Josh Axelrod's Gold Watch

By Pauly
San Francisco, CA


A couple of years ago I was at the Bellagio and Shaniac told me I should tell a story at a Moth Storytelling event. They storytelling sessions originated in New York City and had a couple of caveats -- no notes and the story had to be true. Los Angeles hosted a few Moth events from time to time, and back when Shaniac and I both lived in SoCal, we always said we'd hit one up. He told me the insane story he wanted to tell, while I had three or four of my own.

We never got the chance to attend a Moth event -- but I'm hoping we will someday. Live moves on. For different reasons we fled the sunny skies of Southern California and migrated north, and Shaniac crossed the border into the Great White North to continue his career as an online poker pro, while I settled in the foggy Bay Area to move onto the next stage of my writing career.

Last week, I loaded up the latest episode of the Moth podcast featuring Josh Axelrod, the author of Repeat Until Rich: A Professional Card Counter's Chronicle of the Blackjack Wars As a former card counter and poker player, Axelrod's story centers around his degen life as a distraught gambler amidst a horrid losing streak, particularly at the online poker tables.

"There are two things gamblers don't do," said Axelrod, "Get a real job and go to Gambler's Anonymous."

Click here to listen to Josh Axelrod's The Gold Watch.

Learn more about Moth Storytelling.