In May of 2002 I was dragging up on the Pioneer/Laughlin Double Time play. They had finally gotten it screwed down where it wasn't worth so much money. I made plans to head up to Vegas. Randy McKay told me "Mickey, you get around, check all the Gamemakers and see if you can find a game called Draw Till U Win." It was the first I had heard of the game. I asked him about the strategy. He said "Just call me if you find it." I don't blame him for not giving me the strategy. Why would I call him If I had the strategy? LOL! But what Randy didn't know, and I guess a lot of other AP's didn't know, was I could write video poker strategy with just the payscale, a calculator and scratch paper.

So I went up to Vegas and checked into the Golden Gate. Downtown had a lot of vulturables in those days and also 10-20 holdem at the Horseshoe. So I'm lapping around the vulturables downtown and walk into the Vegas Club. First Bally Gamemaker I see I check it and lo and behold....there's Draw Till U Win. I sat down to play the game. It didn't look anything special, just a 6/5 Double Bonus payscale. After awhile I made a 4-card straight flush and found out about getting to draw until you hit a pay. I kept playing because I wanted to see what happened with a 4-card royal. So I finally get a 4-card royal and I get to draw until I win something. About the 6th card out I made the royal. So I hit a royal the first time I played the game.

I cashed out and went back to my room at the Golden Gate. I was up there two days writing the strategy. Only came out to eat. I went over it and over it to make sure I didn't make any mistakes. When I felt it was good enough I stepped back over to the Golden Gate, sat down at the Gamemaker, and went to punch the game up....and it was gone! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Shit!

I looked all over Vegas for it. Couldn't find it anywhere. I kept thinking about what to do. I finally decided I was going to have to take a trip to Northern Nevada. From Reno/Tahoe all the way across to Wendover looking for that game.