Third Times A Charm @ Bingo Palooza

[00:00:08] Hello, and welcome to The Broke Bingo Addict. This is a podcast that ventures through the wild and crazy world of bingo. This is much more than your grandmother's bingo. My name's Shari, and welcome to this week's episode, which as always is for entertainment purposes only.

[00:00:27] Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to the first episode of Season 5 of The Broke Bingo Addict. I can't believe it. Yep, this is our fifth season, and even though we got off to a slow start, I'm really excited about it.

[00:00:42] So, yeah, we left off in, what was it, November. So we haven't been here for a few months. This is the longest break that I've had ever since I started the podcast. And I have to say, partly because there's just so much going on, not only in the bingo world, but more specifically in, of course, the United States of America.

[00:01:01] And honestly, I just had lost all kind of motivation. So I wasn't sure if I was even going to come back. But then, like I said, not only in America, but also in the bingo world, there's just so much going on that I thought, oh, heck, crap, I got to come back. There's just so much I want to talk about, things I want to share with all of you guys. And for me, this is the best place to do it.

[00:01:23] You know, I do a lot of TikToks, and I see other people just in bingo locations. But this is the best place for me to talk about some of the things that I want to talk about. And the first thing I'm going to talk about is my recent trip down to Texas. That's right. Tanya had her 2025 Bingo Palooza in Houston, Texas. This is the third time I've attended that event. And I really think I got it down to an art form.

[00:01:51] Because the first time you go there, you just don't know what's going on. You're kind of like, you know, feeling your way around. And, you know, should I do this? Where should I stay? Should I rent a car? Should I do Ubers? You know, which hotel is this closer or not closer? Should we fly in early? Even though technically the main event is just on one day of the Saturday, they play bingo throughout the week. Like I know from this week, they started on Wednesday. OK, so bingo went from Wednesday all the way through Sunday. So that's one of the logistics you have to think about. It's like, how much bingo do you want to do?

[00:02:20] Because it's pretty much almost nonstop. So for this event, this time I went down on Thursday. And even though I went out on Thursday, my flight didn't get in until Thursday night. OK, so it got in Thursday night. By the time I got to the hotel, it was around 8, 830. And even though I could have, because they absolutely had bingo going on that day. And at that point, the only thing I could make was the midnight game. I was like, no, I'm going to sit in my hotel.

[00:02:47] I'm going to enjoy myself, relax, and then I'm going to go the next day. And even the next day I wasn't going to. The next day was Friday and they had two events. They had an afternoon event over at H-Town. And then following the event at H-Town, they were going to go over to Big Bucks. Now, Big Bucks is the place where they were having the main event on Saturday. It was also the place where my hotel was closest to. So I was thinking, nah, I've Ubered here, I've Ubered there. I don't think I'm going to do the H-Town one, but I had friends coming in too. Jen loves bingo and her family was coming in.

[00:03:17] So I thought, oh, what the hell? I'm here. I'm up. Let's go ahead and do the H-Town event. And I went over there. I took my little Uber and went over to H-Town and saw people. In fact, I was so excited about H-Town. It wasn't supposed to start until 12. Doors were opening at 10. And I was so excited that I took my little Uber over there and I got there like about 10 minutes to 10. And there wasn't a soul around.

[00:03:43] OK, so I got freaked out because if you don't know, H-Town actually has a couple of locations. So one is right next door. That's fine. But then there's another one somewhere, I guess, too. So I wasn't sure since I didn't see anybody. It's like, am I at the right place? What have I done? You know, I'm going back to TikTok. I'm going back to Tanya's page trying to find out if I've got the right location. And it was the right location. And so I let the Uber person go. So I'm like, I'll just hang out. So I'm sure some people are going to start showing up and everything. But luckily what happened is one of the people who worked there,

[00:04:12] I don't know if he's the manager or what, got there. They opened the door and they let me in. So it was like, yeah, it was really cold because Texas was going through kind of a little cold snap. I mean, it was really cold. So the guy was really nice and he let me in. I was the first person there. I found my table that I wanted to sit in and I saved seats for Jen and her family. They were coming. And while I was just waiting, everybody was so nice. They were explaining things to me. You know, this is this. We're going to sell that. But call here. You do yada, yada, yada and everything.

[00:04:41] And it was really very nice actually to have ended up being the first person there because I got that extra attention and I got that extra opportunity to learn more about what was going on, which was really fun. And I had a nice time doing that. And the interesting thing was, remember, I wasn't going to go to the afternoon game. Okay. I wasn't going to go. I was just strictly going to play at Big Bucks because it was so close to the hotel. I didn't have to worry about getting back and forth. I literally could have walked from the hotel to Big Bucks. But anyway, I did go to H-Town.

