What's the closest you've come to winning a lot of money? Last month, I bought a $3 lottery ticket and almost won $50,000 (I had three out of four symbols).

I had a chance to mash a button and get a billion dollars. But the thought of going to hell kept me from it.

I almost didn't go to law school and incur an assload of debt. Same thing.

lethalninja said:

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What's the closest you've come to winning a lot of money? Last month, I bought a $3 lottery ticket and almost won $50,000 (I had three out of four symbols).

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Was it a scratch off? If so, you were no closer to winning $50,000 dollars than if you just had 1 symbol.

Yeah, it was.

Isn't one symbol out of four 25 percent of the way to winning and three out of four is 75 percent? Either way, I still wouldn't have won, but I would have gotten closer to winning with three symbols than with one.

lethalninja said:

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Isn't one symbol out of four 25 percent of the way to winning and three out of four is 75 percent? Either way, I still wouldn't have won, but I would have gotten closer to winning with three symbols than with one.

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They wanted you to experience the feeling of being "so close" so you would buy another scratch off.

Not a lot of money, but the first time I went to Vegas, I was at one point up by $6k on slot machines. I kept playing until I was only up by $3k and I cashed out. It was actually a lot of fun, but I was genuinely embarrassed that I'd "lost" $3k.

Was down to the last bowl game of the year (championship game) between auburn and Oregon…..was in a massive pick 'em contest done on Texags that assigned confidence points to each game we picked the winner of….

If Oregon won I would've got first place and a few thousand dollars IIRC….and if auburn won…..I got nothing….

Yeah I ended up getting nothing……stupid Cam Newton…..

One time I played the Powerball and if I only got 4 more numbers right I would have won a billion dollars.

Dated an heiress to a major Spanish wine producing family. She already owned a vineyard in Sonoma on her own, and a few in Chile. Broke it off with her because I wasn't that into her. I'm an idiot.

lethalninja said:

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Isn't one symbol out of four 25 percent of the way to winning and three out of four is 75 percent? Either way, I still wouldn't have won, but I would have gotten closer to winning with three symbols than with one.

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Its not like flipping a coin where you have a 50/50 chance of getting it right. The symbols are predetermined, you just have to reveal what they are. Every ticket has the same exact odds. If I come up to you with 10,000 tickets and tell you only one of those is the winner, every ticket has a 1/10,000 chance of winning. If the ticket you pick had 3 out of 4 symbols the same, you were no closer to winning than the other 9,999 losing tickets.

Back in the late 90s, a co-worker got 5 of 6 Texas Lotto numbers right. Obviously he didn't win the jackpot, but I think it paid about $8-10K.

It was my bachelor party in Shreveport. I was playing Caribbean Stud poker. The jackpot (royal flush) was 183k. A woman sat down to my right. Two hands later she hit it. Those would have been my cards.

Cards would've been different if she hadn't sat down.

mavsfan4ever said:

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Cards would've been different if she hadn't sat down.

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Not back then. The auto shuffler gave each person 5 cards at one time. If a seat was empty, they would give the next occupied chair those same five cards. The old lady did give me $100 and apologized.

Lake08 said:

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mavsfan4ever said:

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Cards would've been different if she hadn't sat down.

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Not back then. The auto shuffler gave each person 5 cards at one time. If a seat was empty, they would give the next occupied chair those same five cards. The old lady did give me $100 and apologized.

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So you still got $100…sounds like you still won a lot of money.

My future wife and I were still at A&M and were broke. I was sick for weeks.

I got a royal flush on a video poker machine once while only betting a single credit. Was happy to turn $0.25 into $62.50, but if I have been betting the max I would have won the progressive which was $1400

I once bet $100 on A&M + 9-1/2 vs. the Sips and they narowly lost by 36 points.

I won 250 dollars off a quarter in a Munsters slot machine

I've bought things from stores that sell powerball and megaball tickets.

I had the chance to hit a button and win $1 billion but instead got sent to hell

Won a sports car in a drawing years ago. MSRP was around $30k. The taxes were a pain to pay.

Got 4 out of 5 but no mega ball earlier this year when it was like a billion dollars. 38,792 to 1 odds. Won $500.