Any Big Winners Here?

[travelover]

Born white, male and with tall genes, in the USA. Oh, and I won something at a white elephant raffle once, though I’ve forgotten what. Maybe it was a toaster.

 

[aaronc879]

Born white, male and with tall genes, in the USA. Oh, and I won something at a white elephant raffle once, though I’ve forgotten what. Maybe it was a toaster.

I'm white, male and with tall genes in the USA. Didn't give me any advantages that i'm aware of. No help at all.

 

[Al in Ohio]

If he won $12 million and it was paid out over 20 years that would have been $600k a year, so I'm guessing that he was able to save some of what he received each year.

Yeah and I’m pretty sure his official RE date was the day he left work 20 years earlier.

 

[travelover]

I'm white, male and with tall genes in the USA. Didn't give me any advantages that i'm aware of. No help at all.

Awareness is a funny thing.

 

[oldtrig]

This thread is Just for Fun.....

Have you won or do you know someone that has won a BIG prize?
Lottery, Publishers Clearing House, Big Raffle, Etc?

A group of clients won a state lottery pool. I think it was about a dozen participants and the prize was a bit over 1 million each. The group consisted of mostly mechanics and a few salaried managers. The mechanics mostly quit their jobs....some because they hit the jackpot but most left because jealousy by co-workers made the workplace uncomfortable (or so I'm told).

Yes, I have. The pretty girl I married 50 year ago. Better than any jackpot.

 

[scrabbler1]

The end of the 1987 baseball season helped me win nearly $120 in two different competitions.


The first was a baseball pool I entered with 11 other people, each contributing $5 ($60 total). A month before the season ended, around Labor Day, we had to guess the exact order of finish for each team in the 4 divisions, with bonus points if we correctly predicted any exact order in a division. During the final weekend, the Tigers overtook the Blue Jays to win the AL East, and that gave me the added bonus points to win the contest and the $60.


The second was helping my cousin Bruce in a Fantasy baseball league when he took a trip to Europe after he passed the bar exam coinciding with his graduation from law school a few months earlier. I "managed" his team for the month of August which included acquiring a relief pitcher who helped him in the Saves category enough for him to finish in a tie for first place in the league. Bruce gave me a reasonable share of his winnings ($60) as thanks.


So, together, I won $120 by being a good baseball fan during my baseball fandom heyday of the 1980s.

 

[CardsFan]

Won two free round trip airline tickets to London in a raffle (trip ended up costing me $5K)

Reminds me of a friend. His wife was on "The Price Is Right" (the final year with Bob Barker). She won a travel trailer. Of course, it was smaller than the ones they had actually been looking at. After upgrading the trailer and paying taxes on the winnings, he figured his "free" trailer cost $10-15k.

Could have been worse. At least it was something they actually were thinking about buying anyway.

 

[jfn111]

I won $2400 in a best beat pool at the local card club. I had 4 queens and the other guy had 4 8's. He got $5000 for the losing hand.

 

[Car-Guy]

I won $2400 in a best beat pool at the local card club. I had 4 queens and the other guy had 4 8's. He got $5000 for the losing hand.

The loser won more? Sounds like a game I could do very well in.

 

[gerntz]

I won $2K at a charity waffle years ago.

 

[Lsbcal]

I won $9 in the lottery when I first played it back in the 1990's. Then I decided to stop playing it so I could always be a winner.

In 2007 I won a trip to Paris through the local radio show. Paid for the plane fare but not the taxes the airports tack on. Still was worth about $1000.

 

[aaronc879]

I won $2400 in a best beat pool at the local card club. I had 4 queens and the other guy had 4 8's. He got $5000 for the losing hand.

The place I used to go to didn't pay the winner of the hand. That's surprising. They just called it the "bad beat bonus" and gave the loser of the hand the bonus. The bonus went up every day there wasn't a winner(loser).

 

[RunningBum]

The bad beat bonus usually has to be a very high hand, right? I was close in something like that. Might have been 7 card stud. One guy pretty clearly had high 4 of a kind or straight flush, and others at the table thought I had a low 4 of a kind and were telling me to stay in to get that pretty large bonus. I just had a full house though, no bonus.