[00:05:11] I did have a good time. I ended up winning three times, people. Three times. That's the most I've ever won at one of these events. Not the most money I've ever won, but it was certainly the most times I've ever won. So it was hilarious. I was having such a great time. And particularly with the horse races. I'm not a fan of horse races. But if you know anything about Texas, you know those people love some freaking horse races. So that was hilarious. I had a really good time there. Saw the usual people.

[00:05:40] You know, Cash was there. Tanya, of course, was there. You know, just saw a few other people and had a really good time. So did that. Got my winnings left. And following that, the next thing was going to be over at Big Bucks. So I had already gone back to that area, which again, was right next to my hotel. And I was going to do that. So I was playing with Jen earlier. Jen loves bingo and her family, which is her mom and Dylan. And we were having a really good time. Again, I'm really surprised. I was the one who was the big winner out of that group. And last year, trust me, it was Dylan.

[00:06:09] Dylan was winning every three minutes. That little kid was winning something. So yeah, by the way, Dylan's a little teenager. And he was just killing it last year. So I was expecting him to do it again this year. But anyway, they decided that they were going to do some other stuff. They wanted to go to like Bucky's. And they wanted to do some shopping because it was actually Dylan's birthday. So they didn't go to Big Bucks. I went over to Big Bucks by myself and sat and then saw another friend of mine from L.A., which is MVP, and I sat with her. So this is like a different configuration.

[00:06:38] And this is the place where we're going to be tomorrow. So it was nice to be able to get there early, you know, to get there the day before and get the lay of the land. And in fact, Tanya actually had these VIP things. If you were a VIP, you could pick your seat early. And unfortunately, because this was a smaller venue, she didn't have as many VIP opportunities as she thought she was going to have. But luckily, luckily, Jen was a VIP. And I mention this because even though she didn't go to Big Bucks with me last night,

[00:07:08] Tanya was giving everybody who was there the opportunity to save their tables for the next day. Now, that was the big perk or one of the perks. There were some really nice things. But one of the cool perks was that you got to pick your table ahead of everybody else. You'd have to worry about it. So even though Jen wasn't there, Jen had told me to go ahead and let Tanya know what table she wanted. So that was great because that meant the next day, even though the doors opened at 10, you didn't have to be there till like 12 if you wanted to be because the table was already picked.

[00:07:36] And same thing for me, since I was going to sit with Jen and her family, it was great because, hey, we'd already picked the table and stuff. So anyway, that said, that was one of the really nice perks. So I'm sitting at Big Bucks. I'm playing. I'm sitting with MVP and we're having a nice time. And son of a gun, as if it wasn't enough that I won three times that afternoon. I won a horse race, a good horse race, right? My favorite row, one of my favorites is row 15. And I won that. That was $1,500. Okay, people?

[00:08:06] $1,500. But if you know, Texas takes the taxes out of your winnings right then and there. Which, by the way, trust me, you really need to know that before you go because it's a bit of a culture shock when you go and you're expecting a certain amount of money and then they don't give you that. And then you're like, what? What happened? What happened? I don't understand. But it really isn't that bad. I'm from California and we got some serious freaking taxes out here. So I had my $1,500 horse and I still got $1,450.

[00:08:36] And it's the same thing with the stuff that I had won earlier. I had won a $300 game. I'd won a $500 game. I won a $600 game. And then I won like $11 something. And so anyway, long story short, even though they take taxes out of your winnings in Texas right when they give you the money, it is not that big of a deal. Because again, trust me, out of $1,500, I still got $1,450. So that was really nice. So I'm really thrilled putting that in my kitty for the upcoming South Point event.

[00:09:04] And I went that night and that was great. They were still doing a midnight game after that. They were all going to go back over to H-Town and do a midnight one. But if you haven't been aware, I'm an old woman. I am 67 years old. There was no way in the world I was going to be able to go to H-Town at midnight and then be back Saturday morning for what I know is a full day. So that's the other thing. If you haven't done this event with Tanya, I'm sure you've heard, this puppy goes low.

[00:09:36] That Saturday event is an all-day event. And when they say an all-day event, they're not talking from 9 to 5. They're talking from like what? What time did it start again? I think it was like noon. It went till 2.30 in the morning. And I say that like 2.30 in the morning sounds bad. But if you were there last year, it went till 4.30 in the morning. And then people got up the next day on Sunday to do that. So anyway, I was not doing it. I was really happy to be there. And this time I was much more organized.

[00:10:06] And in all honesty, the location was more organized. I remember when they had it another time. I think when they had it there the first year. It was a little less organized, I felt, for such a big event and the way they did all the pool taps. But I have to say this time they had that down to an art form. They really did have it unbelievably organized. And I'm not going to say that it wasn't as many pool taps because it was still a buttload of pool taps. But I did notice that I think the last time I went there,

[00:10:34] they actually had pool taps that they were selling for guaranteed numbers for $50. But I think, as I recall, that was paying like $10,000. So people were absolutely doing it. And then they had these human horse races and stuff, which this one they did too. They had this pool tab that what you would have to do initially is they would have these races, right? They would have these horse races. Surprise, surprise. And if you won one of these specific horse races, then your name was put on a board, right?

