and I took a trip down to Foxwoods to play some poker this weekend.   I hadn’t played in about a year, and it showed, although I held my own…  Rory seemed fairly satisfied with my play, and he knows what he’s doing, so I guess I didn’t do that bad of a job…    Anyway, while we were there we saw a poster for a promotion the casino was having.  Each day everyone had the opportunity to play Tic Tac Toe versus a chicken.  If you beat the chicken, you get $10k.

A few hours later, on a break from the table, we were walking around the casino, and came across a mob of people waiting to have their turn with the chicken.  The chicken is in a little glass booth, and it’s selection panel is obscured from view.  I don’t know what the gimmick is, I figure there are a few possibilities:

• The chicken is honest-to-god playing Tic Tac Toe
• The chicken is trained to peck at a light, and a computer is actually making the decisions.  Chance ensues when the chicken pecks at the wrong light
• The whole thing is theatre, and the chicken is just for show

I’m not sure about the 3rd option, there are all kinds of laws about contests and honesty within them…

Anyway, so I pretty much expected people to tie the chicken most of the time, since the only way to win is not to play.  There were three “big checks” mounted to the wall, and the promotion had been going on for a few weeks….

But just as we were getting ready to leave, we saw a woman actually LOSE to the chicken.  I had to run away because I was laughing so hard…  I know I am prone to hyperbole, but I believe this is the funniest event I’ve ever seen in my life.