I am a super big plan-ahead person - I find that this is usually the way to do most everything more frugally.   However, last Saturday we did something rare for us, a spur-of-the-moment casino trip, to Laughlin for a couple of days. Why? Well, I had been going through my files and found Brad had an offer from Harrah’s for up to four free nights and $300 in cash and it would expire at the end of May. Plus we needed to put at least one point on each our Harrah’s cards so the points we had banked on them would not expire. Of course we could have done that in Vegas, but I felt the need for a rest from my computer and the only way I get that is to leave it at home while we take a trip!   I first called the reservation number on the mailed offer but I was not surprised when they told me that the hotel was sold out for this busy Saturday night. So then I called a host, one I did not know but he had been sending us e-mails for months and months encouraging us with all kinds of offers to come down and visit. (I think he was looking at our last play there a couple of years ago when we had one of the most disastrous weekends in our gambling history – a loss of about $20,000 on a great play we made a special trip for because it was on a 100%+ machine!) So seeing we might be big fish, plus Brad’s 7 Star status, he found us a room in the “sold-out” casino. (Another reason for having a good relationship with a host since they have access to rooms held back for good last-minute customers.)   So we drove down Saturday evening and stayed until Monday noon and had a relaxing time. Did we get our $20,000 back?    People are always asking us about particular plays we do and whether we won or lost doing them. I almost never will answer that question with a specific number or even a general “we won” or “we lost.” We always play when we have an advantage and sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. However, the results of just one session of play “doesn’t matter” to us.    Of course it is more “fun” to have a winning session or winning trip. But playing with an advantage doesn’t mean you will win every time. In fact, in video poker, where so much of your win is dependent on getting the rare royal or other big jackpot, you will actually have more losing sessions than winning ones. Our goal is to win in the “long term,” and we play enough that our personal “long term” is about one year or less, and we have achieved that goal for the last 17 years.   We say that life is just one long video poker session. That helps us survive the inevitable losing streaks! 

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