[00:11:02] They had 15 spots because they were going to do another race, you know, and you got to pick it. So if you won one of the initial races, you didn't get the payout. Like most of them were paying like $500, $600, something like that. Whatever it was, you didn't get that initial payout. But you did have the opportunity to put your name on this board and to pick which horse you wanted to be from 1 to 15, okay? And then after they got all these races done, all these individual races that they did sporadically throughout the night,

[00:11:28] after all that was done and they had the 15 people, then they were going to run that horse race. And whoever won that particular horse race would win $5,000. So I'm telling you all this because, of course, little Mr. Dillon won one of those races, okay? So he got to have the opportunity to put his name on the board, but his mom, Jen, actually helped him pick it out. And she picked 14. And I told her, I'm really surprised. Why would you pick 14 when 15 was available?

[00:11:55] And in all honesty, in my experience, two of the hottest numbers out of the 1 through 15 have been 1 and 15. In my opinion, those two rows went so often, okay? So I was surprised. It's like you picked 14 when you actually had the opportunity to pick 15. And she said, you know what? 15 hasn't been winning much. And I said, you know what? That's right. 15, surprisingly, hasn't been winning that much tonight. She said, so I'm going to go with 14 because that's, you know, I think a better option.

[00:12:24] I was like, okay, that made sense because she was right. We'd been there for several hours at that point. And 15 really hadn't won that many times. So cool. But you know what they say about Murphy's Law? Son of a gun. Guess which horse won? 15 won the $5,000. And we're just looking at each other going, seriously? Seriously? So anyway, I just thought that was funny. You know, you try so hard and be able to when it comes down, it just is what it is.

[00:12:52] And there's only so much you can do to kind of improve your chances. And long story short, whoever's going to win is whoever's going to win. So anyway, that was funny. At least he had an opportunity to try to win. So we had a good time with that. But speaking of horse races, what I also thought was funny is early in the day, like I said, I'd had some luck with the horse races. So I was feeling really good the day before. So that day on Saturday, we've played from, again, like 12 o'clock to 2.30 in the morning. And so Jen won something. Dylan won something.

[00:13:21] I actually ended up winning something. And I'll tell you what it was. I ended up winning a hole ball. Okay? So those of you who may or may not know, when they have these races or when they have any kind of a bingo thing, they have these things called hole balls. And basically, whatever the last number was that was called, the number that's got to get you to the point where you could say bingo, if you're holding that number, if it's 1, if it's 12, whatever it is, if you're holding that number, then you also win money.

[00:13:48] And for this particular event, what was funny to me is like for 80% of the horse races they had or for 80% of those types of game that they had, whoever got the hole ball got a really nice chunk of change. They got like $500, $600, right? Okay. So everybody's getting that. The one time I win that night, I went on a hole ball that is one of the few hole balls that's only paying $100. But trust me, I'd already won a lot the day before.

[00:14:16] And $100 is $100, which meant I could buy even more pool tabs, which is what it's all about. So I was really happy. And again, it's all about being able to say bingo. So I was really happy with the opportunity to say bingo. So we had a lot of fun. Everybody, again, I think almost all of us got a little something except for Jen's mom. But we all had a good time. They had food. They had one of my other things is the fact that you can drink alcohol in Texas. So they had this nice little frozen like margarita thing. You didn't have to get it frozen, but it was really good. It was like mango margaritas.

[00:14:46] And they had some other stuff and beer and wine. And they had food trucks. What did I end up getting? Oh, I had fish at the food truck. It was really good. Fried fish and some french fries. So that was good. I will say that they were having a lot of problems with getting stuff out fast. It ended up being, I think they forgot my order. So I didn't get my order for like an hour. But it was good. I think it was Tanya's aunt made some tacos. So that was part of the event. We had some nice tacos earlier in the day too.

[00:15:15] But so that was that. That was Saturday. I had a really good time. It was so nicely organized. And I thought handled so well. Although I will admit, I have to say this one thing too. For those of you who are like me out here in sunny Southern California, where we really don't do the computer thing. Okay. If you do a computer, you do like one computer. Even in Vegas, if you do a computer, you do one computer. You're not doing 20 computers, but trust me, it's a whole different thing out in Texas. That is something just to see in and of itself. And I didn't take any pictures.

[00:15:45] I really wish I had. But there were people who'd have an entire table just covered with these computers, like 20, 30, 40 freaking computers all lined up and everything. And for me personally, just the fact that for every one of those computers, you've got to manually input the numbers. You got to turn them on and get them all set up and everything. And it's just wild to me how many computers they have out there. And then they do this thing in Texas where they play games for computers.

