Pulltabs, pulltabs and even more pulltabs! That's one of my takeaways from the recent Bingo Palooza 2024 held at H-Town Bingo in Houston. Another one is fun, fun, fun! More than just bingo, these types of events are also about traveling to new places, meeting new people and finding new ways to enjoy bingo. Check out some more details in this episode.
[00:00:08] Hello and welcome to The Broke Bingo Addict.
[00:00:12] This is a podcast that ventures through the wild and crazy world of bingo.
[00:00:16] This is much more than your grandmother's bingo.
[00:00:20] My name is Shari and welcome to this week's episode, which as always is for entertainment
[00:00:25] purposes only.
[00:00:27] Hi everybody and welcome to this week's episode of The Broke Bingo Addict.
[00:00:32] Now I'm going to talk about what happened while I was down in Texas attending the Bingo
[00:00:36] Palooza 2024, which was sponsored by Tanya, aka Confessions of a Bingo Addict.
[00:00:42] But before I get too far into that, I really want to tell you a little story, just something
[00:00:46] that I thought was funny.
[00:00:48] Before I went down there, I attended a dining event.
[00:00:51] It was like an eight course meal event that my friend treated me to and it was
[00:00:55] really very nice.
[00:00:56] Part of one of the things that happened was to get people to know each other a little
[00:01:00] better.
[00:01:00] You had to tell a little bit about yourself.
[00:01:03] So you had to think of things that were kind of interesting or whatever and tell these
[00:01:06] people about yourself.
[00:01:07] So I was telling somebody that I have a podcast.
[00:01:10] I have a bingo podcast and they're like, really?
[00:01:14] Is that a thing?
[00:01:19] Yes, bingo is a thing.
[00:01:21] Bingo is a very big thing.
[00:01:23] So I was telling her that I was getting ready to come down to this event down in Texas and
[00:01:28] everything and the people, they were just really kind of so surprised.
[00:01:31] Which by the way surprises me.
[00:01:33] Bingo is so prevalent.
[00:01:36] I see it everywhere.
[00:01:37] So maybe obviously it's just my environment but I see so much bingo and it seems to me
[00:01:41] like every day there's a new bingo place opening up.
[00:01:44] So it's getting wider and wider and wider and wider across the country.
[00:01:47] It's like everywhere.
[00:01:48] So I really tickled to be in a place in Los Angeles of that, you know, where somebody
[00:01:52] is like, really bingo?
[00:01:53] That's a thing.
[00:01:55] So I just thought that was really funny and they were just so tickled to hear that I had
[00:02:00] a bingo podcast.
[00:02:01] So anyway, that said, a little while after that I did, I took my trip down to Texas,
[00:02:07] Houston, Texas to attend Tanya's Bingo Palooza 2024.
[00:02:11] And I'd actually been to last year's Bingo Palooza out in Houston but this year was
[00:02:16] definitely different from last year.
[00:02:18] First of all, last year was at a couple of different locations.
[00:02:21] I wasn't quite sure of, you know, how things went in Texas.
[00:02:25] It was crazy.
[00:02:28] Cruz, one of my moderators had told me that it was going to go till two o'clock in the
[00:02:31] morning and I was like, there's no possible way.
[00:02:34] And yes, it went to two o'clock in the morning.
[00:02:38] So at least for this time when Cruz says it's going to go to two o'clock in the
[00:02:41] morning, at least I know he's not lying about that.
[00:02:43] It absolutely is.
[00:02:44] And in reality, this time it actually went to like 3.34 o'clock in the morning
[00:02:49] but I was not fazed by it because I absolutely knew that that was a big
[00:02:52] possibility.
[00:02:53] So I was there for it and everything.
[00:02:55] So it was a really good time.
[00:02:58] Now what I did learn from last year also was that because of my age, I knew
[00:03:07] not to attend the event on Friday night.
[00:03:09] They had a midnight event.
[00:03:10] I didn't get into Texas till like after eight o'clock so I knew I couldn't go
[00:03:13] to the earlier one but I also knew don't do it.