Speaking of casino stories, my son was with me on his first trip to one, and we had a few free slot tokens to use. He hit $150 on his third pull. I told him he should limit how many more times to play so he'd come away a winner. A few pulls later he hit $50, and walked away a winner.

 

[brokrken]

When I was 24 I won $12K in Vegas, mostly playing Craps, but also some on Blackjack. Actually, I probably won $20k, but I only came home with $12k. When I was up about $15k I called my Dad and told him of my luck. He said "Have your fun, but if you come home with less than $12k I'll kick your butt and you'll never get a penny more from me." At the time he was helping pay some student loans. The night before we left I had like $14.5K, went to the Blackjack table, lost $2.5K in about 5 minutes, cashed out and left. That was one of the best 5 days of my life. At that age, it might as well have been $12M, not $12K.

 

[Car-Guy]

The place I used to go to didn't pay the winner of the hand. That's surprising. They just called it the "bad beat bonus" and gave the loser of the hand the bonus. The bonus went up every day there wasn't a winner(loser).

I've played a lot of poker (private games and casinos) but that's a new one for me...

 

[tb001]

The most I’ve ever won was a door prize when I was a kid. I can’t stomach gambling though, so maybe that’s why I don’t have any great stories! I have a good friend who won a new truck, which was awesome but we were young and in college and he quickly realized there was no way he could pay taxes on the winnings. By the time he sold it, between the marked up price to win, the depreciation and the taxes, it was way less exciting.

 

[aaronc879]

The bad beat bonus usually has to be a very high hand, right? I was close in something like that. Might have been 7 card stud. One guy pretty clearly had high 4 of a kind or straight flush, and others at the table thought I had a low 4 of a kind and were telling me to stay in to get that pretty large bonus. I just had a full house though, no bonus.

Every casino has there own rules but where I used to go you had to have 4 of a kind or higher to get the bonus. Both winner and loser of the hand had to have 4 of a kind or better.

 

[Mo Money]

Never an outright win in a lotto-type situation, but:

I once discovered that I was entitled to an ~$200K buyout at my w*rkplace, which I learned shortly after my retirement announcement. I had thought the number was more like $40K.

Also, I bought one of the notorious VW diesels that later became subject to the class action in which owners were given $X value for their cars, which they could keep until late 2018 if they desired. It was in effect a virtually free car for five years. (I was paid enough money after five years of driving it, such that I immediately turned around and bought the new 2019 gas version of the same car. It was subject to some buyer incentives, so I pocketed several thousand extra and got the new car.)

 

[Sue J]

When DH was still working he won a free entree a month for a year from Applebees. That was fun for about the first 5 or 6 months and then it just got to be more of a chore to find something there that we wanted. I know, it's a free meal!

That was over 10 years ago and we haven't been back since then.

 

[kcowan]

DW won $10k in the slots in Vegas back in the 70s. It was our last day so she converted to cash but kept some quarters to use at the airport. Struck it again and we had to lug $1000 in quarters on the plane and through customs in Canada.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

I came home with about $70 in singles from my first ever military spouse bunco party.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

At a charity raffle, I won a $75 bottle of Amarone. It was, and remains, the best wine I have ever had in my life. Unfortunately, this has more or less ruined me for fine wines! Nothing ever lives up to it. (However, it did send me into a decade-long avocation of winemaking, which has been enjoyable.)

 

[oldphd]

Reading a couple of these posts reminded me of another "win" for me...

It was for a cruise, I was signed up with my e-mail to access a site. Turns out there were limits on what time of year which made it tough since DW was a teacher at the time. So we ended up on an older ship, the SS Norway (which was originally the SS France, one of the last transatlantic cruise ships). The history made it interesting.

But, no balconies, paid to upgrade to a window room, then at the end of the year I got my tax form to declare on my income tax (1099? for misc. income maybe, I forget). They valued it at about twice what you could actually have purchases it for. So by the time I paid the taxes, it was basically just a decent price.

Enjoyed it, though...

 

[RobbieB]

Where I've played (Reno) the "bad beat" pot was distributed as follows;

50% to the loser (bad beat)
25% to the winner (along with the pot of course)
25% to the remaining players at the table

 

[kgtest]

Never myself but an acquaintance won $1MM on a state lotto ticket. After taxes and an engine for his sea-plane he didn't have much left...

not to worry, he won a second lotto for $500k about a year later.