What is the best mistake you ever made gambling?

Back in October, I hit the wrong button and started playing Double Double Bonus, instead of my usual Bonus Poker.

The second hand in, I hit aces with a kicker.

It's gambling and sometimes the odds are ever in your favor.

I've had bad luck too, like mistaking a dollar machine with my favorite goofy game, Gems Wild Tiles, for the penny version and losing $20 in one spin. I can deal with losing $20, but hitting for $500 early in a trip was pretty nice, especially with a constrained budget.

 

Well not in Vegas - but one time at Gulfstream Park I accidentally punched in the same long shot trifecta twice. Had my 3 year old with me so he could see the horses, got distracted and didn't realize I already punched it in to the self service machine.

Looked at the tickets as the race was about to start and was pissed... until it hit.

Two $12 tickets cashed in for around $2500. Paid for the rest of the vacation and padded the bankroll for my next Vegas trip.

 

Sorry, what I had originally posted was the WORST mistake I ever made in gambling.

The BEST mistake that I ever made came at Harrahs Lake Tahoe about 35 years ago. We were sitting in the restaurant eating breakfast, and as was our usual custom, playing Keno.

When the Keno runner came, back, she had run my tickets as "special" (higher payout, but also less combinations). She offered to void it, but I kept it anyway.

I normally play 2/3 and 1/6 (for you non Keno players, that's 6 numbers, played as two three numbered tickets, and one 6 number ticket.)

As it turned out, I hit 5/6 on the 6, which meant 3/3 on one of the 3 spots, and 2/3 on the other. The total paid about $1000, which, 35 years ago was a LOT of money.

I made sure that I tipped the Keno runner before we left.

 

Going to Rivers!

 

Literally EXACTLY this happened to me back in December, except it was about ten or twenty hands in, and it was aces no kicker. This was at the Alibi bar at Aria.

As I was playing something felt “off” (which I later concluded that I was getting paid 5 for two pair instead of 10), but I was in rhythm and in conversation with @Astribling at the time so I wasn’t 100% paying attention.

Then I was dealt three aces and was like “hey, this will be a decent payout”, still thinking it was bonus poker and I would get $100 if I drew another ace.

Held them and hit the draw button, BOOM! I was excited for the $100... but it kept on counting up past $100. How can that be? Then Astribling pointed out that I was playing double double bonus. I facepalmed, wondering how in the hell I didn’t notice that.

No complaints at all from me though!

 

I always enter the Boyd Gaming Pick the Pros football contest every week for Mrs. Don and myself. When this happened, Emerald level players got 5 entries each. I enter the selections on a spreadsheet and try to pick 4 or 5 upsets per entry. By using the spreadsheet I can easily highlight the underdogs and scan the columns for duplicity. A number of years ago on Sunday evening I was checking the printed tickets against the results and found two tickets with only one loss. Great, now I have a chance if the Monday night game hits and no one has a perfect entry.

Wait a minute! Why do I have two identical tickets? Well I screwed up and duplicated two entries!

Of course nobody had a perfect ticket and the Monday Night game won. Collected around $580 on each entry.

 

Just a small win.....
I was with my gambling buddy in AC
He always plays the Carnival Wheel ( at some point in the evening ).
It was late.....I was ripped by then.....and I'm laughing at him
cos he's betting the 20 : 1 space.
I'm busy w the cocktail waitress and the wheel hits the 20 : 1
I turn and yell " Hey !,,,great hit !"
He says to me " You hit it too...ya, drunk dummy !"
I had put $10 on it with him !
Nice little win.
BTW.....you should have seen the look of disgust on the Pit Critter's face !
They waited a while to pay us.

