Baltimore man claims 5 Card Cash game’s $100,000 top prize
“Every time I drive by this building I would say to myself, ‘Someday it’ll be me going in there to pick up a big check,’ ” a loyal player told Maryland Lottery officials. Finally inside the building that houses Lottery headquarters, the Baltimore man still could not believe what was happening.
He had really hit it big. The 53-year-old was really claiming a $100,000 top prize on the 5 Card Cash game.
The employee of a cosmetics company told officials that he’d taken up poker right about the time the Lottery introduced 5 Card Cash in 2012. The agency’s poker-themed game offers an instant-win feature as well as a nightly drawing with the $100,000 top prize. On March 6, the winning “hand” drawn matched the five cards on the ticket he purchased at Cherry Hill Liquors in Baltimore.
“I was at the store to get my aunt a few tickets, she just loves Pick 3 and Pick 4,” he said. The Baltimore man is caring for his aunt as she recovers from a recent procedure. “While I was in there, I bought a few 5 Card Cash tickets.”
Later that evening, as he entered ticket codes into his online My Lottery Rewards account, the city resident saw what he thought were familiar cards on one ticket. “I’d just checked the evening numbers for my aunt and had seen the 5 Card Cash results,” he said. “I checked them again with my tickets in my hand and almost fell off of the bed.”
He shouted for his aunt to wake up, come see the ticket and share his joy. Alas, he found her rather unhappy at the noise. “I told her that I’d won $100,000 and all she said was, ‘What have you been drinking?’ It took some work to convince her.”
Our new 5 Card Cash champion will be in the market for a new car in the coming days. “I asked my aunt if she thought it was greedy to keep playing even after winning a prize like this,” he told us. “She said ‘Heck, no. If you enjoy it, keep doing it.’ ”
Cherry Hill Liquors also wins because of its sale of the top-prize ticket in the drawing. The Lottery will give the store located at 632 Cherry Hill Road in Baltimore a $1,000 bonus.