Winning Big in Vegas!

[TulasMoreno]

Congrats Debi!! Nice score!! Wish this is the first of a lot more!

 

[korneel]

haha such a great story with so many plottwist
K
I'm happy the story had a happy ending!

 

[Debi]

Congrats...loved hearing a success story from a fellow CCer… question, did you get a tax form, or are you expected to voluntarily declare your winnings? I have only received a tax slip for a tournament poker win (30% withholding...I'm Canadian), or large slot payout. I don't see how the IRS can keep tabs on your table play.

They took my ss# - but did not give me a tax form. I was told by someone they only took it to monitor me for potential money laundering over the next 90 days.

 

[kapobar]

Well done [emoji6]

 

[Viktor Krysko]

Awesome, cool, congratulations, Debi!
good games in the future :icon_thum

 

[Jazzu1988]

Congratulations! Very nice story as i seen few people comment feels i would be there to see all this...
About Black Jack i would say you was lucky so much as - use to play it a lot in Casino and now stopped it 2 year ago. Good only with decant 3-4 people playing with you at table. 2 bet low and 2-3 of you play - also never played 500$ a bet i only did 20$-100$ was 1 out of 5 i go with profit home. so it made me think i must stop it. even best i did was 500 buy in and cash out 4.8k Euro in Italy.

Best Luck for next tournaments.

 

[Debi]

Congratulations! Very nice story as i seen few people comment feels i would be there to see all this...
About Black Jack i would say you was lucky so much as - use to play it a lot in Casino and now stopped it 2 year ago. Good only with decant 3-4 people playing with you at table. 2 bet low and 2-3 of you play - also never played 500$ a bet i only did 20$-100$ was 1 out of 5 i go with profit home. so it made me think i must stop it. even best i did was 500 buy in and cash out 4.8k Euro in Italy.

Best Luck for next tournaments.

That was a nice win!

 

[gardin555]

Awesome and fun history !!

How lucky to have been able to turn those bonds into money in such a short time.

Great adventure!, hopefully you'll be lucky next time too!

Congratulations Debi!

 

[Moshimorov]

Very cool story! Happy for you!

 

[Debi]

Thanks - glad you are all enjoying it!

Giving away another $2k of it lol.

If my brother's doctor approves his travel I am going to send him to the Philippines to meet his girlfriend of 5 years whom he has never met.

I have to stop giving any away after that - the rest goes in my live poker fund!

 

[Navin Sarabjeet]

WOOOWWW
What awesome news...
From zilch to 8 grand
Congratulations on your biggest score

 

[UncleConRon]

My opinion

I glad everything worked out for you. The cardschat experience really helped you out, Staying with your game on game two was a proven veteran move. The day three final table was a pretty good success too. Then came the blackjack wins. From one losing table to a table that rocked. It was nice you tipped and celebrated too.

 

[GordyPoker]

20x $500 dollar vouchers - Brilliant

 

[Entrik]

Congratulations Debi keep it up! I wish you continued success! Good luck

 

[Herkstwin]

Congrats on the big win!
I cannot believe that you had to play the $500 vouchers all at once. Kinda forced you into a level of gaming that it was obviously not too comfortable for you. Lucky for you to have that great support team.

 

[Debi]

Congrats on the big win!
I cannot believe that you had to play the $500 vouchers all at once. Kinda forced you into a level of gaming that it was obviously not too comfortable for you. Lucky for you to have that great support team.

Yes I am fortunate that it worked out so well.

 

[TDTODDY]

Nice. Now all you have to do is wear the same clothes, spin around 3 times and think positive and it will happen again. That's what I do.

 

[kdawg71]

Congratulations Debi, that's dope.

 

[Debi]

Nice. Now all you have to do is wear the same clothes, spin around 3 times and think positive and it will happen again. That's what I do.

Ha ha - had the same clothes on yesterday and all I got was a cold rainy day in London.

Guess I shouldn't complain though - lots of people would love to be in London right now.

 

[P86]

Wow cool trip that s the kind of adventures that make me trip

Way to go Debi

 

[Poker Orifice]

Awesome win on a freeroll! How cool is that? Loved the story

A killer score in a killer freeroll by the Admin. of a killer freeroll forum. (where's killer canuck?)

 

[Debi]

A killer score in a killer freeroll by the Admin. of a killer freeroll forum. (where's killer canuck?)

Lol

 

[Debi]

We paid for my brother’s flight and booked his hotel - he is leaving for the Philippines on Jan 8th!

I am so excited for him and thrilled that we could make this dream come true for him.

All of this from a Freeroll.

 

[FernA9ndo]

Great history of winning a lot with freeroll.
Congratulations DEBI.

 

[Bertie Wooster]

Winning big in Vegas is not easy - I have yet to win really, really big. But I did have a nice score last week and I promised to tell the whole story behind it so here it is!

