February 18, 2025 • 33 mins
On this special episode of the podcast, Chad Millman and Simon Hunter welcome on their producer Matt Mitchell to share two epic betting tales from America's past. Together they examine an epic 30,000 mile bad beat aboard a ship called Neptune's Car, before diving into Andrew Jackson, America's maniac gambler president. #Volume #herd
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to The Favorites, the podcast presented by BET three
sixty five. We are part of the Volume Podcast Network.
I am Chad Millman of the Action Network. I'm live
from my Tommy John Holmes Studio, and I'm joined as
always by my co host, my companion, Mike Compaedra, my
BFF professional better Simon Hunter. Hello, Simon, Chad.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Our first show of the off season.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
First show of the off season. But you know what,
it's a special episode. I know you love gambling stories.
You know I love gambling stories. It's how I got
into this was just hearing good stories about people who gamble,
people who take risk, the language of betting, all of that,
(00:53):
the romance of it all is fascinating to me. So
today we're going to be joined by producer Matt Mitchell,
who we love to have on the show. He's always
he's a high quality ad as they say, he's also
excited for this one. He's taken us through a list
of great moments, a historical gambling history, a collection of
(01:18):
very special stories that he's curated just for you, for me,
our audience, who he believes are also going to love
these old school gambling stories. Matt I feel like you've
been dreaming about this. This is tailor made for you.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yes, I'm very excited to present two special great moments
in American gambling history to you guys and to our audience.
And this is a very unusual episode. Typically we take
some time off after the season, but I want to
make sure that we continue to deliver episodes. If you're
on a treadmill, or you're commuting to work, you're in
(01:54):
the subway, or you're holding hands with your mom, bouncing
out a trampoline, whatever it is that you do when
you listen to the show every week, you still have
something to join you in the timeless of evocative medium
of audio.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Chad, this is going to be the Matt Mitchell episode,
But I feel like this is a a combination of
how I built this and Drunk History. Remember the show
Drunk History.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yes, this is very similar to that except so yes,
I love that show.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Was when I favorites. We actually did this when we
first started Action. I remember I wanted to do shows
that were like Drunk History for gambling. Do you remember this, Matt,
and we did? I like, you know, Terry Glenn catching
that pass from Doug from Drew Bledsoe to beat the
Buffalo Bills and we did drunk History, bad Beats, Yeah,
(02:44):
and it was super fun, really really fun. So I'm
excited to do this today and I'm glad you had
this idea. I always like getting Matt Mitchell. The more
Matt Mitchell on the show, the better. As a reminder
of the Favorites podcast is presented by Bet three six
five and now new Bet three six five. Customers get
one hundred and fifty dollars bonus bets when you bet
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(03:05):
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Whatever the moment, It's never ordinary. At Bet three sixty five.
Must be twenty one or older in present in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana,
North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, or eighteen and
older in Kentucky. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler
(03:26):
or one eight hundred bets off in Iowa terms. Conditions
restrictions apply before we get into the storytelling we are having.
I mentioned this on Tuesday. We're having another live event.
This is going to be March twenty ninth, Joe's on
Weed in Chicago. That's the name of the street Weed.
Joe's on Weed in Chicago, my hometown. We did Sigmon's
(03:48):
hometown in December and Philly. We're doing Chicago in March.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Guys, I am unbelievably excited about this live event. I
was hoping we could do it in Chicago. We were
able to convince them of that. I was hoping we
do it at Joe's Joe's barr on Weed Street commonly
and affectionately known as Joe's Onweed. We got that. I
was hoping it would be from March twenty ninth, the
evening of the Elite eight. We got that. I think
(04:13):
we'll have an absolute blast. RSVP site is not quite ready,
but please save the date. It will be March twenty ninth,
Joe's Onweed, Chicago, Illinois, for the exciting launch of BET
three six ' five in Illinois. So market calendar's March
twenty ninth, and.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
We're going to have some special college basketball guests.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Right absolutely, we will almost certainly be joined by by
Stuckey and some others from the Action universe. It'll be
a great time. Whether or not you care about the
Elite eight, just come because it's going to be an
absolute riot.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Save the date March twenty ninth. Matt, you're basically doing
your life's goal here, which is co opting the show completely.
So I will do my best hosting here and just
past the baton to you, can you please tell us
what happened to Captain Patten and Mary Anne Patton?
Speaker 3 (05:11):
All right, So this first story is the story of
an American clipper ship called Neptune's Car in the year
eighteen fifty three.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Boy, every listener is so excited they definitely did not
fast forward till we get to the ad reads.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Thank you, Chad, your excitement is palpable. One of the
hardest parts about doing stories like this is for the listener,
what are you supposed to be picturing? So I'm going
to do you a favor here. I'm going to kind
of instruct you on what you should be visualizing, okay,
because this is a long time ago, all right, So
for listeners at home, for Neptune's Car, you just picture
(05:48):
a big ass wooden sailing ship. It's a beautiful, bold
ship with sales in the whole thing. When you picture
who owns the ship, the financiers kind of behind the ship,
I want you to just picture the owners and operators
of the Cleveland Browns. Okay, we'll use the Browns as
our extended metaphor. I thought for sure you were gonna
(06:10):
say me, no, no, it's you'll see why at the end.
It's basically the Cleveland Browns go to see all right.
So this ship, Neptune's Car, takes her maiden voyage from
New York City in eighteen fifty three, and it's a
total disaster. The captain worked the crew so hard that
there's a mutiny and he threatened to kill all of them.
(06:32):
And by the time they get back to New York,
everything's a total mess, Cleveland Brown style. So for the
next voyage, these eighteen fifties Browns, they need a new captain.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
So on about twelve hours notice, they land on a
guy named Captain Joshua Patten, and Captain Patten had just
married his wife, Mary Anne, who was just shy of
her sixteenth birthday, as was the style at the time.
So we've got Captain Patten and we got his teen bride,
Mary Anne, for this first trip on the on Neptune's car.
(07:05):
Mary Ann insists on joining her husband, Captain Patten, which
was extremely unusual, but her father was a sea captain.
She loved to see her husband's like sounds great, why not?
So they set sail around the world.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
What could go wrong?
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (07:21):
With my sixteen year old bride on a round the
world voyage and a seafolo crewman.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
It's gonna go great, and indeed it does. The entire voyage.
Mary Anne, who again is not an official member of
the Browns for the purposes of this metaphor, she's teaching
herself navigation, She's showing herself how to use charts, she's
learning medicine. She's just being a real kind of young
go getter here. And they go from New York around
(07:49):
the bottom of South America. I remember there's no Panama
Canal yet, that's like seventy five years away, so you
got to go the long way around South America. They
go to San Francisco, they go to China, then they
go to London, they go back to New York, game
balls all around. Huge success. Wow, incredible job, Captain Patten.
