TIFU by spending 1010€ at a funfair

TLDR : went to a funfair with my gf and someone told us that we could win a PS5 (or a phone, Nintendo switch, iPad etc) by filling a red circle with 6 little disc’s. I paid 100€ for 3 tries. He showed me how to do it before starting but I failed. I paid again 100€ and I failed. After these 6 tries, he told me that for 400€ (instead of 800€) he would place correctly 3 discs so I needed to only place correctly the least 3. After a lot of talking I accepted but I failed. But, I got convinced once again for an other try because he told me that he would give me my 800€ if I win the next. I failed.
Now I’m sad. Very sad.

So today me (20m) and my gf (20f) wanted to go to the local funfair. For context, I study biology in a school that cost 5k€ per year so I must work every weekend for 12h to pay it.

Here is the FU, after spending 10€ for a ride. We were about to leave but on the way, we saw a place where you could win a lot of expensive electronic stuff (PS5, Xbox, iPad, iPhone 16 pro max etc). To get one of them, you have to fill up a big red circle with 6 little metallic discs. We can only use 1 disc at a time and if it was placed, we couldn’t move it. As we approached, Tim (I don’t know his name) saw us and tempted us to give it a shot. After talking a bit he showed me how to do it. He did it so easily and in a matter of seconds. I couldn’t believe it. How is this not a scam ? It’s not like the automatic grabbing machine but just a circle and 6 discs.

Because it was not the weekend (today we are friday), he gave me an offer : 3 tries for 100€ instead of 250€ and if I won, he would give me 2 prizes instead of 1. So I gave it a shot. I failed. I tried again without thinking much. He was so convincing, he seemed honest and genuinely eager to see us win. He told us that he only makes money when someone wins. Oh my God I’m so dumb. Anyway, I failed again. Everytime we tried, he showed us how to do it and he explained thoroughly all my mistakes but I guess the pressure was too strong for me to handle.

After them. He gave us another offer: 400€ for 1 single try, but : he placed correctly 3 of the 6 discs. After it, I think I should have stopped right here and go away. We talked for about 10 minutes and he convinced me to do it. On a side note, my gf is really shy but she told me that it was worth the shot. So I tried and guess what ? Yea… I failed again.

Now at this point I only lost like 610€. What are these 400€ ? The Same Thing… how did he convinced me ? How told us that he would pay us back our 2 tries for 400€ each if I won the next round. He even let me try for free and I actually did it. He also explained to me my mistakes. So I tried and yes, hoping to win a PS5, an IPhone 16 and getting my 800€ back… When I payed the amount, It was like earth falling on my shoulders. I couldn’t handle it and did the same mistake again by placing the most important disc an inch too high making it impossible to accomplish. I was devastated and so was my gf because she thought that it was her fault.

I’m the type of person that tend to just brush off things like that and forget it to not become crazy. It helps a lot but I wanted to tell my story here as it fits the theme of the subreddit.

Anyway, I’m crying internally and I’ll go to work tomorrow knowing that for April I earned 1017€. And now it’s like I worked for a whole month for nothing.

Thanks for reading my story.