Let us start out by saying that the class could not have been better. Rose and Doc had the pleasure of mentoring the primer students and they were fantastic. They came to learn and learn they did. They were ready to go from the start and all have the ability to become advantage players. Congratulations to Adolfo who won the NO SEVEN Contest for Rose’s team the Good Time Rollers. Good Job Adolfo.

Before we get to the other good stuff of how Rose and Doc did at the tables let’s get the hip replacement surgery out of the way. Old Doc has been experiencing some significant joint pain in the right hip. Five days after returning home the hip was replaced. I can say that the discomfort after the surgery was much less than what was being experienced prior to the operation. Have started rehab and will be ready to go by the GTC class in Shreveport in late August.

Now for the fun "stuff." We arrived on Wed prior to class in the late afternoon. We were both tired and did not play much of anything that evening. We simply wanted to get settled. We generally never play on the days of arrival and departure.

Got up Thursday morning to play prior to heading to the class hotel to set up the class rooms. Went down to the casino and our positions were open. A few players at the table but not many. Rose got the dice first and had a short roll but did get a couple of paydays. Doc got the dice next and had his classic point seven out. The dice went around a couple of times with nothing happening. Rose got the dice and had a very nice hand of 26 rolls. Doc followed up with a 16, proving once again that sometimes the best man for the job is a woman. We were up a few dollars and now it was time to head to the class hotel and set up the rooms for the weekend. This would take up most of the rest of the day. Nothing was to happen during the evening.

On Friday we got up early and took a bashing. The dice were looking good but sometimes it simply doesn’t happen the way we would like. We played until it was time to head to the open house which started at 2:00pm. After the open house the instructors had their usual contest to see who would be buying dinner that night. NFF suggested that we head to a Mexican restaurant that was several blocks east of the strip. It was excellent. Thanks NFF for suggesting that place.

We would not play in the casino over the weekend as the classes on Saturday and Sunday are simply too tiring. As mentioned the classes are so much fun and we learn so much by watching the instructors teach. This is the main reason we always stay until Wednesday after the class as we want to refresh the great dice control information and use it in the casino. It was to be true once again as Monday and Tuesday would be most profitable.

Monday started out pretty good—no monster rolls but we were adding a little to our 401G most of the morning. Rose wanted to head to an upholstery shop to purchase some material for her purse making business she has started. We traveled all over the city trying to find the place only to find it was not located northwest of the strip but they had moved to the southeast all the way out in Henderson. When we finally found it it was next to a local casino where we could watch the sun go down even if it was only 1:00 in the afternoon. Rose went shopping and Doc headed to the craps table.

There was only one player at the only table open and he made his point so I bought in. After a good solid 5 count I put up one $5 come bet with single odds and you guess it, the next roll was a 7. Doc got the dice and an absolutely nice point seven out. The other gentleman did not make the 5 count and Doc had the dice once again. The dice were looking good so Doc used The Big Skinny. The table was 20 times odds so Doc started a very, very (did I very) slow press (like $10) with each payday for the first 8 pay days. It wasn’t long before I was double dipping with place/ buy bets along with my come / pass line bets. The roll lasted some 45 minutes. The table was filling up and now some of the pays offs were taking a little time. I counted a 46 roll with only the one seven at the end but no one to witness it. Knew it was time to go get Rose and get some lunch, so colored up and left.. Walked away with a bunch of purple chips. Just sorry that Rose missed the roll. One interesting thing. About half way through the roll a couple of suits showed up. I was making a pass line bet for the dealers but at that point I placed the 6 and 8 for the dealers as well ($6 each), which I had been hitting and they never said anything. TIPPING DOES HELP AND INCREASES YOUR TIME AT THE TABLE.

The man who was at the table when I got there switched to betting the don’t and I was picking off his bets like crazy. He left.

We found out that Pit Boss was playing in one of the minor poker tournaments that is part of the WSOP and had the opportunity to eat lunch with him and hear about what was happening in that venue.

We got up early on Tues and Doc headed down to the table. Rose would run a little later staying up in the room checking emails and getting ready to come down.. Her spot was taken at the table when she got down and so she went to play some double deck BJ. She was to win a couple of portraits of our good friend Ben. Got a text from Dom asking if we were playing and I told him yes and he responded he would be right down.

I got the dice and had a nice little profitable roll in the teens–nothing to shout about but a winner none the less. Not too many players at the table and the dice came around again and Old Doc had a roll of 36 and made some good $$$$. Dom was late getting downstairs and missed most of the roll which is always unfortunate but timing is often the name of the game.

That evening we headed to another casino where we wanted to play some of TommyC’s favorite VP machines. Doc is not much of a VP player so he headed to the Pai Gow poker tables. While I was managing to lose $50 Rose hit a Royal Flush with a 2 times multiplier on a $.10 machine. She wound up cashing in for a nice profit of 10 Bennies.

That would be pretty much it for the trip as we had a pretty early flight out on Wed Morning.

We always like to critique our trip and treat it as a learning experience with regard to when we are playing and how we are betting. We did have some down time where nothing seemed to go right but it is always fun to end up on the winning side! 🙂 l

Look forward to seeing everyone later in the year at the 3 remaining class weekends.

Rose and Doc

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