hard six

Las Vegas - MAKE 'EM LAUGH/MAKE 'EM CRY!

Gonna roll out some crazy, wacky and wonderful stories over the next few weeks, talking about the biggest $core you ever made, or, the wor$t bad beat that rocked your bankroll.

Here's Thurston Howell III in his own words...

'Gambling in Vegas when we were in our mid 20s - some guys had just started 2nd City Las Vegas. A now famous friend of ours was rolling the dice. Point was a 6. It's mostly us at the table with one well dressed, portly, quiet but pleasant, 35ish British guy (and a very attractive woman with him) at the other end. We're loud and having fun - very focused on the game. I don't recognize the color of chip the guy is betting and assume they are from a different casino. Point stays on 6 a long time, many rolls, we're making money on the come bets (but we're young and betting like $5 with 3-4-5x odds, we're not exactly cleaning up). Everyone is on the hard 6. No sixes have come. Probably 20+ roles. No 6s. No 7s. One of our group calls out "Hard six, shooter is hot!" But stickman hears "Hard Six on the hop!" We all stop for a second - "what does "on the hop" mean?" - stickman tells us "it means you are betting that a hard six comes out this very roll, if it doesn't you lose." "Oh, what does that pay?" "30:1, so it's not a great bet" (nice honesty from the guy). The shooter says, "well, it is a great bet, because I'm going to roll it." We all cheer and place $5 each on "Thirty-Three on the hop" or "Larry Bird" or whatever else you want to call rolling a 3 and a 3 for a hard 6. British guy at the end of the table says "you sure you got it?" Shooter (perhaps this confidence is why he became famous) says "I do." British guy flicks one of those different colored chips (yellow, if I remember correctly) to the stickman and says "Thirty Three - on the hop." Shooter rolls ... 3 and 3! We go bananas. We just won $150 each plus whatever we have on the pass line. That was big money for us. We notice a huge stack of chips being pushed to the British guy. He is smiling and does give a little clap - but he's reserved - not standoffish, just kind of cool. We see this massive stack of chips being pushed to him and only then realize do we realize they are $1,000 chips each. He just won $30,000 on that roll. As that is dawning on us, he comes up to the shooter, looks him in the eye, says "that was a very good roll" and shakes his hand in the process. The shooter nods as the British guy turns and walks away, having just collected all those chips. Shooter looks down in his hand, there are 3 $500 chips from the British Guy. $1500 was an ocean of money to us then. Shooter took us out to a seafood buffet and drinks for the night. An absolute blast.'

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