Sierra Gold W Warm Springs Rd | Nevada Gaming & Dining - Slots, Poker & Live Action

I was just killing time on a Wednesday afternoon, hadn't been to the casino in months. My sister had dragged me out here to get out of the house after my divorce finalized. I sat down at this machine almost by accident—it was the only one open next to where she was playing. After maybe twenty minutes, the whole thing lit up and I just froze. My hands were shaking so bad I could barely hit the button to call the attendant. I kept saying 'this can't be real, this can't be real' over and over. Now I'm paiyng off my car and putting the rest toward getting my own place.

I came with my buddy Mike for his birthday weekend and we were just having fun, not expecting anything crazy. I'm not even that good at blackjack, honestly—I mostly just play video poker at home. But the dealer kept busting and the cards were falling my way, so I kept my bets up. When I hit that final hand and realized I'd won almost ninety grand, Mike actually screamed louder than I did. I'm using half to help my mom with her medical bills and the other half I'm saving for a down payment on a house. My mom still texts me about it—she calls it my 'blessed money.'

I'd been playing poker seriously for about three years and finally felt confident enough to enter a bigger tournament. I was nervous as hell the whole first day, made some questionable calls that somehow paid off. By day two I was down to the final table and my heart was pounding—I could barely drink my coffe without spilling it. Got lucky on a crucial hand in the semifinal and then just played solid poker in the finals. When I won, I just sat there for like thirty seconds before it hit me. I paid off my student loans, bought my mom a new car, and invested the rest for my retirement.

I was celebrating my birthday with friends and we decided to try something different instead of our usual dinner place. I'd never really played roulette before but someone explained it to me and I put money on my lucky numbers—my birthday, my kids' birthdays. I was mostly joking around, not serious at all, just trying to have fun. Then the ball landed and I looked at the board and I was like, wait, did that just happen? My friends started screaming before I even realized. I used it to take my family on a trip we've been talking about for years.

I was at the casino with my wife for an anniversary trip and she was at the slot machines while I played some table games. She called me over because the machine had gone into this bonus round and was just racking up credits on the screen. I remember thinking it had to be a glitch or something because the number just kept getting bigger. When the attendant came over and confirmed it was real, we both just hugged right there. We used some of it to take our kids on a better Christmas vacation and put the rest into fixing up our house.

I'm a regular at Warm Springs, come out maybe twice a month to play some poker and relax. This particular night I was just at the casual tables not expecting anything big, just enjoying a few hours away from work stress. Hit a really nice straight flush on one of the bonus hands and suddenly I'm up way more than usual. The guy next to me bought me a drink to celebrate which was pretty cool. I took my girlfriend out on a nice weekend trip we'd been putting off and threw the rest into my savings for when I retire in a few years.