Lucky Star Casino Concho | 800+ Slots, Games & Full-Service Dining

I'd been coming to Lucky Star for about two years, usually just on weekends when I needed a break from work at the oil refinery. That morning I was tired, honestly—working double shifts and my back was killing me. I sat down at this machine I'd never played before, fed in forty bucks, and within ten minutes I hit the progressive jackpot. My hands were shaknig so bad I could barely hit the button to call the attendant. I just kept saying 'no way, no way' over and over. I'm using most of it to finally get that surgery the doctor recommended, and putting the rest down on a house.

I'd been unemployed for three months and my wife convinced me to use the last of our entertainment budget for a night out. We drove over from Yukon just to get out of the house for a bit. I decided to sit at the blackjack table for maybe an hour, keep it small. The dealer was great really friendly, and I just got on this incredible run—won eleven hands straight. By the end of the night I was up nearly ninety grand and my wife was jumping around screaming. I told her, 'Well, I guess I found work,' and we both laughed. I'm starting my own HVAC business with the money.

I've been playing poker seriously for five years, and I'd made it to the final table at Lucky Star's big tournament before but always busted out early. This time something just clicked. I stayed patient, didn't overplay my hand, and when I got to heads-up I felt almost calm, like I belonged their. My opponent went all-in with king-ten and I called with pocket nines—the flop came down perfect for me and he couldn't catch out. When the final card hit the river, I just sat back and exhaled. I've been dreaming about winning a tournament like this my whole life. Now I'm traveling to some bigger tournaments out in Vegas and California to see how I stack up against tougher competition.

My daughter just started college and money was tight. I came to Lucky Star with my sister on her birthday, which is tradition for us. I wasn't planning to bet much, just wanted to have fun and maybe lose thirty bucks like usual. But then my daughter's lucky number came up on roulette—her birth month and everything—and I placed twenty dollars on it just for fun. It hit and I was up over a thousand dollars. I got emotional, actually. I called her that night and told her the tuition payment for next semester was covered. She cried, which made me cry. We're putting the rest toward her books and living expenses.

I'd been hitting the slots pretty regular on my lunch breaks from the warehouse. Nothing major, just entertainment money. One afternoon in December I was feeling lucky so I played Buffalo Gold for the first time—usually I stick to the same machines. I caught four buffalo symbols and suddenly bells were going off everywhere. The jackpot just kept climbing on the screen. When it settled at sixty-three thousand I thought the machine was broken. Took me a solid five minutes to believe it was real. My truck needed a transmission rebuild anyway, so that's handled, and I'm paying off the credit cards my ex-wife left me with.

I was at Lucky Star with my husband for our anniversary dinner. After we ate, he wanted to watch the football game at the bar but I decided to try something different instead of the slots. I'd never played Three Card Poker before and a guy next to me explained the basic strategy. I caught fire somehow—pair, straight, flush—just kept hitting good hands. I turned two hundred dollars into over thirty-eight thousand in about ninety minutes and I could not stop grinning. My husband came looking for me when the game ended and I showed him my chip stack. He said, 'Well, happy anniversary to us.' We're taking the honeymoon to Hawaii we never got to take.