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Weird Conversations

6 August 2023

Perfect strangers play in casinos together all the time. Table games are more social than slots, but slot players have the odd interaction with their neighbors.

Sometimes "odd" is the key word. Most exchanges between players are unremarkable, but once in a blue moon they can get a little strange. Readers have shared their close encounters of the weird kind.

BETH: My mom, my sister and I like to pool our resources. We'll play machines near each other so we can cheer each other on, and at the end of the day, we split up the wins and losses.

We found three seats together in a big row of penny progressives and we were having a good time. We got a bunch of the mini progressives, which aren't a lot of money but at least kept us going.

My sister Jean finally got a major progressive, the next to top one. It wasn't huge money, but it was nice. In fact, I can tell you to the penny. It was $1,138.83, and it got rounded up to $1,139. The big hits stick with you, don't they?

We all yelled and slapped hands and Mom said, "That's almost $400 apiece!" A woman down the road said, "You mean $300." Mom took her seriously and said, "Well, $900 would be $300 each so this is closer to $400."
Then this woman said, "What about my share?" We all just laughed, but she was serious. "Aren't we all splitting in this row?"

Jean told her we were a mom and daughters who pool our money, but she said, "So you're really not going to give me my share?" Then she called over a slot attendant to complain. Last we saw, she was squawking at the attendant. We cashed out and moved to new games. We'd done our winning there, right?

CORMAC: Blackjack table, I was one of four players. After one hand, I heard one of the players mutter, "seven to five." We all looked at each other, including the dealer.

The dealer tried to play it cool and said, "Am I hearing something I shouldn't be hearing?" The player looked startled and said, "Who, me? Was I saying something?" The dealer said, "Seven to five doesn't sound good to these ears," and the player responded, "Oh, sorry, it's nothing important, really."

It sounded like counting cards to me and it must have to the dealer, because he just kind of nodded toward a supervisor. The supervisor came closer, after a few hands of silence, the player said under his breath, "11 to 3."

There were 14 cards in the hand, but the high-low breakdown was nothing like 11-3, and the player wasn't changing bets at all. One of the other players asked, "What is it that you're counting?" Again, the player was startled, and he said, "Sorry. Eleven red cards and three black cards."

I asked, "Does that make a difference," and he said, "No. I just like to know."

I don't know if the supervisor was convinced, but nobody walked him out.

ANNA: At a row of five video poker machines, there was one empty seat, second from the left. I said excuse me to the guy on the left and slid into the empty seat.

The man on the other said, right in the middle, cashed out and said, "Nope." I asked, "Bad luck?" Friendly, I thought. He said, "Girls are always bad luck" and left.

I don't usually get called bad luck on first meeting, but to each his own. I hope he found better luck elsewhere.
John Grochowski

John Grochowski is the best-selling author of The Craps Answer Book, The Slot Machine Answer Book and The Video Poker Answer Book. His weekly column is syndicated to newspapers and Web sites, and he contributes to many of the major magazines and newspapers in the gaming field, including Midwest Gaming and Travel, Slot Manager, Casino Journal, Strictly Slots and Casino Player.

Listen to John Grochowski's "Casino Answer Man" tips Tuesday through Friday at 5:18 p.m. on WLS-AM (890) in Chicago. Look for John Grochowski on Facebook and Twitter @GrochowskiJ.

John Grochowski Websites:

www.casinoanswerman.com

Books by John Grochowski:

Winning Tips for Casino Games

> More Books By John Grochowski

John Grochowski
John Grochowski is the best-selling author of The Craps Answer Book, The Slot Machine Answer Book and The Video Poker Answer Book. His weekly column is syndicated to newspapers and Web sites, and he contributes to many of the major magazines and newspapers in the gaming field, including Midwest Gaming and Travel, Slot Manager, Casino Journal, Strictly Slots and Casino Player.

Listen to John Grochowski's "Casino Answer Man" tips Tuesday through Friday at 5:18 p.m. on WLS-AM (890) in Chicago. Look for John Grochowski on Facebook and Twitter @GrochowskiJ.

John Grochowski Websites:

www.casinoanswerman.com

Books by John Grochowski:

> More Books By John Grochowski