WEBVTT - Beating The Book: Alan Boston 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:11.520 Check it down, Man, Now Down Now. It is the 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:15.920 Leading the Book podcast, Bill Alexander's Strange, Strange Times we 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.600 are living in, That's for sure. Expect a whole bunch 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:22.960 of podcast content coming your way, most of which will 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:26.680 be brand new material, some of which, admittedly in the 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:31.240 coming weeks, will be previously aired contents that still hopefully 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.840 will have some applicable nature to them as we move forward. 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:39.400 Some baseball season win totals, for instance, from Roxy and 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:44.000 Jason Weingarten Roxy Roxboro that is perhaps scaled back to 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.239 whatever length of a season will get that kind of 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:51.000 thing today, something brand new. This is from my interview 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:55.320 last week with Alan Boston, had never aired on Visa 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.280 until just this week we put it in podcast form. 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.800 Allen Boston, his origin, how he became the man and 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:05.240 the better that he is today, The arc of his 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:08.360 life is a better exclusively right here on the Beating 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:12.160 the Book podcast. Enjoy It is a numbers game right 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:14.319 here at Visa in the Vegas Stats and Information Network, 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:18.039 the Sports Betting netwhere Gil Alexander um, this is a 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.319 privilege today It's actually an honor. And I really mean that, 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.240 and I know that kind of makes uh my guest 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:27.240 here today feel a little uncomfortable perhaps, but it really is, 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:31.759 uh a profile of one of the great iconic betters 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:35.360 in the United States has been for many decades. And 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:36.880 just happy to have a chance to sit down and 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:40.880 talk to him, the great Alan Boston. What's happening, man? 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:46.480 Thank you for coming in. That's the that's w Yeah, well, 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.120 I appreciate you coming in. That intro doesn't make you 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:53.120 feel uncomfortable, doesn't that you're that I consider you iconic 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:58.680 in this field? Uh, it does, but it probably shouldn't. 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:03.920 And reflecting upon what's out there today, we'll get we'll 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:05.520 get to that. Can I start at the beginning, I 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:09.160 think wherever you want, I think, I think people some 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:12.480 people are very familiar with you, most perhaps in this 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:15.720 day and age, are not, and I want to remedy that. 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.720 Can we start the beginning, like, just tell us where 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:22.160 you grew up, how you grew up, and how it 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:29.160 is that you first gravitated towards betting in general. Uh So, 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:35.520 having always been a very uh self reflective person, I 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:37.600 grew up in Brighton, mass which is a suburb of 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:40.560 Boston which is now the High Rent District. But when 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:42.960 I lived there, certainly wasn't. My parents got married young 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:46.360 nineteen and twenty, that had me nine months later. Uh, 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:49.960 best friend growing up with Howie, and we saw each 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:54.520 other my mother and his mother literally walked us in strollers, 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:56.760 so I literally have known him my whole life. He's 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:58.920 two months older than me, and his mother became like 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.440 my second mother. But my mother was twenty when she 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.160 had me, and Ray was I think forty five when 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:06.480 she had Howie, and how he was a lonely child 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:11.200 with with with older parents and the dynamic was difficult 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:15.960 for him. And Uh, anyway, my father got a job 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:19.560 in uh Framingham, which is uh it might have been 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:22.959 Worster first Worcester, which is sixty miles west of Boston. 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:25.359 We moved to Framingham and what they would now call 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:30.560 the hood, but we called it limited income housing back then. Uh, 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:39.520 and uh that move probably uh was I mean, even 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:42.400 though I'm only seven years old, it was a very 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:47.440 very uncomfortable dynamic for a very very long time. And 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:52.120 probably it's probably the start of I mean, it sounds strange, 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:55.080 but probably the start of how I ended up, uh 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:57.840 choosing to be in a field that that that's more 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:02.760 woner driven than than something normal for lack of a 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:06.960 better word, Uh there, Yeah, there is a a social 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:10.040 aspect to what we do. Perhaps, yeah, not not not 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:14.400 the way I do it. Uh So yeah, loan are driven, 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.679 That's that's definitely. Uh do you remember the first time 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.000 that you, oh, right, go ahead? And I'm sorry I don't. Yeah, 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:23.640 I mean we're not even close to the betting part yet. Uh. 