Sunday night, Susan and I went to the casino with our friends Andy and Lea. This was our second trip out to Riverwind. After getting settled in, we headed over to the buffet. I’ve been on a Saturday night ($14.95/person) and now Sunday night ($12.95/person), and haven’t been impressed either time. I don’t think they have as many items to choose from as I first thought — everything is just spread out further than most places. I’m pretty sure Fire Mountain, Golden Coral and even Hometown Buffet are all better buffets. Riverwind also has a Mexican Restaurant and a fast food court. If we’re hungry next time we go, we’ll try one of those instead.
Unlike the first time I went, the slots were not good to me this time. $20 here, $20 there … in a short amount of time I was down around $50 from quarter slot machines. Andy and I found the girls playing Blackjack at the $2 minimum poker table, so we joined them there. After losing the final $20 from the $100 I took to the casino, I went to the ATM to get another $100 (to win back my original $100, of course!). I’d bet $5 and lose it, then double my next bet to $10 and lose that one too. It was amazing, with six people at the table playing, the other five would all get face cards and I would get a five or a six. Second round of cards, everyone at the table would be looking at 19s or 20s, and I would have 12 or 13. This must’ve gone on ten hands in a row. When I got down to $25 I bet it all and somehow got a blackjack. I left the table with $60, putting me down $140 for the night.
As we were walking to the cashier’s booth I remembered that I had $30 or so still on my player’s card, so I walked over to a dollar slot machine, inserted the card, and pulled the handle. The wheels spun and stopped on a red seven, a blue seven, and a diamond. All of a sudden, the machine started ringing and flashing. The screen began counting up my winnings. Ten dollars, twenty dollars … it kept counting … thirty dollars … fifty dollars … one hundred dollars … I scanned the machine trying to figure out what I had hit, but I couldn’t find anything that matched! One hundred and fifty dollars … two hundred dollars … two hundred and fifty dollars … my eyes were popping out of my head! Finally, the machine stopped at two hundred and sixty-seven dollars ($270, minus my original $3 bet).
I had been twenty or so steps ahead of everyone. When everyone walked up, the machine was still ringing. I snatched my card out of the machine. Susan was asking, “what did you win?” and I said, “oh, nothing big.” Then I whispered to Andy, “I just won $267 dollars,” and he started laughing. Of course when I finally cashed out, the girls got to see how much I had won too. I felt like I had won a million dollars or something. Andy bought everyone cinnamon rolls from Cinnabun for the trip home.
At the end of the day, everyone came home ahead. Susan, Lea and Andy all went up around $20 each at the blackjack table. Apparently I need to rethink my strategy there.