I've got the blues right now. I haven't played video poker for a week and I think I've got the bends! I've just got this thing for video poker. In fact, I remember driving across town once with just $7 in cash to play the nickel machines at the Gold Dust West in Reno one night.
It was a day before payday and the Gold Dust had a special room (special is too nice a word, really) where you were rewarded with two cans of soda for a full-house and a six-pack for any four-of-a-kind.
The machines in that little room with the water-stained, drop-down ceiling and the mangy rug were all Jacks-or-Better. I didn't care. All I wanted to do was go in the little hallway and get a candy bar from the vending machine and then hide in the corner playing my machine.
Hide I did, with my measly six-dollars and fifty cents to gamble with. I hid there for about ten minutes until I finally hit a full-house and got two cans of Pepsi.
I had to wait until the attendant verified the hit and handed me the cans and it seemed like forever, the longest two minutes of my life. Then, I was off to the races again in a couple of minutes with a four-of-a-kind and then another full-house. The machines were 9/6 payoff and eventually I had plenty of credits to play on.
By the end of the night I had cashed out $10 in nickels and a porter wheeled four cases of soda and four cases of water to the trunk of my car. I was set for a month.
That may not seem like a big evening, but when you've only got $7 to your name, it's the bomb.
Nowadays I hear the Gold Dust West is very nice inside. I'm not sure anybody does a soda giveaway anymore,but now I prefer Triple Play. And, I almost always go to the Double Double Bonus game. Anybody still play Jacks or Better?
