Just finished a five day trip. I’m taking a break after the holidays and thought I would get in some playing time before the Vegas class this month. I had decided ahead of time to move to a 25 dollar flat bet and play a more aggressive form of the Big Skinny. I played at the 3,4,5X odds table taking full odds and did not hold at three bets but instead, played thru.

I did well the first day and found myself up a couple of grand. There weren’t many point seven outs the whole trip and I have to say it was up and down the entire time. I was very relaxed at the table and playing at the new level had been worked through in my mind before I ever arrived at the casino. I was prepped to ride the roller coaster of variance. I had a good time with the crew and there was not one bit of heat the entire trip. I tipped well and really have to say the crew was great. By the third day I was down about a grand and I was fine with that because I really liked the way the dice looked in the air and how they were landing on target.

I will say that playing the 25 dollar table I had a lot more room and very little disturbance from other players. The fourth night I went to a table where the crew knew me and half the table was reserved for a high roller. I shoot from sl1 and that spot was open. For the next two hours I had the table completely to myself. I had a couple of good rolls ( one in the thirties and one in the high twenties). More importantly, I was nailing the 5 over and over. After hitting it a couple of times I put a five dollar bet for the dealers that I controlled. Each time it hit, I pressed it five dollars. When I sevened out it was at 30 dollars.

By the fifth day, I had played a lot of craps. I was still up one thousand and planning on just not playing that day and heading for the airport. It was a good plan until we found out our plane was delayed a few hours. I had a long talk with myself and decided that I would buy in and play. I knew that I was going to put my streak of 5 winning trips at risk, but I felt good and played anyway. I ended up losing and going home in the minus category. All in all, I played five days and went home minus one grand. I’m o.k. with that. I know I won’t win every trip and I negotiated with my ego before I went and played.

I really played my game the entire time. I used my focus and my muscle memory and all that I have learned to shut out as much distraction as possible. I did not spend one ounce of energy getting upset about anything.

A very interesting side note: I did ask the floor manager about my comps and player status. I explained that although I was not playing for comps, I wanted to know how they viewed my play. They told me that playing only come bets with full odds that I was not really getting much of a rating. If would only change to place betting instead and of course the feature bets (ATS) they could do much more for me. It did make me chuckle inside. On the third day, I did hit the all small 5 times within a 4 hour period. I was never on it but several people were happy.

I do trust my shot but of course look forward to seeing what the instructors think when we hit Vegas in a few days. I practice alone so I look forward to another set of eyes. It can only help me become a better shooter. So this trip there were no monster rolls and I did have intermittent sevens on the longer rolls but I still held my own and my 401g is still looking healthy. Hope to see many of you in Vegas. I am excited about participating in any way I can. Until then…..

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