Maybe this chip isn't cursed after all. Here is where
(08:11):
the gambling comes in. When it's time for the next
trip from New York to San Francisco the Cleveland Brown's ownership. Here,
they discover that there are three other ships making this
journey at about the same time. So in addition to
all the money they have tied up in this operation,
they make a very large wager with those other boats
(08:33):
to see who's going to get to San Francisco first.
Obviously a proud and time honored tradition of rich pres
betting against other rich pres based on people they employ.
You know all about this chip. So normally the departure
date for a trip like this would have a little
bit of flexibility. But because there's now a big ass
(08:55):
bet on who gets there first, the Browns here they
need Neptune's car to get the hell out of here
right away. But as Captain Patten is preparing the ship
you know, for voyage number two here, he runs into
three problems. So problem number one, first mate breaks his leg,
So you got to replace the first mate.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
How don't break his leg.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Do we know I'm getting to the ship ready, ship
stuff chat. I'm a man of the land.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I'm not a see I just want you to know
I'm gonna have questions.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
That's great. I'm happy to answer all of your questions,
just like in real life, as patiently and as calmly
as I answer the questions of my own children. So
you need a new first mate. And sometimes if it's
a close call, you can just elevate the second mate,
like when Cleveland started Bailey Zappy instead of Dorian Thompson Robinson,
and it's like, who fucking cares. But as it turns out,
(09:44):
it is crucial that a first mate be able to
read stuff, and the second mate in this case, he
couldn't read for shit. So it was more like when
Kyle Allen was backing up Josh Allen, like it's totally
different classes here, so it won't work. But the Browns say, hey,
no problem, and they go out and they just grabbed
the first literate sailor. They can find a guy named
(10:05):
William Keeler and they say, hey, capt'n Patten, we found
your first mate. He can read and everything. So as
far as they were concerned, problem number one is now solved.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Speaking of betting on employees, we had a bet on
who would be the first person to ultimately take down
this show. I put my money on you. Simon put
it on Gifford, and I feel like Simon and about you,
but I feel like I'm gonna win this bet. You
want to weigh in on that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I would have bet on that as well. I can't
believe you said I bet on Gifford. No, it's Guy Mitchell.
Have you seen this made social media presence? Oh my god.
Every time he tweets, I'm like, oh my god, is
this the one?
Speaker 1 (10:45):
All right? Matt? Keep going all right?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
So they grabbed this litterate sailor. They find a replacement
for the first mate, but Captain Pattin's he's feeling pretty sick.
He should probably rest for a day or two. And
his third problem is Mary Anne Wie, who's down nineteen.
She's pregnant, So we got an emergency fill in first mate.
Captain Patten's not feeling so great. His wife, she's pregnant.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Not to interrupt you again, this has the classic makings
of how to handicap right. Everyone would have thought, oh
my god, they did so well, on the first one,
they're amazing. We got to bet on them. In this
second one, no one's accounting for aggression. But also you
really got to be inside Neptune's car to understand the center.
(11:29):
You got to go to a backup center because the
first center is struggling and he's injured. So now you're
bringing them a backup and people are like, oh, it
doesn't really matter the first mate. It's not the most
important person. But it turns out first mate, like a center,
incredibly important. Right, So now you're at the third string center,
and that's terrible for the cohesiveness of the offensive line.
And you don't know that your quarterback is sick, like
(11:52):
that's not something that shows up on the injury report
for these teams and these boats. So now all of
a sudden, we got a lot of circumstances that you know,
if you're handicapping, this is starting to look pretty bad
for Nipson's car. Which start as a favorite.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Two classic issues that we run into all the time
are about to rear their ugly heads, jed volatility and
cluster injuries. So here we go. All right, so we
got these three problems, but the Browns as usual, have
the perfect solution. They say, rub some fucking dirt on
it. It's time for kickoff, and these sons of bitches set
(12:25):
sail for San Francisco on time, and again no Panama Canal.
So it's thirty thousand nautical miles away around the bottom
of the earth, packed to San Francisco. And immediately this
trip is a total fucking nightmare because one of the
first jobs of a first mate, in this case, this
villain William Keeler, you have to navigate when the captain
(12:46):
goes to sleep. But every time he takes over, he
keeps fucking it up and he puts them off course,
and he's finally so insubordinate that Captain Patton just goes,
you know what, and he just chains them up in
his room. He goes, you are totally I'm just going
to lock you away, and the second mate and third
mate are totally hapless. They end up they can't really
(13:06):
do anything. It's truly a Cleveland Brown's quarterback room situation.
It's a Boston two losers. So now Captain Patten's like, great, great,
I guess I can't go to sleep. He just stays
up NonStop, using his wife to help navigate, and it's
freezing cold, and they make it to the tip right
by Antarctica, and he's been awake for eight days straight
(13:26):
now and he just collapses. He's on a commission. The
Browns are so inept they essentially almost kill their coach.
Captain Patton has caught pneumonia, but as I mentioned, he
was already feeling pretty sick before they left, and that's
because he has tuberculosis meningitis, which has now left him
totally deaf and blind. He is totally cooked. So now
(13:49):
Mary Patton, the pregnant nineteen year old wife, she takes
control of the ship and the navigation, and she has
to take care of her essentially Comato's husband. And there
are icebergs and storms at all sorts of shit because
they're by again Antarctica, and they're only halfway there. They
couldn't be further away from both their homeport and their destination.
(14:11):
And there's still a ton of pressure on them because
there's a huge bet they have to win to beat
these three other ships. Because they were making great time chrise,
their captain wasn't sleeping. So they get around the horn
and they start heading north and immediately the first mate,
this guy William Keeler. He's locked up in his room.
He hears that the captain is totally cooked, so he
(14:32):
tries to stage a mutiny to get unlocked and take over.
But the crew's like, you know what, this lady Maryanne's
doing a good job. She can read stuff. She's not
trying to cause a mutiny. I think it's gonna be okay.
So she thinks, great, I've won the starting job. It's
gonna be okay. And then out of nowhere, Captain Patten
wakes up out of his coma right, he's got his
site back, but it still seems like he's totally scrambled
(14:55):
eggs because he benches her and orders Keeler unchained and
he can take over. And Keeller immediately tells Mary Anne, Hey, great,
now you can go play nurse. I'm gonna take over
within two days. She's looking out the window and she's
convinced we're definitely going off course. He wouldn't let her,
you know, have access to any of any of the
navigation stuff. And again, I'm a man of the land.
(15:18):
I don't know like how one can make one's own compass,
but she does. She figures it out and she proves
it to the scrambled eggs. Captain Hey, we're headed in
the wrong direction and it works. He commands her back
in charge. Marian gets the starting job back in place,
Keeler gets locked up again, and then Captain Patten slips
back into a coma. He's deaf and blind. We won't
(15:39):
hear from him again. But here's the best part. Are
you ready? As it turns out, mutiny Boy William Keeler
the last minute replacement. He wasn't simply an incompetent asshole
Chad and Simon. He was throwing the fight he'd bet
he'd bet on the other ship. He was intentionally fucking
with Neptune's car, his own vessel because he was point
(16:02):
shaving on the high seas.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
That is crazy.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
So now Marianne is incredibly pissed, just like my wife
was the entire time. She was six months pregnant and
they just start hauling ass north. She's totally exhausted. She
ends up wearing the same clothes for two months straight.
