Vegas Budget Planning

So now it gets serious. Vegas is right around the corner and I'm struggling with my bankroll. With the recent move, the savings account is a little low as we await the check for the loss of sale on our home and reimbursement for paying a duplicate mortgage. Carol's dividend check which is more than enough to support the trip to vegas, still hasn't come yet, and it is also holding up our taxes. And my yearly bonus doesn't get paid until 10 days from now. The timing is so far off this year, I should be super stressed out and wanting to cancel the trip. But I can honestly say I don't think I've been this excited in a very long time. I'm attributing it to a couple of things:

• Living in the midwest. Gone are the days of 80 degree weather and the 10 minute drive to the beach. Why would anyone want to live here? The wind is constantly blowing and its cold as shit. I'm tired of hearing people tell me how I will never want to leave KC after I get used to it. I think these people have given up on life. Why would you want to live here if you had a choice to move? Ugh.



• Renewed focus on College Basketball- Maybe its all the time I'm spending inside, but man I've watched a ton of college basketball. While I'm not killing it, I'm holding my own on the gambling front. I can't wait to watch some of these games and just relax.



• Quick trips to Holywood- What a jolt of energy it is to have a brand new casino 14 minutes away from my house. Door to Door. It seems like Carol and I are getting a babysitter every other day and making a quick trip up to the casino. Its gotten my juices flowing for craps especially and finialized my decision on UTH.



• Renewed focus on tracking play- Had an amazing trip last year. The highs and lows were impressive. I was tapped out and had to utilize the old "pay for dinner on the CC to get cash" trick to fund one last craps run that resulted in a run back up to even. My goal this year is to be even (+/10%) by the end of the trip, but to be able to articulate where the money went.

So I felt bad last year that we really didn't have any pre-Vegas posts and not that much chatter post trip. I won't let that happen again. So to get back to basics, below is my planned budget for each type of game/activity starting with the biggest dollar events:

Craps ($4,300): If you have an hour to waste, read some of the old posts on our craps play. Simply hilarious. To put it in perspective, if I was on my death bed and make a wish foundation came to me to grant me one wish, it would be to play craps with this group of guys coming on this trip (and Jay/Laura) one last time. We simply have the best group!!! Playing with Wiz a couple of weeks ago for 2 hours was simply fantastic and now we have a full couple of days? Man, I just can't wait. I agree 100% with Eric on the need to have all of us at one table a little more often. I plan on spending as much time at these tables as possible.

BJ ($2000): Salon play only. Ready to put in some good sessions here. I'm done playing BJ just to kill time like the old days. Oh there's a $10 table, lets just sit down and have some fun. Not this time. That's what I'll use UTH or Pai Gow for in this trip. I will only play when I'm ready to go for the kill. And unlike Eric, I have no problems referring to the card. I love doing this when I have 15 against a 10. Pisses Wiz off to no end.

UTH ($1000): OK, so I'm going to just set a loss limit here and be done with it. I plan on scaling back the $$$ amount of my play and just do this to waste time. No more $25 per hand play like before. I'll be ok with just going a little smaller and being ok with slowly losing my $800.

Sportsbook ($750): I don't need a lot of money on each game. Maybe just $25 to have a great time and keep me interested. So the budget allows me to lose roughly 30 games. That should be more than enough.

Roulette ($600): 2 sessions seems to do the trick. I don't need to play this all the time, but I love to just smoke a cigar and relax at an empty roulette table during the mid afternoon.

Pai Gow ($500): Played a couple of times recently and I'm really starting to like this game again. I've stayed away for too long since UTH swallowed up all my time. Now with the new strategy, I'll have more time to play here and relax. Too bad they don't have TVs up yet.

Wiz ($380): I owe Wiz some money for the golf pool and the UNC win. Will pay this off the second he gets off the plane.

Spa ($200): Hopefully will be able to fit one massage in.

BJ Switch ($100): Will sit down for one session, get yelled at by Eric and Wiz, will pick up shortly there after. Hopefully I will only lose $100 during that time.

Video Poker ($100): Video Poker with Dick. Yes Dick is back again. Missed him last trip. He will be at the Nugget and will try and get down to see him if possible.

Food ($70): Will get everything comp'd I guess.....

So that ends up being a pretty nice budget. Wow. That added up pretty quickly.