Well, This Was a First

Saturday evening, I met a few friends out for dinner/drinks while I was back in my hometown in Minnesota for Thanksgiving. We ended up at a bar around 11 p.m. playing electronic pull tabs (Minnesota's bar-friendly form of gambling).

I've never won money from anything other than Texas Hold 'Em, so I had little interest in playing pull tabs, but both of my friends wanted to throw $20 each into a machine so I followed suit.

Because this establishment only had two "machines" (tablets), I partnered with my buddy, Cole. I didn't have cash and they can't accept credit card payment for the pull tabs, so Cole spotted me $20 and we started playing.

It was very nondescript for 10+ minutes; win $2, lose $1.50, win $1, lose $2.50, etc. Then we hit a few $5 winners and about 15 minutes into playing, we were up $29 ($69 total). I told Cole we should close out and he agreed.

Then Cole made a last-second decision to play one more game. If you've played slots or pull tabs, you know how this usually ends.

Cole was having too much fun losing money, so I decided to turn to my other friend, Tyler, who had already blown his $20. We're talking sports and all of a sudden, Cole GRABS AND PUNCHES me in the arm in excitement screaming, "JEFF! JEFF! JEFF!" I look at the tablet to see the word BONUS and the number $150!

Yes, we had just won $150! But it wasn't over as we had FOUR more bonus spins; $150, $150, $80, $50!!!!!! Yes, we had just racked up $580 in addition to the $54 we were at before this insane bonus for a Grand Total of $634.80!

Of course, Cole and I split the winnings.