Kirk Machida is an upbeat, enjoy-life-to-the-hilt kind of guy – he’s never lost that California verve for life. He also has his own unique game plan for purchasing Scratchers tickets. Whenever the Phoenix Suns win a basketball game, he celebrates by purchasing a Scratchers ticket. He figures that if they can get lucky, maybe he can, too.

When the Suns recently won, he purchased a Crown Jewel Scratchers ticket. He scratched it while he was in the store and went into shock when he saw that he had won $77,777. Just to be sure, he had the owner of the store scan the ticket, and he couldn’t believe it either. The store never had a win as large as that one.

Kirk was so excited that he was jumping up and down in the store -- he does not do things quietly. He said he couldn’t believe it was really happening. What was really funny, he said, was when he called everyone in the immediate world to tell them the good news. His girlfriend’s immediate comment was, “It’s probably only $7.77 -- look at it again.” When he told his family, their reaction was, “Are you serious?” When he told his friends, a number of them thought he was lying. Everyone believes him now.

When asked if he had any special plans for his winnings, Kirk replied, “I plan to invest most of it…I don’t want to blow it, but I also have a few things I want to do.” One of them is to purchase season tickets for the Lakers games so he and his brother can go together. He also plans to purchase some Kobe Bryant jerseys for himself and five special people at work.

When he has spare time away from his job in accounting, Kirk has an unusual special interest – pole vaulting. He usually tries to practice at least once a week. He also enjoys playing basketball and playing the Arizona Lottery games. His special interests appear to be a nice diversion from his time spent crunching numbers.