February 26, 2012 – Nipped at the Wire!
One of my pre-conceived notions came within a microsecond of changing. In a previous entry I spoke disparagingly about the Officer Guest Slots tournament, proclaiming that four minutes of frantic action leading to bruised hands was not my idea of fun. However, being the good officer that I am, and since Casino Host Ralph has been such a supporter of all I’ve tried to do, I decided to that I would continue to support this event. It doesn’t hurt that it is one of the briefest of the Encounter events and generally can be fit into my schedule without too much trouble. So, I dutifully presented myself to the slot machine area of the casino ten minutes before the activity was scheduled to start.
Ralph would have made a good midway barker. He keeps his eye peeled as he scans the boulevard in front of our shops and can see an officer coming from 50 yards away. By the time you are within range of the casino speakers he has already introduced your arrival at least once. He is good at building expectation as you arrive, so the hoard of guests is primed and ready to greet you when you enter their midst. Once he is sure that he has all the officers who will be attending, he begins to raffle us off, having us pick the winning tickets from among the guest who have wanted to play. This time, for the first time, I chose a male partner. Michael lives in New York City although he is originally from Ireland. Quite a jovial partner who was willing to try anything once and thought this was likely to be ‘good fun.’ We lined up at our machine, typed ‘Michael’ into the player’s name field and waited for the rest of the competitors to be paired and set up.
When the start timer counted down to zero, Michael began his two minutes of intense smacking of the buttons. We quickly fell far behind but Michael never lost energy realizing the simple fact that the more plays we got in the better chance we had of hitting significant jackpots. We soon found ourselves hovering in the third or fourth position and remained there until his two minutes were up and we deftly changed positions. I’ve become accustomed to losing at this game so I wasn’t expecting anything beyond my customary bruises. And, the pattern seemed to hold true as we fell steadily down to 7th out of 9 competitors.
Then with the closing move of Secretariat we began to inch up the field. Sixth, then fifth, then fourth, and then third made a steady procession onto our screen. With thirty seconds left we found ourselves in 2nd! During those last 30 ticks, we kept alternating between 2nd and 1st with the player on our right. We knew it was going to come down to the wire! The crowd had gathered behind our two machines and were screaming heartfelt encouragement. With one eye on the clock, the other on our scoreboard, and both hands hammering out a rapid beat on the Play buttons, I waited to see if this might be the night. And then, the clock struck zero.
And we were in FIRST! The crowd whooped behind us and started patting Michael and me on our backs. I turned to him and we high-fived. And when I turned back to the machine what I saw caused me to stare in disbelief. We were Second . . .
Although the timer had reached zero and the Play buttons were no longer functional, apparently the wheels were still spinning from my competitor’s last spin. And with that spin she earned just enough points to pass us one last time. She had prevailed by approximately 2000 points on a total score for each of us of over 1.9 MILLION points each. For those of you doing the math at home, the margin of victory was approximately 0.1 percent! I turned back to Michael to express my condolences on such as narrow defeat. But he was beaming from ear-to-ear. ‘That WAS grand fun,’ he exclaimed. And it didn’t hurt that he still won $20 in casino credits for his second place finish. We shook hands and he went to find his wife, and I planned my casino exit.
Ralph, the ever courteous host, chose to offer to buy Sabrina, my young Spanish friend, and me a drink of consolation. But no free drink was in the cards to salve the wound for Ralph forgot that officers are only allowed to eat or drink at a proper table. With only gambling tables in a casino we graciously took a pass.
As I returned to my cabin for the night I found that my opinion of the Officer Guest Slots Tournament had changed. My competitive nature trumped my perception of the absurd. I will compete until I win one of those frantic contests!
And the adventure continues . . .
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