Des vacances a Paris, ca vous dit? April 2-5

Tuesday is a work day! But I'm sitting in meetings for an hour, which screams out "this is a good time to update that thread".

I got up early on Monday. WFH is odd in that I can roll out of bed five minutes before the start of the work day, brush my teeth real quick, then sit in shorts and a T-shirt through meetings for half the day before I'm even tempted to leave the house. Being in Vegas was similar, although I was out of bed a bit earlier to call up the front desk and ask for a late check-out. They couldn't do much for me, just an extra hour, so I let work know I'd be ducking out a bit early, then set down to work. I skipped breakfast and was thinking of what I'd get for lunch.

I didn't want to gamble on Monday lest I destroy my average daily spend, and (spoiler) I didn't even wind up buying food from CET. I was thinking of trying Sirocco's cuz "it's just across the street", but eventually I remembered that NYNY was actually down the street. My next thought was Gordon Ramsay Burger at PHo, but they were closed.

So now I'm thinking: do I want to stay at MGM? Slightly better craps tables, better BJ tables, but one difference (I think) is CET doesn't care where you gamble, whereas MGM does. If you want offers from NYNY, you need to play there. So, if I had to pick one MGM property as my home, which one would that be? I was thinking that Aria and MGM had great selections of food; then decided to try the Bellagio cafe to see if I could stand eating over there often. It's now called Sadelle's, and I was close to calling it Sad Elle's. Oops, too late, I did.

Warning: whining in the paragraph. I joined the virtual waitlist. They texted me and told me my table was ready, so I walked over. Then they had me wait another five minutes. Then my server didn't stop by for five minutes. Then they came back and told me they had to mazzo soup (which I haven't had since I was a kid! wtf). Then my salad came before I was finished with my backup soup (French Onion). Then the bacon in the Cobb salad was hella hard. Then my tea refill took fifteen minutes. This was not five-star service or food, or four-star.

And then I thought: MGM resorts are probably less picky about eating at other properties, as that comes back as a room charge. Wherever I stayed, I could still hit up any restaurant while I was in town.

I then pushed off the rest of that debate and wandered around Bellagio looking for good games. They had a ton of roulette tables open, although I didn't see a single-zero on the main floor. Three craps tables were fairly active, from $15 on up. They had mostly 6:5 BJ, but they did have three 3:2 tables next to each other, at $25, 50, and 100; I didn't ask if there were any rule differences, but the tables were all marked H17.

Then off to Miracle Mile to stop by Wyland Galleries, then the ABC store to pick up some macadamias, and back to Paris. I asked if I had a host assigned ("no", which is good, cuz I've not talked to one there lately; and "that's usually reserved for diamond players", which is worth noting). Got the total points earned on Saturday and Sunday. With the 5x bonus, I'll be clearly into Diamond and somewhere between 24k and 26k -- so maybe Diamond Plus, maybe just Diamond basic.

LESSONS

* There ain't no low limits on Fridays or Saturdays
* Lines at Brunch on Sunday might be long, but otherwise it's a "weekday"
* Paris and Flamingo checkin are both pretty sad
* I gamble enough at Cromwell, I could probably stay there
* It's possible to play roulette so that bad luck means slowly losing money
* The way I play craps, I tend to quickly lose money
* In fact, they way I craps, I have to get lucky just to break even
* CET has crap for blackjack

NEXT TRIP

* Probably Cromwell, unless I stay at NYNY, MGM, or maybe Bellagio
* Something considerably different at craps
* Probably during the week

THIS CRAPS THING

I like the game and I'm gonna keep playing. But it's obvious that what I'm doing requires that I hit three numbers before a 7 comes, and there's a lot of "games" where that doesn't happen. I don't just mean P7O, but other short rolls or rolls including a lot of horns or one of the two or three numbers I'm not betting.

Multiple light-side bets win slowly but lose quickly. Multiple dark-side bets... requires laying numbers, which means $24, $30, or $41 bets, which (previously) were high for me. I don't really want to go dark-side, as I enjoy being on the same side as the rest of the table.

A third option is to bet such a single win is bigger; to bet more on odds, or on the hardways. That way, I'm looking for one number to hit once, rather than three good numbers first. In fact, currently, my hardways are a small side-bet to my normal play and don't have a material effect on the bottom-line.

Who knows.

I'm back home, safe, and looking forward to my next trip cuz I normally have a lot more book-reading time when I'm flying

One last pic, from the Bellagio conservatory:

 

Thanks for posting. I read how you like to gamble and let me add. I have found that the only way I ever seem to make any "real" money is at the higher limit blackjack tables. When I get serious I am a hit and run player . I will buy in for $500.00 on a $50.00 or $100.00 DD game in a high limit area. Sometimes my money is gone in 5 minutes. Other times I walk away 6k ahead. Once you play in a high limit room it is hard to go back to playing on the main floor. The dealers and pit critters are much friendlier, It is much quieter and the drink service is usually stellar. It is definitely a hit and run strategy and it is oh so hard to resist the urge to buy in again and again when your money is gone after five hands. In order to get my fill of gambling in between hit and runs I play 25 cent bonus poker at five lines at a time. After 35 years of blackjack I have won more money with $500.00 buy ins on higher limit tables than I ever had buying in for $500.00 on $10.00 - $25.00 tables. It seems like I would just get ground down. I just could never get up enough to make it worth while to walk away. One thing for sure if the big strip properties keep screwing with the games there will be no reason for me to leave Tampa except for an occasional Biloxi trip.

 

Enjoyed your report. I wish I could play BJ but I just can't seem to memorize the basic strategy, and it gets old being the person at the $5 table with the laminated strategy card:-(. Craps at least I understand, and have a solid way of playing that works for my stress and bankroll (pass line with single odds, place the 6 & 8. Do the same thing every time. Gives me three numbers working most rolls, which is plenty for me to keep track of!)

I thought I had just read in someone else's report that mLife looks at play across all casinos, and CET looks at it casino by casino, which is the opposite of what you stated above in your report. Wondering if I misremembered.

Anyway, thanks for the enjoyable read, and hope you get more book reading time soon!

 

I have felt exactly the same as you re craps before - you just need one monster to shake the blues