And when she finally steers them into San Francisco Bay,
mutiny Boy William Keeler gets a crew man to unchain
him and he slips out and he jumps overboard and
(16:29):
swims away, never to be heard from again. And in
the most Cleveland Browns ending of this entire thing, when
they finally arrive in port after surviving these unimaginable hardships,
the terrible weather, the brutal conditions, the blind deaf captain,
the nautical point shaving, they get off the ship and
they go, hey, hey, do we win? Do we beat
(16:49):
the other four ships? They finished second Chad, their owners
lose their bat on a truly terrible beat, and lucky
for them, lucky for the Browns, they get to refuse
to pay Captain Patten the five thousand dollars they hel
him because he was basically dead half the time, and
they don't have to pay Mary Patten anything because she
doesn't even work for him. So, like I said, the
(17:10):
perfect ending for a Cleveland Browns allegory. And that is
the story of Neptune's car Maryann Patten, the first woman
to command an American ship, and the hero of an
epic historical bad beat.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
I can't believe that. It's a beautiful story and excellent
work researching it. I know it was a labor of
love for you. I'm just so disappointed that there were
nefarious deeds taking place with related to gambling in the
nineteenth century. Yeah, when it came to ship captaining, those
(17:45):
people all seemed pretty much and I say this pun
intended above board?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Wow did you when did you think of that? Right
after I said nefarious? Incredible, well done to put a
bow on this. What happens to them? Afterwards? Marianne and
Captain Patten returned to Boston finally put him in an asylum.
He dies shortly thereafter. She gives birth successfully, and then
she also gets sick and dies four years later at
(18:12):
the age of twenty four. And now the hospital at
the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kingsport, New York is
named after her. And that's the end of that.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Wow, how did you find this story?
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Ched? I was able to do exhaustive research. I've always
got my ears to the gambling streets. Those ears stretch
back hundreds of years.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Ched.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
But one of the best sources for many gambling stories,
which I absolutely love, which I will quote many times from,
is Roll the Bones The History of Gambling, an absolutely
incredible book by David G. Schwartz. This is a totally
unpaid plug. I've read this book four times. It's not
a new book, but Roll the Bones. If you know
(18:53):
someone is that is literate, like a good first mate,
and likes gambling, it's a great book.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
I highly recommend that Matt. I know David Schwartz. I
know Roll the Bones because I've interviewed David Schwartz many,
many times. He's a sort of gambling historian and professor
at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Oh, I've read the book. Check at Chad. I'm glad
that you too have such a cozy relationship.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
That's wow. Well listen, if you made it this far
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do we have your second story?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Yes, this is the story of Andrew Jackson, a breathed
glimpse into one of America's most maniac gambling presidents. So
in this story, I'm going to be using some dollar figures,
and instead of just saying a number like fifteen hundred dollars,
I'm just gonna say the amount of money in today's money,
(21:50):
so that we can just be kind of singing off
the same sheet of music here. So just kind of
keep that in mind, all right. So, in the early
eighteen hundreds, America was rapidly banding westward, and it was
a time of a great excitement on the American frontier
because I can't overstate how unbelievably boring life on the
frontier really was. I can totally see why if you're,
(22:13):
you know, just trying to chop a tree down or whatever,
you know, skin a beaver, playing cards would be just
about the most exciting thing in the whole world.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
I feel like anybody listening to this podcast has a
very clear idea of what that journey was like.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Everyone here is can really picture that. So politicians of
that era, especially frontier politicians, they loved to gamble. Many
of them were incredibly skilled players, for example Henry Clay
of Kentucky, Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. These guys were real
card sharks. But this story is going to focus on
their great political adversary in one of America's all time
(22:47):
sons of bitches, Old Hickory himself, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee.
Jackson loved the Ponies because he was an incredibly skillful writer.
And why was he skillful? Well, he was born in
seventeen sixty seven to Scott's Irish parents. And if you
know anything about the Scots or the Irish, you know
they hate the English, isn't that right? Simon facts When
(23:11):
young Andrew Jackson was a kid with a burning hatred
for the English he'd received from his parents. He served
as a messenger for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War,
and he was dope at it because it required a
lot of bravery, but the kind of bravery where you
don't consider kind of personal consequences, exactly like being a gambler.
(23:31):
You also have to be a great writer, and Jackson
was indeed a great writer. He ended up getting captured
and imprisoned by the British at the age of twelve. Truly,
ride or Die literally and spoiler alert, America wins the
Revolutionary War, and by the time Jackson was thirty eight
years old, he was a major general in the Tennessee Militia.
He was a US representative. He'd already gotten rich and
(23:53):
then almost bankrupt, and rich again and bankrupt again. But
by the time Tennessee gained statehood he was a pretty
big deal. He already owned several race horses, and one
that he particularly loved was a horse called Indian Queen,
and Jackson challenged his neighbor, a guy with the incredible
name of Lazarus Cotton, and Lazarus Cotton owned greyhound the
(24:15):
fastest horse in the South, and they had a big
race with multiple heats, and Greyhound absolutely whips Indian Queen's
ass and Jackson is deeply embarrassed. So Jackson is determined
to be Greyhound and he knows a horse that can
do it. The horse is called Truxton, and that presents
two problems. The first is obviously that he doesn't own Truxton,
(24:38):
and the second problem is that Truxton had just raced
Greyhound and had lost. But luckily, problem number two kind
of solves problem number one because the loss of Truxton
to Greyhound had basically bankrupted his owner. So Andrew Jackson
slides up and he offers this guy a hell of
a deal. He says, listen, bro, if you let me
borrow Truxton, I will pay off debts, I'll get you
(25:00):
out of your jam, and I'm gonna train Truxton to
run a big race. And if he wins that race,
dex ball, I get to buy Truckston for forty grand
and I'll give you five other horses. And the guy says,
all right, you said up a bit, you got yourself
a deal. So now Andrew Jackson has his dream horse,
trucks him, and he reaches out to his neighbor, Lazarus
(25:21):
Cotton again and he says, let's run a back. Baby says,
I just bought Truxton, the one year horse just beat.
But there's a new trainer in town. That's me. So he,
Jackson and Coddon agree to a race. But Jackson says,
this time, I'm all in, and I remember he just
paid off this guy's debts. It's a little strapped for cash.
So like, what is all in for a thirty eight
(25:42):
year old Andrew Jackson? What's that look like? Well, in
like a cash and prizes sense, like in a price
is right showcase showdown value? It was one hundred and
forty thousand dollars today's money. One hundred thousand of that
was in cash and another forty thousand in Jackson's clothes.
