Goofs and Good Luck

27 November 2022

By John Grochowski

When goofs at games happen, a little luck can go a long way.

In the spring, I wrote about Brady, a Deuces Wild video poker player who had a brain cramp.

He assumed he was playing Deuces, but the player before him had been playing Double Double Bonus and Brady didn't change games. He held a lone 2 -- a DDB no-no -- but lucked out and drew three more 2s for a 400-credit payoff.

Brady's not alone, accidents and errors happen. Sometimes the accidents are happy. Serendipity, you might say, as with two more tales readers have shared.

MONICA: Three girlfriends and I were having a casino morning, just trying out different slot machines. I wasn't even caring what they were. Just anything new, 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there unless something hit. Then I'd stay awhile.
One caught my eye because of a lot of ocean symbols. Star fish, sea turtles, dolphins. I love that stuff.

My friend Patti stopped by and said, "Monica! What are you doing on THAT game?"

I just looked puzzled, I guess, so she said, "It's hold and respin. You told me you would never play hold and respin."

She was right. I NEVER win on hold and respin, so I quit playing them.

I decided we were here, we were trying new things, so I'd try a few more spins.

The game, it turns out was Lightning Link Magic Pearl. I read it after Patti surprised me. On spin I got six pearls, so the spins started. I kept getting more pearls and more spins.

In the end, I had 14 of the 15 spaces covered with pearls, and two of them were 250 credits each. I didn't cover them all and get the big jackpot, and I didn't even get the smaller jackpots. But I did get 1,450 credits and that would keep me going for a while.

I collected and changed games right after that, though. I'm still more comfortable on other kinds of games.


SHARON: I bet you get a lot of these. I still like the three-reel slots, especially Double Diamond. I play a mix of video slots, but if there are three-reel games available, I save time for them.

My last trip, all the quarter games were either in use or shut down. The casino had a lot of games shut down, maybe because the crowds haven't been so big.
They did have dollar Double Diamond, but I don't really like to play $3 max bets. I told myself this one time it was OK to play one credit.

I'd been playing a few minutes and a waitress came over. I asked for a cup of coffee. It was a waitress I knew. She's worked there a long time and she wasn't busy, so we talked for a couple of minutes about our kids and our families.

When I went back, instead of hitting bet one or repeat bet, I just reflexively hit the max bet button. It hit me when I saw the credit meter go down by three instead of by one.

It worked out great, though. The first two Double Diamonds landed fast, bang, bang. Then it seemed like the third reel spun forever. When it stopped, it was on the third Double Diamond! My mistake won the jackpot! Hitting the wrong button won me $2,500.

It wasn't the biggest jackpot I've ever won. That was more than $23,000 on a progressive maybe 15 years ago. The extra two bucks on the bet wasn't going to break me, though betting max consistently would have pushed my budget. But I'll tell you, winning big on a bet I never meant to make was really a thrill.