss out on a nice payoff by the slimmest of margins?" And he showed me a ticket where he had boxed 5 horses in a trifecta...but none of the top 3 finishers were anywhere on his ticket. I committed the cardinal sin of laughing at his funny remark...and that was the beginning of the end for me.

From that day on he would show me not only every single losing ticket that he ever played...but he would also tell me about every supposedly winning bet that he thought of making, but never did. I guess my laughter at his joke meant that we were now best friends, or something. It got so bad that I was ready to bitch him out after a few days...which is something totally out of character for me. And then the day came when he shyly confessed to me that he had gone broke...and didn't have money to bet an already handicapped pick-4 at some harness track. Would I be nice enough to advance him $32...which he would return to me the very next day, if he lost? I slipped him a $50...and he went away. And I haven't seen him again in almost 10 years. A mutual acquaintance told me that he now frequents an OTB some 20 miles away.

I consider it one of the best investments that I've ever made.