lpdiver

True...but two submissions back to back seems as if the oods are awfully long.

Matthew Udall

True.

Speaking of odds, while driving to and from Utah for Thanksgiving, it seemed I could not lose when placing a bet or two along the way.

On the way out, I stopped at the Eureka Hotel in Mesquite, NV. They gave me some coupons that I could use in their casino. After watching survivor, I headed over to try my luck.

I found a nickel deuces wild machine, and during my second $1.00 that I fed into the machine, I hit 4 deuces, which paid $50.00. Instead of simply betting more, I hit the "cash out" button so the light on the top of the machine would turn on to let the attendant know to come check this out.

When the attendant arrived, I gave her one of the coupons that gave an additional $10.00 for any "hand payout" on any slot machine, so she ended up giving me $60.00.

Another coupon was a $5.00 matching bet coupon for any table game. I enjoy roulette, so I took their $5.00 coupon and added $5.00 of my own money and put it on the 1st third of the numbers (2 to 1 payout), which hit so they handed me another $20.00 dollars (plus my original $10). I took another coupon, got my free shrimp cocktail, then headed back to my room for some sleep.

On the way back from Utah, I bypassed Vegas (did not stop) and instead went to the state line before stopping for gas and a bet or two.

I put in a $10.00 bet at the sports book for that week's NFL action, then found another nickel deuces wild game. I lost around $10.00 on that machine, and then decided to quit. On my way out, I walked by one of those big spinning wheel games where they have different denomination bills on the wheel. I got 10 silver dollars and proceeded to lose six of them. I took my remaining 4 silver dollars and went to a roulette table.

I like roulette although like all games, the odds are against the player. I placed 2 dollars on my favorite roulette number (29 black) and it hit. So they slid around $75.00 over to me. I put out 2 more dollars, this time putting two dollars on red 5 and 5 hit. Here comes another $75.00 or so payout. I probably dropped around $10.00 before deciding to leave with their money in my pocket.

As I was leaving the casino, I stopped by a craps table just to watch. It’s been years since I played craps and I’ve forgotten most of the finer betting points, but I do recall some of them. I had this urge to throw out a $20.00 bill on the one-roll 11 bet (Yo), but didn’t. Sure enough, the next toss of the dice was an 11, which would have paid 20 to 1.

I saw that as a signal to leave the casino, which I did. I left for Utah with $200.00 in my pocket, and came home with $180.00 of it still there.

I know for a fact that when I drive through Nevada next week to visit family in Utah for Christmas, I probably won’t be so lucky.