Their tournament structure is pretty straight-forward. Each player begins each round with 5,000 in tournament chips, and a preliminary round is played. If a player has most chips at their table after 25 hands he advances to semifinals. In semis, player with most chips after 25 hands goes to final table. At final table everyone's in money; player with most chips after 25 more hands would win $5,000 in cash.

I had just barely squeaked by in preliminary round to win my session. Me and two other players were neck-neck-and-neck going into final few hands. One of ladies I was up against busted out with one hand to go, while I got a blackjack on my big bet, pulling me ahead with a decent chip lead. It came down to my opponent going all-in and needing to win her hand to beat me out for session.

She had a hard 14 against a dealer's ace - big trouble. She had practically no choice but to hit as I helplessly stood there holding my breath. I chanted to myself, "Break! Break! Break," and dealer delivered my opponent news. Nine. Game over.

I was only finisher for that session with about 2,700 in chips. A pretty ugly session all in all, but a win's a win. That session was kind of nail-biter that left me tingling all over, and it's that rush that brings be back with every invite they send me. That, and fact that they tend to draw spectators is pretty nice, too!

My semifinal round would turn out to be most memorable. It seems I wasn't quite done with ugly winning just yet.

Many tournament strategists recommend players start out conservatively for round. Most of us weren't very conservative, but we weren't very aggressive, either. I started betting 700-900 a hand and cards were going my way first several hands. Blackjacks were dropping right in front of me, and got some really good double down hands. I just went with flow, and before long I had a lead of about 4,000 on nearest contender. The other players had some catching up to do, so at this point, I decided to try for a little fun, hopefully at my opponents' expense.

I started to play low - betting smaller than others with hope that everyone loses hand. I bet minimum of 100 while others went for 1000-1500 to catch up to me. It wasn't so much about me winning or losing hand since I only bet 100. If other players lost, it would increase my chip lead. One hand I had a hard 16 versus dealer's 6. In a regular live game, of course, no one would EVER even think of touching hand. I decided to hit - amid gasps and groans from other contestants, of course - and busted with 26.

Roulette is, in my opinion, best game to play where you can turn blind luck into a great casino story to tell your friends.

Recently, my family dragged me down to casinos of Atlantic City. I'm not going to lie to you - I wasn't feeling very lucky and would've much preferred to stay home. Since I was 'forced' to go, my goal was to go into hiding, play slow and steady, kill time and grind it out until my folks were ready to come back home. I thought I had everything covered.

Well, I spent a little time at $10 craps tables, but mostly I played $20 pai gow and then some $15 blackjack. I couldn't for life of me get anything going and instead of treading water, I was bleeding money whole afternoon. After about 4 hours I was down $435, which could've been worse but it was obviously far from result I wanted.

I was close to broke and ready to go home as I met back up with my family. Suddenly I had a crazy idea. "I have to do one more thing before we go. I've gotta go to roulette table." My family gave me an indifferent shrug and followed, as they're mostly slot players and all table games are Greek to them.

The plan was to throw down a few more bucks and try to get back all money I lost in one shot. I went over math in my head as I walked over to roulette table. I was down $435, so I knew a $40 bet at 11-1 could get me back to even. Hopefully.

I found a roulette table and gave $40 to dealer, to which she handed me 8 red nickels. I reached and put all chips on '28 Street'. (It's a three number bet - either 28, 29 or 30 would win for me.) The dealer spun, I stood near roulette wheel, and prayed!