I go twice a year and we have a timeshare there - but sometimes I like to spend a few nights on the strip. So I always check my Total Rewards account before I book my room - and this time I had an invitation to a free $150k guaranteed poker tournament.

It meant I would have to stay until Monday the week of Thanksgiving so I almost skipped it - but I thought that is a lot of money and I bet there will be a lot of non-poker players in it who just want the 3 free nights.

I went to register for the tournament at 3pm on Friday and that is when I finally got the details.

The $150k would be paid in slot reels or table gaming vouchers. You could play at 9:30am or 11:30am on Saturday morning. If you got knocked out you could re-buy for $100 into a tournament at 3:30pm.

I opted to play at 9:30 am. We found out it was a bunch of 1 table sng's - we started with 1500 chips and the blind levels went up every 12 minutes. Lots of missing blind levels lol. The top 2 on each table would advance to the final at 9:30am on Sunday morning.

Seth Foster (foxlikeruse - he won the last longer in our 2017 WSOP Team Event) was sitting next to me. We were really the only 2 decent poker players on our table but unfortunately he busted.

We got down to 3 players and the short stack went all in and we both called. Then the other player bet the flop - lol. We needed to bust the short stack - not each other - but he didn't know enough about poker to get that. Fortunately he busted the short stack so I made it to day 2.

We had started with almost 1000 players on Saturday and I really don't know how many returned on Sunday - more than I expected! Sunday played like a turbo tournament - we got 5k in chips and had 15 minute levels. The top 100 would be in the money - with 11th-100th getting $500 in slot play or gaming vouchers. You had to make the final table of 10 to get a pay jump!

I barely made it to the top 100 - was very very short at 1 point. But I made it to the $500! I never expected to go much further - my stack was painful most of the time. But I stuck to my strategy of playing tight when I had chips and even shoving with a tight range. You could not play this tournament like any other tournament.

I could not believe it when I made the final table and my pay jump went to $1000. Every spot was a pay jump on the final table. First place paid $40k!

I made it all the way to 4th place and got $10k!! Now I had to decide if I wanted slot reel money or table gaming vouchers. I didn't want to blow $10k on slots so I chose the table gaming vouchers.

Then the shocking truth came out - they expired in 7 days and this was my last night in Vegas! Somehow I had to spend $10k in one night!

I was only slightly relieved when they gave me 20 $500 vouchers - that would be easier to do in 1 night - but meant I would have to play a high stakes game lol.

I was so nervous and had no idea what to play. I spent hours trying to get advice - in CardsChat, in Facebook, texted friends. Everyone was telling me to play different things - but the most suggested option was to find someone to bet opposite me playing baccarat.

I finally met up with Jacki (missjacki here at CC) and we got advice from some of her friends who play a lot of these games. But we were not comfortable betting against each other at baccarat or craps - and I couldn't put half of it on red and half on black in roulette - I had to bet $500 at a time - plus that didn't cover the 0 and 00 anyway.

We ran into Seth and another friend of Jacki's named Matthew. We decided we would all do this together. Our goal was to make sure I got a 50% return - meaning we wanted at least close to $5k in real cash for me.

Seth had re-entered and won a $500 slot reels voucher so we went to use his first on video poker. (I had not even thought of that!) He got $400 back in real cash and I was kicking my ass for not getting slot reel credit.

We had decided I would play blackjack in the high stakes room. Jacki knew how to play pretty good - and I think Matthew is just shy of being a professional so at least I had good support. But we didn't know if they would let them help me or not.

We got our own table and the "pit boss" was very nice. He was excited for me and didn't care if they helped me. Whew!

We started drinking and I started playing!

I lost the first 4 hands - $2000 already gone. My heart sank. Matthew suggested we move to another table so I did. Then I started winning - I won about 7 hands in a row and a couple were double downs. When I was down to 4 $500 vouchers I already had $7500! I only won 1 more hand though.

But I won $8k in poker chips that I could go the cashier with and get real money! I had tipped the dealer about $100 so that left me $7900. I have never cashed out that much in a casino before!

I gave Jacki, Matthew and Seth $100 each for hanging out with me even though they tried not to take anything.

We hung out and drank more beer for a while - I was smashed when I finally got back to my room lol.

But I had a great night - won $8k, became better friends with Jacki, got to know Seth better and love him - and made a new life long friend with Matthew.

I call that winning big in Vegas!

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That's a great Vegas story. Most of those tournaments are so turbo-d-up to shorten them that they take the skill completely out out of it. I am glad you were able to use your poker knowledge to decide when to tighten and when to jam to win.

I definitely would have gone the black-jack route personally...or maybe Pai-Gow poker if it were available. 5K return is a modest goal...I am glad you scored for 8K...that's a nic win.

I am heading out for the wsop this year for the first time since 2007...not sure if I am playing the main event, or a few smaller events, but I hope to catch up with some folks from the community if they are out at the same time.

Nice win, congrats!