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Deal Me In: A freebie can be had just by asking

12 December 2014

Dear Mark: About 25 years ago I met you when you were a pit boss on the South Shore at a Lake Tahoe casino. I remember asking you if I could have a deck of cards and you said, OK, just so long as you answer a trivia question correctly. I do not remember what the question was, but I do remember that I did NOT get it right. You said, “Close enough, no one ever does,” and you handed me a used deck of cards along with your casino business card. I have not been back to Nevada since until just recently for a bowling tournament in Reno. Lo and behold, I pick up the local newspaper, the Reno Gazette Journal, and see that you now write a column on gambling. I kept the cards as a keepsake and recently found them in a drawer. I noticed when breaking the seal and opening the top, this was scrawled on the inside: VW, BF, 22:30, T3 and 6/26. What does all this mean? By the way, do you remember the trivia question you asked me that no one ever gets right? Randy M.

As I was always generous with the casino’s money, you never had to get any of my trivia questions right. A souvenir deck of cards could easily be had from me, or for that matter, from most pit bosses, just by politely asking for one.

I have given away countless decks of cards over the years, but always preceded it by having the player attempt to answer one of my obligatory trivia questions, usually one of my go-to three below.

Name the four founding members of Credence Clearwater Revival: They were John Fogerty, Tom Fogerty, Stu Cook and Doug Clifford. I can’t remember anyone ever getting all four.

Who were the four 20-game winners for the 1971 Baltimore Orioles? The 1971 Orioles are the last MLB club to have four 20-game winners in a season. They were Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar and Pat Dobson. Most trivia partakers usually missed either Dobson or Cuellar.

The third trivia question was how do you spell Albuquerque? A L B U Q U E R Q U E is one of those bar bets trivia questions that bar-stool regulars trying to snag someone for a free drink can spell, but in the real world, hardly anyone can.

If a player was stumped, as almost all were, one needed not fear. As long as a player knew how to spell his first name, I would still give him a complimentary memento to commiserate his gambling losses.

Breaking down the scribbling that you found on the inside lid, obviously, 6/26 was the date. 22:40 is military time for 10:40, and the log time when the deck came off the game. T3 denotes Table 3, which happened to be in the main pit right next to the crap table. VW and BF represents the current dealer and the pit boss who pulled the cards off the game. Because I worked swing shift, with those initials, I can identify VW as the dealer Victoria Walker, and BF being Boyd Frame, the pit supervisor, although the work designation of each that night might have been reversed as both were dual-rate employees. How’s that for a memory a quarter-century later?

Incidentally, both of the individuals mentioned above had a noteworthy background. Victoria was cast for an infamous role in the cult classic skiing movie, "Hot Dog: The Movie," of which yours truly was an extra (skier) in the Chinese Downhill scene. Boyd Frame’s uncle, Fred Frame, was the winner of the 1932 Indianapolis 500, and Boyd, himself, played offensive line alongside John Madden at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Thanks for the memories, Randy.

Gambling Wisdom of the Week: “Give me a deck of cards instead of a tax shelter and I'll take my chances.” – Mario Puzo, Inside Las Vegas
Mark Pilarski

As a recognized authority on casino gambling, Mark Pilarski survived 18 years in the casino trenches, working for seven different casinos. Mark now writes a nationally syndicated gambling column, is a university lecturer, author, reviewer and contributing editor for numerous gaming periodicals, and is the creator of the best-selling, award-winning audiocassette series on casino gambling, Hooked on Winning.
Mark Pilarski
As a recognized authority on casino gambling, Mark Pilarski survived 18 years in the casino trenches, working for seven different casinos. Mark now writes a nationally syndicated gambling column, is a university lecturer, author, reviewer and contributing editor for numerous gaming periodicals, and is the creator of the best-selling, award-winning audiocassette series on casino gambling, Hooked on Winning.