A Winning Poker Hand and a Perfect Parlay
Meet Ronnie Rivers and Cameron Craig. Each beat the odds recently and it paid off handsomely for them; an even better feeling than a parlay.
Ronnie Rivers is a rookie running back in the NFL. While he played at Fresno State and currently plays for the Los Angeles Rams, NFL fans in the Midwest are probably familiar with his father Ron Rivers, who was a running back for five seasons with the Detroit Lions (1994-99) and Atlanta Falcons (2000) after playing at Fresno State. Ron Rivers was a backup for the great Barry Sanders during his time with the Lions. He played in 69 games but started only six, all in 1999.
‘Mega Progressive Jackpot’
Ronnie Rivers hit the “Mega Progressive Jackpot” Saturday on a three-card poker table at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. His royal flush earned him $514,837. He earned an estimated $515,670 for playing football this season, according to Sportrac. TV station KVVU Fox5 reported that Rivers was in Las Vegas to celebrate his birthday and his mother’s birthday, and Rivers plans to use his winnings to buy a home.
Cameron Craig lives in Rushville, Ind. He wagered the minimum $5 on a parlay bet on the four NFL divisional playoff games played the weekend of Jan. 21-22 and won $72,795, according to the Indianapolis Star. This parlay would be life changing.
Sketchy Picks
Craig correctly guessed who would score the first touchdown in each game: Travis Kelce (Kansas City Chiefs), Ja’Marr Chase (Cincinnati Bengals), Dallas Goedert (Philadelphia Eagles) and Dalton Schultz (Dallas Cowboys). It’s no surprise that Craig went with Kelce and Chase. Especially Chase, because Craig is a Bengals fan. Goedert and Schultz, each a tight end, were sketchy picks to say the least. What a gutsy parlay.
After Kelce, Chase and Goedert came through for Craig, he could have called it a day and won $1,393.56. But he went for it all and won it all. Craig posted a video of Schultz’s touchdown and his enthusiastic reaction to winning the bet — while he was wearing a Bengals jersey — on his Twitter account.
Schultz caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Dak Prescott with 9:25 left in the second quarter of the Cowboys’ game Jan. 22 against the San Francisco 49ers. That turned out to be Dallas’ only TD of the game, a 19-12 win for San Francisco.
‘Feeling … Every Emotion’
“I was feeling just about every emotion you could imagine … I never thought I was going to be in that situation to begin with,” Craig told WRTV in Indianapolis about what he was feeling before Schultz’s touchdown.
“That moment in the video is something I will never forget. I’m beyond grateful that I got to spend it with my friends,” Craig said.
Craig used his parlay winnings, he said, to pay off debts from student loans and make him debt free. “Life changing money!” he proclaimed on his Twitter account. Financial guru Dave Ramsey would be proud that Craig is debt free, but he probably wouldn’t be happy about how he did it.
