What's bad turns out good

18 October 2012

By John Grochowski

When things are really going wrong in a casino, the numbers on the credit meters are in free-fall, or our stacks of chips have become stack of chip.

But sometimes something goes wrong that turns out right. You make a mistake, and win anyway. It happens -- though you wouldn’t want to keep making the mistake. But for one brief moment, you’re glad you did.

CAITLIN: “My great mistake was at roulette. The first time I played, my boyfriend and I played together a little bit, then he went to play craps and I stayed at roulette. I had dollar chips, and one of them was on 23, which is how old I was. It won, and I was so excited I didn’t even realize the dealer just put my winnings with my bet on the number and didn’t give them to me. I didn’t know I should pick them up.

“So they just stayed out on the number, and 23 came up again! This time they didn’t pay me in roulette chips. They had to pay in real casino chips. The pit boss came over and supervised the payoff. Everyone was so excited for me. Well, maybe the pit boss wasn’t but the other players were. It was more than $1,200! I went to show my boyfriend, and he couldn’t believe it.”

JENNY: “I like Multi-Strike Poker. I don’t play it all the time, because the maximum bet is 20 coins. On a quarter machine, that’s $5, just like playing a dollar one-hand game. That’s too rich for my blood in regular play, but sometimes, when I’m doing good, I play Multi-Strike.

“I’d won a little on some other games, so I still had my whole bankroll, and figured I could play $100 worth on Multi-Strike, and I chose the Bonus Poker game. I put a $100 bill in, and hit max bet, like I always do. I was shocked to see the credit meter go down to $75. This machine wasn’t set up for a 20-coin maximum bet. It was 100 coins. This one bet was going to cost $25.

“On the bottom hand, I got a free ride, and then on the second hand I got two pairs. Instead of 10 quarters times 2, the payoff was 50 quarters times 2, so I had my 100 coin bet back. The third hand they multiply by 4, and I got a pair of Queens there, so that was another 100, so now I was going to make a profit of at least $25.

“You’ll never guess what happened on the fourth hand. I held a pair of 8s, then I drew the other two. Four of a kind! And instead of 125 coins times 8, like with a 20-coin bet, it was 625 times 8. My total for the whole hand was 5,200 quarters, and that’s $1,300! I got a tax form, but still! I won’t make that mistake again, but I’m happy I did it that once.”

LUTHER: “It was on a Wolf Run video slot. I was playing 2-cent denomination, 40 lines, one coin per line. My wife game over to tell me she’d won a jackpot,” he said. “It was one of those four-progressive games, and it wasn’t huge, a little under $200. But it was a nice win, and we high-fived, and I hugged her, and we made plans to buy a nice dinner. Then I went back to my game.

“Instead of hitting the button for my same bet, I hit the max bet button. I didn’t even notice I was doing it, but instead of betting 80 cents, I was betting $4. Lucky thing I did, too, because I won the free spins, and everything was based on the bigger bet. I didn’t get rich or anything, but I won a couple of hundred dollars myself. We were hundred-aires!”

TREV: “Early morning blackjack, my eyes were barely open and I was waiting for the waitress to bring coffee. I had an 8 face up and a 4 down, and the dealer had a 5 up. In my early morning haze, I read it as if I had the 5 up and the dealer had the 8, so I hit. I drew a 9, and THEN it dawned on me what I’d done. I’d hit 12 against a 5, and turned it into 21. Not only that, the dealer had a 7 down. So my 9 would have given her 21. Instead, she drew a 4, then an 8 and busted.

“One of the other guys at the table still was mad that I’d hit the 12, but I pointed out that he’d have lost the hand if I hadn’t. I explained what happened, and everybody else made a joke of it, pointing out who had which cards for the next couple of hands. They were happy to have won that one.”

Look for John Grochowski on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/7lzdt44); Twitter (@GrochowskiJ) and at casinoanswerman.com.