[00:03:16] Don't do that midnight one.
[00:03:17] You're going to be sorry.
[00:03:18] The next day is going to be a long day.
[00:03:19] Get to that hotel, get some rest, rejuvenate, get ready to brace yourself
[00:03:23] for a long day of fun the next day.
[00:03:26] So that's exactly what I did.
[00:03:28] I kind of went to the hotel, got some sleep, then I met up the next morning
[00:03:31] with Cruz and we hopped to Cab and we went out to H-Town and I think
[00:03:35] we went out there, what was it?
[00:03:37] The doors were opening at two o'clock so we got there I'd say about 1.30.
[00:03:41] There are already people there.
[00:03:42] We were pretty early in the line but there were people there.
[00:03:44] And the nice thing is that Cruz had called ahead so we actually had
[00:03:47] our seats reserved so we didn't have to worry about finding a place to sit.
[00:03:50] We had a nice spot up in front and it was really good.
[00:03:53] So it was myself, Cruz, Reina and then we had this new person sit with us
[00:03:58] and her name was Carmen and we had never met her before.
[00:04:01] The three of us knew each other and Carmen was somebody new but we had
[00:04:03] her spot and it was crowded and we were happy to have her sit at our table.
[00:04:07] And the funny thing is spoiler alert, Carmen ended up being
[00:04:11] the big winner for our table so that was really really nice.
[00:04:14] She won three times, yeah she won three times and it was hilarious
[00:04:17] because after she won at one point she said she had come down there on the win.
[00:04:22] She lived in Texas.
[00:04:23] She didn't live right there in Houston but she didn't live that far away
[00:04:25] and she just really wanted to come to this event so she didn't have any real
[00:04:28] extra money.
[00:04:29] In fact she said she didn't think she had enough money for gas,
[00:04:32] money to get home but she wanted to come anyway so she did as any real
[00:04:36] bingo player would and she ended up winning much more money than having
[00:04:41] enough to get home for gas.
[00:04:42] So she was really excited, she was like she'd never won that much or that many
[00:04:46] times so it was a really nice surprise for her and we all had a ball.
[00:04:49] It's always great to see somebody win especially at your table
[00:04:52] so that was really really nice.
[00:04:53] So as the day went on there were tons of things that were happening.
[00:04:57] One of the things that I really liked is that for this event they
[00:04:59] had a ton of all holders or all players or whatever you want to call
[00:05:03] them they were guaranteed numbers.
[00:05:05] Different places call them different things but wherever you are
[00:05:08] they're basically guaranteed numbers so if you spend a dollar
[00:05:11] you're getting a number okay so you know that and that's great
[00:05:14] because again some people like Carmen myself you know you've got
[00:05:17] a limited funds and you don't want to just keep chasing
[00:05:20] getting numbers on a particular pool tab so you have the opportunity
[00:05:23] to play and win some and in fact that's actually again spoiler alert
[00:05:28] the only thing I want on I had one of those all holder or
[00:05:31] all player pool tabs and I split $250 so I got $125.
[00:05:37] So again that was the only thing I won through this entire event
[00:05:40] but winning is still fun and it was nice that I got to say bingo.