 

i was playing at Harrahs Joliet on a spin poker machine and I thought it was 9 lines but it was more. it was $25/hand. on my 3rd spin i realized my money was almost gone. I then hit 4 aces with kicker! got off after they paid me

 

lots of crazy wins

slots...Harrahs New Orleans,I had $20 free play voucher. I walked to high limit and up to a $5 machine $10 max bet, it was a green/orange/blue 7s machine, first spin, max bet, nothing, second spin max bet, $700, cashed out and left

Tables.. more times that I can count, I have walked to the roulette table after getting my ass handed to me, throw $25 on #27 and it hits

 

My first trip as an adult I could only afford to gamble $20. I played 29 straight up and its 4 corners in roulette and hit 29.
Then I bet it again, but accidentally put a different, funny color chip ($5) from my last payout on the 29. It hit again.
This was in '81 when $490 was real money. I ate steak all the way, driving home to Boston.

 

Not my mistake, my wife's. Last year we were playing video poker at one of the bars at South Point. She asked me what she should hold in a hand, I told her, she ignored me, held what she wanted and drew to a royal flush. May be the only time I've ever thanked and congratulated her for ignoring me!

 

Many years ago, when 9 line machines were the thing, most of my local machines were a max bet of 45 coins - nickels or quarters. Come to Vegas, and was playing a Texas Tea machine, where max bet was 180 nickels. So I was using the Repeat Bet button. You guessed it, I accidentally hit Max Bet and played 180 nickels. Well not only did a get a bonus round, I hit 5 oil rigs - never had that happen before. For anyone who hasn't played those, you need a minimum of 3 oil rigs to hit a bonus round.

That bonus round took like 20 minutes to finish, and when I was done I had over $800. So 4 times my normal bet - that mistake turned what I would assume would have been $200 or so, into over $800.

 

Playing VP at Sam's Town on New Years Day this year. I realized three hands in that I was betting $25/hand instead of $1.25 per hand. Hit this and immediately dropped to $.25.

 

Not me but the Mrs.

Don't recall the exact combination of first two blackjack cards, but they were in stand-land (e.g. 17, 18,19) and the Mrs. used the wrong hand signal, a hit vice a stand. The dealer didn't question it before just quickly dealing the third card. She tallied up a 21 against the dealer 20.

Let's not do that again, ok?

 

Playing $25 freeplay at the D the last week in February, I was on an AGS variant of the Buffalo slot machine, and just decided, "F**k it, I'm playing 3 spins at $8.88 a pull and be done with it." First pull, and 7 tigers appear on the screen, and all of a sudden, the machine starts racking up credits. It's so damn loud in there, you could never hear the sound from the machine. Eventually it stopped at $450. So I'll be giving that back with subsequent free play in future viists.

 

First day in Vegas a couple of trips ago. In the Sports Book at Paris and possibly overdid it on the mimosas. Bet $20 across on the 5 horse in the 4th race (I thought) that was a couple races away. Teller thought I meant the current race and punched the ticket accordingly. Didn''t realize my mistake til the race started and I happened to glance at my ticket and like "oh shit". The 5 in this race was 55-1, 0/14. He won by 3 lengths.

 

OMG That was a great Ooopsie! LOL And yeah, I was a bit jealous!!

 

Not cashing out a ticket and going to the ladies room in the HL at Bally’s and set the ticket, my players card and my purse on the stool they used to have in there. Picked my purse up and left, went back 5 minutes later and my players card was there but not my $150 ticket. Don’t make that mistake anymore!

 

While at the Times Square bar at NYNY in Sept. 2016, I was playing a bit for my beer. Soon after, to take a break from playing and help the forum, I look at the bartop paytables. I finish that and go back to playing. Hit the max bet button an the game freezes and only bets four. I'm now on the $5 level. Shit. So i do the logical thing, insert more money, and bet 5 credits.

One more Ace would have been my first handpay...

 

Glad you got a good 5 Derrick Bonus. Mine, which I hit on my first night in Vegas ever with M at the old IP, was only in the bottom 4% percentile. And yielded only $9 for a 9 nickel bet. So that would have only been $180 at a 180 nickel bet. I was so pissed after that. You hit a pretty good one. Max payout is 945x line bet, so the best you could have done was $945 (1 in 56 odds for $945).