Playing With the Queen of Hearts

A local drawing attracting tons of attention

Photo by Radu Florin on Unsplash

A few weeks ago, I wrote about wanting to drive to a bar 45 miles away to enter a Queen of Hearts drawing. I meant to link an explanation of these drawings in that post, but I couldn’t find the rules from this particular bar, and they are slightly different from bar to bar (or VFW or wherever these drawings are found). With most of them, the winner wins a certain percentage of the jackpot (70%-80%), and some of them will have additional drawings only if the Queen is found.

A month or two ago, a friend had mentioned they were driving there to enter a drawing where the jackpot was almost 100,000. I didn’t pay much attention at the time. Then, another friend (going with her) bailed on some plans with me to go enter the drawing again because the jackpot was up to $192,000, which caused me to ask questions. Most importantly, Why hasn’t anyone won yet? Before I even had much of a concept of the game - when I read that the Queen of Hearts was hiding in a numbered envelope, I said I would guess the number 11. Investigating further and reading how these drawings work… They take a deck of cards, place each card in an envelope, shuffle the envelopes, and then number the envelopes from 1-52 (or 54 if they include the Jokers). When you buy raffle tickets for the drawing, you select the number of the envelope you think has the Queen of Hearts in it. When they draw a ticket, they open the envelope of the number selected on the ticket. So, if they pull someone’s ticket and that person has put the number 19 on the ticket, they open the envelope with the number 19 on it. If the Queen of Hearts is in that envelope, they win the jackpot (70%). If it’s not the Queen of Hearts, no one wins. They discard the tickets, and cross the number 19 off. The following week, you write any number except for 19 on your tickets… And it goes like that until the Queen of Hearts is found.

When I realized how the game worked, I checked their Facebook page and saw that 11 was one of the six numbers left after the last drawing that put the jackpot up to $192,100. I’m not usually a gambling person, and I don’t play the lottery often. But, the fact that my mind went to the number 11, and that number was one that was left… and surely the odds of winning this drawing are better than winning any lottery. You get six tickets for $5 (and they only sell by the $5, no individual tickets). I don’t know the math behind the complicated odds here, but between September 29th and October 4th, the jackpot went from $192,100 to $240,345, which means they sold $48,245 worth of tickets (which is somewhere around 57,000 tickets?) On October 5th, there was no winner again, so the jackpot climbed to $301,770 with four cards left (11, 25, 29, 48). That week, they sold about 73,000 tickets. So, this week¹, it will likely go up - so let’s estimate a one in 80,000 chance that your ticket is drawn, and then a one in four chance that you have the correct number. I’m going to say that the latest lottery that got up to hundreds of millions of dollars had way worse odds. I’m going to Google that right now. OK, several sources state that the odds of winning the Powerball lottery are one in 292 million. That’s the one that was way up there (1.73 billion dollars), and everyone was buying tickets for that last week (I didn’t even know anything about it until I overheard someone say something about buying tickets, and later that night, a dear friend texted me a picture of tickets he bought for me and my children! I should really start watching the news.)

I convinced a friend to go with me to buy tickets for the drawing last week (October 9th). Nobody won. We made the drive again this Monday (October 16th). This week, my mom and my sister also gave me money and numbers to get tickets for them. The place was packed from the time they opened at 11. We arrived at 11:20 and were told there would be at least an hour's wait if we wanted food. I had to hand it to this place because they had one person cooking when we got there. Two more people showed up to help. The bar and waitstaff were so busy, but they were super friendly.

I overheard some people talking about how far they drove to enter the drawing. As word has been traveling around, people are coming from everywhere in hopes of winning this jackpot!

I saw people coming in on their lunch break, taking tickets back with them to fill out and bring back after work. One of those people, I overheard, was one who has gone back to work after retiring because of the cost of prescriptions, and life.

I overheard people talking about what they would do with the money. I talked with a man who said that he would do all of the repairs and remodeling in his house that he hasn’t been able to afford to do. When I told him I was a single mom of four children and would buy a house - he told me, “I hope you win.” I told him that I hoped he won too!

I saw so many people full of so much hope and promise. So many people that this amount of money would change their lives.

I started writing this piece on Wednesday, October 18th. No winner was drawn that night, and the jackpot jumped to $382,120 with three numbers left: 25, 29, and 48. The Queen was NOT in the number 11, which was drawn that night. But, now I’m invested in this drawing and will continue to enter until there’s a winner.

My friend and I, for the third week, took the drive down there on Monday, getting there a few minutes after open - to a packed house. We didn’t order food this week because the kitchen was again already an hour behind (at open!). We sat at the bar (the only two stools left) and had a couple of beers while filling out our raffle tickets. Same as everyone else sitting at the bar and at every table in the place! People have all been super polite and super patient with the bar and waitstaff. It’s the Midwest, after all. The bar and waitstaff have all taken everything in stride as well.

One of the bartenders said, “I can’t wait until Wednesday, and this is all over!”

Another one said, “Thanks! You just jinxed it!! If it doesn’t end this week, I’m done!”

This past Wednesday, the ticket drawn had the number 25 on it. The Queen of Hearts was not in that envelope. The jackpot is now at $491,000 with only two envelopes left (29 and 48). They sold almost $100,000 worth of tickets in one week! They have canceled their Halloween festivities for this weekend, have changed their kitchen menu offerings to appetizers only - aside from a “sandwich of the day” for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday only, and will be closing the kitchen at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

This drawing has been going on for 52 weeks! This round started on November 2, 2022, with a jackpot of $20,000. I believe some of the 30% of the jackpot is reserved to start the next round. Reviewing their Facebook page, The last jackpot won (October 5, 2022) was $85,450, and had gone on since January 19, 2022 (and started at $15,000). The previous jackpot of $33,965 was won on December 29, 2021.

My friend and I will be there shortly after open again this coming week with high hopes (and sore fingers/hands after filling out tickets!). 70% of $491,000 is $343,700. After taxes (if I’m doing the math right), that’s $295,582! That is some serious life-altering money.

Wish us luck!

1. As is typical, it has taken me a week and a half to write this!!