How about some degenerate stories

[Zman179]

Originally Posted by judehaz

Zman, I bet it was the best four months of his life. Maybe it was all worth it.

I guess so! For four months he lived and ate like a king. Food, drink, drugs, women, everything! But the prudent side of me cannot figure out why he wouldn’t get an apartment with a year’s rent paid off. Yet he slept on the Ferry except when he had some money, then he would stay in a $15/night flop house on the Bowery.

[Elkchester Road]

Originally Posted by Zman179

This is my ultimate degenerate story and it is 100% true. Nothing is made up.

I used to know this horseplayer who was known as “The Flipper” who used to hang out at the Penn Station and John Street OTB’s. He got that nickname looking to flip quarters so that he could scrounge up enough money for a $2 bet. He completely lived for betting and would sleep on the Staten Island Ferry at night.

So this one day around 1989 I’m at John Street and he’s there. He starts with $10 and hit the early double at Aqueduct so he wasn’t flipping coins. On this one race he loves a 35/1 shot at Aqueduct and puts $40 to win on it…and it hits! I wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t shown me the old-style yellow hard paper ticket. So he plays the late double, hits it, and walks out with over $2000. He decides with his best friend that it’s time to hit the tables in Atlantic City. So they head to the bus terminal to take the Greyhound bus down there.

He gets to AC and he’s absolutely red hot. He plays craps and roulette and gets on a winning streak we can only hope to get one day. He’s down there for almost two weeks, rooms comped and everything, and gets the $2000 up to over $40,000!!! So now he decides, again with his best degenerate friend, it’s time to go to Vegas! They go to the AC Airport and book airline tickets straight to Vegas.

He’s in Vegas and stays hot. He does all of his gambling at one casino, again rooms comped and the whole nine yards, and gets the $40,000 to over $100,000! An unbelievable sum…but not for the Flipper. However now he starts to get cold, and he’s slowly losing the money back. He makes it last nearly two months until the money is all gone. He’s dead broke, but that’s not the end of the story.

The best friend tells me that one of the big bosses at the casino (I forget the name of the place) invites him into the office. He shows pity towards the Flipper and says to him, "We want to sincerely thank you for giving us your business. As a token of our appreciation, we would like you to go to our Armani boutique and choose two suits on the house. We also would like to give you a check for $2,500 and we would love to see you come back to our casino in the future and we wish you a safe flight home." Flight home? Noooo, not for the Flipper. He pawns the suits, cashes the check and goes to a completely different casino.

Unbelievably he gets red hot again! The money he got for the suits and check he was able to get it all the way up to $80,000! Unbelievable, a second chance to do right? Nope. The Flipper gets cold once more and the $80,000 disappears in a little more than two weeks. But this time there’s no charity, he’s dead broke and it’s time to come home. So almost four months after the hot streak started and finished, he’s back sleeping on the Staten Island Ferry and flipping for quarters at the OTB. Even the Flipper himself confirmed that that’s how everything went down. I couldn’t believe it.

Zman179...thanks for the story. Wow!!!

[Robert Fischer]

good stories

harsh topic with a lot of felt empathy

i like how this thread turned out

dark humor can shine a bright light

[alhattab]

Zman- great story. Flipper sounds like my brother although he’s never had runs quite like that!

[biggestal99]

heres my story.

back in the late 70s i bet the trotters at meadowlands and whatever track New york was running. i had my ups and downs. i had a nodding acquaintance with young gentleman about my age who also bet the trotter. so its mid card at the night card at Roosevelt and i am up like 150. my guy comes up to me and asks for a loan as he had tapped out. i say sure. how much. he needs 100. i say sure, here it is. i guess he felt guilty about asking for a loan, he gave me his passport for collateral, not necessary i told him, honor among horseplayers but he insisted and i kept his passport. so we agreed to meet next week at the meadowlands. no show. the week after no show. finally the 3rd week i see him and he looks like total shit. i told him dont worry about the payback and gave him back his passport.asked for my address. gave it to him. a year passes. i dont see him.
i forget about him and one day there is a letter from him. apologized that it took so long enclosed was 120.

Allan

[Boomer]

Originally Posted by biggestal99

heres my story.

back in the late 70s i bet the trotters at meadowlands and whatever track New york was running. i had my ups and downs. i had a nodding acquaintance with young gentleman about my age who also bet the trotter. so its mid card at the night card at Roosevelt and i am up like 150. my guy comes up to me and asks for a loan as he had tapped out. i say sure. how much. he needs 100. i say sure, here it is. i guess he felt guilty about asking for a loan, he gave me his passport for collateral, not necessary i told him, honor among horseplayers but he insisted and i kept his passport. so we agreed to meet next week at the meadowlands. no show. the week after no show. finally the 3rd week i see him and he looks like total shit. i told him dont worry about the payback and gave him back his passport.asked for my address. gave it to him. a year passes. i dont see him.
i forget about him and one day there is a letter from him. apologized that it took so long enclosed was 120.

Allan

I thought it would end differently as I thought you were talking about a guy we hung out with at Monticello. Owed everybody, including me money.


Than he disappears for months and the rumor, which we all believed is that he died of AIDS. We all felt pretty bad for him and figured we would never see our money again.


Until there was a sighting of S---- at the Big M.


Then we all wished the prick would have died of AIDS!

[btexpress]

Appreciate the time you all took to share some good ones

[JustRalph]

Originally Posted by Boomer

I thought it would end differently as I thought you were talking about a guy we hung out with at Monticello. Owed everybody, including me money.


Than he disappears for months and the rumor, which we all believed is that he died of AIDS. We all felt pretty bad for him and figured we would never see our money again.


Until there was a sighting of S---- at the Big M.


Then we all wished the prick would have died of AIDS!

Man, you guys enforce the ultimate vig…….