[00:16:12] So I'm going to tell you right off, the next day, you know, after the whole thing was over and like I said, everything ended at 2.30 in the morning, I went back to my hotel. My flight the next day wasn't until eight o'clock at night. So I had some time to kill. I knew I wasn't going to go back to H-Town for the afternoon game because that was way too early for my little butt to get back up again. It's like, yeah, that's absolutely not going to happen. I know it's going to be fun. And I did it last year, but I was like, no, I can't do that.

[00:16:40] So I found out that Big Bucks actually had an afternoon game that I could go to. And they're like, yeah, come on over. So it was great. I went over there and I played that game. So this time I'm playing a little bit more of the stuff that they normally do. The thing for the event, for all that stuff, that's kind of a bit atypical. They're all doing it for this particular event. They're not doing things necessarily the way they normally do. And so anyway, I got to play some more of the just like regular type games.

[00:17:06] And it's so funny that they have these pool tabs that, like I said, you're not playing for just money. You're playing for more computers. And I'm telling them, they're like, don't you want these pool tabs that are for computers? No, no, I do not, for the love of God, want any more computers, which is probably wrong on my part, because I think everybody who won that day actually won on a computer. Which again, here's another interesting thing that I have to mention. The reason they do those computers and why it's important for them and they want to get

[00:17:35] as many computers as they can is because, like I said, they really want to win because different from what it is in LA, their bingo games, okay, the actual bingo games, not playing a tab, actually paid $1,000, okay? They do not pay typically $1,000 in Los Angeles. So it's really interesting that we pay more, I think, for the pool tabs and everything, and they pay more for the actual bingo games. But it's also worth noting, they don't play as many bingo games as we played.

[00:18:03] So I was at Big Bucks on Sunday, like I said, in the afternoon, and they only played a total of eight bingo games, all right? That was it, you know, but not knocking it. They were paying $1,000 for each one of them, and even though I didn't get close to any of them, it was just, you know, just fun to be there. But it's also interesting to note, I don't know if it's everywhere, but it seems to me that in Texas, they don't do the packs like we do in certainly Southern California and Nevada.

[00:18:32] They do the little pieces of paper. In particular, the one that they seem to do most often was like the double action. You guys all familiar with double action when you have the two numbers and it's got what? It's got five rows and five columns, and you have to get like typically in Southern California and I would say Nevada. Most of the places I play on the West Coast, it's basically a coverall. You just want to get all the numbers. So that's generally all they use that for. Although I think up north, they do a couple of different games with it too.

[00:18:59] But here in Texas, or there in Texas, it was like so many of the games were played on that kind of a sheet. Either that kind of a sheet or a three-on strip, okay? And it was just different to me because like I said, most of the games that we play out here are played on six packs, right? Or even a four pack. But these people didn't have packs, consistent packs at all. There's just the individual sheets and you can buy as many sheets as you want or don't want. So even then, I did have a little luck on that day too. What did I do?

[00:19:26] I won a game where I got some free pool tabs. I actually got a few numbers out of that, but I didn't end up winning the particular game. But it was nice to have won those pool tabs. It's always fun to get them, you know, do your little snapping and open those puppies. So that was fun. And I did win a game. I ended up winning one of the races. And I think, again, this is not the big event, so it didn't pay as much. I think I got like $150. I was just as excited as can be. I mean, again, I've gone to a few of these things. I've gone to winners. I've gone to this one two times before.

[00:19:56] I've gone to, you know, just a variety of different events. Not South Point, but in Vegas, they would have all these station casinos would have all these events. I'm telling you, out of all those events, I had never won this many times. Okay? Like I said, the one other time that I had a nice win was the one at South Point. But outside of that, I have never done particularly well at these events. I did win $600 at winners. But still, I'm just saying, it's not normal for me to be a big winner. So it was a lot of fun.

[00:20:25] I got to see all these people. Again, it was well organized. I stayed at Big Bucks that afternoon. By the time it was over, it was time for me to head to the airport. One of the workers was kind enough to offer me a ride to the airport, which I thought was really nice because it was like 40 minutes away. It went around the corner at that point, like half hour to 40 minutes away. And that was very sweet of her. But I actually had already had my little Uber coming. So I did that. But anyway, had a great time in Texas.

[00:20:52] I want to thank Tanya yet again for doing such a well-organized event. I look forward to doing it again next year. And I want to say to you guys, hope you're coming back. I know I've been away for a while. I hope you all find me again and will continue to listen to my podcast. And I'm hoping everybody has a wonderful 2025. And thanks again. Please come back to the next episode of The Broke Bingo Addict. Thanks so much. It's not a game. It's a real stuff.