2015 Vegas Diary - Part 4

Friday, February 6, 10:45 pm

I woke up - how long did I sleep? It was about 3, 3 1/2 hours. Now it's about 11 pm on a Friday - I felt like a sophomore in college - napping before going out on a Friday night. I tried to go back to bed...no luck. Time for Friday night - or a new day, Saturday - to begin.

My notes in my diary are extremely unclear for the next 18 hours or so - I will try to piece them all together. I think I met the group at - where else? - the UTH table. We had about a 2 or 3 hour session with Ruth - she was a constant during this trip - and I have this as a slow burn of a session. Nothing happened, and a slow and steady loss.

Don and Mike went upstairs for the night - so I think it was just the three of us. Of course, you can guess where we were headed to....we couldn't find a blackjack table in the salon, so it was over to Baccarat. I'm not exactly sure what happened here, but it was a great session! The best one of the trip; I think we caught a choppy deck where 8-10 hands just alternated back and forth from the player to the banker. We caught it at the right time and played the trend and made money.

My notes now say that Wiz went upstairs - it was about 3 am - but the next session for me (and Layup) was the salon - so it's not like Wiz to pass up a blackjack session. He must have been sick. Anyway, Wiz wasn't there, and that was good luck for both of us; Layup made a lot while I did fairly well. I think we drank Hot chocolate and Baileys for the whole session.

It was now about 4 am. Layup was done for the night and he headed upstairs. I felt awake and energized from the 3 hour nap - it's like I live in China all over again! What to do now? I don't even have to make a Walgreens run! There was only one choice - craps!

I found an empty $10 table with the morning shift crew on it - everybody knows these guys, the surly dealers from Kentucky and Texas....started playing about 4:30, 5:00 am and drinking the same Hot Chocolate and Baileys drink. I wasn't doing that well for the first hour - just hanging around, losing a bit with 2 or 3 others at the table.

Around 6 am or so, a 21-year old man came up to the other side of the table. He was drunk, but not trashed. He's one of those guys we see every Vegas trip - stereotypical newbie gambler that is curious about the games....of course he put $100 down on the craps table.

He survived the first 20-30 minutes or so; I then rolled and got hot; I rolled about 5 sevens in a row on the comeout - no biggie for me, but for him, who bet $10 pass line, no odds, and maybe one number, it was awesome!!. I then went ahead and rolled another all small - my 3rd hit on the trip. Won a lot and it got the table fired up a bit.

The dice finally went over to the young guy, who then started to get hot himself. The whole table was winning money - except the roller, of course, who may have hit just 2 points but hit all sorts of numbers. He hit a few hard 10's for me when I had money on it; I just had to throw $6 into the middle.

"$5 hard 10 for the shooter, $1 for the dealers".

The roller didn't hear me; four rolls later, he rolled the 5-5. Yes! The dealer slid $35 to the shooter. He was confused; the dealers told him it was from me.

"Great! Thank you sir! Thanks!"

Uh, ok. I don't like the sir part, but whatever.

The table started filling up; an old man was to my left. The young guy finally sevened out; the dice came to me a bit later. I started rolling well again, hitting a couple of points and winning everyone money. The old guy was happy (he bought in for $2 grand or so), and gave me a high five.

"Nice roll, son. Keep it going" he said in his best Sparky Anderson accent.

It was like one big happy family - and I was in the sandwich generation. Being called sir and son in the same session.

The table turned cold around 7 or so, and I picked up and left. I went into the sportsbook to look around - found a Chelsea fan who looked desperate for any sort of conversation; by fate I had my Everton shirt on. He started chatting about the EPL and the games that were just going off....I tried my best to humor him but I was way out of my league.

Put $100 on Everton to beat Liverpool at +280. Now what? It was 7:30 am; what to do? I wasn't tired; I wasn't hungry; exercise? hell no.... I walked around and found myself back at the same craps table, at the same position on the table.

