Village Pub & Poker Horizon | Premier Casino Games, Poker & Dining Destination

I was just killing time on my lunch break, figured I'd throw $20 into the machine near the entrance. Been working retail for eight years, so I wasn't expecting much of anything. Then the symbols lined up and I heard this crazy alarm sound—honestly thought something was wrong at first. My hands were shaking so bad I could barely hit the button to call the attendant over. I'm putting half toward my daughter's college fund and taking my wife on that trip to Colorado we've been talking about for years.

Came in with my brother after we closed up his garage for the evening, just wanted a few hours to decompress. I'm not usually a big blackjack player but the table next to us looked friendly. Sat down with $500 and ran it up pretty steady over about three hours. Hit a natural blackjack with a $2,000 bet out there and that's when things really started clicking. The money's going straight into home renovations—got a basement that's been waiting for attention, and maybe I'll finally upgrade the workshop equipment.

I've been playing in the Friday night tournaments for about two years, mostly cashing for small amounts here and there. This time I got incredibly lucky with my starting hands and made some agresive calls that just happened to work out. Final table came down to me and this older gentleman who played incredibly tight—I managed to outplay him heads up over about forty minutes. My wife cried when I called her from the parking lot. We're paying off the car, setting up college funds for the kids, and I'm finally taking that sabbatical from my IT job that I've been dreaming about.

I lost my job about six weeks before this and was going a little stir-crazy sitting at home. My sister invited me out for her birthday and I tagged along mostly to get out of the house. I put $100 on my lucky number—23, my daughter's birthday—just for fun, told her about it over the phone while I was waiting for the spin. It hit and I nearly fell off the chair. It's not life-changing money but it's enough to cover three months of bills while I figure out my next career move and that takes a huge weight off.

Was celebrating my retirement party the night before—my coworkers all came out and we were having a great time. Couldn't sleep that night from the adrenaline, so I came back alone in the morning just to play a few hands of something low-key. Started with the Buffalo Gold machine because I'd had a lucky streak on it before, and after about thirty minutes the free spins feature triggered. Got stuck in there for what felt like forever, watching the multiplier go up and up. My grandkids are going to have an awesome Christmas this year, and I'm booking a trip to see my brother in Arizona for New Years.

I'm usually a slots person, my husband loves table games, so we each do our own thing when we come here. He dragged me over to Three Card Poker and actually taught me how to play—I'd never tried it before. Started out placing small bets just to learn, then hit a straight flush on like my fifth hand. The dealer was grinning and calling over the floor supervisor before I even realized what happened. It's going toward our car payment and maybe finally fixing the leaky roof that's been annoying us since last spring.