Lucky Quarters

Cousin Abe is a dealer at Bay 101. He's a really nice guy, Etheopian if I'm not mistaken, who for some reason refers to everyone as "cousin." He also is a dead ringer for Obama. Many moons ago I was at his table and was let into the family just after Stockton Thunder and Cousin Abe became cousins. Since that fateful day, every time I see Abe the greeting is the same "Cousin!" "Cousin!" and so forth and so such.

So one day a couple of months ago Cousin Abe walks past my table with his tray and for some reason I have a couple of quarters in my hand that I'm trying to put in my pocket. He says something funny and nonsensical and basically asks me for a quarter. I figure what the heck, Cousin is a nice guy, and so I give him a quarter. He says "Thanks Cuz!" and walks off. Later that day as he's dealing to my table he tells me "That was a lucky quarter Cousin!" Turns out he used it to play Ms. Pacman and set his own personal high score. Since then nearly every time Cousin Abe sees me he's asked if I have any lucky quarters and, if I do, I give him one. Once I even gave him a quarter and a penny, to which he responded "I'll put this one in my checking, this one in my savings!"

Fast-forward to a few weeks ago and Cousin Abe is sitting at my 20/40 table making a little gambool. He raises on the button and I defend with Q5 suited or some such similar piece of cheese (Cousin Abe has been known to take some liberties on his button, especially with a member of the family in the big blind). We're heads up and the dealer puts down the flop, which is a king-high rainbow with one of my suits. I check and look at Cousin disapprovingly as he's about to bet. "You got a quarter Cuz?" he asks? I dig into my pocket and quickly toss him a quarter. He checks. The turn brings me no help whatsoever, and again I check, digging into my pocket for another quarter. Cousin Abe pauses and I toss him over the second quarter. He picks it up and says "Well, I can't argue with this" and checks. The river is a beautifully hilarious queen. I check, and Cousin Abe looks at me confused. "Got any more quarters Cousin?" he asks. "Nope" is all I can muster without cracking up. He checks and I table my hand, which is of course good against his Ace Ten.

"That's a lot of quarters Cousin!" Abe cries. "What's that, $90? 360 quarters?"

"That's a lot of Ms. Pacman" is all I can muster as a response as I quickly stack up the $85 pot. A player from the other end of the table chimes in.

"Abe, you're so cheap!" to which Cousin Abe can only respond "That ain't cheap. That's just plain dumb. There's a difference."