Getting To Know Penn National: Day Three Was Something Else....
Good Morning Sunshine,
So, I thought that Penn National couldn't get any better after day two. I might have been wrong. Day Three began with Paul and I deciding to try and replicate the exact same morning we had on Day Two. Obviously our large winnings on the previous day inspired us, but we also found it to be somewhat serendipitous that it was Groundhog's Day and we were in Pennsylvania. So, back we went to the Joe & Dough at The Eatery.
After finishing our sandwiches, bombolonis and coffee, I got a tweet from a Stoolie who said he and his son had brought us donuts and wanted to say hi. We walked over to the entrance where they were and were greeted by Jim and Mason Milbrandt. Six year old Mason was decked out in Mets gear and was super excited to meet Paul. Mason was also awesome enough to bring us some donuts to fuel our gambling throughout the day. These dudes were awesome and definitely put a smile on our faces to start this Super Bowl Sunday.
Next we headed up to the Sportsbook where we set about the business of handicapping the day's races. We started with Laurel and Aqueduct. Then moved on to Tampa Downs and Gulfstream. We began the day with a voucher for nearly $800 and we each threw in another hundred to get us just shy of a thousand dollars. In the blink of an eye we had almost all of it in play.
But, you know the old saying, "Scared money doesn't win", well that applied yesterday for sure. The first thing that happened is we were bounced at Gulfstream in the second race. I didn't feel too bad about that one because Gulfstream was hanging absolute bombs on the board. The early Pick Five wound up paying over $405,000. Next we were bounced at Aqueduct. Ok, couple of beads of sweat starting to form, but nothing major yet.
We were winning at Laurel and at Tampa, but the issue was it was all chalk that was hitting the board. Finally in the fourth race at Laurel we hit a 10-1 shot. Then miraculously in the fifth at Tampa we got our best result and cleared a small $23 profit. Laurel was a solid profit, however, and now we plotted our next moves.
We jumped back in with three more tickets. A massive Gulfstream late Pick Five. A late Santa Anita Pick Four and and a late Oaklawn Pick Five.
Now we had basically all our money in play. We were, yet again, bounced early from Gulfstream, but would recover to win 4/5 for a paltry $40 something dollars. Santa Anita went our way fairly easily, but was only a small profit at $134. Oaklawn was where our last hopes lay. We had to sweat a first time starter we singled in the seventh race. Thankfully Brad Cox had him trained up right and Florent Geroux rode the hell out of him as he cruised home. We pulled out a tight win in the eighth race that we didn't think we'd get as they turned for home. Then came the ninth. The final leg. We thought we had it covered pretty well with five horses. The race went off and halfway down the stretch, Paulie saw a horse on the outside and asked "Do we have the 9?", I informed him we did. We started shouting and finally the nine horse crossed the wire first and we cleared over $800 on this ticket alone. With all of our little side bets and big tickets added up, we were at about $1200. Somehow we cleared a $200 profit. It wasn't easy. It was work.
We looked at each other and decided instantly, we're letting all of it ride on KC. We walked to a betting machine and put $1200 on the Chiefs money line and headed over to the H Lounge where we were hanging with some Stoolies to watch the game. We had some pizza and fried chicken while watching the game. The fried chicken by Chef Fabio was outstanding. Incredibly crispy and juicy with a spicy slaw. It was excellent.
We watched the game, sweated the Chiefs, rued every time the Niners did something right. And then midway through the 1st quarter, we noticed an older lady sitting over by the bar, decked out in full Niners gear and being wildly loud. I mean, you know casinos are not quiet, and you could clearly hear her clear across the room. Paul decided this was his nemesis. Unfortunately he did not have a lot to cheer about...until the fourth quarter that is.
Somehow, miraculously, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs led an unreal comeback in the final seven minutes of the Super Bowl, to go from a double digit deficit, to a double digit win. I couldn't believe it, but we had won big again. This would mean another $1200 each for us, on top of what we won the day before. We headed back home to the hotel after hanging with some of the Stoolies for a bit and settled in for a woozy, happy slumber.
Overall, our weekend at Hollywood Casino at Penn National could not have gone any better. We won a boat load of money, but we made some great new friends. Dan Ihm (follow him on twitter @ihmdaniel) our new #CasinoDad is as nice a guy as there is. Uncle Marc is amazing and accommodating. All of the staff and executives here were welcoming, excited and treated us two clowns far better than we deserve. If you are anywhere near Grantville, PA, I can't recommend a stop here enough. There is excellent food at Final Cut, The Skybox and The Eatery, there are games everywhere and a spectacular forum for night-time horse racing. Come on down and have yourself a hell of a weekend like we did.
Love you,
BlackJack
xoxo