Pascua Yaqui Tucson Casino | 400+ Slots, Table Games & Restaurants Now Open

I'd been coming to Pascua Yaqui for about two years, usually just playing $20 here and there on my lunch breaks from the warehouse. That day I was down to my last $30 and figured why not throw it in one more time. Three sevens hit on the Money Spin machine and I just froze—couldn't believe what I was seeing on the screen. My hands were shaking so bad I could barely press the button to call the attendant. I'm paying off my truck and putting the rest toward my daughter's community college, she wants to be a nurse.

My buddy convinced me to hit the casino tables instead of sitting at home on New Years weekend. I'd played blackjack maybe twice before, so I started real conservative with small bets just learning the game. Got into this rhyhtm where I was up, down, up again, and somehow I kept my head. Around midnight I doubled down on an 11, got a 10, dealer busted—and that hand somehow turned into a winning streak. When I cashed out I just kept saying 'no way, no way' over and over. I'm setting half aside for retirement and using the other half to finally open that small repair shop I've been dreaming about.

I've been playing poker seriously for almost five years, mostly home games and online, so I decided to finally enter the tournament at Pascua Yaqui. I made it through three rounds by playing tight and waiting for strong hands, then in the finals I caught some good cards at the right moments. When I went all-in on that river with pocket aces, my opponent folded and I basicly secured it from there. It was surreal shaking the tournament director's hand—I kept thinking about all those nights practicing, all the losses that led to this. My wife and I are buying a house and I'm putting some aside to start coaching poker at the community center.

I went to the casino with my sister because we hadn't done anything fun together in forever—my kids were with their dad for the weekend. We were just messing around, betting small on roulette, laughing about how terrible our luck was. I had a really good feeling about the number 23 for some reason, couldn't explain it. Put $20 on it and watched that ball spin like my life depended on it, and when it landed there I actually screamed. My sister hugged me so hard she almost knocked the wind out of me. I'm using some for a vacation with my kids and saving the rest for their school fund.

I'd been having a rough year—lost my job in October and was trying to stay positive while looking for work. Went to the casino with a fifty dollar bill, told myself that was it if I lost it. Buffalo Gold had always been my favorite game to play, something about it just relaxed me. The free spins bonus hit and kept retriggering, kept retriggering, and I just watched the numbers climb up. When it finally ended I had to sit down for a minute to process what happened. I used it to get through the next couple months while job hunting and bought myself a decent used car so I could get to interviews.

My wife dragged me to the casino—she wanted to go for her birthday and I figured why not, I'm usually a craps guy anyway. I sat down at Three Card Poker mostly to keep her company while she played slots nearby. Got this lucky streak going, kept making the Pair Plus bet and it kept paying off. Nothing crazy hit but the consistant wins just added up, I was genuinely shocked when I cashed out the chip stack. I gave my wife half for her birthday trip we're taking next month to San Diego. The rest is going to fix up the back patio like we've been saying we would.