Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner (With a Bonus Plate of Corn)

You may recall that Val was the lucky dinner-winner of an unasked-for schooner of corn last week on her Oklahoma visit with The Pony. Corn wasn't the only thing she was lucky with. This casino trip was a WINNING occasion for Val! In fact, the trip was quite profitable. I returned with a profit of over five times the amount of my winning scratcher ticket!

We spent a couple hours in Riverwinds Casino after picking up The Pony for supper on the first night. Saturday, we spent a couple more hours at a casino out of town, before the Goodwilling and lunch. Then we went back to Norman, to Riverwinds, for a little while before supper. I couldn't lose in either of them! Okay. The first night, I DID leave $35 down.

Which is not a big deal to my bankroll, since really it was only $15, because I gave The Pony a twenty. I owed The Pony $15 for a winning scratcher I'd sent him for Valentine's Day. He can't cash them in out in Oklahoma, so I buy back the winners and cash them in here. The first slots we played were The Flintstones. There are two together, and The Pony likes them. I gave him first choice. He came up a loser, but I cashed out $73 from the twenty I'd put in. I had intended to pay The Pony sometime with a $15 ticket cashed out of a slot. But since we were parting ways, I handed him a twenty from my bankroll. Since I could afford to be generous. So that counts as part of the money I was down that first evening.

Anyhoo...I had almost my entire casino bankroll to play on again the next day. Not just the segment I had allotted myself for each session. So I did a little high-rolling. Not by regular gambler standards, but for Hick and my sister the ex-mayor's wife's standards.

This is my new favorite game, but I've only seen it at the Grand Casino, near Shawnee, Oklahoma, where we went Saturday afternoon. I'd been alternating my bets from .60/1.20/1.80, and hit a bonus at the higher bet. It paid me $144.15, when I was only a few dollars down on my original twenty. Not saying I'd only had a few spins. You win some back, bet some more, win some back, etc. Cleopatra had been paying me back, keeping me pretty even, which is why I was fooling around with the betting amount.

Here's the same slot, which I captured in the middle of paying off my bonus. It expands to three screens! This was a $68.85 win on a $1.20 bet. Let the record show that when I get a bonus that pays like these, I cash out that amount, and insert a fresh twenty. So I DON'T BET IT ALL BACK! I still have that fortune in my gambling purse, to cash out as we leave. Hick bets smaller amounts, but he keeps playing until he gets down to nothing.

My new best friend Cleopatra again! She was going through the coin shower paying another bonus. I was afraid I'd miss the final screen, so I caught this summary of my $140.00 win down here in the corner. I don't remember the amount of my bet this time. That red square is just saying the minimum bet on the slot is .60, not necessarily that I was betting that amount.

Anyhoo...I only played a couple other slots at this casino, which were not nearly as generous as Cleo. So I returned to her, and spent the majority of my time there. Nobody caught me taking pictures, either!

Back at Riverwind in Norman on Saturday evening, I tried out some red screen Class II slots. All the slots in the Oklahoma Indian casinos are bingo-based, but the red screens will go crazy sometimes with a win, and give you replays, each more profitable than the previous one.

This was Hot Red Ruby II, a five-line slot. It's a quarter machine, but playing the five lines means it's $1.25 a spin. I didn't even win this on red screens. It was an actual line hit across the top and bottom lines. That's 336 quarters that it paid me. Or $84. I cashed out that ticket immediately!

I had some smaller wins that I cashed out, but didn't warrant risking my Public Enemy status for a photo. One of them was on Spartacus, which is kind of a weird slot I might try to get a picture of another time. I also played something with little devils and pitchforks that The Pony showed me. I don't think I played a BUFFALO game the whole trip! Maybe that's why I came out ahead this time...

I'm sure this is boring if you don't go to casinos. Just sharing my vice with you. Like giving you a virtual sip of my daily 44 oz Diet Coke.

Tomorrow...the casino weirdo tales!