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:27.800 I'm just I'm just, I'm really I I know I 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:29.760 get a long winded and wind bom but I really 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.320 try to explain thoroughly like where I'm coming from least, 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:34.280 and the only way to do it is to really 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.840 try to give a picture of of me the person. 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:42.799 So here, I am feeling alone without my best friend 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:44.360 in in in a in a new place. And I 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:47.320 remember someone called me one day and I did break 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:49.960 his nose. So that was the last time he used 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:55.719 that word. But how old were you then? Eight? Wow? Yeah? 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:57.279 But all this was foreign to me. I didn't know, 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.640 you know, like Alan Boston kind of to join us 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:02.839 here on a Numbers Game special best of edition of 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:07.760 a Numbers Game right here at Visa the Sports Betting Network. Alan, 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:13.160 the idea of racism to me is is bizarre. We're 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:15.360 all human beings, Like what does what does anyone think 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.240 they're better than them? Or it's it's uh. And like 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:20.400 I said, I lived in a very mixed bad community. 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:26.400 So when you're young, you're you're you know my my 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:30.480 my best friend had a mixed mixed parent and one 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:35.560 of my friends in from him. Dad was white and 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:38.080 his mother was African American. I guess the best way 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:42.119 to say it, big deal. You know, it didn't matter, 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.960 so you know, uh so that yeah, that that was 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:47.880 that that word was hurtful, but but he didn't say 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:49.960 it again after that. But it did kind of, like, 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:55.680 you know, set me more towards a shell. So, uh, 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:57.760 what people wouldn't know about me? It was I probably 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.240 was more athletic than it was smart, which is probably 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:03.880 a big surprise. Uh And and really had a great 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:10.919 knack for playing baseball. And so there's the uh, the 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:16.880 rub is I love baseball. But at five years old, 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:19.040 I had my mother had me take when I now 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:20.279 know was an i Q test, and I know I 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:21.640 did very well with because I remember one of the 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:23.920 I remember there was a question that that got her. 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:25.960 You know, I was rattling the answers off and her 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:30.719 jaw dropped and like, uh, so my young parents know 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.440 they have a smart kid. What they don't know is 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:37.440 the smart kid wanted to play baseball. And now I 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:40.720 come to an area I don't know anybody, and I 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:44.880 don't really have opportunities to to you know, like you know, 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:47.280 play a pickup game or or or do anything like that. 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:52.800 So I was already driven into a small circle there 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:54.799 and I and I'm doing all this for a reason. 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:57.880 At eight years old, my father took me to Hinsdale Raceway, 0:06:57.920 --> 0:06:59.760 which is in New Hampshire, quite a long ride. His 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:01.520 had a horse racing. The name of the horse was 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:03.599 Beth Dexter. I don't know I remember that, but I do. 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.760 Wayne Colby drove I think for Gordon Corey, who still 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:11.200 trained and ultimately trained a horse for me, uh fifty 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:16.880 years later, so uh, Gordon Cory's from Manizo awesome old 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:21.200 school naturally harness trainer. The horse did win by a nose, 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:23.240 and uh that's probably kind of the start of my 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.120 love of Gambly eight years old watching a horse went 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:29.760 by the thinnest of margins. It was a finished print. 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.680 And uh, back then it took a while. They had 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:39.320 actually wait for the photograph to finished. To see you one, Uh, 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:46.280 several trips to hornors tracks later and uh a rough marriage. 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:51.280 And you know what I talked about earlier, the too 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:56.520 early knowing that we're mortal really drove me into this 0:07:56.760 --> 0:08:02.360 uh inner inward, bitter in a coal human who found 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:05.720 uh solace and peace of mind at the race track. 