[00:05:47] So anyway that was a lot of fun and again I appreciate it
[00:05:50] because they had tons of them you know they had tons of other
[00:05:53] pool tabs but they also had a large amount of these all
[00:05:55] holders which gives everybody the opportunity to play some
[00:05:59] of these games which is a lot of fun and that's what
[00:06:02] we're all there for now this year they also had the
[00:06:05] computers that had 20 games on it now I don't recall last year
[00:06:08] for whatever reason I felt like there were only a few actual
[00:06:12] bingo you know traditional bingo games but this year it
[00:06:15] seemed like they were a lot more they were each paying a
[00:06:17] thousand dollars which was nice but they did have them
[00:06:20] spursed out okay so there were 20 games but that was 20
[00:06:23] games played over the course of what was like what over
[00:06:26] 12 hours like I said doors opened at two things kind of
[00:06:30] got started around between 230 and three we didn't get out
[00:06:34] of it to like 330 then 334 30 the next morning so over
[00:06:37] that entire time it they played those 20 games so it
[00:06:41] didn't really feel like it was a lot of games because
[00:06:42] they were so stretched out but again really really good
[00:06:46] really appreciate it and played on computers so
[00:06:50] different from what I'm used to because this is big
[00:06:52] time computers in fact the funniest thing was that
[00:06:54] there was this guy and I think they said his name
[00:06:56] was Rick I also think they said he was a bingo
[00:06:59] hall owner so he had the money but he did something
[00:07:02] I had never seen in my life maybe it's because I'm not
[00:07:08] from Texas but I had never seen this this man had 48
[00:07:14] computers those computers are about the size of a
[00:07:16] small iPad okay so they're about that size what would
[00:07:20] you say that's about four or five inches by about
[00:07:23] eight inches something like that so he's got 48 of
[00:07:27] those things okay and you're like how's he doing
[00:07:30] that how he's put how's he putting him on the table
[00:07:32] how's he looking at all of them so that's the really
[00:07:34] cool thing is this man was seriously into his bingo
[00:07:37] because he had stands made up so clearly he'd gotten
[00:07:41] like a couple of tables had at least two tables
[00:07:43] and he had these stands made up kind of like how
[00:07:46] you sit when you're going to a movie theater
[00:07:48] you know they're like or a stadium or something
[00:07:51] they were like stacked so he had 12 computers to
[00:07:55] his left he had 12 computers to the right
[00:07:59] and in the middle he had 24 computers okay so he's
[00:08:04] got them all stacked up so he can see them and he's
[00:08:06] standing up like he's not sitting down he's standing
[00:08:08] up watching these computers and somebody was
[00:08:11] calculating a couple of different people were
[00:08:13] you know trying to guesstimate how much they cost
[00:08:15] them because I think Tonya was charging $50 per
[00:08:19] computer okay so for 48 computers that came up
[00:08:23] to $2,400 I don't have that kind of money
[00:08:27] okay and as luck turned out I didn't see all night
[00:08:30] long but I thought I was kind of paying attention
[00:08:33] because when somebody spends that kind of money
[00:08:34] you do kind of have interest to see whether or
[00:08:37] not they went so I didn't see him went to the
[00:08:39] very end now mind you like I said I wasn't
[00:08:41] paying attention all day but I think he won
[00:08:44] one of the last games I think for like a
[00:08:45] thousand dollars somewhere around there so he
[00:08:47] did win some money bless his little heart
[00:08:49] but I don't know if he won enough money
[00:08:50] to make back what he spent but that's the
[00:08:54] other part of this whole little thing that I
[00:08:55] had to think about which is that when you go
[00:08:58] to one of these events there's so many things
[00:09:00] to consider you know it's not just about
[00:09:02] playing bingo a lot of it has to do with the
[00:09:05] fun you're there to meet people see people
[00:09:08] that you've like I've mentioned before
[00:09:10] that you've actually watched on tiktok or