The second time around was just as good as the first. I almost pulled off the unheard-off "encore" roll with the all small. I was betting the all small, and no one else was playing that bet. I rolled - again, it was a good roll - and I rolled the 2 to win it. 35-1! The all small/tall/all bets had nothing in them; I was still rolling with a point of 9.

Can I put $5 back on the all small?

The dealer paused for a moment. "I don't see why not. Sure! Send it in....". I threw the chip in.

Next roll was a 2...and off we go.

I rolled everything else but the 3 before I sevened out....which meant I was one roll away from rolling 2 all smalls in a row before a 7. The session was wonderful again; I was at the table rolling and high fiving everyone when Layup and Wiz came down from their sleep/nap. To their credit, they did not jump and stayed away. I knew where to find them.

The great session ended, and it was 8:30 or so. Now it was time to eat - I found them and then the question was - where to get breakfast?

"How about White Castle across the street?" For those that did not know - and I didn't - a White Castle opened up in the Casino Royale.

Um......wow...... ok........

I did feel a little pathetic eating steamed sliders at 9 in the morning in a 3/4 empty restaurant. It was $8.99 for 4 sliders, fries and a drink. However, it was good eats.

We went back to the UTH table around 10 am, and the White Castle burgers did not bring us luck. I hit the wall, and around 11 am I went upstairs to nap/sleep/crash.

Little did I know what was going on at the UTH table while I slept......

 

2015 Vegas Diary - Part 3

Friday, February 6

Up again around 7:30 - a good 4 hours of sleep for the night. Today is a big day - it's Red Rock Bowling Day! There was a big debate about golf during the whole 3 month build-up to the trip. I finally made peace with the fact that golf - in February - was not worth the effort of lugging the clubs out there for one round; pair that with the fact that this would be the first round of the year and unknowns about the weather....I decided not to bring the clubs.

But bowling - of course! That would be the athletic event for the trip for all 5 of us. This would be the third year of bowling - and it's clear, the more people that go, the merrier.

But first- morning gambling. I wasn't in the mood for much excitement, so I met Don at the Pai Gow table for about an hour. What a disaster. I think I didn't win a hand for the first 15 hands dealt. I have a $400 loss documented for $25-$50 Pai Gow. That seems implausible....

We went to breakfast at the new Pantry restaurant at the Mirage - boy, was this diner badly needed. This place is in the spot where the old Blues Bar/Country Bar was, next to the Brazilian steakhouse. That area was dead for the past 5 years. The Pantry is a 24-hour breakfast diner that serves pastries and mainly breakfast - it was packed every time we went by. The food was good, quick and about at the cost you'd expect. Not a bad alternative to the buffet.

It was also Blue Jackets day! America's favorite hockey team was at home on Friday vs. the mighty Blues. Everyone in the party got a $10 Money Line ticket at +150; the game was never in doubt as Columbus cruised to a 7-1 win.

We left for Red Rock and the lanes around 1 pm (right after another short , losing craps session...). We got out there - the lanes were completely empty. They have 60 lanes in the complex; I'd guess that maybe 4 were in use when we arrived. We started the day with vodka and gin tonics, paired teams for the first game, and we were off.

There's something distracting about bowling on lane 33 of a 60-lane complex that is empty. It's like you are bowling in a field. There's nothing around you. It's hard to get any perspective. I took my stance on the "spots" on the lane - and my first ball hit the 7 pin and that's it. Something felt off. The next ball hit the 4 and the 8. 3 pins in the first frame.

It took me 4 frames to figure out what I was doing wrong - the "spots" that I line up on were set further back than other lanes. I was starting my approach way too far back. That threw everything off, and as a result, I had 14 through 3 frames. I rallied to break 140 for the first game.

We switched teams for game 2 (and more drinks) and I started off the game on the lane. Only one problem - we were bowling on alternate lanes (frame 1 on lane 33, frame 2 on line 34). For game 2, we were supposed to start on lane 34, but I bowled on 33. I rolled 9-spare, but nothing registered.

