I got a free trip out to Laughlin recently and brought Scooter with for company. Preferred my wife, but settled for Scooter….. at least he got his own room! DiceDiver also was up from Yuma with his bride for the beginning and end of the trip.

Day 1, arrived later, but being mid-week, got our spots or close (mine was SL2 on 14′ to start) at the table and got our bearings. I hit a small from that position and ended the evening with a small win.

Day 2, I got down to the table around 5:30 and there was one guy in a suit who’d been there all night, black chips mostly. I waited for the appropriate time to buy in and got the dice immediately. Before Scooter could make it down, I started on a tear of 42 rolls. This guy in the suit was just this side of the alertness fence, but he woke up on that roll! He would call a hard 4 for him and the crew with 25/5 then 100/5, working on comeout, and I threw it! He tossed me a quarter for the hit. I did that for him twice on comeouts, nice $50 tip. For the remainder, I just worked my bets up. Nickel table, 3x4x5x, so I simply double dipped on the point.

DiceDiver had to head home to work for 2 days, so Scooter and I hit a few venues via water taxi. Results were +20 across the venues. The best tables had the worst crew/floor managers come in after about 20 minutes. Got heat right away basically telling me to just pick up and throw the dice. I ignored him for as long as I could, about 5 more rolls before 7. In hindsight, should have taken them down and left $5 line bet up and passed the dice. Went back to home court after that. Evening session down a little but well up for the day.

Day 3, again down at 5:30. First hand was a 16, hit small and most other rolls were 9’s for a +300 hand starting from just 40 at risk. Next hand was a 33, missing the all by a lousy YO. Had many more solid rolls, and once again missing all by the YO. After lunch, session was off so we headed to another venue that had a half table w/divider open. Down a little on this one so quickly left, did a little 3 card and VP as the home court tables were too crowded. Ended up for the day and now over 1k for the trip.

Day 4, last full day, Scooter went on a tear and hit the all… of course just before DiceDiver arrived! We grinded for the remainder and took a break. PM was a grind and got busy, so headed to the other end of the strip and had a blast. There was this much older couple standing straight out. They’d be throwing crazy crapper bets out, and the crew had given up on them. The woman kept throwing out a hopping hard 8 amongst others, and her husband finally threw one and she promised him a great night! We had a ball playing with them. DiceDiver went and found a vintage quarter machine and ran a roll of quarters through it for fun, getting a couple of silver dollars for the effort.

Earlier in the day, a water main had broke, so many of the food outlets were closed including In and Out and FatBurger! Ugh. Well after the last venue, we headed to Outback as the they had water in the form of beer! So a great end to the day, and now up over 1200 for the trip.

Day 5 allowed only about an hour at the table as we had to be on a bus for the airport all the way over in AZ at 6:30. I had the dice once for a breakeven roll. As the dice got around to Scooter, the gent before him had a really nice hand. Starting from a nickel place bet on the point (10), and doing that for 3 points whilst leaving a nickel on the previous point as a place bet, worked up to a $150 win. Right bets at the right time. I went agressive on Scooter, leaving enough to call the day a win and he had a short roll.

We headed to the airport both up a nice amount. We had a great time and will definitely do that one again! Can’t beat it for a free flight, really friendly crews (I have a long list of names to add to my survey), and good times with friends.

Of note, this is the first trip like this where I was a winner every day. There were losing sessions, but every day was a winner. Scooter and I really kept on each other about emotional reactions to things that happen at the table (late bets, buy ins, movement all over, dancing), and the tips on breathing in an earlier post last month. I really worked on that. In fact, this TX gent kept going on to others saying "watch this guy how he throws. He takes a deep breathe and lets it out every time he throws". It got a bit annoying but hey, the guy was definitely on my side!!! But kudos back to y’all on the forum for the tips like that. I am getting ready for two cruises in Aug and Sept. The second will be out of Boston with a lot of post-cruise casino visits. Will reach out to a few of you for perhaps some NE playing sessions.

Wishing everyone a great birthday tomorrow for our great nation! Play well!

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