[00:09:13] you've seen at other places but it's
[00:09:14] also to meet other people and have the
[00:09:16] experience it's it's a lot about having
[00:09:18] a good time and not necessarily about
[00:09:21] winning because if all you want to do
[00:09:23] is win then yeah maybe you need to think
[00:09:25] about another pastime because sometimes
[00:09:27] you just don't want to be honest right
[00:09:29] now I'm kind of in a little bit of a dry
[00:09:31] spell which kind of sucks because some
[00:09:35] lady read my horoscope on one of these
[00:09:38] little tiktoks that I was watching and
[00:09:39] she said it was a really good month for
[00:09:41] me to win a lot of money and she was
[00:09:43] wrong but I did have a lot of fun so
[00:09:46] that was really nice now at one point
[00:09:48] Tanya asked me how I like the
[00:09:50] horse races and I have to say I am not a
[00:09:53] fan I know that's kind of like sac
[00:09:55] religious out there in Texas because
[00:09:57] they are big horse race people but I'm
[00:09:59] really not that big of a fan because I
[00:10:01] just don't think the odds are that good
[00:10:03] in my favor you know I start thinking
[00:10:04] about crystal you know crystal rice
[00:10:08] and her math bingo math and I sit
[00:10:11] there and I look at the horse races
[00:10:12] and you got to say there only 15 rows
[00:10:16] so there's only 15 horses that are
[00:10:18] going to win okay so out of all the
[00:10:21] people that are there there could be
[00:10:22] 200 there could be a thousand they could
[00:10:24] be 50 whatever whatever the amount is as
[00:10:26] long as there's 15 they're only going to
[00:10:28] be 15 horses racing which means it's
[00:10:31] only 15 people in that room are going
[00:10:34] to get a pool tab for one of those
[00:10:36] races okay so that's fine if you spin
[00:10:39] a lot of money if you you know or
[00:10:41] somebody who has the ability to buy
[00:10:43] you know tons of tabs like 40 tabs or
[00:10:46] 60 tabs or whatever then you've got a
[00:10:47] good chance of getting one of those 15
[00:10:50] horses if not multiples of those 15
[00:10:53] horses which is great because then your
[00:10:54] odds increase can considerably but if
[00:10:56] you're like me and you really only spend
[00:10:58] like ten dollars on a tab or maybe
[00:10:59] sometimes twenty dollars on a tab your
[00:11:01] odds of getting one of those 15 horses
[00:11:03] is very slim okay so I don't like it
[00:11:05] for that reason you your odds are not
[00:11:07] that great of getting one of the
[00:11:08] horses okay so I don't like that
[00:11:10] because it just seems like it kind of
[00:11:13] works in the favor of people who can
[00:11:15] spend a lot of money because they can
[00:11:16] get one of those horses now to be fair
[00:11:18] I will say that what they do have is
[00:11:20] the opportunity to get a hold and I got
[00:11:23] a couple of holds while that this was
[00:11:24] going on for this particular event I
[00:11:26] got a couple of holds but as I recall
[00:11:28] for the most part the holds only paid
[00:11:31] like a hundred dollars okay so now
[00:11:33] you're spending all this money for
[00:11:34] just a hundred dollars not to scoff at
[00:11:36] a hundred dollars you know a win is
[00:11:38] a win but again this is my reason
[00:11:40] for not liking the horse or is it
[00:11:41] just doesn't seem like there's a
[00:11:43] pretty good advantage the odds are
[00:11:45] not what I feel are my favorite so I
[00:11:47] don't really care for them are they fun
[00:11:49] to watch oh hell yeah because you can
[00:11:50] see you know you get excited you can
[00:11:52] see when the numbers are coming down
[00:11:53] you can see who's getting close you
[00:11:55] you know there's like a lot of
[00:11:57] adrenaline going on it's really fun
[00:11:58] when you have those races or almost
[00:12:00] everybody's down to just needing
[00:12:01] that one number and you're like ah
[00:12:03] you know and everybody's screaming
[00:12:05] everybody's getting excited so there
[00:12:07] are a lot of fun to watch
[00:12:09] they're just not my favorite thing
[00:12:10] to play because again my odds don't
[00:12:12] tend to be very good at I think in
[00:12:14] all honesty and all the time I've been
[00:12:15] playing I have never ever won one of