Now what? I asked for that to count, but to no avail. Roll it again. I took the challenge. I really, really, really wanted the strike and a big F you to Wiz/Layup. Alas, I rolled 9 again. Now the pressure was on me. I had to have this spare....and I did...  a 9-spare for the re-do frame. No harm done.

We rolled a 3rd game, and then a 4th -where it was Mike and I vs Wiz and Derek; we gave them 0.5 pins, and around the 7th frame it looked like the match would end in a dead even tie (where we would lose by the hook). The games went quick; I think we rolled 4 games in less than 2 hours, and had 4 strong vodka/gin drinks each. We were all feeling good after the bowling.

What's next? Of course! The always-disasterous gambling at Red Rock. This year, again, did not disappoint. We got spots at the $5 craps table -and it started going downhill right away with nobody rolling well at all. I got in trouble for urging Mike to roll when he did not want to; of course, he did a "6-7" roll  costing all of us a lot of money.

Then the dice came to me for the 2nd or 3rd time. I started to warm up; I hit 2 points and some numbers during the roll; I was close to getting back to even. The next point I set was 8. I rolled a few more numbers......

You guys know how I roll the dice, right? I like - well, love! - to have the dice bounce around. My ideal roll is to roll the dice low and hard, and have them bounce all the way back so both dice are on my side of the table after hitting the far wall.

Well, I rolled a low and hard one; the dice bounced around; one was boucing near the stick man; the dice showed 8. Winner!!!

"NO ROLL" yelled the pit boss.

What? It's an 8 !

"NO ROLL. The dice went in the dish."

Huh? No, they are both right there! A 6 and a 2! 8!

"NO ROLL. A dice went in the bowl, and a dice bounced out. We don't know if that was the original dice. No roll".

What? I was dumbfounded. Should I ask for the camera?

After some discussions where someone in our group - Wiz? - confirmed the dice hit the bowl - I rolled again. You can guess what it was.

So, I was pissed, everyone was mad, and we left. A few of the group had adventures trying to cash their chips - some of them missed the "Chips Only" sign hanging from a cashier window.- and we headed back to the Mirage.

It was about 5 pm...everyone was crashing from the drinks and we were all starving. We passed so many bad fast food joints on the way home - and we were not tempted to stop..... we all agreed on BLT at the Mirage; it was easy to find a table at 5:30 pm. The service was pretty bad - we waited a good 20 minutes for our bill, and Layup was incensed. Wiz got him even  more enraged by tipping 35%.

It was 7 pm; I had a full stomach and was dead. Time for sleep.....so at 7:00 pm on a Friday night, I climbed into bed intending to sleep for 12 hours......
 
 

2015 Vegas Diary - Part 2

Thursday, February 4, sometime in the early morning

It was dark when I heard Layup's phone make noise. There was no sun peering through the shades. I didn't even bother to look at the time. I saw Layup get up and turn the noise off the phone.....
I had plenty of drinks myself, plus the Zzzquil - as soon as he turned the phone off I closed my eyes.....

Thursday, Feb 4, 7:20 am

I wake up - check the clock: almost 5 hours of sleep. Not too bad! The sun is coming in the room. I move around a bit - and see Layup sleeping in the other bed. Hmmmm...I'm sure he got up for his call.

After about 5 minutes of trying to go back to sleep, I start playing on my phone - and that's when Layup stirs in his bed. He slowly gets up and then - it hits him. "Oh Shit....Oh shit....What time is it?"

It's about 7:25 or so.

"Oh no...oh dammit".

Apparently, his alarm was not enough to get him awake enough for his call at 6; I guess he went right back to bed after his alarm went off. He then spent 30 minutes on the phone with his boss and co-workers profusely apologizing. That quickly scattered any remnants of alcohol in his system.

After breakfast, the three of us went back to - where else? - the UTH table for morning sessions. During the play, we put in some of our favorite head-to-head matchups; we vehemently disagreed on one- Paul Casey vs Pat Perez. Wiz and Layup loved Perez while I like Casey. Side bet done. It took us about 20 minutes, but we finally got the pit boss to change the TV channel from beIN Sports to the Golf Channel.

