Newsletter – April 25, 2025
PHOTO CREDIT: forums.wdwmagic.com
What does a starving actor do to earn money in LA? Work at a coffee shop? Did that. Paint houses? Did that. Tend bar? Did that… Hey, ever been on a game show? It’s easy money! Just learn the game, answer trivia, and roll the dice.
I did that, too. On HIGH ROLLERS.
My game show host was Wink Martindale who passed away recently at 91 years old, may he rest in peace. He’s in the picture holding the game dice. The other picture is also him from when he hosted TIC TAC DOUGH.
(Side note: Alex Trebek was the HIGH ROLLERS host before moving on to host JEOPARDY.)
The essence of the game is to eliminate the numbers 1 through 9 without “crapping out.” That means if the remaining number is a 9, you have to roll a 4 and 5, or a 3 and 6 to win.
That’s the luck part of the game and you get to yell “Good numbers!” when you throw the dice down the length of the red felt table.
But the game is a combination of luck and skill. First, you must be quick on the buzzer and successfully answer trivia questions before your opponent. If you answer right, the dice are yours. If you answer wrong, the dice go to your opponent.
The second part of the skill set is strategy. When you eliminate numbers from the board you earn a slew of good prizes, but only if you win. By answering the trivia question correctly you get control of the dice. Now, do you roll, or do you force your opponent to roll?
The game show contestant coordinators were very good about explaining that almost every game is won by forcing your opponent to crap out. If they roll snake eyes when there’s only a 9 left on the board, they lose. You win!
You want to roll the dice yourself when there are plenty of numbers on the board, and hand off the dice when there aren’t many winning combinations left. You choose.
I was buzzing in on trivia questions right and left on my first game and I played the strategy. When I took over as reigning champion I defeated my next opponent with several quick answers and good rolls before he crapped out. The strategy worked!
My reward for defeating my first challenger was an opportunity to roll for the Big Numbers! That bonus round involved rolling the gold dice and eliminating as many numbers as possible on the Big Board. I scored a decent amount of cash to add to my prizes, but crapped out before I could earn the big $10,000 prize.
“That’s okay,” Wink assured me, “you’re doing great with the questions and I’m sure you’ll get another shot at the big numbers.” Thanks, Wink.
The next challenger was a cute blond I had seen in the contestant holding room. She gave me a fetching smile and stepped up to the table. I knew I would feel bad about preventing her from earning any cash or prizes, but I had bills to pay.
I dominated the quiz portion and even buzzed in before Wink finished reading the questions. That could have been dangerous because he stopped reading whenever a contestant pressed the buzzer. But I got them right one after the other.
I eliminated my share of the numbers and then passed the dice to the cute blond for the rest of the game.
Damn, if she didn’t eliminate every last number! Even the producers backstage were shaking their heads as I signed the paperwork to collect my cash and prizes.
“You answered every question right!”
“We were sure you were going to win that one.”
Easy money, huh? Only if the dice roll your way.
Oh, I did get one more prize. I got the cute blonde’s phone number.
TTFN
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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles, is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles
Eric Margerum 