[00:12:19] the horse races okay so I when it comes
[00:12:21] that time to buy them I also don't tend
[00:12:23] to purchase them that often I didn't
[00:12:25] have a choice really in Texas because
[00:12:27] that was the bulk of what they were
[00:12:29] doing but yeah I just don't have good
[00:12:32] luck with the horse races and I and
[00:12:33] again I think it's because of the odds
[00:12:35] factor and my inability to spend a lot
[00:12:37] of money in the effort to try to get
[00:12:39] one of those numbers so sorry Tanya
[00:12:41] sorry Texas I am not a horse race
[00:12:43] fan but I did have a good time and I
[00:12:46] didn't need to mention that I think the
[00:12:48] odds are a little better for the horse
[00:12:49] races that I've seen played in Southern
[00:12:52] California particularly at Bosco Tech
[00:12:54] because their horse races a lot of them
[00:12:57] require two horses okay so then that's
[00:13:00] a lot more variation you have a lot
[00:13:01] more different ways that you can get
[00:13:04] one of the pool tabs okay so it's like
[00:13:06] you have to have either one and ten
[00:13:08] or you have to have ten and twelve or
[00:13:10] whatever so you have to have at least
[00:13:11] two of the horses win and even at Cry
[00:13:14] Help they've got one of the horse races
[00:13:16] I think it's called downline downline
[00:13:18] not only do you have to have two of the
[00:13:20] horses win those two horses have to
[00:13:22] win in the correct order so okay so
[00:13:25] it's not enough just to have one and
[00:13:27] ten one's gotta be first and then
[00:13:29] ten's gotta be second or else you've
[00:13:31] got the pool tab where ten's gotta
[00:13:32] be first and one's gotta be second so
[00:13:34] that really expands the amount of
[00:13:36] people who can get a pool tab and
[00:13:38] have an opportunity to win okay so
[00:13:39] you've gone from just 15 particular
[00:13:41] horses wanting to just like a much
[00:13:43] much larger number of people who have a
[00:13:47] chance to win but even still whatever
[00:13:48] reason California Texas whatever it is
[00:13:51] I have a bad track record with the
[00:13:53] horse races but the odds are much
[00:13:55] greater in Los Angeles I feel but
[00:13:57] definitely clearly not something that's
[00:13:59] for me now as I mentioned the main
[00:14:02] event which was on Saturday went to
[00:14:05] way late in the night or early in the
[00:14:07] morning okay we left around 3 30 and
[00:14:09] we went back to the hotel 3 34 o'clock
[00:14:11] and went back to the hotel and tried
[00:14:14] to get some sleep I actually couldn't get
[00:14:15] the sleep to about six o'clock in the
[00:14:16] morning and believe it or not
[00:14:18] Cruz and I got up the next morning so
[00:14:21] we could tend the afternoon event okay
[00:14:23] so we got up and we went back to H
[00:14:25] town bingo and we were there by 12 o'clock
[00:14:28] actually we were there about 1145
[00:14:29] because the doors were opening or 12
[00:14:31] and you know all the people are
[00:14:33] already there everybody's already in
[00:14:35] line pickle players are such freakin
[00:14:38] addicts so anyway so we got there at
[00:14:40] like I said around 12 o'clock the doors
[00:14:42] open and we were getting ready to see
[00:14:44] where we wanted to sit and looked up in
[00:14:46] my friends Jen loves bingo okay from
[00:14:50] tiktok she and her son and her mother
[00:14:52] were there and they actually said that
[00:14:54] they weren't gonna come so I was
[00:14:55] really kind of surprised to see them
[00:14:57] but I guess they perked up and they
[00:14:58] decided to go to so we said okay let's
[00:15:00] sit with Jen and the family so we
[00:15:03] sat there and again the thing is this
[00:15:05] is her son he's 15 now you have to be a
[00:15:08] think 16 might have to be 18 to play in
[00:15:11] southern california but anyway so it's
[00:15:12] his birthday we can they've actually
[00:15:14] just come off of a cruise and they you
[00:15:16] know came directly to play bingo
[00:15:19] palooza so we decided to sit with them
[00:15:20] which is great because I hadn't had a
[00:15:22] chance to really chat the day before
[00:15:23] we're so busy going you know and
[00:15:25] having a really good time but then at
