Monte Carlo Night at Paddock Bowl

Olivia and I ventured out to Paddock Bowl in Pacheco Saturday night for their Monte Carlo Night special. We thought The Coach and Sharon Connally would be there but they weren't able to make it. Paddock's Monte Carlo night event involves bowling three games with pins of different colors that are mixed in with the regular pins. If you roll a strike with the colored pins in certain places, you win cash prizes. Here are the pin combinations and payouts. If you fail to get a strike but leave a colored pin on the deck, you can still win 50 cents by picking up the spare.

There are also drawings and side pots for prizes. One was a poker game. You pay $1.00 to enter and for each mark (strike or spare) you bowl in the game, you get a playing card. At the end of the game, the bowler with the best poker hand gets the money. We had twelve bowlers in the game so a win was worth $12.00.

The lane conditions are different at Paddock than those at Pinole Valley and this required us to adapt a bit. We struggled for a good part of the night but we still managed to hit a few winners. We had opportunities to win a lot more money than the $14.50 entry fee we paid but we didn't strike on most of our money shots. I picked up $7.50 and a coupon worth $14.50 for entry in a future Monte Carlo Night. Even if I won only the $7.50, I still got three games for $7.00 on a Saturday night which is a bargain. I know Olivia hit a few winners but I'm not sure how much money she won back.

The Monte Carlo Night experience was a lot of fun. The Paddock Bowl employees and the other bowlers were very kind and helpful to us newbies. The gaming action wasn't for big stakes but it was still exciting. I'm looking forward to the next one which will be on February 27th. We need to get The Coach and some of our other  bowling friends to join us for it.