When hearing about my 4K mistake for not giving Brad the Silverton sequential royal coupon, a friend remarked, “With that luck box, you should have sent two coupons with him!” 

And it does seem as if Brad might be the luckiest gambler on the planet. Case in point. A few days ago, while I was getting a massage at the Palms, he was picking up some free play and just killing time. He usually plays the quarter full-pay Deuces Wild progressive when he is just “messing around,” but this day the bank was full. So he played for a little while on 9/6 Jacks or Better. Then a seat opened up on the Deuce bank and he moved there and started playing. However, he temporary forgotten the admonition I often write about, to play slowly at first and remain alert when you change games. So he held a lone Ace, as he would in Jacks or Better but not in a deuce game. 

You guessed it - his usual luck held - and up popped four deuces! 

He was embarrassed - and hoped no would notice the hand while the $250 in credits racked up. But the guy next to him looked over and loudly proclaimed, “You held just an Ace,” so then everyone on the bank came over to look - and question his hold. 

Brad decided to take the comedian tack, hoping that no one would recognize him and say that Jean Scott wouldn’t approve of that hold, “Well, sometimes I like to give the casino a handicap.” 

After the excitement had mercifully died down and Brad had gone on to the next hand, one guy came over and took the seat beside him that had become vacant. “I want to sit beside you, Brad, and see if some of your luck will rub off onto me.” 

What can I say? I worship at the shrine of Skill – but sometimes Luck decides to grab power. And probably the luckiest day of my life was the day Brad fell in love with me!

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The statue of the Queen of KuPon has fallen to the ground and crumbled into dust.  

Actually I had lost this crown some years ago, as I no longer had the energy to chase coupons all over town. But I do try to keep up with the best coupons these days. However, if I miss a matchplay or don’t feel like going out of my way, even for a $25 one, Brad just says that one of the perks of getting old and financially secure is being able to not do what we don’t want to do. 

But this sad story is about my mind slipping a cog: We had received a valuable Silverton coupon book in the mail. I looked over the coupons and pulled out the ones I thought we might use. Brad didn’t look over the booklet – he depends on me telling him when and where he is to use a coupon. So one day last month, I wasn’t feeling well so I sent him to Silverton to play alone, giving him several coupons I thought he might use – hitting natural quads or a taxable, and even the one for $200 if he got lucky and hit a royal. 

I did not send with him the coupon for a sequential royal. I didn’t tell him to wear rubber clogs either, in case he got hit by lightning in the Silverton parking lot. 

Well, you know what happened.  He didn't get hit by lightning in the parking lot, but in the casino, hitting a sequential royal. He didn’t even know about that special coupon – he just handed over his $200 coupon for a royal and was happy for the bonus. Someone came along and saw the sequential and ask him if he had that $4000 coupon. Poor Brad – he didn’t even know about that coupon. He called me up and gave me the sad news. I could have driven quickly to Silverton and brought him the coupon, but he had already given them the $200 coupon and the powers-that-be said it would be too late. They were enforcing the rules very vigorously. 

At first I was really bummed out about my mistake – why didn’t I send him with the whole book? Well, he hates to fill his pockets with heavy stuff and this coupon book was thick. But I really couldn’t think of any excuse that would make me feel better.  

Brad wasn’t as bummed out as I was. He reminded me that at the higher levels we play now, we could (and have done so) lose $4000 in an hour or less on high-denom machines. And then he reminded me that we have had a lot more good luck in our gambling life than bad luck. 

Yes, that is true. Just a few weeks before we had found a good play on a $1 Fifty Play Deuces machine. Although we don’t usually play $250 a hand, we decided to take a short-term shot on it. And Brad was dealt 4 deuces for a nice 50k. 

I think I will give Brad a crown for being the King of Jackpots! 

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I am sorry I overlooked beer and whiskey drinkers by featuring wine imbibers in my last entry.  I have fixed that!

Seriously, that was not a caring statement and it certainly didn't properly convey Brad's super-generous nature.  (Sometimes he reverts to "old school" talk that covers a heart of gold, a la Clint Eastwood in Grand Torino.) 

From here on in Brad will look for down-and-outers on which to shower his generosity!

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Today I did a charitable deed that “cost” me $125. Brad said that this was nice of me and that probably something good would happen to us as a result of it. Brad is big on this bread-upon-the-water thing. He is always very generous but if we are in a losing streak he will look for a down-and-outer who will appreciate a dollar bill – or a five-dollar one if the losing streak has lasted a long time!

Anyway, this evening we were going to the Reba concert at the Orleans, thanks to some tickets given to us by friends, and we had a little time to spare before it started. We don’t play at the Orleans anymore, but I had a $25 matchplay coupon from the newspaper so I stopped by a blackjack table. I was dealt a fourteen against a dealer’s face card and had to risk busting twice with two hits. I was lucky - now I had twenty. Maybe a tie? But, no, the dealer busted and I was $50 richer. I told Brad maybe his bread-upon-the-water idea was working?   (I didn’t figure he meant I would get the whole $125 back.)  

After I cashed in my three green chips, it still wasn’t time to go to the concert, so I told Brad that since he still had a Club Coast card, he ought to put one point on it and get his birthday bonus. And let’s just pick a fun-looking slot machine instead of VP for such a fiddly play.  

 I saw a penny one that said “Quick Hit.” That sounded suitable. Brad put in a five-dollar bill. Should he play max coin? No, that would be 90 pennies – maybe 30 lines but only one penny per line. He played several hands – not much happened – either winning a few pennies or none. We couldn’t even figure out what it took to win. Then it looked like we had a pretty good hit and a bonus screen came up and we had to pick squares until we got 3 matches. Okay we could do that. Then we got a bunch of free plays – just sit and watch the reels go round – that is fun and no risk to our $5 investment. Then suddenly we saw the number 60000 come up. What did that mean? If we ever played this game again – which we wouldn’t - we’d read the Help screen and see what in the heck we were trying to get. 

The woman next to us started clapping and congratulating us on our good hit. We said we didn’t understand the machine so didn’t know what we had won because the credits were still adding up. 

We still didn’t understand the machine but knew how to cash out the ticket for $604.80.

Happy 77th birthday, Brad!    

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