God, How time fly's PART 2

Part II – Wednesday 18th

When we last left our “CRAPSAHOLIC†he was sound asleep in his King size bed with his wife somewhere there beside him (at least we hoped). As the morning approaches one thing was wrong, I couldn’t put my finger on it but I was awaken by this piercing beam of light. At first I thought I was dreaming and this freakin idiot kept shining a flashlight in my eyes, but after further diagnosis I realized that we left the drapes to our room wide open because my wife wanted to fall asleep to the lights outside on the strip. Ok I thought, no big deal, however, once that sun started coming up and made it over the Wynn it seemed like a lazer beam shot in my head. Damn that Wynn, why didn’t he build a “TALLER†freakin Casino to block the sun for an hour more.

Ok, after laying there for a little bit, Finally get up and jump on the laptop and start to jot down some highlights as to what has been happening so I could use the notes for this trip report. Check my email and a do some work related things and then my wife starts rolling around. I get up and get ready to head to the shower but she reminds me of the plans for today. Starting out with some Pool action in the morning, shower, then head off to Green Valley Ranch. So, why bother with a shower, I wash up and get the things ready to take to the pool. Can we say SUNBLOCK!!!! This is the first item in the back pack, a couple mags and we are off and out of the room by 8:30. Head down to the Café, can’t remember what the name was but I guess it’s where everyone goes for breakfast because it was packed. Fortunately we got seated right away. Just for kicks, I looked at the limits at the craps table and shake my head $ 10 mins and only 5 people on the table. Yep, no playing here for the time that we stay at the hotel. As I was saying, we get seated and the “Drink Getter†takes our drink order. I see that they can get you Starbucks so I order a Capauchino. 15 minutes later we get our order taken and still no “Chinoâ€, I ask the guy who took our drink order and he says that it’s on it’s way. 30 Minutes after sitting down, we get our food order, but still NO CHINO. Brother needs his CHINO DAMMIT!!!!!!! FINALLY the waitress brings me my CHINO and all is calm in the world once more. We finish up our meal and head straight out do the pool. Walk around to the one pool with the water fall action, figure I would get under the water fall and let the water beat on my neck. Grab some chairs (no shade) and lather up with SPF 6000. Man is it freakin hot out here already for being 9:30. Oh well, it is in the middle of the desert, what more can I expect. Anyhow, I jump in the pool, at least the water is cool. Stay in the pool for a few minutes and then get out to start the sunning process. The one thing about me and pools, or beaches for that matter, is that I get bored just laying there listening to my Ipod. We manage to stay there for about an hour an half and then head up to the room for some showers.

