‘Mattress Mack’ follows $72.6M quest to Philly with wife on mend

Mattress Mack can’t wait to meet Philadelphia’s notorious fans as he continues his quest to win $72.6 million in World Series wagers on the Houston Astros.

Mrs. Mattress Mack can’t wait for the World Series to be over.

Linda McIngvale, who has been married to Houston furniture store owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale for 41 years, has been in the hospital since Thursday with pneumonia and sarcoidosis, a lung disease.

“She’s sick and being stressed out by my gambling all at the same time. But she told me to go help the Astros win,” said McIngvale, 71. “She said she’s much more stressed by sweating these games than she is by pneumonia and sarcoidosis.

“She’s in the hospital, but she’s fine. She’s tough.”

McIngvale is three wins away from turning $10 million in futures bets on the Astros into the biggest win by a gambler in sports betting history.

But he’s not betting in the traditional sense. The wagers — which were placed in May and July at six sportsbooks — are the latest in a series of bets to reduce risk on furniture promotions that refund purchases of $3,000 or more if Houston wins it all.

McIngvale said about 3,000 customers took part in the promotion, including one who bought $64,000 worth of furniture.

“About 3,000 customers and the metro population of 8 million, we’re all sweating it together,” he said.

They barely broke a sweat on the road to the World Series, sweeping the Seattle Mariners 3-0 in the American League Division Series and the New York Yankees 4-0 in the AL Championship Series.

But the Phillies are making them sweat after splitting the first two games in Houston to wrest home-field advantage from the Astros. Games 3, 4 and 5 are scheduled for Philadelphia on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Phillies stunned the Astros in Game 1, erasing a 5-0 deficit against ace Justin Verlander en route to a 6-5 win in 10 innings. Houston evened the series Saturday with a 5-2 victory in Game 2.

“My prediction was the Astros in six,” McIngvale said. “I’m hopeful the Astros will get there. Their big advantage is they’ve been there before and they’ve got incredible pitching.

“We’ll see what happens in Philly. It should be a lot of fun. I’m interested in interacting with the fans. I understand the fans there are very rough, so we’ll see.”

Houston is a -140 favorite over Philadelphia (+118) in Game 3 and -180 to win the World Series at Caesars Sportsbook. The Phillies are +160.

McIngvale’s largest wager is $3 million to win $30 million at Caesars. In a partnership among Caesars, McIngvale and the bedding company Tempur Sealy, they gave away 200 mattresses Friday in Houston to first responders and military veterans and active duty military members.

They’ll also give away 200 mattresses on Monday in Philadelphia and 200 on Tuesday in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.