Dave and Busters Redux Part 2

I will be the first one to admit that Dave and Buster's is one of the worst money-suckage enterprises in these parts.  You put cash upon cash into a machine and get points on a power card.  You then swipe the power card into various games and try to win tickets.  Since the first time I went to Dave and Buster's in Providence, I have seen them go from paper tickets to tickets held on your card, from a sports bar to an after work place to an everyman's bar and restaurant.  I've seen the games change and get more expensive, but it is still one of my daughter's favorite places.

When we found out that DLG was going to get all As for the semester, I decided that I would treat her to Dave and Buster's since it was only going to be the two of us for the weekend.  That and she had reminded me that I owed her one too since I picked up the boys from a half day at their school and brought them here a couple of months ago.  The deal was that I gave her 20 dollars for every A (80 bucks!) and let her have at it.  It was a quiet Friday afternoon at the Braintree location.  We practically had the place to herself when we got in there.

Personally, I wanted to see if she could actually win a prize that I would not be throwing in the garbage in the next couple of weeks.  Would 80 dollars be enough to get us there?  Probably not without a jackpot or two.

I tried talking her out of the claw games (Those never win!).  I tried talking her out of the games where you shoot coins to try to make them fall into slots that are then pushed into a bigger pile of coins (You know which one I mean).  I tried to move her into games that allowed you to play a little more, like Deal or No Deal or Monopoly.  To no avail.  We used optics strategy to get the stuffed dolphin out of the big claw game, and decided which watch to go for in the little claw game.  And I helped her by shooting coins simultaneously with her in that push the coins game.  We even played the jumping rope game which never turns out well for anyone.

The one prize I will not throw out in two weeks

She showed me her basketball prowess on  a couple of games.  I even swished a couple of long range shots (after the timer was done...do you think she would let me shoot when it counted?  I also faked her out by showing her her report card and said that she only got 3 As; she owed me 20 bucks.  That went over like a lead balloon...

After all that, we ended up with 2500 tickets.  Too bad.  More crap galore.  Maybe some cheesy stuffed animals and some terrible candy was awaiting us since we did not win enough tickets to win any electronics.  Maybe some water bottles or some mini basketball hoops to go with the countless other ones that I've hidden from everyone.  I even tried to talk her into saving the tickets for the net time we came so she could get something really nice.  In retrospect, it is funny to think I could get out of the 30 minute shopping spree in a room the size of our kitchen.  This is her favorite part!  And I was not going to be able to cajole her out of that room any faster than she was ready to go.

34 minutes later (I'm guessing, I wasn't actually timing it).  DLG settled on some trinkets.  I thought we would be done quickly since she picked up a large stuffed dog for 2400 tickets, but then decided to put him away.  I was this close (pinching fingers together)

We walked out of there with a big smile since she was clawing at her new toys.  We grabbed some pizza since I gave her almost all of my cash.  Maybe next time she can use her own money?