off to google...
from 2005 New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/05/30/050530fa_fact_bruck?currentPage=2The moment the car stopped at McCain’s hotel in downtown New Orleans, he set out at his usual fast clip for Harrah’s, across the street. McCain is an avid gambler. Wes Gullett, a close friend who worked for McCain for years, told me that they used to play craps in Las Vegas in fourteen-hour stints, standing at the tables from 10 a.m. to midnight. “Craps is addictive,” McCain remarked, and he headed for the fifteen-dollar-minimum-bet tables. At the most obvious level, the game is incredibly simple—players rotate turns throwing the dice, and you either win or lose depending on what number comes up. But McCain’s betting formula makes it much more complicated. “Uh-oh!” he cried, as a player accidentally threw the dice off the table. “This is a very, very superstitious game,” he said. When his turn came to throw the dice, he picked them up and blew on them first. He had placed chips on the number 5, so (envisioning a combination of 2 and 3) he called, “Michael Jordan! Michael Jordan!” A few minutes before, McCain had tried to move closer to the table and another player refused to make room. Now, suddenly, the man swung around, peered at McCain, and exclaimed, “I just realized who you are! Here, take my place.” When McCain demurred, the man went on, “No, you’ve gotta take it! I admire you so much! I wish you all the luck next time!” As he walked off into the crowd, he muttered, “I just wish you’d run the last time, instead of that other guy.”