A Pretty Good Night

[FAA]

I haven't seen a jackpot or heard that sweet music from a
machine for so long I wouldn't know what one looks like without your
guys'/gals' pics.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Misery loves company. 22 month drought for me. At least I am not losing of late. I'm not accruing TCs, but that's a trade off I'd make every week. 

[olds442jetaway]

If it makes you feel any better FAA....50-W-2Gs for over 150k last year and still a big loser. I just had a meeting with the higher ups at Mohegan and explained to them that for 2018 they won't be making over 50k on me and why. As I suspected, they were clueless about the new tax law and how it will effect players with minimal itemized deductions other than their gambling losses. Their faces almost turned white as I for sure am not the only player who will be totally changing their play to make sure no big hits requiring hand pays are generated for 2018 and forward. I explained in another post how the new tax law will cost people like me thousands or even tens of thousands in lost deductions. If anyone wants a re hash let me know.

     Edited to add....almost the end of Jan and not one hand pay yet in case they think I was bluffing. Its nickels and quarters only for me now. The cool part though is I am grandfathered in until the end of Sept 2018 as a soar member with tons of benefits. The cool part of all of this though is the Mrs and I are going to take an advance in the spring on the 50k I would have lost this year and get 2 new cars. The deer strike in November killed her car and almost killed me. My old faithful 98 Saturn with over 364,000 miles on the clock mostly casino run miles is begging me to donate it because it is so tired. I would buy that car all over again new if I could. It was only 10k new and 6k when I bought it 3 years old with 36k on the clock. No wonder Saturn went out of business. Its a shame that the technology exists to build something that good and last that long but it will never happen again I am sure. It is all about the bottom line and repeat business every few years. We are just a throwaway society now. We used to even have our toasters repaired when I was I kid or we would fix them ourselves. Now you can buy a new one for less than ten bucks.

[Tedlark]

I remember going to the store and buying tubes for the television in my parents living room. Ahh, the good old days.....

[pokerpokerpoker]

I just spent a few hours fixing a 17 year old microwave. I figured it was a blown fuse - and it was.

Damn security torx screws necessitated an extra trip to the hardware store. $7 for the tools and $5 for the fuse. For $60 I could have had a new microwave, but I am cheap. Blowing $1000+ in an hour playing VP - that is okay.

I felt like a million bucks when the job was done.

[DaBurglar]

My old faithful 98 Saturn with over 364,000 miles on the clock mostly casino run miles is begging me to donate it because it is so tired. I would buy that car all over again new if I could. It was only 10k new and 6k when I bought it 3 years old with 36k on the clock. No wonder Saturn went out of business. Its a shame that the technology exists to build something that good and last that long but it will never happen again I am sure. It is all about the bottom line and repeat business every few years. We are just a throwaway society now. We used to even have our toasters repaired when I was I kid or we would fix them ourselves. Now you can buy a new one for less than ten bucks.

Olds, once again thanks for a cool story and introspective trip down nostalgia Blvd! I remember well the 1990s success story that was Saturn Motor Corporation!

I doubt anyone actually will, because in general Americans are the laziest people on the earth (not you though, Olds), but go back and research/lookup what ACTUALLy happened to Saturn Motor Corporation (and look at the general history of GM since the late 1950s)...nothing encapsulates what is wrong with American Business (and capitalism), and no company embodies all that is wrong with America, than does General Motors and it's ridiculous history.

Saturn was one of it's few success stories in the last forty plus years, and they self-sabotaged it doing what they arrogantly, stubbornly, and stupidly do Everytime...


Yes, the new tax shinola will, for the next couple years anyway, really hurt gamblers who previously counted on deductions of losses.... I say couple of years because the way it looks to me right now, both the tax changes, and the entire Trump "administration" will be such a collosal disaster and mess that sweeping changes will take place in both this year's elections and 2020, and all that he has done will be undone

[olds442jetaway]

Boy if you guys and gals get me going on the 50s and early 60s, Im afraid I just won't stop. So I will just add a few more tidbits of the good ol days. Ted reminded me....after dad got home from work, he would take his empty lunch bag and we would pull the TV tubes and take them down to Radio Shack to check them in their machine. DB reminded me of how much I'm going to miss the Saturn once I donate it. Pokerpoker makes me think of myself saving pennies here and there only to blow thousands at the casino. But what a great feeling when you do something to save those pennies. The most bizarre example only the car guys and gals will understand.
     Back in the late 1970,s my friend had a tired and rusty 1972 Dodge colt that had made just one too many trips to the dog track or the ponies. He had bought it new in 1972. We either pop rivited in scrap sheet metal or borrowed a neighbors arc welder and fixed all of the rust from the salty Ct winters. Then we find out the overhead cam shaft was really worn and the car just didn't run right. Our friend had an auto parts store and let us borrow a new camshaft to take some micrometer readings of the lobes and bearing races. It was too much money to buy especially after a bad day at the dog track. There were none available in the local junk yards. Anyway, we bought a tube of JB weld and actually used it to build up the worn cam shaft and races taking readings all the way and going through a few sheets of sandpaper and rouge. When we got up close to specs and pretty smooth, we put the engine back together and wow....the car ran perfectly for 4 more years until my friend had an argument with a huge old oak tree in the car on some slick roads and the tree won. I think at the time the JB weld was about 2 bucks a tube and we spent a buck or two on different grits of sandpaper and rouge. The new cam was around a hundred bucks even back then. We were so happy with the way the car ran, we took it for a test run the next week back to the dog track and with the 85 bucks we saved turned it into 100. The fifteen bucks we made was more than enough for dogs and a beer and a few bucks for gas for the ride home.
     I forgot to add the rest of the story on the test run to the dog track. On the way up there, the little colt blew a hole in the upper radiator hose and we lost almost all of the coolant. We coasted to the side of the road and ended up stopped right near a fresh water stream. Someone had dumped some things there illegally of course. We of course had fresh water, found a piece of old vacuum metal tubing the right size, an old broken bucket, and the clamps we had in the car. We spliced in the tubing and were the road again in twenty minutes and didn't even miss the first race. He never did replace that hose and it was still on the car when the oak tree finished it off.

     Still getting used to the poor nickel paytables so far for 2018, but having the same amount of fun and starting to see the savings already over last year. Good luck and health all.    

[wilcoxfun]

Thanks for the story about the 72 Dodge.

[FAA]

Olds, when you diminish denominations that drastically, Stevie Wonder and Helen Keller can see the savings. What a sad state of affairs this new normal appears to be for your readers. I will miss the dramatic stories of your massive losses and less frequent wins.

[DaBurglar]

Olds, when you diminish denominations that drastically, Stevie Wonder and Helen Keller can see the savings.

Umm....you might want to avoid such comments in the future..... I'm not blind (but I'm definitely deaf) and it's not hard to fathom how some people may be offended by such flippant, casual invocation of disability perspective in order to make a point that is clearly easily made without invoking blind/deaf misfortune.

I'm not mad at you, nor am I offended..... I'm just asking you to be mindful of what you say for the benefit of yourself and others. Also, I don't want to "offend" others here who resent the "disabled" card being "played"...whatever the fack that actually means!?!?!

[doris13]

my pretty good night actually happened during the day at caesars AC.after 5 minutes of play i hit awak.next day on that same machine hit a royal and 4's/k.slot wins totaling about 1000 so it was 2 pretty good days.