Amazing luck at Grand Casino Hinckley (Hinckley, MN)

I have to share this story not because of the amount of $$ that I won, but because of what it meant in context.

I drove from St. Paul (home) to Duluth, MN (Grandma's) on Thursday for thanksgiving dinner. It's about a 200 mile drive door to door. I was going to stop off at Grand Casino Hinckley and play through a $7 free play offer they sent me. Since I was stopping anyway, I didn't fill my gas tank when I left home (I had about 1/3 tank). The gas warning light had just come on when I pulled into the casino, and there was a gas station by the highway that I decided to stop at when I was done playing.

I entered the casino and sat at the first video poker game that I saw, a DDB double shot progressive $.25 game ($2.50/hand). Grand Casino Hinckley is one of those casinos where you need to have cash in the machine in order to access the free play. You play your $$, and the machine rebates your play out of the "Grand Play" balance. I reached for my back pocket and - No Wallet! I found out later that I'd left it at home underneath a sweater that I ended up not wearing. I had $4 in my front pocket, so I put that into the machine.

At this point, I was 100 miles from anywhere, with $4 in cash, $7 in casino free play, and less than a gallon of gas in my tank. I was utterly screwed. As I was panicking about the call with my father that I figured was about to take place, I started going through the free play. I hit a pair of queens on the first hand, and a pair of aces on the second hand. As I pushed deal on the third and final hand of my free play (plus $.50 of my money), I started trying to figure out if I could get to my Grandma's with the gas in my tank, plus the $4, plus what I cashed out with. The answer was no, I'd still have 20-30 miles to go, depending on the difference between "empty" and EMPTY in my car. I think better with my eyes closed, so I had shut them while I was thinking things through. I opened my eyes and I had been dealt natural quad 5s - a $125 hit!!

Congratulations, now to restore balance to the world send the cash leftover from your win to me. That's an epic story though.

I did that once, but I had $10 in chips from a previous visit and I left $50 ahead. I had enough gas to get home, so I wasn't quite as desperate.

Holy crap, great story!

Wait a minute....we don't know what happened after that! Did he leave after the win? Or did he stay & play some more.
Did he get to Grandma's safely?!?

I need closure.....great story btw.

I pushed "print ticket" and got the heck out of there - there were cookies waiting for me at Grandma's! and I got there very safely. Without my license, I was forced to drive slightly under the speedlimit. That is excruciating on the interstate. With all the guys in pickups passing me going 90, I felt like I was in Nevada or something;-)