[00:15:27] a certain point her son Dylan the
[00:15:30] 15 year old started winning okay and
[00:15:34] when I mean started winning this kid
[00:15:36] just kept winning to the point I was
[00:15:39] like Dylan if you win one more time
[00:15:41] bingo okay Dylan seriously stop winning
[00:15:44] bingo Dylan stop winning bingo
[00:15:51] every time I turned around this little
[00:15:53] kid was saying bingo and stuff
[00:15:55] shouldn't say little he's a nice
[00:15:56] young man but anyway it was hilarious
[00:15:58] I mean he went on paper he went on
[00:16:02] tabs he went on the special games and
[00:16:05] the funny thing was is that
[00:16:08] he had won something earlier he'd won
[00:16:10] one of these little races that they
[00:16:11] have and with that race if you win
[00:16:14] they gave you 10 extra computers
[00:16:16] remember Texas is very big on these
[00:16:17] computers so he'd already had I think
[00:16:19] four computers from his buy-in so at
[00:16:21] least one but maybe up to four and
[00:16:23] then they gave him 10 more computers
[00:16:25] so you have to envision all these
[00:16:26] little tiny computers sitting in front
[00:16:28] of him on this table so what
[00:16:30] happened is that one of the last
[00:16:31] games that they were playing was a
[00:16:33] cover all okay so you to cover all the
[00:16:34] all the numbers and of course as he'd
[00:16:38] been doing like half the night
[00:16:39] Dylan goes I think I'm gonna win I just
[00:16:41] need this number and of course
[00:16:43] that number immediately popped up and
[00:16:45] Dylan goes bingo okay I'm just glaring
[00:16:47] at him really really Dylan again
[00:16:52] so anyway they come they go to verify
[00:16:54] his bingo and there's some kind of a
[00:16:57] glitch so something happened with them
[00:17:00] when they gave him the 10 computers I
[00:17:01] guess there's some kind of number you
[00:17:03] put in I'm not sure how they're code or
[00:17:05] whatever but there is something that in
[00:17:07] reality he was playing the wrong game
[00:17:11] so the bingo owner was like I'm so sorry
[00:17:14] when you got this when they gave you
[00:17:16] these 10 computers somehow they typed
[00:17:18] in the wrong code for this so what we're
[00:17:19] going to do is we're going to honor
[00:17:21] it okay so they still gave him the
[00:17:23] thousand dollars that he would have
[00:17:25] won and then they went ahead and
[00:17:26] they replayed the game and then
[00:17:28] somebody else got to win it too but
[00:17:29] I'm just saying that's how much Dylan was
[00:17:32] winning even when he got the wrong
[00:17:35] freaking stuff he won it was hilarious
[00:17:39] okay and then actually makes it so much
[00:17:41] fun it was just really kind of cool to
[00:17:43] see this little kid uh gotta stop
[00:17:45] calling him a little kid see this
[00:17:46] young man uh win so many times because
[00:17:49] it's just so weird it's like when
[00:17:50] it's your day there's nothing you can
[00:17:52] do it is your day and I keep telling
[00:17:54] Kiki Marie that she won seven times
[00:17:57] she's my little nemesis I'm trying
[00:17:59] to get up to her uh total and get to at
[00:18:01] least eight now the most I've ever won
[00:18:03] in one day is four times but I am trying
[00:18:05] to beat Kiki Marie's record one of these
[00:18:08] days and Dylan Dogg gone his little
[00:18:09] soul was really close I can't I wasn't
[00:18:11] counting but it was a lot okay so that
[00:18:15] said that was pretty much the end of
[00:18:17] our excursion we got out of there
[00:18:19] about nine o'clock so not as bad as
[00:18:21] the day before and I was going back
[00:18:23] to LA the next day so I had a great
[00:18:26] time at the bingo pelusa I thank
[00:18:28] Tanya for sponsoring it it's got to be an
[00:18:32] ungodly amount of work trying to
[00:18:34] organize that get all that done and just
[00:18:36] making sure everything goes really
[00:18:38] smoothly but it was a good time and
[00:18:40] again looking forward to going to the
[00:18:42] bingo pelusa next year so in the
[00:18:44] meantime thank you so much for listening
[00:18:47] to this week's episode of the broke
[00:18:48] bingo addict and I hope you'll come
[00:18:50] back for the next one thanks so much
[00:18:52] bye