Valued that another forty grand. Wow, talk about a closed horse,
(26:04):
good Boomer vernacular. Incredible.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Just to do what I can do, what I can
to contribute.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Here, Absolutely huge wager. He's betting the closed off his
back and back. Then, Chad, no odds, this is just
straight up He's just gonna bet him a one hundred
and forty grand straight up great baller. Now it's set,
Jackson has to start training truckst and he does so
like an absolute savage. He tells people he's gonna run
the horse incredibly hard, to instill a will to win
(26:33):
in this animal, just like classic maniac stuff. And everyone thinks, Okay,
Jackson's killing this horse. There's no way he's gonna win
this race. The horse already fucking lost to Greyhound already.
So when race day comes to Nashville, everybody rolls up.
It's an unbelievably exciting enterprise here in an incredibly boring
place and incredibly boring part of American history. So this
(26:56):
is the most exciting thing that's like ever happened ever.
Report from this race says that gambling there is absolutely
out of control. There's a congressman in attendance who says
multiple people are betting their entire properties, like six hundred
plus acre properties. People are going full Jackson. They're betting
all their clothes. You watch a guy take off his
riding gloves and just bet the guy next to him,
(27:18):
Like everybody has got gambling fever for this giant race.
Even the jockey that Jackson hires, he bets his entire
net worth on himself. He even uses horses he doesn't
even own to make more bets. And then finally Chad,
they're gonna do the race. It's the eighteen to oh
five version of Muhammad Ali versus Joe Fraser. It's Truxton
(27:39):
Greyhound two. This one's for all the clothes and Truxton
absolutely crushes Greyhound, huge win. Jackson wins a shitload of money.
The old owner of Truxton he gets his prize money.
Both men are totally bailed out. The jockey doubles his
net worth. Believable. Andrew Jackson just a total gambling maniac.
(28:03):
And you could kind of picture the equivalent of a
guy like this today, fun little bonus nugget. Twenty years
after this race, Andrew Jackson runs for president and he's
running against John Quincy Adams. It's a classic matchup. You
got a Southern maniac versus a pedigreed Northeastern fancy boy.
(28:24):
I wonder who you would be. And Jackson wins the
popular vote, but it's too close to call, so the
election goes to the House of Representatives and John Quincy
Adams takes the White House. Jackson's furious about it, and
he blames his old adversary, the card shark Henry Clay.
He thinks they broke it, some kind of crooked deal.
Stop the steal. All very familiar stuff does. But during
(28:47):
the election, Jackson had painted John Quincy Adams as this
pansy boy, right, this pansy puritan. But after entering the
White House, John Quincy Adams is like, oh shit, I'm
gonna have to talk to like a lot of foreign dignitaries.
I gotta find something for them to do. They all
love billiards, Europeans love playing pool. So Adams gets an
old pool table and he has it refurbished, and he
(29:08):
buys the sticks and the balls and all that shit,
like some you know, midwestern dad redoing his reck room,
except it's the White House. When Andrew Jackson, who just
lost the election to him, he hears about this, He's like,
oh my god, yes, I'm gonna fucking bury this guy
for this, and he manufactures an entire scandal, saying he
can't believe the president would use tax money for quote,
(29:31):
gaming tables and gambling equipment, and says betting inside the
White House would quote shock and alarm the religious and
moral part of this country, and John Quincy Adams is like, bro,
what the fuck are you talking about? I bought the
table with my own money and I'm not even using
it to bet. It's just like bullshit with ambassadors. And
(29:51):
obviously they call out that Jackson is a known enormous
maniac gambler and loves betting on cards and horses and
cock fights and anything else. Jackson had challenged the dude
to a duel over a canceled horse race. He got
shot in the chest in that duel and still killed
the other guy. Like not a kind of guy you're
gonna take a lot of shit about gambling from. But
(30:12):
it didn't matter. Scandal totally works. The next election is
a rematch Adams Jackson's full of dirty tricks and all
sorts of bullshit, but just like Truxton Greyhound two, this
one's for all the clothes. Jackson, as a maniac, beats
Adams wins the presidency, and to end the story, when
Jackson goes to DC, he immediately strong arms Congress. He
(30:34):
makes them renovate the White House stables so he can
bring all of his famous horses with him, And that
is just a glimpse into the Life a President Andrew Jackson,
American gambling psychopath.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
What do you think of that one? Simon?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Honestly, not shocking, because if you do go through American history,
all these presidents have had pretty wild lives, right, And
I didn't know all that about him and horse racing.
Though I knew he was a gambler, I never knew
was all horse and so pretty cool, pretty cool story.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Honestly, I gotta say I like the second one better.
The second one, well, I had no idea. Yeah, a
little more connected to the gambling, but I had no
idea that he made that much money from bedding horses
and that he was that much of an accomplished writer.
That's actually incredibly cool? Is that? Also from David Schwartz's
(31:23):
book You want to repeat where you got this stuff?
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Roll the Bones The History of Gambling. Wonderful book by
David Schwartz. Other sources include the Smithsonian, Rejectedprincesses dot Com, Wikipedia,
a host of other books, spent a great.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Times, the Better Collective VPN. Let you get to Rejected
Princesses dot com.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Hey, Farrest fair, you always credit your sources. Chat, I
can't be some fly by night a best selling author
like yourself. You know, okay, just now you listen.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Nobody wants hat tips and credit sourcing more than I do.
I think we all have to be diligent when it
comes to that. Matt, I credit you for being the
ultimate source for these incredible gambling stories. You know what
I say? At every show feedback as a gift, I
got to get feedback from people on what they thought
(32:12):
of this episode and these stories because I found them
charming and fascinating. I have no idea if anyone else did,
and I'm very curious to know if this is something
people are going to want repeated. So by all means
you must, must, must send the feedback, send it directly
to Matt Podcasts podcasts That's at the End podcasts at
(32:34):
actionnetwork dot com. That's Awesome as a reminder of the
favorite podcast is presented by Bet three six five and
now new Bet three six five. Customers get one hundred
and fifty dollars in bonus bets when you bet five dollars.
Sign up using promo code Favorites to pousit ten dollars,
place a bet for five dollars to get one hundred
and fifty dollars in bonus bets. Those bonus bets can
be used on spreads, totals, player props, futures, and more.
(32:54):
Whatever the moment, It's never ordinary. At bet three six five.
Must be twenty one or older and present in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana,
North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia or eighteen and
oldern Kentucky. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler or
one eight hundred bets off in Iowa terms. Conditions restrictions apply.
Simon and I will return with our next episode of
(33:15):
The Favorites on the Action Network. You two page Tuesday,
one thirty pm Eastern, Download us from Spotify, Apple Pods
wherever you get your pods, rate review, subscribe, leave us
five stars, say whatever you want. As I said, feedback
is a gift until next time. Love you. Action Network
(33:38):
reminds you please gamble responsibly. If you or someone you
care about has a gambling problem, help is available twenty
four to seven at one eight hundred gambler
Welcome to The Favorites, the podcast presented by BET three
sixty five. We are part of the Volume Podcast Network.
