Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

I see that they are now making a NZ version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? I'm looking forward to that show. Sadly I know my own non-existent sports knowledge would doom me to fail.

Anyway, Zac, Frosty and I got our own chance at being millionaires tonight at a Millionaire's Night Out, hosted by Innovation Waikato.

Thirty bucks entry got us a cheque for a million at the door. Then we took the cheques to the croupier and he exchanged them for... ten chips. Yep, ten. Minimum bet is 25 grand is this casino boys and girls. High-rollers all the way.

With BlackJack, Roulette, a Winning Wheel, Crown&Anchor and Texas Hold 'Em to play, we knew that the poker was our best bet for becoming rich. Only Frosty managed to secure a spot on the table to start with though, so Zac and I tried our hands at BlackJack. Which it turns out is not so fun when the dealer gets 21. Again. And again. And again.

So a wee bit poorer we pushed our way through to the poker table, and saw that Frosty had already tripled his pile of money. We played for a while, constantly dribbling money away until finally I had a good hand. I had King/Ten spades in the hole and there were three spades on the table. A king-high flush. The bet kept going up, until (just about wetting myself) I pushed my last chip - the big half a million I'd been saving - on to the table. "All in".

Time to show the cards. I triumphantly show my King/Ten for everyone to admire, which they do, until the next guy flips over his Ace/Jack. Of spades. An Ace-high flush.

I think I just about fainted. I was pushing away from the table to stagger away when someone called out hey - you won! Turns out the guy who beat me had less money, so couldn't match the bet. So he couldn't win it all, but only up to when he stopped betting. The rest was mine! I think my hand kept shaking for the next half an hour.

I finished on about 5 million, while Frosty topped 12 and a half. Zac risked it all on the last hand of the night and lost it all. Sadly we didn't win any prizes, but a great night was had by all.

There's a photo of the three of us somewhere amongst this lot.

J&J