Bakersfield woman wins big on 'Make Me a Millionaire'
| Friday, Mar 20 2009 10:05 PM
Last Updated Monday, Mar 30 2009 04:25 PM
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Bakersfield resident Josefina Sineriz is still excited about her recent lottery winnings. She won $2.8 million on the California State Lottery's "Make Me a Millionaire" show.
From left to right, Liz Hernandez, Maria Theresa Sineriz, Josefina Sineriz, Mark Walberg and Robert Mosher. Bakersfield resident Josefina Sineriz is still excited about her recent win of $2.8 million on the California State Lottery's 'Make Me a Millionaire' show.
George Thurman played state lotteries for two decades and never hit it big.
His wife, on the other hand, was lucky. Josefina Sineriz once won $10,000 on a Las Vegas slot machine.
So Thurman recently decided to enter a second chance lottery drawing in his wife’s name rather than his own. Maybe some of her good fortune would rub off on him, he reasoned.
It did. Sineriz, 60, was selected to appear on the California Lottery’s “Make Me a Millionaire” TV show last month, and won $2.8 million.
The show aired Saturday on KBFX Channel 58 (Fox). On each episode, 12 players are sprinkled among four smaller mini-games of chance, and don’t find out until the day before the taping which of those they’ll compete in.
Sineriz got to play the most coveted segment, in which contestants can win a jackpot that starts at $1 million. It grows by $200,000 each week there is no winner.
Her jackpot was up to $2.8 million because no one had won for nine shows in a row before Sineriz played.
In her game segment, a slot-type machine repeatedly selected a random number between 1 and 50. Contestants predict whether the next number will be higher or lower than the previous one. Each correct guess wins $10,000. After an incorrect guess, they decide whether to take the money or keep playing. Contestants who guess wrong twice lose whatever they’ve won and go home with $10,000.
“I would just put my head down and listen to the audience,” Sineriz said. “If they were cheering and clapping, I went on.”
Contestants can get on the show by purchasing a “Make Me a Millionaire” Scratchers ticket or by purchasing five Fantasy 5 tickets, which gets you a coupon you can send in for a second chance drawing.
Sineriz had never even heard of the show, so she was confused when a lottery official called to see if she was available for a taping in Burbank on Feb. 8.
Her husband understood immediately, though, and was excited. As excited as he’s allowed to get, anyway.
Thurman, 59, suffers from multiple sclerosis and emphysema. When he gets too worked up, he hyperventilates.
So Sineriz took one of their four adult daughters to the taping, leaving Thurman in Bakersfield. They would call if anything significant happened, they promised.
Thurman was too anxious to wait in the couple’s southwest Bakersfield home, so he went to play Bingo.
When his daughter interrupted Bingo, he chastised her, at first, for teasing him. It was only when his wife got on the line and assured him she’d won that he took the call seriously.
Then, sure enough, Thurman hyperventilated, so he went to the car to give himself a breathing treatment.
Fellow Bingo players could see his chest heaving. Between gasps he said he was fine. He was just reacting to his wife winning $2.8 million.
Sineriz later chastised him for blabbing. It’s distasteful in a soft economy in which so many people are losing their jobs, she said.
But Thurman couldn’t help himself.
“He’s more excited than I am,” Sineriz said.
The couple is retired, and has watched as their investments have plunged along with the stock market.
Thurman managed clubs on military bases until he got too sick to work. Sineriz managed base food courts.
A quarter of their lottery winnings will go to federal taxes. The rest will be paid in 20 annual installments.
The couple plans to help needy relatives and pay for graduate school for their daughters.
“It’s an investment,” Sineriz said, smiling. “Otherwise, kids are boomerangs. You don’t educate them, they come back to you.”
She keeps a mock, oversized check from the lottery.
“I have to look at it sometimes, because I still can’t believe it,” Sineriz said. “I need to pinch myself.”