It was at this table where we watched Tiger start his round; I think he bogeyed the first 2 holes and was struggling on the front nine. Would he make the cut?

I had a massage (with probably the Mirage's worst massage lady) and a haircut (first haircut back in the US) around noon, and then back to the UTH table. That's when we saw Tiger hit a drive on 10 or 11 and clutch his back. Uh oh.  I think I was playing a 10-6 unsuited when Tiger withdrew.

The massage break worked; I had two losing UTH sessions before the break - that's 7 losing sessions in a row - before winning 100 in the session afterwards. Still, I felt I was in a continual downhill slide.

Don and Mike were supposed to join us this afternoon, but never made it to the casino that afternoon. Hmmmmm...I wonder why? They made a last minute decision (on Wed night) to take the clubs; they were on an empty Royal Links that afternoon enjoying the 78 degree weather. But we saved these seats at the table for you!

Wiz left for his massage, so where could Layup and I go to waste time? Of course -Baccarat! Not much happened in this session except for seeing some random African-American at the other table with a pile of yellow and purple chips, waiting in vain for some sort of streak to appear.

We went to get ready for dinner and meet Mike and Don at the UTH table before heading over to Bartorelli's over at the Wynn. We were a bit early, so why not sit down and play - again? We stayed for 5 hands; I broke even while Layup went in 4x on most of the hands and lost each one. So a innocent 10 minute stay turned into a $500 loss for Layup.

On the way over to dinner at the Wynn, we noticed Wiz was wearing flip-flops. WTF, Wiz? We are going to a nice dinner - can't you be presentable?

" I only packed tennis shoes and flip flops".

Well, I hope we won't get kicked out because we needed proper shoes....................... of course, that's what happened, as Wiz was denied entry as the restaurant required closed-toe shoes.

"Suits me fine! More time for gambling!" he laughed as he took off.

What a meal for the four of us! A seafood feast - the best calamari I have ever had, and I voluntarily ordered grappa at the end of the meal. My first recollection of Grappa was from college when our Ukrainian friend tried to give us all taste; I drank it, quickly spit it out calling it "Spic N Span". But the grappa we had Thursday night was smooth and oddly addicting.  A great end to a great meal.

(We did get a text from Wiz during the meal: "Flip-flops == Money!". He had success at the tables during dinner).

The trip doesn't truly start until all 5 of us are at the UTH table - and that's what happened after dinner with Ruth, our favorite dealer. She has dealt UTH to us for a few years now and is good for several laughs during the night. It was a great session for me - breaking my losing streak of about 24 hours (except for that one small winning session). A good 3-4 hour session that night.

But was it over? No! Over to the salon to see if we can parlay those winnings into something more.... no. This trip wasn't as bad as the first, but still it was a losing trip, and I think I made out the best.

We stumbled across a fairly empty craps table and decided for one more session that night.... Olga, our favorite box-lady, was there, so we jumped right in. Well, it was a good decision. I rolled extremely well (and so did Wiz)...I hit an all small for myself (#2 of the trip) and rolled for about 20-25 minutes for one roll. That roll contained a whole lot of "8"s that Layup was on with a come bet with max odds....he was always getting "off and on" money. It was right up there as one of the best craps sessions I have had at the Mirage - erasing all the losses from the day. The other two - Layup and Wiz - made far more. The day ended well.

I bought cards and Wiz and I started our gin adventure, playing under some messed-up Maryland rules. I won't go into it any more.

 

2015 Vegas Trip - Day 1

Well hello! It's about time I finally put my thoughts on paper and summarize the Vegas trip for 2015. It's only been about 3 weeks since the trip - and real life will start for us this month with my return to work tomorrow and Wiz's second baby coming any day now.

Every year I wonder if we will have enough material for the trip - and every year I am never disappointed. Vegas is always an adventure for us - if it's not for the gambling, it's because of the people we see and interact with during our 100+ hours at the casino.

