Memories

Didn't play much today because I had a race in the evening. Race went ok. Played a bit of cash online just for the heck of it afterwards, and did very nicely. In between I chatted on MSN with friends in the States about Vegas this summer.

One of them had been at a Night At The Races thing in her local church recently, those deals where they show some old races from some obscure and unacknowledged track from the other side of the world and get you to bet on who will win each race based on zero information.

One of my favourite gambling memories is from just after I returned from Hong Kong where I'd spent a brief stint as a professional gambler and was dragged along to one of these things. After generally being the damp squib asshole and poo poohing these events as ridiculous luckfests quite beneath a gentleman gambler such as myself to all my friends (when you're that age, and a guy, all social occasions pretty much boil down to displays of oneupmanship where you simply must prove yourself the superior of all your friends), my eyes widened like saucers and my mouth dropped open when they showed the first race, and not only did the track look eerily familiar (surface was sand, which really narrows it down) but I suddenly caught a quick glimpse in the crowd of a young man in a very snazzy jumper that I recognised as one of my own and realised that tonight's programme came from a meeting I'd actually attended in person in Hong Kong's Happy Valley, and better yet, I could recall all the winning horse's names. By God I cleaned that poor church out that night, they're still organising cake sales to pay off the debt, and Satan (I imagine) and I had a really good laugh about it later.

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