I am Chad Millman of the Action Network. I'm live
from my Tommy John Holmes Studio, and I'm joined as
always by my co host, my companion, Mike Compaedra, my
BFF professional better Simon Hunter. Hello, Simon, Chad.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Our first show of the off season.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
First show of the off season. But you know what,
it's a special episode. I know you love gambling stories.
You know I love gambling stories. It's how I got
into this was just hearing good stories about people who gamble,
people who take risk, the language of betting, all of that,
(00:53):
the romance of it all is fascinating to me. So
today we're going to be joined by producer Matt Mitchell,
who we love to have on the show. He's always
he's a high quality ad as they say, he's also
excited for this one. He's taken us through a list
of great moments, a historical gambling history, a collection of
(01:18):
very special stories that he's curated just for you, for me,
our audience, who he believes are also going to love
these old school gambling stories. Matt I feel like you've
been dreaming about this. This is tailor made for you.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yes, I'm very excited to present two special great moments
in American gambling history to you guys and to our audience.
And this is a very unusual episode. Typically we take
some time off after the season, but I want to
make sure that we continue to deliver episodes. If you're
on a treadmill, or you're commuting to work, you're in
(01:54):
the subway, or you're holding hands with your mom, bouncing
out a trampoline, whatever it is that you do when
you listen to the show every week, you still have
something to join you in the timeless of evocative medium
of audio.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Chad, this is going to be the Matt Mitchell episode,
But I feel like this is a a combination of
how I built this and Drunk History. Remember the show
Drunk History.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yes, this is very similar to that except so yes,
I love that show.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Was when I favorites. We actually did this when we
first started Action. I remember I wanted to do shows
that were like Drunk History for gambling. Do you remember this, Matt,
and we did? I like, you know, Terry Glenn catching
that pass from Doug from Drew Bledsoe to beat the
Buffalo Bills and we did drunk History, bad Beats, Yeah,
(02:44):
and it was super fun, really really fun. So I'm
excited to do this today and I'm glad you had
this idea. I always like getting Matt Mitchell. The more
Matt Mitchell on the show, the better. As a reminder
of the Favorites podcast is presented by Bet three six
five and now new Bet three six five. Customers get
one hundred and fifty dollars bonus bets when you bet
five dollars, sign up using promo code Favorites, deposit ten dollars,
(03:05):
place a bet for five dollars to get one hundred
and fifty dollars in bonus bets. Those bonus bets can
be used on spreads told as player props, futures, and more.
Whatever the moment, It's never ordinary. At Bet three sixty five.
Must be twenty one or older in present in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana,
North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, or eighteen and
older in Kentucky. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler
(03:26):
or one eight hundred bets off in Iowa terms. Conditions
restrictions apply before we get into the storytelling we are having.
I mentioned this on Tuesday. We're having another live event.
This is going to be March twenty ninth, Joe's on
Weed in Chicago. That's the name of the street Weed.
Joe's on Weed in Chicago, my hometown. We did Sigmon's
(03:48):
hometown in December and Philly. We're doing Chicago in March.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Guys, I am unbelievably excited about this live event. I
was hoping we could do it in Chicago. We were
able to convince them of that. I was hoping we
do it at Joe's Joe's barr on Weed Street commonly
and affectionately known as Joe's Onweed. We got that. I
was hoping it would be from March twenty ninth, the
evening of the Elite eight. We got that. I think
(04:13):
we'll have an absolute blast. RSVP site is not quite ready,
but please save the date. It will be March twenty ninth,
Joe's Onweed, Chicago, Illinois, for the exciting launch of BET
three six ' five in Illinois. So market calendar's March
twenty ninth, and.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
We're going to have some special college basketball guests.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Right absolutely, we will almost certainly be joined by by
Stuckey and some others from the Action universe. It'll be
a great time. Whether or not you care about the
Elite eight, just come because it's going to be an
absolute riot.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Save the date March twenty ninth. Matt, you're basically doing
your life's goal here, which is co opting the show completely.
So I will do my best hosting here and just
past the baton to you, can you please tell us
what happened to Captain Patten and Mary Anne Patton?
Speaker 3 (05:11):
All right, So this first story is the story of
an American clipper ship called Neptune's Car in the year
eighteen fifty three.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Boy, every listener is so excited they definitely did not
fast forward till we get to the ad reads.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Thank you, Chad, your excitement is palpable. One of the
hardest parts about doing stories like this is for the listener,
what are you supposed to be picturing? So I'm going
to do you a favor here. I'm going to kind
of instruct you on what you should be visualizing, okay,
because this is a long time ago, all right, So
for listeners at home, for Neptune's Car, you just picture
(05:48):
a big ass wooden sailing ship. It's a beautiful, bold
ship with sales in the whole thing. When you picture
who owns the ship, the financiers kind of behind the ship,
I want you to just picture the owners and operators
of the Cleveland Browns. Okay, we'll use the Browns as
our extended metaphor. I thought for sure you were gonna
(06:10):
say me, no, no, it's you'll see why at the end.
It's basically the Cleveland Browns go to see all right.
So this ship, Neptune's Car, takes her maiden voyage from
New York City in eighteen fifty three, and it's a
total disaster. The captain worked the crew so hard that
there's a mutiny and he threatened to kill all of them.
(06:32):
And by the time they get back to New York,
everything's a total mess, Cleveland Brown style. So for the
next voyage, these eighteen fifties Browns, they need a new captain.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
So on about twelve hours notice, they land on a
guy named Captain Joshua Patten, and Captain Patten had just
married his wife, Mary Anne, who was just shy of
her sixteenth birthday, as was the style at the time.
So we've got Captain Patten and we got his teen bride,
Mary Anne, for this first trip on the on Neptune's car.
(07:05):
Mary Ann insists on joining her husband, Captain Patten, which
was extremely unusual, but her father was a sea captain.
She loved to see her husband's like sounds great, why not?
So they set sail around the world.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
What could go wrong?
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (07:21):
With my sixteen year old bride on a round the
world voyage and a seafolo crewman.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
It's gonna go great, and indeed it does. The entire voyage.
Mary Anne, who again is not an official member of
the Browns for the purposes of this metaphor, she's teaching
herself navigation, She's showing herself how to use charts, she's
learning medicine. She's just being a real kind of young
go getter here. And they go from New York around
(07:49):
the bottom of South America. I remember there's no Panama
Canal yet, that's like seventy five years away, so you
got to go the long way around South America. They
go to San Francisco, they go to China, then they
go to London, they go back to New York, game
balls all around. Huge success. Wow, incredible job, Captain Patten.
