Monday, September 13, 2010

And The Winner Is...

by Wilfred Bereswill

My wife and I are still trying to adjust to our new empty nest.  So far we've tried cleaning drawers and cabinents, straightened up the landscaping and now we're stripping wall paper from the one room in the house that is still papered.  On the to-do side of things lies things like, clean the garage (this is mamajor undertaking), do something with our kitchen countertops (that won't cost an arm & a leg), tackle the unfinished side of the basement (more major than the garage.) 

Oh, so what is the title of the blog all about?  As it turns out, one of the local casinos (Ameristar) sent me my ususal mailing with coupons to play a bit of money in the slot machines.  Most times it's a measly $5 a week, but business must be bad and the coupons were for $16 per week for September.  So I got home from work on Thursday night and realized the first coupon expired that night, so I convinced my wife to take a ride in the convertible, use our coupon and come home.  Well, we waked out that evening with $50 we didn't have before, and had some fun to boot.  We planned on returning the next night, Friday, with the second coupon. 

So I'm at work on Friday when I received a text message from a friend asking if we'd like to accompany them to the same casino on Saturday for the buffet and then a little gambling.  Our friends gamble a bit (they have the money for it) and they had plenty of Comps that they were going to use for the meal.  After a call to my wife, and a chat about how coincidental life is, we shifted our return to Ameristar with our coupon to Saturday night.

Well, Friday night, we got a call at almost 11 PM.  It was our friends and my wife was having trouble hearing her.  As it turns out, they were at Harrah's and she won $152,000 on a poker machine.  Yes, that's right, $152,000 and change.  The dinner for the next night at Ameristar was still on and we were going to celebrate their win.

At dinner we heard the details.  the jackpot was for a sequential Royal Flush on a video poker machine.  That's A, K, Q, J, 10 of Spades, IN ORDER. 

So after dinner Linda (my lovely wife) and I went into the casino with $16 coupon in hand ready to win our fortune. Less than 3 minutes later our $16 was gone and we were ready to go.  No fortune.

But wait!

We were feeling pretty good since we just got a free meal and, of course, inspired by the good fortune of our friend.  We trekked off to find that perfect slot...



I slipped in $20 and we never looked back. Two hours later, we cashed out for....





A whopping $109.53

Well, we had fun and we didn't lose, so life is good.

How did you spend your weekend?

8 comments:

Gina said...

You got me beat. I'm not much of a gambler, probably because I'm cursed with ill luck, but I'm glad you seem to be on a streak.

Wilfred Bereswill said...

Well, Gina, I don't think the $100+ is considered a windfall. It's nice to get out of the house and be entertained for awhile without losing too much.

Actually, the whole story is that I was down to less than $10. I was betting $0.40 per spin. On this machine, the "REPEAT BET" and "MAXIMUM BET" buttons were side by side. The Max Bet was $2.00. I accidently hit the Max Bet button which brought me down to $8. I caught it and bet $0.40 on the next spin and hit a $120 jackpot. Had I won on the $2 bet it would have been $600.

We spun a few more times and left with the cash.

Patg said...

I never win, so as far as I'm concerned any 'no cost to me' is good.
But isn't funny how lucky the 'have gots' are? I have an aquaintance who has a successful business, two homes, three cars and a boat. Can just imagine what their 401Ks and/or IRAs are like. Anyway five years ago they won a small jackpot. Two Million.
Patg

Wilfred Bereswill said...

I hear you Pat. The $152,000 jackpot was on a $5 per bet.

It takes money to win money.

Annette said...

Congratulations, Will! The only gambling I'm doing these days involves querying. I'd probably do better at the casino...

Wilfred Bereswill said...

I hear you Annette. As Alan said in "The Hangover," "It's not gambling if you know you're going to win."

Keep querying, Annette.

Ricky Bush said...

My weekend--Friday Night Lights: we're in Texas y'all and ya gotta support high school football. Well, if the son's on the team anyway.
Saturday morning--first round of edits finished and sent back to my editor for RIVER BOTTOM BLUES.
Saturday afternoon--what else: College football. Go Aggies!
Sunday--Watch the Texans whomp the Colts. Yeah, buddy.
Casino would have worked for me, too.

Wilfred Bereswill said...

Hey Ricky. I was amazed at that Texan/Colts game. While I like Payton Manning, I love to watch the powers get it handed to them.

On my side, I'm hoping Sam Bradford leads the re-emmergence of the Rams.