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:09.600 So now baseball is out. In fact, everything's out. I 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:12.680 didn't want to see anybody. What was the point? And 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:16.920 uh so now I've got a pen, which I shouldn't 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:21.040 have gone to. Uh. I wasn't ready for college because 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:22.880 I hadn't allowed myself to get out there at all. 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:26.960 You know. Ah, but you're obviously super smart enough to 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:29.560 get into pen. It was easier to get into back then. 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.120 But yeah, I'm not denying my intelligence. I definitely have 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:38.080 a probably higher IQ than most. Uh can I can? 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:39.719 I let me just interrube one thing you said there. 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.520 I just want to clarify for people you said, uh 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:46.000 that you knew mortality? You knew that? Did I miss 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:47.960 what you were talking about specifically there when we were 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:50.520 had that interview? And I think I went through a 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.280 very painful segment. I could I could redo it. Uh, 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:56.600 when you understand that you're gonna die at the age 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:00.439 of thirteen, it's it's young, it's too young. And when 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:04.720 it coincides with your parents breakup. Uh, then what's the 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:07.800 point of falling in love? Right? It's it's number one, 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:09.920 you're gonna die anyway. And number two, look what look 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:13.480 at it might end up anyway. So at the time 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:17.200 that I should have been interested in girls, I was 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:22.720 interested in hanging out in the closet in a room, 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:26.360 I mean, just by myself. I didn't want to, uh 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:29.320 interact with anybody. For those who don't remember that, what 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.240 was the part where you thought you were gonna buy thirteen, 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:34.600 that you might not be with us anymore? That wasn't no, no, no, no, 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:37.120 you missed you missing it. I understood that that everything 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:40.840 does end. You don't understand that at thirteen. Typically. In fact, 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:43.640 in the movie Boyhood, the kid asked, uh, Ethan Hawk, 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:45.560 you know, what's the point of all this? And and 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:49.200 Ethan Hawk brilliantly answered, I don't know. We're all just 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:51.600 winging it. But he was eighteen in that film, and 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:54.080 this kid was a very evolved human, and and and 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:57.079 the movie and the movie in some ways mirrored his 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:02.120 his uh, his his life. So you know, if if 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:04.599 it dawned on him around seventeen eighteen, imagine thirteen is 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:09.240 a little on the light side. Sure be understanding that. 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:11.800 And then that thought could be, you know how I have. 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:13.559 I don't know if other you know, I'm young, I'm 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:15.400 a kid. I'm thirteen years old. I don't know anything. 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.760 You don't know if other people even understand that, And 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:21.120 and so you really don't want to bring it up 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:23.360 because you don't want to make other people what if 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:25.880 they don't understand, you know, and and so you just 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.600 don't bring it up. I always picture the world like 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.280 just saying, all right, if someone out there, we're gonna 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:33.599 stop living, which we're about to do here, by the way, 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:37.240 Uh all right, everybody was stopping, So tell us what 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:39.760 this is all about. You know, we're recording this during 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:43.400 the coronavirus pandemic. That's why Alan makes that comment. So 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:45.440 with all that background, then as you say, you're probably 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:47.720 not prepared to go to college, but yet you're at Penn, 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:49.600 then yeah, I'm at Penn and now I go to 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:52.280 the Plus tra and I watched with Salin Duquine the 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:54.600 City schools played their games at the plusure then because 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:57.240 it was before. It's when people played for the love 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:01.160 of the game and not because it was big money involved. Uh. 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:04.560 I dare say more kids enter sports because of the 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.400 big paycheck now than because they love to play. Right, 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:13.079 the kids used to play you know, like, uh, football 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:15.360 in the fall, hockey to winter, and and baseball in 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:17.200 the spring. And now they choose a sport and spin 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:19.640 or sixty five days a year, so that whole dynamic 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.800 has changed too. They have coaches when they're you know, six, seven, 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:25.080 eight years old. The whole thing is just crazy, but 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:27.719 it's understandable given the fact how much money these pros make. 