Maybe this chip isn't cursed after all. Here is where
(08:11):
the gambling comes in. When it's time for the next
trip from New York to San Francisco the Cleveland Brown's ownership. Here,
they discover that there are three other ships making this
journey at about the same time. So in addition to
all the money they have tied up in this operation,
they make a very large wager with those other boats
(08:33):
to see who's going to get to San Francisco first.
Obviously a proud and time honored tradition of rich pres
betting against other rich pres based on people they employ.
You know all about this chip. So normally the departure
date for a trip like this would have a little
bit of flexibility. But because there's now a big ass
(08:55):
bet on who gets there first, the Browns here they
need Neptune's car to get the hell out of here
right away. But as Captain Patten is preparing the ship
you know, for voyage number two here, he runs into
three problems. So problem number one, first mate breaks his leg,
So you got to replace the first mate.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
How don't break his leg.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Do we know I'm getting to the ship ready, ship
stuff chat. I'm a man of the land.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I'm not a see I just want you to know
I'm gonna have questions.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
That's great. I'm happy to answer all of your questions,
just like in real life, as patiently and as calmly
as I answer the questions of my own children. So
you need a new first mate. And sometimes if it's
a close call, you can just elevate the second mate,
like when Cleveland started Bailey Zappy instead of Dorian Thompson Robinson,
and it's like, who fucking cares. But as it turns out,
(09:44):
it is crucial that a first mate be able to
read stuff, and the second mate in this case, he
couldn't read for shit. So it was more like when
Kyle Allen was backing up Josh Allen, like it's totally
different classes here, so it won't work. But the Browns say, hey,
no problem, and they go out and they just grabbed
the first literate sailor. They can find a guy named
(10:05):
William Keeler and they say, hey, capt'n Patten, we found
your first mate. He can read and everything. So as
far as they were concerned, problem number one is now solved.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Speaking of betting on employees, we had a bet on
who would be the first person to ultimately take down
this show. I put my money on you. Simon put
it on Gifford, and I feel like Simon and about you,
but I feel like I'm gonna win this bet. You
want to weigh in on that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I would have bet on that as well. I can't
believe you said I bet on Gifford. No, it's Guy Mitchell.
Have you seen this made social media presence? Oh my god.
Every time he tweets, I'm like, oh my god, is
this the one?
Speaker 1 (10:45):
All right? Matt? Keep going all right?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
So they grabbed this litterate sailor. They find a replacement
for the first mate, but Captain Pattin's he's feeling pretty sick.
He should probably rest for a day or two. And
his third problem is Mary Anne Wie, who's down nineteen.
She's pregnant, So we got an emergency fill in first mate.
Captain Patten's not feeling so great. His wife, she's pregnant.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Not to interrupt you again, this has the classic makings
of how to handicap right. Everyone would have thought, oh
my god, they did so well, on the first one,
they're amazing. We got to bet on them. In this
second one, no one's accounting for aggression. But also you
really got to be inside Neptune's car to understand the center.
(11:29):
You got to go to a backup center because the
first center is struggling and he's injured. So now you're
bringing them a backup and people are like, oh, it
doesn't really matter the first mate. It's not the most
important person. But it turns out first mate, like a center,
incredibly important. Right, So now you're at the third string center,
and that's terrible for the cohesiveness of the offensive line.
And you don't know that your quarterback is sick, like
(11:52):
that's not something that shows up on the injury report
for these teams and these boats. So now all of
a sudden, we got a lot of circumstances that you know,
if you're handicapping, this is starting to look pretty bad
for Nipson's car. Which start as a favorite.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Two classic issues that we run into all the time
are about to rear their ugly heads, jed volatility and
cluster injuries. So here we go. All right, so we
got these three problems, but the Browns as usual, have
the perfect solution. They say, rub some fucking dirt on
it. It's time for kickoff, and these sons of bitches set
(12:25):
sail for San Francisco on time, and again no Panama Canal.
So it's thirty thousand nautical miles away around the bottom
of the earth, packed to San Francisco. And immediately this
trip is a total fucking nightmare because one of the
first jobs of a first mate, in this case, this
villain William Keeler, you have to navigate when the captain
(12:46):
goes to sleep. But every time he takes over, he
keeps fucking it up and he puts them off course,
and he's finally so insubordinate that Captain Patton just goes,
you know what, and he just chains them up in
his room. He goes, you are totally I'm just going
to lock you away, and the second mate and third
mate are totally hapless. They end up they can't really
(13:06):
do anything. It's truly a Cleveland Brown's quarterback room situation.
It's a Boston two losers. So now Captain Patten's like, great, great,
I guess I can't go to sleep. He just stays
up NonStop, using his wife to help navigate, and it's
freezing cold, and they make it to the tip right
by Antarctica, and he's been awake for eight days straight
(13:26):
now and he just collapses. He's on a commission. The
Browns are so inept they essentially almost kill their coach.
Captain Patton has caught pneumonia, but as I mentioned, he
was already feeling pretty sick before they left, and that's
because he has tuberculosis meningitis, which has now left him
totally deaf and blind. He is totally cooked. So now
(13:49):
Mary Patton, the pregnant nineteen year old wife, she takes
control of the ship and the navigation, and she has
to take care of her essentially Comato's husband. And there
are icebergs and storms at all sorts of shit because
they're by again Antarctica, and they're only halfway there. They
couldn't be further away from both their homeport and their destination.
(14:11):
And there's still a ton of pressure on them because
there's a huge bet they have to win to beat
these three other ships. Because they were making great time chrise,
their captain wasn't sleeping. So they get around the horn
and they start heading north and immediately the first mate,
this guy William Keeler. He's locked up in his room.
He hears that the captain is totally cooked, so he
(14:32):
tries to stage a mutiny to get unlocked and take over.
But the crew's like, you know what, this lady Maryanne's
doing a good job. She can read stuff. She's not
trying to cause a mutiny. I think it's gonna be okay.
So she thinks, great, I've won the starting job. It's
gonna be okay. And then out of nowhere, Captain Patten
wakes up out of his coma right, he's got his
site back, but it still seems like he's totally scrambled
(14:55):
eggs because he benches her and orders Keeler unchained and
he can take over. And Keeller immediately tells Mary Anne, Hey, great,
now you can go play nurse. I'm gonna take over
within two days. She's looking out the window and she's
convinced we're definitely going off course. He wouldn't let her,
you know, have access to any of any of the
navigation stuff. And again, I'm a man of the land.
(15:18):
I don't know like how one can make one's own compass,
but she does. She figures it out and she proves
it to the scrambled eggs. Captain Hey, we're headed in
the wrong direction and it works. He commands her back
in charge. Marian gets the starting job back in place,
Keeler gets locked up again, and then Captain Patten slips
back into a coma. He's deaf and blind. We won't
(15:39):
hear from him again. But here's the best part. Are
you ready? As it turns out, mutiny Boy William Keeler
the last minute replacement. He wasn't simply an incompetent asshole
Chad and Simon. He was throwing the fight he'd bet
he'd bet on the other ship. He was intentionally fucking
with Neptune's car, his own vessel because he was point
(16:02):
shaving on the high seas.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
That is crazy.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
So now Marianne is incredibly pissed, just like my wife
was the entire time. She was six months pregnant and
they just start hauling ass north. She's totally exhausted. She
ends up wearing the same clothes for two months straight.
