The last week in May, Bonnie and I will spend aboard a railroad traveling through the Canadian Rockies. We’re scheduled to travel east from Vancouver and fly home from Calgary eight days later. Although we will be back in Vegas before you read this, and I may well write about that trip, I’m writing this blog while still in Vegas.
Why that’s important is because more than one of the casinos I frequent had monthly “playups” in May of various sorts, where for so many points during the month, I get certain prizes. One that takes a lot of time is the South Point half-price Chevron or Walmart gift cards, requiring almost $167,000 in coin-in for Bonnie and me combined. And I only have three weeks to get in that play instead of four.
I didn’t have to get it all in. Every $8,334 in coin-in earns a $50 card (up to 10 per person), so I can cash in as much as I’ve played. But it’s a good deal, and I set out to get them all.
On Thursday, May 5, I went to bed early and got up about 2 a.m. I headed off to South Point. My usual video poker games are 9/6 Jacks Five Play Multi Strike and NSU Deuces Wild. There are also a few slots I sometimes play there, depending . . .
My score went up and down, and the majority of my play that day was on Multi Strike. I finished up around 8 a.m., and I was pretty tired. I hadn’t slept that much the night before, and it was more than five hours of concentration. I recorded my score (-$955 for the day) and how many points I put on my card and Bonnie’s. I visited the restroom and then drove towards home.
About 15 minutes later I get a call from Richard Munchkin. He asked me if I’m at the South Point. I told him I left a bit ago.
He said he’d received an email from a player named “Al,” who wasn’t sure it was me who did it, but he thought I had left my player’s card and some money in the Multi Strike machine. Apparently, Al had an email address for Richard, but not for me.
Shit!
This was hardly a disaster. I only had $45 in credits when I finished, and getting a new player card is easily accomplished. Still, this is a sign of something not so good (Forgetfulness at the minimum — letting being tired cause me to lose concentration — possibly dementia? Who knows? But these kinds of things don’t usually happen to me.)
I turned my car around and headed back. I asked Richard to send me the email and I’d try to get in touch with the guy.
There was no money or card in “my” machine, but a man I didn’t recognize was playing on a machine a few spots over. I walked over and asked him if his name was Al. He said yes. When he had seen what I had done, he called the slot attendant over and told him he thought it was Bob Dancer who left it behind. The slot department has the card and ticket somewhere.
I thanked him profusely. I asked if I could buy him a meal or perhaps do something else for him? He declined. He said he’d gotten a lot of value from the podcast and he was happy to return the favor.
I figured out something he couldn’t refuse. Along with a friend, we’ve come up with a computer perfect strategy for 9/6 JoB Multi Strike. I asked him if I could email him a copy. I figure the enhancements improve the strategy on the software by 0.01% or so, not a tremendous improvement, but certainly it’s better. And if you play that game a lot for $25 a hand, it adds up.
Al told me he’d be interested in seeing the “new and improved” strategy. I promised to send it later that day.
I checked some specific slot machines I like, found them in a state I thought was positive, and in the next half hour turned my negative score into a positive one twice as large. To be sure, that’s just positive variance (earlier I was quite a bit in the hole on the same machine), but going home $2,000 ahead instead of almost $1,000 behind felt good.
And it all happened from a Good Samaritan. Many other people would have done the same thing as Al did, but certainly not everybody. Having one of the good guys find my mistake before anybody else did made my day! In my book, that was very good luck!
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Hope you ad the wife enjoy The Rocky Mountaineer Railway trip. Gorgeous scenery. Vancouver and Calgary are also great. As is the exchange rate on dollars right now!
I had a similar situation a few years ago. A semi regular lady was playing UX next to me. She was known for playing various games and leaving many multipliers behind to snap off. When she left, I immediately cashed out of my machine and inserted my TITO into the machine she left. Before I started looking, I noticed the credits were much higher than what I cashed out. Since I hadn’t played a hand yet, it was easy to discern how much she left behind. When I saw her again a few days later, I told her the story and reimbursed her with what she left behind. She was quite thankful as it was a little over $90.
Years ago Southpoint had 5 cent 100 play but it was often hard to get a seat. As I walked toward the machines a local guy jumped up and ran to the front door to leave so I hustled to the open seat. After I fed in my 500 $$ I realized I had 1300$$ in credits. The local forgot to cash out his 800 ticket. I called a lady friend and described him to her because I didn’t know his name. She said she would track him down. He showed up an hour later, he and his wife became good friends after that. It was his lucky day that I took his seat.
Great stories about people who have decency and compassion for total strangers. What a respite from the political hatred and vitriol we are fed on a daily basis. And confirmation that people are basically good and caring and not characterized by all the nasty and hateful labels which are carelessly thrown about.
I’d like to hear more about that “positive slot machine” that produced a gain of about $2,000. I thought that slot machines were NEVER positive expectation, always having lower EV than video poker (except maybe the highest-denom slot machines). What kind of slot machine was it, and just what did you hit that produced the $2K gain?
Al, there are many beatable slots out nowadays. Unfortunately, too many ego driven blowhards can’t keep there mouths (and fingers off the keyboards) shut and not spill the beans on which ones they are and how and when to exploit them.
What goes around comes around.
Last week I walked out of a Walmart holding my bag of around $35 worth of groceries for which I had not paid. I’d used the self-checkout, and I guess my mind wandered, I picked up the bag as soon as I scanned the last item, walked right out of the store. About half way to my car I realized this. GASP! I almost fainted, but literally ran back into the store, straight to the machine I’d checked out from. There an employee was helping another shopper, both trying to figure out why there was an unpaid list of items showing on the machine. I told them it was my stuff and I hadn’t paid for it, showed them what was in my bag (mostly cat food, LOL). The employee said “wow, you are so honest!” and let me finish the transaction. It kinda shook me up that I’d done that.
That night a friend called, wanted me to go with her next day to our new local casino. I hadn’t been to that casino at all, not wanting to lose money before an upcoming Vegas trip. But I was curious to see the place and we’d only be there a few hours due to her having obligations later in the day. So I went, got lucky and walked out more than $1000 ahead. I’ll count it as karma, though I’d never in a million years consider taking anything I hadn’t paid for. And…had we stayed a lot longer I might have played the winnings back in. So it all worked to the good.
Concerning your trip. I had a good friend take a train across country. We lived in San Diego and he had to fly to Louisiana to start. But once on the train it went to the east coast then up north to Canada, all the way to the west of Canada then south to San Diego. He said that Canada was breathtaking. The trip was taken about 40 years ago. Don’t know if it’s still available or how much it would cost.
Years ago, I took a SouthWest flight from BUR to LAS. On the flight, I pulled my wallet to pay for a drink…too lazy to wrestle it into my butt pocket, I placed in between my legs..& forgot about it. I deboarded the plane & caught the shuttle to downstairs when I realized my wallet missing…realizing my mistake…I just stayed on the shuttle retun to where we get off & saw a STEWARDESS I recognized from my flight & told her my concern. She told me they had found a wallet & it was @ the Gate we exited. I went there fast, told the person there my story & looking down on her desk saw my wallet. She asked for proof & I opened my wallet & showed her my ID. That wallet held over $1500 & it was all there still. She wouldn’t even take a compensitory tip from me!! I love SW!!!