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:30.280 You know, when you're making way more than a doctor, 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.600 you may as well spend time on sports then on academics. 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:36.120 But you're right, it was totally normal to just switch 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:42.959 sports every season. That and and fun. Uh So yeah, 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:47.559 here I am at Pennon and uh I watched Duquesne 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:49.440 and LaSalle and I like, wow, that point guard for 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:51.319 Duchane is really good. It turned out it was normal Nixon, 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:56.040 so yeah, he was pretty good. Uh. And I used 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:59.680 to buy the New York uh Daily News and in 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:01.320 the New Art Daily News there was a little calumn 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:03.840 called the Latest Line. The Latest Line was by a 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:06.800 gentleman named Jim McCarthy might have been Jim McCarthy Jr. 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:09.720 But he wrote all these a little alliterated blurbs that 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.200 are often kind of clever. Take Manhattan to SINC. Navy. 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:15.120 I mean, you know, so it's a little cliche Sinc. Navy, 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:19.920 but it he had better stuff than that. And you 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:24.800 know he listed the lines. And this is nineteen seventies. 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:26.840 You know, this is the Dark Ages. You could barely 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:28.480 get a score in a game. That's what people now 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.719 couldn't possibly understand how much different it is now than then. 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:35.720 It's it's it's like even seventies to eighties was different, 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:37.480 and the eighties is a Dark Ages compared to now. 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:39.760 So you're lucky if you can get a score in 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.480 a game. Sometimes it took a day or two to 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.720 get a West Coast score. In the East Coast. Uh 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:47.480 to get updates, you used to have to fiddle with 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:49.319 the radio to try to get W and S New York. 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:52.800 At quarter past the hour, they would update all the scores. Uh. 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:54.480 So if we're still in the bottom of the fifth inning, 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:58.199 you knew you were rallying like for two consecutive updates. 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:02.240 You something good with that? That's how did it? Uh? 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:05.040 So I'll try to get I'll try to fast forward 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:06.680 this a little bit. So I I was aware of 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:08.400 what the lines were because they were in New York 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.160 Dale News. I was also aware that people could pick 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:13.920 winners in this game. But I wondered, how, I mean, 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.000 how do you get information on the crighton Missouri State 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.080 game when you're southwest Missouri State at the time, when 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.120 you're living you can barely get a score on it. 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:27.000 How did these so called wise guys know who's gonna win? 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.840 So I was intrigued. UH. Graduate college read a book 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:36.720 called The Handicapper by Robert Kaylich. Page one and two 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:41.520 of The Handicapper is this, uh handicapper the man that 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.560 turns out and he gets this manic influx of phone 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.120 calls UH with all this information because you could not 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:50.040 get information back then. There was no Internet, there was 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:53.920 no nothing. It was just they completely winged it. That's 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.360 what it was so intriguing. UH. And he put all 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:01.560 this information into his internal at a base and he 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.760 just winged out the winners. And after reading the book, 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:08.000 which was not the cheeriest of books. But uh, I said, 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:09.959 you know, I would like to be that guy someday. 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:12.840 And you know, I guess and in a lot of 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:17.800 ways I I succeeded. Wasn't was it or failed? As 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.000 my one of them might think. No, no, I'm sure 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:22.680 she doesn't. But you know, I'm curious. Was it about, 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:25.360 you know? Was it your love of sports? Maybe it was? 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:27.480 Maybe it was all these things. Actually the only sport 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.320 I didn't watch was basketball, So no, it wasn't that 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:35.560 I love baseball. How interesting? But what was it? What 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:40.000 was it about basketball handicapping? Then? Specifically, it's the it's 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:42.680 the unknown. It's that how do these guys know? That's 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:44.280 what was intriguing. How the hell do you know when 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:45.760 you can't even get a score in a game? How 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:47.040 do you know who's gonna win some game when you 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:50.200 can't get a score? And and it was no information, nothing. 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:52.400 It was nothing for us on the East coast too. 