Years ago, Sam\u2019s Town in Las Vegas had one $5 8\/5 Bonus Poker progressive machine slightly to the right of the cashier on the main floor. On Thursdays they had a \u201cYoung at Heart\u201d day where seniors would get benefits. I don\u2019t remember what all was involved. Maybe a point multiplier and half-price meals, but I\u2019m sure there was a senior drawing in the afternoon where your play on that day earned you drawing tickets. Ten seniors earned $500 apiece in the drawing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Playing on a $5 machine for two or three hours usually meant I would be called in the drawing. The vast majority of seniors played for smaller stakes — including quarter Full Pay Deuces Wild — and few seniors earned nearly as many drawing tickets as I did. On occasion, one of the other seniors would come up to me and tell me in no uncertain terms that it was unfair of me to play the $5 machine on Thursdays. \u201cThe rest of us can\u2019t compete with that. Go back to the Strip where you belong!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I didn\u2019t argue with these players. I just listened to what they had to say. I understood the point, and there was the possibility that these same complainers would talk to casino management about my \u201cunfair\u201d presence. Since I was a winning player there, enough complaints and the casino might be motivated to \u201cfix the problem\u201d by removing the machine or removing my welcome. Neither of these solutions appealed to me. So, whenever I was drawn, I would skip playing for the next week or two. There\u2019s a big difference between winning semi-regularly and winning all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it wasn\u2019t these players who led to the title of today\u2019s blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next to the $5 8\/5 Bonus Poker progressive machine was a $5 8\/5 Double Double Bonus machine. Many times when I was playing on Thursdays, the same guy was playing the DDB machine. This is a 96.8% game when played well — which this guy didn\u2019t. How much he ended up losing, I don\u2019t know, but it must have been a lot. He was always glum — and totally untalkative. His silence may have been due to the fact that he was losing — or he might have just been a quiet guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One day I ended up hitting AAAA4 on my machine. On my machine, where kickers don\u2019t matter, it was worth $2,000. On his machine, it would have been worth $10,000. I was pleased with the result, of course, but gloating would have been insensitive. He was probably losing that day and \u201cneeded\u201d such a hand to catch up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He groaned audibly. Seeing the hand he needed on the machine next door doesn\u2019t affect the odds on his machine, of course, but he seemed devastated. He probably figured that my hand had \u201cused up\u201d the aces with a kicker quota for the day because he cashed out and left the machine, and probably left the casino, before I was even paid. Usually he stayed for the drawing — where he was called with regularity but $500 didn\u2019t come close to what earning the tickets cost him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He skipped the drawing that day, I think. At least, I didn\u2019t see him. He must have been pretty upset. As was often the case when I played there. I got called that week at the drawing. I got enough evil eyes from some of the quarter players — but none from my fellow $5 player who wasn\u2019t around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although I was glad I hit four aces — with or without a meaningless-to-me kicker — I didn\u2019t draw that hand on purpose. As if I could. If I had the power to make aces with a kicker show up on my machine whenever I wanted, I assure you I\u2019d be playing a different game for much higher stakes. But I can\u2019t. Nor can any of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I saw him again three weeks later, we were both playing our usual games. We didn\u2019t discuss what happened \u201clast time.\u201d Or anything else for that matter. He was just his normal sullen self while I quietly played to earn drawing tickets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Years ago, Sam\u2019s Town in Las Vegas had one $5 8\/5 Bonus Poker progressive machine slightly to the right of the cashier on the main floor. On Thursdays they had a \u201cYoung at Heart\u201d day where seniors would get benefits. I don\u2019t remember what all was involved. Maybe a point multiplier and half-price meals, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":843442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[601,558,557],"tags":[561,585],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/spinach-2.png?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":914264,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914263\/revisions\/914264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}