wince
On April 30, 2008, I had a good night at the craps table. I started with a couple hundred dollars. I was playing “crapless” craps, which is a little bit different than “normal” craps. In crapless, you can place bets on 2, 3, 11, and 12 and there is no “don’t” betting allowed. I apologize if this is jibberish to any of my readers (I don’t think I have any readers but anywho). The payout on those “extreme outside” numbers (2,3,11,12) is nice. If you bet the 2 or 12 will roll, and it does, you will be paid 6 times the amount of your bet. 3 and 11 pay 3 times the amount of your bet. I had a love affair with the number 12. It was my favorite bet. You put $20 down and when it rolls, you get handed $120. I once had a 12 roll four times in the span of five minutes, upping my bet each time. I’m getting off track. This night, I left the table with $1,600. The next morning before work, I deposited that cash into my checking account. When I got off work, I stopped at an atm and withdrew two hundred dollars and headed back to the casino. I was in a true hot streak. Very quickly I won about $300 at a craps table. I decided to put a $100 of that into a $5 slot machine. (This is referred to as “playing with the house’s money” i.e. you have won it, but have not left the casino yet, and therefore you aren’t counting it as ‘winnings’ yet. oh the lies that gamblers tell themselves..) Within minutes, I hit a jackpot. It looked like this : 7 7 7 Except two of those red sevens were 2x multipliers. $8000. The slot attendant came to pay me and I asked for a $6500 check and the rest in cash. They took out the state’s tax $, but I was left with over a grand cash. I went and found my dad and his wife and gave them both a few hundred dollars “to play with”. I took them to eat at the steakhouse, had a great filet mignon, bought my dad and I expensive scotch. We went back and I blew all the cash I had on me at the craps table. Didn’t matter… I was sitting pretty. That was still the house’s money. The next day I deposited my $6500 check into my checking account. This would have been May 2, 2008. My checking account balance was : $9,987.36. This was more money than I had ever dreamed I would have a hold of in my life to that point. There’s a joke among gamblers for when you win big – Go spend that money as quick as you can, boy, because if you don’t you’re gonna give it all back. I knew this to be true from previous experiences. I went shopping for flat screens, but couldn’t pull the trigger. I told myself I was going to put away a large chunk into a savings account. I actually looked into Certificates of Deposit. I did not buy anything. I did not put any money into savings. I DID make about $1360 worth of payments to my credit cards. My checking account balance on July 14, 2008? $90.49.
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