Shake a Day

[jackessiebabe]

Hello again Mickey!

A very few of us are natural born yarn-spinners. You are certainly one of them, It's
pure pleasure to be reading about your gambling adventures again! {{O:

I've never heard of "Shake A Day", but I do remember a game that nearly every bar
and tavern in Chicago offered in the 1940's. It was called "Chuck-O-Luck".

The game was set up on a high pedestal table, with a dice layout board, a spinning
metal basket, and three dice. The bet was made on the board for how many matching
dice numbers were showing in the up position, when the basket stopped spinning. I
no longer remember the bet or payoff amounts, but I'm sure that they were very nominal.
I remember that one bar paid off winners with cigarettes and free drinks. I also remember
that, even though my Mom and friends almost always played a round or two of Chuck-A-Luck, none of them ever seemed to win. I suspect that this was a rigged, carnival type
game.

Lest you think that I am even MORE ancient than I actually am, I was much too young to drink alcohol back then. My Mom and her friends, all business women, long before that was common practice for women, often met for a cocktail after work. Once in awhile
they also permitted a nice guy to join their little group. Occasionally, my Mom, a widow, invited me to join them. When I was with them, I woulde usually read a Nancy Drew mystery, and sip a Coke from one those now collectible, small, green bottles.

~Babe~

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-- On Tue, 9/14/10, Mickey <mickeycrimm@yahoo.com> wrote:

There is a legal game played in the bars here. It's called Shake a Day. A person pays 50 cents then rolls five dice to see if they can roll a five of a kind. You only get one shake a day. It's a progressive game and there is usually a chalk board on the back bar where the number is posted. It says something like this:

Shake a Day $237.....................................................

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Mickey]

Thanks, Babe. And thanks Wendy.

The end of the story is:

I analyzed Shake a Day when I first saw the game. I love solving puzzles like this. I'll buy a Shake a Day--if the money is above $713. I figured as long as the game was in a convenient location for me, a bar, I could afford 50 cents-if the money was above $713.

After 3 and a half years I've taken exactly 2 Shake a Days. I walked into two different joints where in one the money was in the high seven hundreds and the other joint it was right at a thousand. I dutifully took my shakes. And I figure these are the only two joints that ain't robbin' the money.

You see, I figured that sooner or later I would see positive numbers develep. 1296 rolls would generate $648. Average jackpot comes back on $65. The darn thing only has to miss one cycle to go positive. What if it misses three cycles? That's a big number. I can go 3 or four cycles at video poker between 4 of a kinds. Happens to me all the time. All the bars got the game. They return 100% of the money to the public, right? So sooner or later I oughta be seeing some strong numbers.

Hey, I know, it's not a game you're gonna make a whole lotta money at. But it was in a convenient place, a bar. I figured I could cut into that long run a little bit by making deals with other players to take our shakes together and chop the money.

So how come in 3 and a half years I've only taken 2 shakes? Well, I figured that since I had gone far enough to analyze the game I may as well analyze the rest of it. The game was in a convenient place, a bar. It was gonna take some undercover work.

So there I was one night at thr bar wearing my well worn disguise as a drunk. I thought, well, it's 9 O'clock. The joint is slow. Probably been slow all day. But it'll pick up in a couple hours. Be packed by closing time. That's the bulk of their business, late night.

So while I'm sitting here sipping Grand Marnier and doing my barfly routine, I think I'll keep an eye on that dice cup tonight. And I think I'll drop back in tomorrow for a Bloody Mary. I looked up at the number, $364.

So I sipped away and kept as close an eye on the dice cup as I could. I counted them down. I left the bar at closing time with the number 48 in my head. I could have been off a little either way because I WAS drinkin'.

"Yeah, how bout a bloody mary? My head is bangin'
I looked up at the number, $376. "No, No, No, No, Mickey! You wadn't that drunk" I said to myself. "You can count better than that even when you got a snoot on. Something else is happening to the money, isn't it?"

I counted down enough joints to see the handwriting on the wall. They were robbin' the money. All of them. Those dirty....and they are good robologists. They steal less when the money is low and more when the money is high.

Jerry and Sharon left town. I never got the $80 back. The college kids wanted a second opinion and said they would run it by a professor at the University. My Shake a Day career never got started. End of story. Actually, it's not the end at all. It's just the beginning.

[Mac_McClellan]

Mickey, you should write a BOOK!

Mac
www.CasinoCamper.com

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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Mickey" <mickeycrimm@...> wrote:

Thanks, Babe. And thanks Wendy.

The end of the story is...

[Pamela]

I certainly agree that it's good to have you back Mickey. Please keep the stories coming! The entertainment and insight are much appreciated.

Pam

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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Mickey" <mickeycrimm@...> wrote:

Thanks, Babe. And thanks Wendy.