The trip was a hard-core one this year, with just the 5 regulars of Don, Mike, Layup, Wiz and I attending. One of the subjects we talked about was - do we need to expand in future years? The thought is to recruit as many people from the Golf Side Pool as possible - I know many of you out there are reading this. Leland should be in for 2016, as well as some others from the pool. Next year's trip should be a more populous one.

Now on to the diary as I try to put all the pieces together from my notebook....

Wednesday, February 4

The fun this year started on the plane ride to Vegas. Wiz and I were supposed to meet around the same time in Vegas so Layup could take us both. About 2 hours to go, we started getting texts from Wiz that he may be delayed. There was a "situation" on his plane. It turned out to be a health situation - the guy next to Wiz was having all sorts of serious breathing problems, and may have to require an emergency landing. Apparently, everything was solved with the flight attendants doing their job and getting the man to be stable - and Wiz helping out too by holding the IV bag. I'm sure that's how Wiz wanted to start his trip.

Anyway, with Wiz being late, Layup picked me up and headed for the Mirage. On the way, we put odds for the first table we would gamble on within the first hour:

Ultimate Texas Holdem : -130
Craps: +200
Salon: +250
Other game: +500

We got there and was turned down by the VIP desk. What the F, Mirage? We had to wait out in the "normal" line with everyone else......the line was only 3 people long, but it took forever. Finally, after 20 minutes, we get our keys and head up.

10 minutes later, Wiz texts us and lets us know he has arrived - and that "we need to come up and see the room". We head up - and he's got a suite, complete with a living room and a kitchen area. The suite also has a connecting regular room as well; why don't we stay there?

So - it took about an hour, but we packed up, made all the arangements at the desk to stay in the connecting room, headed up and re-unpacked. We were finally ready to go about 2 hours after arrival.

The  winning bet in the wager above was "No Gambling in the first hour..... +3000". What an upset!

Of course, after all the room changes, the first game we played was UTH. We also had some nice wagers going on Maryland 2nd half vs Penn State. It took an act of God to have the put boss change the channel to the Big Ten Network - this was a recurring issue all week, and really came into play on Sunday. Maryland hit two free throws in the last seconds for the miracle cover. Yes!

The first dinner for the trip was the bar at Tom Coligio's .... great steak, as usual....not good service, as my fries went missing. (another theme!). Plenty of drinks at the bar.

Layup then started mentioning he had to work on this trip - he had an important 6:00 am call with the CEO and his boss and some leaders in London. Sucks to be him, we said! He mentioned it many times throughout the night that even we knew he had this call.

Craps was next - I actually rolled half way decently and beat Wiz in a head-to-head matchup of rolls and won $10. Got the signature of Wiz confessing his loss in my notebook in perpetuity. After a winning craps session, what could be next? Of course, the Salon.

We are now at hour 4 or 5 of the trip, and we start going into the Blackjack salon. I didn't want this so early in the trip, but what did I expect with these two? Of course, the drinks were flowing some more and I was the first one out in that session - I constantly got 15s and 16. I ran out of money for that session and left the two of them at the table. I went over the baccarat - another bad decision - and lost some more. About 15% of my overall bankroll now gone with those two sessions. instead of going back in, I decided to play pai gow with more losses. Argh.

Wiz and Layup came out of the Salon finally and seemed to be well oiled. We decided on one more UTH session - and it was now clear that Layup was drunk. He was confusing his hands in UTH on when to go 4x....he said something like "You have K-7 suited! You don't go in on that! You only go in on that if it is unsuited!" Um, ok.  Layup was getting close to being borderline belligerent to some of the players and the dealer.....maybe we need to wrap this up soon.

After about 2 hours or so at UTH, and another losing session for me, it was about 2:30 and time to go upstairs. I took my ZZZquil and laid down after drinking a lot of water. I saw Layup set his alarm. I wonder if he will wake me up while taking his 6:00 am call with the CEO.....