I had to wait a week just to finish recovering from the trip…. Interesting is definitely a word to use!

First, a shout out to The LINQ for top notch service and helping get seven rooms lined up and checked in. We ended up booking two late rooms they were higher priced than the original five and when I went to pay for them and get folks assigned to them so they could get keys, the desk person looked at it for a minute, stepped into the back and then came back and dropped the price to match the other five. Saved me several hundred dollars by that one courtesy.

As for the gaming…I flew in Wednesday and was checked in a little before 4PM. In spite of what seemed like a fairly easy trip, all things considered, I knew from past experience that playing on travel days was dangerous. Even once the other four got there around 10 I held my ground and refused to play until after I’d slept. Saved myself some money as we bounced casino to casino for the next few hours and the other guys went down $300-$400 right away! Thursday, while the other four played golf at Cascata (it got to 106 that day!) I hit the tables for the first time but just couldn’t get into it yet. I literally felt like the dice were trembling in my fingers. Three turns like that and 5-counting everybody else and I called it quits for the morning and walked with over half my buy-in. Most of the rest of Thursday was spent dealing with people as they arrived but I did get to experience a back-lit craps table that evening. I can see how some people would go for that, but I wasn’t impressed because the layout seemed to be floating, at least to the point that when I set down a come bet it flexed under the bet. I am curious how those things work though…fiber optics maybe???

Friday was spent at the pool and then twelve of the fourteen of us ended up getting hijacked for "dinner" at the club. I quickly returned to the hotel and the other two who missed out on the "fun" had finally recovered from overdoing it at the pool so we grabbed real food and met the final person flying in on Friday night. Blackjack was the game of choice that evening and I held my own just following the dealers advice.

Saturday was low-key for the most part until we went to one of the other casinos for some gaming before dinner. More blackjack and a small gain. More craps and things clicked again. I had my spot on the table, dealers were friendly and joking about how I was helping them buy the pizza tonight with the bets for them, dice were tight and hitting my target. As I was just getting the dice the first time one of the other players was cashing out and tossed what the dealers took as a tip, but he’d said to hop the 6-3. They should have listened because first throw I hit it followed by a 5-4. A couple of points and a come bet hit and I seven out with a comfortable profit from my buy-in. We work around the table and I get on a couple of come bets that don’t pay out, which is OK because I only bet table minimum on them. Gets back to me and I make a point but seven out with a pass and come bet up with odds. Next roller has the dice and this twerp jumps in on the opposite side of the stick throwing money on the table in the middle of everything. Then his buddy does the same thing while the dice are out! The roller sevened out the next roll and I groaned to which twerp’s buddy says "we just wanted to get in on the fun." Someone in the group who doesn’t understand etiquette made an excuse that it was that I was upset I’d lost, which I quietly corrected him that it was absolutely because of those two. Twerp and friend leave and we work back around to me and two rolls into my turn twerp shows back up doing it again. I SHOULD have set the dice down, but I didn’t and sevened out. I was pissed, but Brothelman is 100% right, that was completely on me for not recognizing that I needed to stop and reset. After that I colored up and left, a few dollars up from the game and realizing I had more things to work on. Dinner that night was overpriced and over charred steak before heading back to the hotel and crashing for my early morning flight back east.

Lessons learned: 1) stop when twerps walk up to the table! 2) having a backup game or games is helpful when you’re not throwing well. 3) large groups still aren’t the way to go to Vegas. 4) work on shaking off the expectations of others. I think my brother talked to one of his friends because the friend started in on how he expected me to win all this money for him. 5) sticking to my rules saved me money. I’m down less than $200 for the whole trip while there are other guys who are probably out over $1000 due to gambling rather than advantage play bets. I’d explained the 5-count to my brother and he slowly started adopting it when he realized that he was losing less money betting that way. Now I just need to get him to come take a primer class! 6) the layout on my practice rig at home is crooked and trying to follow the pass line was messing with my results. When I started lightly following the rail with my forearm my throws straightened out. 7) I STILL need to go see old Vegas just because.

All in all, a good, fun trip, but I’m looking forward to seeing when the classes for next year are posted so I can get to my refresher!

Oh yeah and for what it’s worth, YardHouse in the LINQ Promenade has a good beer selection!
Beerknurd

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