Showers done, dressed and we are off to the Valet to get the car and head to Green Valley Ranch. I wanted to take my wife out to this place because we watched that “American Casino†that they had on TV and wanted to check it out. Got out there no problem, downloaded directions from the internet and it was a piece of cake getting there. We go in and sign up for the players cards, hopefully we will get some offers. The lady says that there is some “Free†play money on them that range from $1 - $500. We go to some slots and low and behold the digital reader says……………………… $3.00, WOOHOO I’m a winner , my wifes says the same. I run a $20 through it pretty quick, however I did get a Corona out of the deal. After my play is done I walk to the bathroom, my wife is starting to get drained so I figured by the time I am done “Downloading†She will be done and we can walk around. I come back and look at her Credits and WOW, she is up over 300 Credits, not bad for a $20. She plays it down to 240 and cash’s out. Good $40 profit. We walk around the place and walk by the table games, the one thing that I notice is that it is VERY quiet in here. People are playing, but pretty mellow. And NO KIDS running around, that I liked. We find the craps tables and they had 2 running, both with, wait a minute, get ready……… $5 mins. I cant get a Benji on the table fast enough, I about break my wrist trying to get my wallet out of my back pocket. The table is only about 6 or 7 people, not a really talkative table, but nice people over all. The dice are moving around the table, nothing really happening, couple points A LOT OF 7 OUTS… My turn comes to roll and I think I am down about $50 by this time. My wife is walking around and I am playing my usual Point and 6/8. My first roll lasts about 10 minutes but I don’t hit any of my numbers and 7 out is said by the “STICKâ€. Dice make a move around the table again, I am down to $3 and I drop another $40 on the table just so I have enough to place the 6/8 after the point is established by the shooter directly to my right. If I don’t hit any of my numbers by him or a point, I am out of there and down $140. So, in my hand I am holding about $16 in chips. The shooter hits 2 of my numbers and then 7 outs. It’s my roll and I’m holding about $35 - $38, My wife walks up, she looks at me and I just shake my head. She knows that shake and just smiles at me. Anyhow, I shoot the dice and my point is 6, ok, good, at least one of my normal numbers is in play. I back that up with $10, place the 8 for $6 and now I’m holding about $8 in my hand. My lovely wife tells me to put the $5 chip on the 9 so I do. I tell the dealers that that’s my wife’s 9 and any money won would go in to her stack. Low and behold I hit that damn 9 about 5 times before hitting my point. Oh, I didn’t hit a single 8, just “HER†9. Ok, I’m doing ok, making a come back, I roll for the point and it’s a 5 so I back that with odds and then place the 6. I hit about 2 more 9’s and a couple 6’s and 8’s and then SEVEN OUT!!!!! That’s ok, I made a little come back and I’m happy. The dice move down to the other end of the table. This guy picks up the dice and he actually seems nervous to have them in his hand. I’m thinking to myself, this isn’t going to last long. He sets the point and guess what the point is….. “ 9 “ Shoot, I’m on this, that damn 9 has been good to me since my wife has been standing there. Back the 9 with $10 for odds and place the usual 6 / 8. This guy is rolling, hitting my numbers and then hits the 9, the table starts getting a little more louder the tension in the air is no longer. The guy rolls, point set, rolls, I pick up money off the table, rolls, more money off the table, rolls, more money off the table. Before I know it, this guy has made 5 points and there is a “CRAP†load of money on the table, on the numbers, the hardways (which he is killing), just stacks of checks all over the place. Me, I’m still just playing my $6 on the 6 / 8 and $5 on the 5 / 9 with $10 backing up on my pass line bet. I must tell you at this time, I am a firm believer in superstition. I will not do anything different to my bets, even if a roller is killing them. I know what you all must be thinking, PRESS, PRESS, but the moment I do, I feel like I put the mojo on the table and I just can’t bring myself to doing that. It’s all SUPERSTITION to me. Anyhow, everytime my man on the ROLL hits a number my stack of checks in my hand is getting longer and longer. I put some of the checks down and split them out into $100 stacks on the rail. I’m oblivious as to how many I have, not really keeping track. As for my wifes “9†stack, it is building faster then they are putting up new casinos here in vegas. Ok, maybe not that fast but her original $5 chip has grown in to about $75. Back to the shooter, this guy is knocking the crap out of the Hard 8, the next roll he hits it again and I just happen to see what checks are on the Hard 8, I see at least 2 black chipsk 1 for the shooter and 1 for the guy to his right. For those who don’t know, that’s $100 chip. Let’s see, Hard 8 was 10 to 1, what a hit, and he not only hit it once, but 3 times during his roll. What a shooter this guy was, as the time went on, I noticed the pit boss gets a phone call and heard him say “Yea, he’s been shooting a long timeâ€. Must have been the boys upstairs trying to see if he is doing anything wrong. Nope, nothing out of the ordinary, just one of those rolls that you dream off. When it is all said and done, those infamous words are spoken “ SEVEN OUTâ€. This guy held the dice for at least 55 minutes, everyone on the table was yelling, clapping and just going crazy. I have been on 1 great roll before that lasted about 45 minutes but this was unbelieveable. So many hardways hit and the feeling that I had while he was shooting was that he was never going to hit a 7. It was a weird feeling, but deep down, I knew that he was going to run the table for a long time. Everyone was saying, Pass the dice, Pass the dice, as for me, I was counting out $490 in chips to color up. I put my chips down on the table and said “Color Comming Inâ€, the guy next to me asked me why I was leaving “The Table is Hotâ€. I told him that yep, it’s hot, but I have never seen the table stay hot after a roll like that. I just got back my $140 Plus a nice profit of $350, that’s good enough for me, I wasn’t going to be stupid and stay there “TOO LONG†like I always do hoping for another “HOT†roll. Nope, $350 profit was good enough for me. I wished everyone at the table good luck, flipped the “Guys with Bowties†2 Greens and my wife and I were headed for the cage. As for my wife’s Number 9 Stack, she got a Benji flipped to her after we left the cage. She was all smiles and told me that she was buying dinner, sounded good to me.

