Once in awhile, a mistake turns out well
BY JOHN GROCHOWSKI casinoanswerman@ casinoanswerman.com
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One of my standard warnings to players is to never overbet your bankroll. If you bet too large a percentage of your budget for the day’s entertainment on each bet, the usual result is that you’ll be heading home early, or worse, digging for extra funds.
Every so often, though, a player will bet too much by accident. That’s what happened to Jenny, a reader who emailed to say she got a big surprise when she sat down to play Multi-Strike Poker.
“I don’t play it all the time, because the maximum bet is 20 coins,” she wrote. “On a quarter machine, that’s $5, just like playing a dollar one-hand game. But sometimes, when I’m doing good, I play Multi-Strike.
“I’d won a little on some other games, so I still had my whole bankroll, and figured I could play $100 worth on Multi-Strike, and I chose the Bonus Poker game. I put a $100 bill in, and hit max bet, like I always do. I was shocked to see the credit meter go down to $75.”
The machine was set up for a 100-credit bet, and Jenny hadn’t noticed.
On Multi-Strike, there are four possible hands. A winner or free ride on hand No. 1 earns you a second hand worth double the first, then the player can qualify for hands at four times and eight times payoffs.
Jenny got a free ride, then two pairs. She said that got her full bet back.
“ I breathed a sigh of relief,” she wrote. “The third hand they multiply by 4, and I got a pair of Queens there, so that was another 100, so now I was going to make a profit.
“You’ll never guess what happened on the fourth hand. I held a pair of 8s, then I drew the other two. Four of a kind! My total for the whole hand was $1,300!”
Players draw four of a kind about once per 420 hands. Factor in that you only get to hand No. 4 about once per eight trials in Multi-Strike, and Jenny was very fortunate good money came after a bad bet.
“I won’t make that mistake again,” she said “but I’m happy I did it that once.”
John Grochowski is a local free-lance writer. Look for him on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/7lzdt44); Twitter (@GrochowskiJ) and at casinoanswerman.com.