And when she finally steers them into San Francisco Bay,
mutiny Boy William Keeler gets a crew man to unchain
him and he slips out and he jumps overboard and
(16:29):
swims away, never to be heard from again. And in
the most Cleveland Browns ending of this entire thing, when
they finally arrive in port after surviving these unimaginable hardships,
the terrible weather, the brutal conditions, the blind deaf captain,
the nautical point shaving, they get off the ship and
they go, hey, hey, do we win? Do we beat
(16:49):
the other four ships? They finished second Chad, their owners
lose their bat on a truly terrible beat, and lucky
for them, lucky for the Browns, they get to refuse
to pay Captain Patten the five thousand dollars they hel
him because he was basically dead half the time, and
they don't have to pay Mary Patten anything because she
doesn't even work for him. So, like I said, the
(17:10):
perfect ending for a Cleveland Browns allegory. And that is
the story of Neptune's car Maryann Patten, the first woman
to command an American ship, and the hero of an
epic historical bad beat.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
I can't believe that. It's a beautiful story and excellent
work researching it. I know it was a labor of
love for you. I'm just so disappointed that there were
nefarious deeds taking place with related to gambling in the
nineteenth century. Yeah, when it came to ship captaining, those
(17:45):
people all seemed pretty much and I say this pun
intended above board?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Wow did you when did you think of that? Right
after I said nefarious? Incredible, well done to put a
bow on this. What happens to them? Afterwards? Marianne and
Captain Patten returned to Boston finally put him in an asylum.
He dies shortly thereafter. She gives birth successfully, and then
she also gets sick and dies four years later at
(18:12):
the age of twenty four. And now the hospital at
the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kingsport, New York is
named after her. And that's the end of that.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Wow, how did you find this story?
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Ched? I was able to do exhaustive research. I've always
got my ears to the gambling streets. Those ears stretch
back hundreds of years.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Ched.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
But one of the best sources for many gambling stories,
which I absolutely love, which I will quote many times from,
is Roll the Bones The History of Gambling, an absolutely
incredible book by David G. Schwartz. This is a totally
unpaid plug. I've read this book four times. It's not
a new book, but Roll the Bones. If you know
(18:53):
someone is that is literate, like a good first mate,
and likes gambling, it's a great book.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
I highly recommend that Matt. I know David Schwartz. I
know Roll the Bones because I've interviewed David Schwartz many,
many times. He's a sort of gambling historian and professor
at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Oh, I've read the book. Check at Chad. I'm glad
that you too have such a cozy relationship.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
That's wow. Well listen, if you made it this far
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do we have your second story?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Yes, this is the story of Andrew Jackson, a breathed
glimpse into one of America's most maniac gambling presidents. So
in this story, I'm going to be using some dollar figures,
and instead of just saying a number like fifteen hundred dollars,
I'm just gonna say the amount of money in today's money,
(21:50):
so that we can just be kind of singing off
the same sheet of music here. So just kind of
keep that in mind, all right. So, in the early
eighteen hundreds, America was rapidly banding westward, and it was
a time of a great excitement on the American frontier
because I can't overstate how unbelievably boring life on the
frontier really was. I can totally see why if you're,
(22:13):
you know, just trying to chop a tree down or whatever,
you know, skin a beaver, playing cards would be just
about the most exciting thing in the whole world.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
I feel like anybody listening to this podcast has a
very clear idea of what that journey was like.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Everyone here is can really picture that. So politicians of
that era, especially frontier politicians, they loved to gamble. Many
of them were incredibly skilled players, for example Henry Clay
of Kentucky, Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. These guys were real
card sharks. But this story is going to focus on
their great political adversary in one of America's all time
(22:47):
sons of bitches, Old Hickory himself, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee.
Jackson loved the Ponies because he was an incredibly skillful writer.
And why was he skillful? Well, he was born in
seventeen sixty seven to Scott's Irish parents. And if you
know anything about the Scots or the Irish, you know
they hate the English, isn't that right? Simon facts When
(23:11):
young Andrew Jackson was a kid with a burning hatred
for the English he'd received from his parents. He served
as a messenger for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War,
and he was dope at it because it required a
lot of bravery, but the kind of bravery where you
don't consider kind of personal consequences, exactly like being a gambler.
(23:31):
You also have to be a great writer, and Jackson
was indeed a great writer. He ended up getting captured
and imprisoned by the British at the age of twelve. Truly,
ride or Die literally and spoiler alert, America wins the
Revolutionary War, and by the time Jackson was thirty eight
years old, he was a major general in the Tennessee Militia.
He was a US representative. He'd already gotten rich and
(23:53):
then almost bankrupt, and rich again and bankrupt again. But
by the time Tennessee gained statehood he was a pretty
big deal. He already owned several race horses, and one
that he particularly loved was a horse called Indian Queen,
and Jackson challenged his neighbor, a guy with the incredible
name of Lazarus Cotton, and Lazarus Cotton owned greyhound the
(24:15):
fastest horse in the South, and they had a big
race with multiple heats, and Greyhound absolutely whips Indian Queen's
ass and Jackson is deeply embarrassed. So Jackson is determined
to be Greyhound and he knows a horse that can
do it. The horse is called Truxton, and that presents
two problems. The first is obviously that he doesn't own Truxton,
(24:38):
and the second problem is that Truxton had just raced
Greyhound and had lost. But luckily, problem number two kind
of solves problem number one because the loss of Truxton
to Greyhound had basically bankrupted his owner. So Andrew Jackson
slides up and he offers this guy a hell of
a deal. He says, listen, bro, if you let me
borrow Truxton, I will pay off debts, I'll get you
(25:00):
out of your jam, and I'm gonna train Truxton to
run a big race. And if he wins that race,
dex ball, I get to buy Truckston for forty grand
and I'll give you five other horses. And the guy says,
all right, you said up a bit, you got yourself
a deal. So now Andrew Jackson has his dream horse,
trucks him, and he reaches out to his neighbor, Lazarus
(25:21):
Cotton again and he says, let's run a back. Baby says,
I just bought Truxton, the one year horse just beat.
But there's a new trainer in town. That's me. So he,
Jackson and Coddon agree to a race. But Jackson says,
this time, I'm all in, and I remember he just
paid off this guy's debts. It's a little strapped for cash.
So like, what is all in for a thirty eight
(25:42):
year old Andrew Jackson? What's that look like? Well, in
like a cash and prizes sense, like in a price
is right showcase showdown value? It was one hundred and
forty thousand dollars today's money. One hundred thousand of that
was in cash and another forty thousand in Jackson's clothes.
