The "Gotham Hebrew Wager" · 3.07.09
Me: Hastings, third race, two dollars to win on number 5, and two dollars to….
Teller: Ah, cahm ahn — is that all ya got? Listen, ask me about the “New York Jew Bet”.
Me: ???
Teller: Just ask me about it. Say “New York Jew Bet”.
Me: Uh, “New York Jew Bet”?
Teller: OK. Ya got five dollars?
Me: [holding up a blue piece of paper with the number “5” and a picture of Sir Wilfrid Laurier on it] Yeah.
Teller: OK, here’s what they do in New York when they just have five dollars to bet. Gimme the number of a horse you like.
Me: Uh, the 5.
Teller: OK, so two dollars to win on the 5. Now, gimme three other horses you like.
Me: Uh, the 2, the 3, and, uh, the 4.
Teller: OK… [punching the keyboard of his pari-mutuel register and pulling out the ticket as it comes out] Ya got a win bet on the 5, and then the 5 in an exacta wheel with those other three. Any of those come in second behind the 5, you get the exacta….
…
So the 5 comes in, followed by the 3. The $1 exacta together with the $2 win bet gives me $12 and change. I try the same bet twice more that day, winning once for $10.10, and losing once.
Other bon mots from the same cashier:
- “Don’t bet to place — that’s a fag bet”.
- “If ya don’t have the money, I’ll take your watch instead, that’s about five dollars, right? Come on, I need a new watch [holds out a bare wrist] — see? Don’t tell me your wife or grandmother bought ya that watch, you’ll make one of us cry!”
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