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:54.800 It was normal for us if there was a late 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:57.040 basketball game from the West coast, the next morning's paper 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.200 would never have it. We'd have to wait another day 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:04.520 to get that. Yeah, so do you remember acknowledging in 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:06.400 your head? You didn't even have to verbalize this at 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:08.240 the time. But you remember, do you ever? Do you 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:12.080 remember and acknowledging that, in addition to being fascinated by 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:15.040 the actual subject matter, that it would also afford you 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.240 to not have to deal with other people, maybe like 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:21.080 it was, Oh, here's this, here's a vocation, here's something 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:23.680 I can do where I can actually just be by myself. 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:26.360 And did you remember that speaking to you? Not? I 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:30.360 don't really remember much because then the eighties was an 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.640 attempt to hide from all these painful thoughts, and I 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.160 did it. You know, Coke was very relevant. I certainly 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:36.600 found it. I remember the first time I got a 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:40.720 line of my friend and I were driving to Artford 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:44.320 tele Theater about Yonkers Raceway. I'm a big Horness fan. 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:46.480 Not anymore, they ru when that came too, But uh, 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:48.640 at the time I was a honest nut and UH 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:52.160 did very well betting horness races. Again, I I well, 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:53.800 others looked at the obvious. I looked at what was 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:55.280 going on at the back of the pack, and that's 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.520 where you found the most information out at Hornors Race. 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:01.560 So uh, I've always had that. My mind has always 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:04.600 worked logically. I can't fall a TV show. I can't 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:07.560 read directions and follow it. If you were directions on 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:10.160 how to build uh this this phone, put together the phone, 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:15.200 I couldn't do it. But logically, I'll solve your relationship 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:17.840 problem in two seconds. You know. It's just just that 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.600 part of my brain works in in a in a 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:26.640 very good manner. Ah. So no, I I got myself 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:29.960 in trouble betting. I ultimately worked for a bookmaker to 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.600 work off my debt and did so for many years, 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:39.520 and at some point the FBI, the state police raided 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:43.480 my house. Uh why do they want me? I'm just 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:45.400 a clerk, just the guy who worked for a bookmaker. 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.400 Certainly they know that, you know. But it turns out 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:52.360 that one of the guys I I met to help 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.080 out as part of the game was exchanging information with 0:16:55.080 --> 0:17:01.080 the state cop. So by indirectly, I got put in 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:03.880 with him, and they thought I was some big deal. 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:06.960 But that was nothing. So when I raided my house, 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:10.720 they didn't find anything because I'm nobody. Seriously, they had 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.360 my heart. They had stacks of Hunter's programs with That's 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:15.879 what they carried out of there, and they were piste 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:20.680 and uh. It also helped that I knew they were coming, 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:22.600 so I, you know, maybe get rid of some drugs 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:27.879 that were there. And uh, it's just sorry, s uh 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:32.760 statute of limitations has expired. Yeah, I was nobody. I 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:35.440 wouldn't hurt a fly. Believe there's not a mean bone 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:39.440 in my body. So so so yeah, yeah, this this, this, 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:44.560 this has purpose to Uh so I'm in Vegas when 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.000 I get a call your trials coming up, and and 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:49.520 of course we beat the case. In fact, the judge 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.720 in the case was Judge Zovel. He later did a 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:57.080 very famous case, uh that shaking baby case with a nanny. 0:17:58.080 --> 0:17:59.600 He was the judge in that case. His wife was 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:01.720 a judge to a brilliant guy. I remember when he 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:05.400 first postponed it. He said, uh so we're gonna postpone 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:09.720 this from June fourteenth Flag Day to the more ominous 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.600 July fourteenth bast Steel Day. And I'm like, this guy 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:17.320 is awesome. That's that's awesome, just bringing that out like that. Also, 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:19.919 I remember when I was first pleading the kid beforehim, 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:22.760 he was up for murder and now I'm up and 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:25.480 he says, you know name, etcetera. You know, did you 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:27.159 go to college? Said yes, would you go as a 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:32.000 University of Pennsylvania. Did you graduate? Yes, degree biological basis behavior. 