I won Galaxy Raiders in a poker game. I know, I know — sounds like something a guy makes up. But I got witnesses. It was 1983, at a trade show in Atlantic City. There was this arcade operator from Jersey named Big Lou — everybody called him Big Lou because he was, and I'm being generous here, enormous. Lou ran six arcades across North Jersey and he always had cabinets to move.
We're playing five-card draw in Lou's hotel room. Cheap whiskey, cheaper cigars. The pot's already bigger than it should be. Lou's sitting on what he thinks is an unbeatable hand. He pushes all in and says, "I'll throw in that Galaxy Raiders cabinet sitting in my warehouse." I look at my cards. I look at Lou. I call. Lou flips kings full of tens. Beautiful full house. I flip my flush — ace-high hearts. Lou just stared at the table for about thirty seconds. Didn't say a word.
The cabinet showed up on a flatbed two weeks later. Loudest machine I ever owned. The swooping aliens, the rising pitch when a squadron breaks formation — you could hear it from the parking lot. I never turned the volume down. Not once. When the machine got hot during summer, it smelled like motor oil. Never figured out why. Didn't care. That smell meant the arcade was alive.
Big Lou and I stayed friends. He's a good man. Terrible poker player, but a good man. Every Christmas he calls me up and the first thing out of his mouth is "kings full of tens, Sal." And I say "ace-high flush, Lou." We've been doing that for over forty years now.
THE POT: $340 CASH + 1 GALAXY RAIDERS CABINET BIG LOU (North Jersey): [K♠] [K♥] [10♦] [10♣] [K♦] Full House — Kings full of Tens "Read 'em and weep, Martinez." SAL "PIXEL" MARTINEZ: [A♥] [J♥] [8♥] [5♥] [3♥] Flush — Ace High, Hearts "...I think hearts beats a boat, Lou." RESULT: Cabinet delivered 2 weeks later. Big Lou did not speak for 30 seconds. The whiskey was Jim Beam. The cigars were unforgivable.
"Big Lou still calls me every Christmas to remind me he had kings full of tens. I remind him I had the flush." — Sal "Pixel" Martinez
_____ | _ | | |_| | - Sal "Pixel" Martinez | _ / Galaxy Zone Arcade |_| \_\ Est. 1982