Casino players love to share their tales of riches. There are enough days that the house comes out on top that big wins are moments to savor.
It seems I started something of an avalanche when I wrote several weeks ago of hitting two $1,200 video poker jackpots within five hands. That led to an outpouring of e-mail and phone calls from video poker players with their own tales of riches.
I shared some of those stories two weeks ago and mentioned that I hadn't heard from slot players. Now I have. A couple of dozen slot players have contacted me to tell me of their own rapid-fire jackpots, including some on back-to-back spins of the reels.
I appreciate the feedback, and regret only that there's not space for everybody's story here. Let's take a look at a few, starting with an e-mail from Robin:
On my birthday two years ago, I was playing the $1 Wheel of Fortune at Hollywood (in Aurora). I was on a Red, White and Blue machine, and I hit the Red, White and Blue 7's for $1600! While I was waiting for the payout, I put $20 in the machine and within two spins I hit the Red, White and Blue 7s again for another $1600!
I also had a day to remember one month later. Also at Hollywood, was playing a $1 Double Double Bonus Poker machine. I hit four Aces with a kicker for $2,000 followed two hands later by a Royal flush for $4,000. I couldn't believe my luck. I decided to leave before noon. That evening I came back with a friend and played the same machine. Through various hands, but not another royal, I left with an additional $8,000 that night on the same machine I had won on in the morning.
Hollywood was also the venue in an e-mail from Mary:
In regards to back-to-back jackpots, my boyfriend won two jackpots within three spins on the Triple Diamond, two-coin low-boy $1 machine at the Hollywood Casino. We asked the attendant if that happened very often, he said very rarely.
E-mail also brought me this note from Pete, a retired Sun-Timesman who is in touch frequently. I've run into Pete several times at Harrah's in Joliet, but his story comes by way of Las Vegas:
I've never had two jackpots in a row, but I did witness it in Las Vegas. I stopped at one of my two favorite video poker venues, the El Cortez downtown. While taking a break, I went to the slot carousel just in back of the poker machines. While I was waiting for a hand-pay on the Red, White and Blue slot, I heard a lady yell out in back of me and saw she had the top jackpot on a Double Diamond. When they paid off and asked her to play the winner off, she hit it again. Never saw that before and haven't since!
Back-to-back Double Diamonds -- now, that's a nice payday. Another back-to-back winner was Joan from North Riverside. Her husband Jack phoned in to tell the story:
We were at the Horseshoe (in Hammond) about two months ago and she was playing the Five Times Pay machine. She hit a 5 with a white 7 and another 5, that was $931. They paid her off, and on her next spin she got a 5, 5 and a red 7. That was $1,100. Two thousand dollars less than five minutes apart, on back-to-back spins.
But the best story of all came by good old snail mail. Karen from Evanston wrote to tell of a big day on a progressive machine:
My two sisters and I go to Las Vegas every year. We go to a couple of shows, we go out to dinner, but mostly we play the slots. They were off playing Wheel of Fortune, but I had settled into a dollar Wild Cherry progressive. I was doing okay. In about half an hour, I'd won a little, lost a little and was down about $ 50 when it happened. Wild Cherry, Wild Cherry, Wild Cherry. I couldn't believe it.
The most I'd ever won at once was $1,000, and here was a progressive worth $12,841.
It took a while to get paid. They had to take my ID and write down my Social Security number. They asked if I wanted cash, a check or a combination. I took $2,000 in cash, and the rest in a check. Finally, after about 20 minutes, they reset the jackpot at $5,000 and asked me to play the winning combination off the reels. Guess what? Wild Cherry, Wild Cherry, Wild Cherry.
I about fainted. I still almost faint when I think of it.