We head out of the Green Valley Ranch, vowing to make a return visit there the next time. Not just because we had good luck there on the Craps table, but I really liked the place, quiet, not screaming kids and a nice atmosphere.
So now we are headed to the Hofbrauhaus restraunt on paradise, we always make it a point to stop here while we are in Vegas. I like the beer and my wife likes the Brats. So we are headed down LV Blvd, I make a right onto Tropicana and then a left on to Koval because I guess I have to do a loop back on Paradise to get there. As we are driving down Koval my wife spots Ellis Island and says, lets eat there again. Who am I do argue, she is buying right? . We bank a hard right and we are in the parking lot and walking into the “E†for some more steak specials. We get seated right away, I think at this time it is only a little after 4. Instead of the steak special my wife orders the Shrimp pasta with Marinara and I order the Chicken fried steak. I also order a Stout, the same one I had on Monday night, it’s a good bodied stout and not to bitter, nice smooth taste. I can’t remember the name, but just ask for a dark beer and you will get it. I walk over to the sports book to pick up some horse sheets, I pick up the line up for Evangeline and Charles Town because they are just getting ready to start. Back at the table, I look at some races and decide that I can bet on some of them, but we are headed to the Excalibur to meet up with our friends so I will do my ponies back over there. We eat our dinner and we are lucky we got there when we did because it is getting packed in there by this time. Eat, pay, and we are out of there headed back to the Excalibur. We want to give them some play because at least they will know that we were there, besides, they comped our friends room for us using my players points. So, we tell V&B to meet us at the sports book when they are done eating. My wife and I go to the sports book, look at the races coming up and this place is packed. Half of them playing Keno and the other half betting the ponies or watching the ball game on the HUGE BIG SCREEN. I find a place to sit down with our own TV to watch the races, I make my picks for the next race. Nothing too extravagant, just a Win/Place/Show on a horse with pretty good odds. The horse won so I got paid on all 3, I think it was about a $19 win, turned that around on a Trifecta on the next race, LOST. Then on the next race I decided to make a bet on an Exacta with Horse number 8 and, wait for it, wait for it, that’s right NUMBER TWOOOOOOOOOO. For those who don’t get the NUMBER 2 thing, read the first part of this trip report. Anyhow, on to the race, 1 minute to post, the horses are approaching the starting gates, all horses are in line, The rider is off the Number 2 horse, WHAT? WHAT did he say? Did he say the rider is off the Number 2? They back the horse out of the gate, walk him around and then it is announced that the Number 2 horse is a Late Scratch. Is this a sign? Don’t bet on the 2. I change my ticket to the number 8 across the board, the race goes off and the number 8 finishes 4th. Ok, that’s enough horses for me, I pick horses like I pick my nose, very painful and the outcome is never good.

