Tales from the Crypt of the Seven Woks

Flushie is wide awake and wants to gamble.

So there I was, wandering around the casino, my last $100 in my pocket. First thing to do was to break it into twenties. I have a habit of blowing through large bills. It's the kind of behavior that makes this blog more entertaining than an IRS instruction form.

I thought perhaps an old school Buffalo machine would be a good choice for the first $20.

Forty cents a spin, can you dig it?

Card in, money in, sit down, hit the spin. My money lasted quite a while, but finally dumped. It was maybe half an hour of play, so I thought I'd put in another twenty.

I hadn't played long when I got hustled. Yep, it can happen anywhere. Just as I get the sense of someone over my left shoulder, some guy taps on that same shoulder.

Funny looking older Asian dude, thin, hair combed back, maybe 5 foot 7.

He asks me, "How much much have you won, not very much, it's no good."

It's true, I'm down to a couple of bucks in the machine. But fuck him.

Then he gestures to the point display above the screen. I'm on high alert at this point, and ready with a left elbow if need be.

He starts to say something else and I cut him off. "I don't have time to talk to you. Go away."

He makes a bunch of mewling non-offense noises and says, "Okay... okay..."

The guy wanders off and next thing I know he's talking to some young guy with a beard and gesturing at his point display.

So I tried to get the attention of somebody - anybody. I put my service light on. I waved madly at a slot attendant. I wanted to let them know that this guy was hustling. The slot attendant never did anything more than talk to her sanitary engineer buddy, and ignored me.

The hustling guy wandered away and I could just see him talking to a third person. Then he was out of sight and I gave up.

It's always something in the casino, isn't it.

Vaguely annoyed and feeling a bit trespassed, a strange thing happened. I started to win on Buffalo.

The lucky tap on the shoulder??? An ancient Asian casino luck genie, come to visit from the crypt of the seven woks?

I won $20. Nice. So I kept playing and playing, and wore that down to almost nothing and I won again. Another $20. Nice.

Then I got on a bonus round. Eight free games. After a few spins, the coins kept coming, retriggering more free games. It was 23 in all by the time I was done.

Holy crap, I'd won around $90. I honestly didn't know one could win real money at this version of the game, which I rarely play.

I played on. And on. And on. A few more bonus rounds came and went, with nothing significant.

Then I got on another beauty. I kept retriggering for more games. Eight, then 13, then three coins for 10 more - 23 games, then 33. The only problem was that there wasn't much in the way of winnings.

Until I hit a really nice spin.

By the time it was over, it was an $83 bonus round.

At that point, I cashed out a ticket, and started with a fresh $20, to protect my winnings.

When it was all over, I'd put in $60 and took out $220. FINALLY, A WIN!

I finished the day off with some Bedrock action.

I had a good long play on Freddy F, and that rounded out my day.

It turned into a pretty good one - I lost just $35 when it was all done. This is somewhat acceptable.

Is my luck turning?

...

The night passed and this morning, I took a quick boo at the casino and of course, tried out The Machine.

By Grommet, it paid out again! Twenty in, play for an hour, fifty out.

I'm actually UP on the day. Where's that Asian genie?! I want to buy him some manners.

And with that, I, and you, am up to date. Are. Is. So what's the savvy plan for today? Well, in a couple of hours I pick up a rental car. I'll probably hit Chinatown for a cheap lunch, and it looks like a coupon run is in order!

Not only that... there's more freeplay to be had at the Nugget. Heh heh.