Valued that another forty grand. Wow, talk about a closed horse,
(26:04):
good Boomer vernacular. Incredible.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Just to do what I can do, what I can
to contribute.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Here, Absolutely huge wager. He's betting the closed off his
back and back. Then, Chad, no odds, this is just
straight up He's just gonna bet him a one hundred
and forty grand straight up great baller. Now it's set,
Jackson has to start training truckst and he does so
like an absolute savage. He tells people he's gonna run
the horse incredibly hard, to instill a will to win
(26:33):
in this animal, just like classic maniac stuff. And everyone thinks, Okay,
Jackson's killing this horse. There's no way he's gonna win
this race. The horse already fucking lost to Greyhound already.
So when race day comes to Nashville, everybody rolls up.
It's an unbelievably exciting enterprise here in an incredibly boring
place and incredibly boring part of American history. So this
(26:56):
is the most exciting thing that's like ever happened ever.
Report from this race says that gambling there is absolutely
out of control. There's a congressman in attendance who says
multiple people are betting their entire properties, like six hundred
plus acre properties. People are going full Jackson. They're betting
all their clothes. You watch a guy take off his
riding gloves and just bet the guy next to him,
(27:18):
Like everybody has got gambling fever for this giant race.
Even the jockey that Jackson hires, he bets his entire
net worth on himself. He even uses horses he doesn't
even own to make more bets. And then finally Chad,
they're gonna do the race. It's the eighteen to oh
five version of Muhammad Ali versus Joe Fraser. It's Truxton
(27:39):
Greyhound two. This one's for all the clothes and Truxton
absolutely crushes Greyhound, huge win. Jackson wins a shitload of money.
The old owner of Truxton he gets his prize money.
Both men are totally bailed out. The jockey doubles his
net worth. Believable. Andrew Jackson just a total gambling maniac.
(28:03):
And you could kind of picture the equivalent of a
guy like this today, fun little bonus nugget. Twenty years
after this race, Andrew Jackson runs for president and he's
running against John Quincy Adams. It's a classic matchup. You
got a Southern maniac versus a pedigreed Northeastern fancy boy.
(28:24):
I wonder who you would be. And Jackson wins the
popular vote, but it's too close to call, so the
election goes to the House of Representatives and John Quincy
Adams takes the White House. Jackson's furious about it, and
he blames his old adversary, the card shark Henry Clay.
He thinks they broke it, some kind of crooked deal.
Stop the steal. All very familiar stuff does. But during
(28:47):
the election, Jackson had painted John Quincy Adams as this
pansy boy, right, this pansy puritan. But after entering the
White House, John Quincy Adams is like, oh shit, I'm
gonna have to talk to like a lot of foreign dignitaries.
I gotta find something for them to do. They all
love billiards, Europeans love playing pool. So Adams gets an
old pool table and he has it refurbished, and he
(29:08):
buys the sticks and the balls and all that shit,
like some you know, midwestern dad redoing his reck room,
except it's the White House. When Andrew Jackson, who just
lost the election to him, he hears about this, He's like,
oh my god, yes, I'm gonna fucking bury this guy
for this, and he manufactures an entire scandal, saying he
can't believe the president would use tax money for quote,
(29:31):
gaming tables and gambling equipment, and says betting inside the
White House would quote shock and alarm the religious and
moral part of this country, and John Quincy Adams is like, bro,
what the fuck are you talking about? I bought the
table with my own money and I'm not even using
it to bet. It's just like bullshit with ambassadors. And
(29:51):
obviously they call out that Jackson is a known enormous
maniac gambler and loves betting on cards and horses and
cock fights and anything else. Jackson had challenged the dude
to a duel over a canceled horse race. He got
shot in the chest in that duel and still killed
the other guy. Like not a kind of guy you're
gonna take a lot of shit about gambling from. But
(30:12):
it didn't matter. Scandal totally works. The next election is
a rematch Adams Jackson's full of dirty tricks and all
sorts of bullshit, but just like Truxton Greyhound two, this
one's for all the clothes. Jackson, as a maniac, beats
Adams wins the presidency, and to end the story, when
Jackson goes to DC, he immediately strong arms Congress. He
(30:34):
makes them renovate the White House stables so he can
bring all of his famous horses with him, And that
is just a glimpse into the Life a President Andrew Jackson,
American gambling psychopath.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
What do you think of that one? Simon?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Honestly, not shocking, because if you do go through American history,
all these presidents have had pretty wild lives, right, And
I didn't know all that about him and horse racing.
Though I knew he was a gambler, I never knew
was all horse and so pretty cool, pretty cool story.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Honestly, I gotta say I like the second one better.
The second one, well, I had no idea. Yeah, a
little more connected to the gambling, but I had no
idea that he made that much money from bedding horses
and that he was that much of an accomplished writer.
That's actually incredibly cool? Is that? Also from David Schwartz's
(31:23):
book You want to repeat where you got this stuff?
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Roll the Bones The History of Gambling. Wonderful book by
David Schwartz. Other sources include the Smithsonian, Rejectedprincesses dot Com, Wikipedia,
a host of other books, spent a great.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Times, the Better Collective VPN. Let you get to Rejected
Princesses dot com.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Hey, Farrest fair, you always credit your sources. Chat, I
can't be some fly by night a best selling author
like yourself. You know, okay, just now you listen.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Nobody wants hat tips and credit sourcing more than I do.
I think we all have to be diligent when it
comes to that. Matt, I credit you for being the
ultimate source for these incredible gambling stories. You know what
I say? At every show feedback as a gift, I
got to get feedback from people on what they thought
(32:12):
of this episode and these stories because I found them
charming and fascinating. I have no idea if anyone else did,
and I'm very curious to know if this is something
people are going to want repeated. So by all means
you must, must, must send the feedback, send it directly
to Matt Podcasts podcasts That's at the End podcasts at
(32:34):
actionnetwork dot com. That's Awesome as a reminder of the
favorite podcast is presented by Bet three six five and
now new Bet three six five. Customers get one hundred
and fifty dollars in bonus bets when you bet five dollars.
Sign up using promo code Favorites to pousit ten dollars,
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be used on spreads, totals, player props, futures, and more.
(32:54):
Whatever the moment, It's never ordinary. At bet three six five.
Must be twenty one or older and present in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana,
North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia or eighteen and
oldern Kentucky. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler or
one eight hundred bets off in Iowa terms. Conditions restrictions apply.
Simon and I will return with our next episode of
(33:15):
The Favorites on the Action Network. You two page Tuesday,
one thirty pm Eastern, Download us from Spotify, Apple Pods
wherever you get your pods, rate review, subscribe, leave us
five stars, say whatever you want. As I said, feedback
is a gift until next time. Love you. Action Network
(33:38):
reminds you please gamble responsibly. If you or someone you
care about has a gambling problem, help is available twenty
four to seven at one eight hundred gambler
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