On most Fridays and Saturdays, there is a drawing at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. Entries in these drawings are based on your play beginning at 8:00 p.m. on the preceding Saturday. I try to compete in the drawings at least one week a month — sometimes two. I often play very little for two or three weeks and then very heavily for one or two weeks. This maximizes my chances to collect something from the drawings while still giving me free time for other activities on some Fridays and Saturdays.
The first Friday in October, for example, I was in New Orleans so I didn’t play much the previous week at the Palms. Why earn drawing tickets when you won’t be at the drawing? During the entire second week in October, Bonnie and I were on the NCL Breakaway traveling to and from Bermuda, so I couldn’t play at the Palms even if I wanted to. I plan on playing a lot at the Palms during the last two weeks of October-perhaps $1,000,000 coin-in over that period–to get my “normal” play in and maintain my mailer and other benefits.
In September, the prizes only went five deep at the Palms each of the drawing nights and there was a huge drop-off between the prize for first place and the prizes for 2nd through 5th places. The first place winner had to throw a football through a 16 inch hole in a target from 10 feet, 15 feet, or 20 feet — earning prizes of $3,500, $5,000, or $8,000 respectively for a successful throw. Failure to get the ball through the hole meant a consolation prize of $2,500 regardless of your distance from the target. The 2nd – 5th place winners each got 15% of whatever the first place winner got.
At one of the Friday night drawings, I was called first. I had something like 6,000 drawing entries. There is not a simple relationship between the number of tickets earned and the coin-in required to earn them. It depends on whether you played slots or video poker, the denomination of machine you played, and whether you played during one of the 5x drawing tickets periods. I had among the most entries in the drum, but I know someone else who had more entries than I and wasn’t drawn for any of the top five places! Having a lot of tickets certainly improves your chances of being called, but luck is a factor as well.
Anyway, I got to throw the football. Last year I looked at the promotion and decided that the smartest distance from which to throw was 20 feet. I actually forgot I had written that and decided this time that I was most comfortable trying from 15 feet. I am a little embarrassed that I didn’t remember what I had written a year ago.
I was never very good at throwing a football overhand so I tossed it underhand. I used to be a slow-pitch softball pitcher and so I have (or used to have) quite a bit more control with this technique. I practiced 10 or so throws and announced I was ready. I threw it the best I could and ended up wide left — about a football length away from the hole. Oh well, $2,500 is not too shabby.
A friend told me I should be ashamed of myself for both not being able to throw a football overhand and for missing the target.
Maybe there’s something wrong with me but I’m not ashamed at all. I’m 66 years of age and I long ago came to grips with the fact that I wasn’t a world-class athlete in anything. The fact that other people now know this as well isn’t particularly disturbing to me. I tried my best which was all I could do.
Had I also been called first on one of the other nights, I might have had more fun with it. For example, I could have bounced the first practice throw toward the target and intentionally tossed the second practice throw ten feet too high. And then, after the people in 2nd – 5th place had lost all hope of getting more than the minimum, I would “miraculously” settle down and find the range. It sounds like fun to me — but I didn’t get the chance.
In the drawing that I won, a friend of mine who also had a lot of entries wanted to throw on my behalf if I was chosen first and she was chosen 2nd – 5th. Her claim of expertise was based on the fact that last year she threw the ball from 20 feet and actually got it through the hole. This proved (to her at least) that she would have a better chance at hitting the target this year than I would.
I, however, was not convinced. Perhaps she would succeed 60% of the time and just happened to score well on the one chance she had. Perhaps I would succeed 70% of the time (or maybe only 30% of the time — who knows?) and didn’t make it through when I had my only chance. A sample size of one throw each is hardly proof of anything.
But since she did me a huge favor a while ago, I would probably have allowed her to give it a try had she been chosen that same night (she wasn’t — so by contest rules, she wasn’t eligible to be a replacement thrower.) I would have preferred listening to her deny feeling any shame for missing rather than me explaining to her why I wasn’t ashamed for missing. And if she got it through? GREAT! I’d be delighted to take the bigger prize whether she was largely responsible for it or I was.