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:34.000 And the judge like looking like, what the hell are 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:36.359 you doing here? Like this is the first kid. This 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:38.880 kid was up for burder and I'm up for that's 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.960 over telephone or something, you know, some nonsense. Anyway, the 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:44.280 judge ended up yelling at the d A and said, 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:45.639 don't ever bring a case like this in front of 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:47.399 me again, because they had nothing on me, because I 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:49.199 was nobody, literally have nobody. I'm just a kid who 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:52.000 was answering telephones working up at debt. Now you clossed 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.720 over something. What was your major? Biological basis behavior? What 0:18:55.880 --> 0:19:00.680 is what? Like premed it's FREMD, it's it is, it's 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:03.680 I just interviewed a kid who's who's uh majoring in 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:04.800 it too. I said, you know what, I was a 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:07.840 guinea pig for that. They it was an experiment. They 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:09.720 were trying. They were they were they were teaching to 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:12.920 sciences in a typically different order. They taught physics before 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:16.480 uh biology. I think, I don't know. They just had 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:18.439 some set thing. But it also allowed a lot of 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:22.720 freedom of choosing classes. So I took some anthropology, I 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.240 took a lot of psychology. Uh, but I had no 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:28.639 idea what I wanted to do. I I wanted to 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.119 teach school. But school teachers don't make any money. You 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:33.080 had no idea, but you kind of knew. I kind 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:36.280 of want to be a school teacher. School make money. Yeah, 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:37.680 if they got paid? You would you be a school 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:41.280 teacher today? What do you think you would teach with English? 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:43.359 I have the whole I have the whole thing scheduled. 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:45.440 In fact, I was gonna do it anyway. I told 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:47.119 Chad when we were doing the book that you know, 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:49.919 if I have another good year, I'm done, referring to 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:52.359 the odds the book that yeah, the year before we 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:53.840 had killed it. The year before the odds we had 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:55.639 absolutely killed it. We will want so much money. It 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:57.440 was nuts, Like the I R S is very happy 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:01.560 with me that year. Uh. And the next year I 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:03.240 did pretty good. But then I maybe, you know, I 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:04.800 maybe I didn't know my head. I built a really 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:07.880 expensive house and I tried to keep the mortgage down. 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:11.800 And you know, I never had planning. I just did 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:14.240 everything by day. I know, worried about anything. That's why 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:17.480 this whole coronavirus thing, it doesn't even phaze me. It 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:19.920 is what it is. It's just life. You know, it happens. 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:23.120 It's let's go back to your court your court date 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:25.640 there how from that point forward. All right, So I'm 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:30.080 found innocent, and now I'm told you gotta get out 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.840 of town, Allen, because they'll plant evidence that they have to. 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:39.440 Really okay, I had met someone, uh during the Wild 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:41.160 Series of Poker, which I came out for every year 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:44.080 since eighty three, and Jeff Star was his name. He 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.600 passed away a couple of years ago. I'll probably visit 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:49.399 his wife while him out here. Uh yeah, Caro'll be pistove, 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:52.320 don't visitor. And he said, you know you can always 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:54.280 come out here. Will make money. Now I had no 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:56.320 idea what he meant by will make money. And I 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:58.040 didn't know him that well. I knew he had money. 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:03.480 Uh he kind of lived uh very freely, and and 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:05.399 we got along great. So I thought I thought it 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.119 would be a good thing. But I wasn't gonna go 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:12.520 out there cold. And this is probably the only one 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:14.160 of the more until it was one of the smarter 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:19.480 things I did. So that summer I bought a uh 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:22.399 a college a college football book, and I really was 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:25.800 very wrong on how I created my power ratings. I 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:27.919 think I looked at some final scores and started with 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:30.480 a final score, and then from there looked at the 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:34.280 final scores and jotted down a bunch of numbers. Right, 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:37.280