So, out of the sports book, my wife wants to play some Blackjack. She has never played in a casino or practiced on the computer, but she wants to try it because she said that the slot machines are just sucking her money away. We find a table with? That’s right sports fans, $5 mins, I drop a Benji and she drops Half a Benji. The cards are up and down, but we hold or own and I am actually up about $50 by the time V calls my wife on the cell. She wants to go see that stupid “Thunder from down Underâ€. My wife asked If she could go, I had no problem with it, besides, I have my Blackjack friends here and she will know where to find me when the show is over. She colors up “EVEN†and they head out. B shows up and says that he is going to play some poker, Astalavista Baby. The cards are running my way for a while until this lady starts some stupid stuff. Double down on a 12 when the dealer is showing a 7, double down on a 13, not once but she does this a couple times. Her husband is looking at her telling her not to do it, but she does it anyhow, takes the dealers bust card and the table loses. This happened a couple more times before 1st base said something to her and she finally got the point, between that and her losing all her money. Finally a good group of people who know what they are doing and then we start killing the dealer. I am tipping the dealer and hoping the the rest of the table follows my lead, but they are all tight. I don’t think I seen 1 person tip the dealer while I was playing there. I look down at my stack and I see that I have 8 stacks of 5 $5 chips lining up for $200 + 3 Green chips and realize that between all the Coronas and the good time I’m having, I am up $175 before my wife gets back from the show. She stands behind me until a seat opens up and then she sits down and we start playing together again. She drops her original half a Benji and we are off. I gotta tell you, for someone who has never played Blackjack before, she is the luckiest person I know. She is hitting 16’s and getting 21’s, hitting 15’s and getting 20’s against the dealers 19’s, just unbelieveable. When she is hitting, I almost tell the dealer to pay her before he flips up the card, that’s how lucky she is getting. Upset? me? No way, it’s good to see her have a good time. Usually we are at different ends of the casino, me on craps and her on slots, this is fun to sit down and play together. My wife and I are still the only ones tipping or “Playing†for the dealer, I hate to see this, throw the dog a bone every once in a while. If I hit a double down, I play for the dealer, if I hit a blackjack, I play for the dealer, if the dealer busts and I am holding a shitty hand, I play for the dealer. Just nobody picked up on this. I would have to say that between my wife and I, we probably had the dealer drop about $200 + in the toke box for “The Boysâ€. So, after staying at that table since about 6 and it is now about 1:30, I figure it is time to pack up and head back to the RIO. We color up, my wife is up $60 and I am up $180 for the session. We get the car out of Valet and are headed “HOMEâ€. Get back to the RIO and the Valet is blocked off saying it is full but the guy comes down and tells me to pull it up to the side and he will take care of it. Good, I didn’t want to have to try and find a parking place somewhere. Head in to the Casino and don’t even think about looking at the tables. My wife tells me to go play, but I still can’t see playing at a $10 craps table. I know, I know, I just had a good session of Blackjack and a Kick Ass Session of Craps over at the Green Valley Ranch, but with all that profit, I don’t want to feel out of my Comfort Zone on a $10 table. So, it’s off to the room and Nighty Night. It’s about 3 before I start to fall asleep watching tv so I get up and shut the blinds, NO LASER BEAM in the morning coming through. I nod off to sleep dreaming of 6 , 8, and 9’s.

Gambling recap for the day

Green Valley Ranch : - $20 on the slots, + 350 on the Craps table

Excalibur: - $25ish on the ponies, + 180 on Blackjack

Total so far this trip: The GOOSE is sitting on a + $ 400 ish profit so far.

I realize that this is quit long for just 1 day so I have to break it in to another Part. Part III will be tmw. Man, this is almost a movie, or a mini series at the least.
This trip report WILL be completed tmw in PART 3….

 

Enjoying the trip so far, keep it coming!

I agree, sitting at a BJ table where everyone is playing "correctly"
makes the experience that much better. Winning is a bonus!
I always toke the dealers, helps the gambling karma.

 

awesome trip report so far..i'm sitting here at work and the urge to go to vegas is hitting me again..but then again, when is it not??

 

I know exactly what you mean about pressing your bets on a hot craps table. I never press my bets until the shooter makes a point, no matter how many numbers he may roll. Pressing my bets will bring a seven more quickly than anything other than someone pointing out that I have all the numbers covered with come bets.
I admire your discipline in only playing $5 tables. I wish I could stick to that. Unfortunately, the allure of the dice is sometimes too strong.

 

Gotta love the hot craps table...

Its been so long since I have seen one, I have just about given up on Craps completely...

Great report, keep it coming...

 

Nice score on craps at GVR and BJ at Ecal. I have to agree with you about "tipping" the dealers; though, sometimes I think people are ignorant about that.