goofygrin
Tourist
Whew. Been here 1.5 days and I haven't seen much. That's about to change!
It was a late night, but my buddy had told me to call him if I woke up and was going downstairs before the girls got up again. I told him to do the same. At 8, my cell goes off and he's ready to go. I roll my butt out of bed, get dressed and head downstairs. He's firmly rooted at one $3 bj table, there's only high roller craps ($5). But there's room at the other $3 bj table. I'd soon find out why.
I buy in for $100 and play a couple hands. At first base there's a mexican betting $5 on one hand, $3 on the other (and swapping around a lot). One other guy playing basic strategy $3 bets, another guy to my right and I'm next to the dealer.
Things get wierd for me when the guy to my right doubles a 13 against a 7 (and loses, surprise surprise). He's out of money and gets up.
Next hand the mexican hits a 16 against a 3. Busts. His other hand, he splits two faces. Gets another face. Splits. Gets a 10. Splits. Gets a 10. Wants to split again, but can only split 4 times. He wins a couple of those 4 hands. He would continue to split 10's until there were enough of us at the table telling him not to that he only did it 1/2 the time. It get's odder with this guy.
Another guy comes up, really bookish. He starts playing basic strategy (like me, unless my "internal count" is saying there are lots of little cards left; yeah I'm a rainman and can keep pretty good track of faces/tens in a 6 shoe). He's up and down like me. The mexican? well he bets $27.50 and $5. His last money. He wins the $27.50 and loses the $5. He loses the $55 in about 3 hands due to doubles and splits and gets us.
Right as we got done making fun of him he comes back. I guess he just went to the ATM or something, because 3 fresh $20's get traded in. He continues his erratic play, but has calmed down a little when he sees that I and the bookish guy aren't losing quite as much money. This hobo-lookin' lady sits down and cashes in a $20. She brings good luck
and I hit two black jacks in a row (after pressing bets, I was finally back even). Well the messican is down to his last $27.50. He makes one bet... and busts hitting a 13 against a 6. He's gone. I play a couple more hands and am down to $4 left (above my original buyin). I make a $3 bet with $1 for the dealer... and get a blackjack! I decide to press my luck a little and stay... I get back down to my $100 and walk away. 2 hours play... no loss no gain... sure was fun though =)
At some point my buddy and his wife had walked by and said they were going to the strip for breakfast and to go to the 1/2 price show tickets place to get some show tickets for that night, since my wife and I were going to the OSU/UNLV basketball game that evening (at which I'm sure he would have had more fun). I was still playing so I bid them goodbye =)
I go back up to the room and scare my wife awake. Yesterday on the golf course, I had gotten a call about my golf bag. The place had a replacement, but it might not be as big as mine... Since I was in Mesquite, I didn't take care of it on Friday and they were open 10-2 on Saturday (today). She gets dressed and we grab my clubs to go test fit them in this bag. We get over there in no time. The bag is much nicer than mine and just a little smaller. My clubs fit and I've turned a $60 club case into a $120 club case! Thank you TSA!
On the way back we are both hungry, so we stop at In-n-Out. We don't have those in Texas and we've both never been. Dang that's a good burger, fries and shake! If they opened those up here, they would be swamped the whole time they are open! We get the requisite shirts for her family (which again are very reasonably priced!) and head back to the Orleans.
It's 1pm, we've got to be at the UNLV campus for a 7pm tipoff, so we decide to go walk the strip so I can see it and take some pictures.
We hop the shuttle over to the BC and start walking north. At the IP we had a coupon for free entry into the car museum. We went up and took a gander. There's some nice cars, but just a few were truely awesome. On the way out, we took our Elvis picture and spun the wheel. I won $50 free slot play and she won a hat. We go back in and get our stuff, I "lose" my $50 and on the way out, she remebers I have a matchplay there in the LVA... well there are actually two of them! I play my first hand... and win! I play my second hand and... lose =(. But IP just paid me $5 to walk around their casino, look at cars, get two pictures with Elvis, get a free hat, play $50 on their "slots" and pee in their bathroom. That's a win in my book!
We keep walking north just looking at stuff til we got to Casino Royale. We both lose our "free" $50 in slot pulls and head on out. We walk north all the way to TI (we stopped at the Venetian and looked around; the mall is nice, but we have all that crap at home). We head back south on the west side of the road, checking out all those casinos.
We stop at Bellagio and watch the fountains... much more impressive at night I think, but still cool. We get to NYNY. While walking around, we see a Zoltar machine (like from the movie Big). I have to get my fortune told by Zoltar (it was like 5 fortune cookie fortunes in one). I take my picture of the green lady and we head back north. We got our free mugs at Alladin and headed back to the BC to catch the shuttle.
Notice we only gambled where we had match plays, only did free things, got free things and didn't really sit at any one casino. Not what the casinos want, but we were on a schedule!
We catch the shuttle back to Orleans, drop off our crap and head back to the car to get to the game. We meet up with my buddy and his wife when we get off the shuttle and they are getting on. They got tickets to Havana Nights (she *really* had wanted to see that) at the Stardust and were going to walk! all the way there from the BC. We told them to have a good time and that we'd give them a shout when our game was done.
We didn't have a lot of time before the game, so we were trying to find something fast and cheap to get on the way... on Maryland just east of UNLV there is an... In-n-Out. I'm such a loser I had the same thing twice... on the same day... while in Vegas! Ugh. Was still good though
We get to the game. Fun times by all clad in orange as OSU pulls of the win in one of the worst officiated games I've ever seen. We didn't feel like staying for the second game (we should have, it was a good one, with Gonzaga pulling out the upset).
We head out and call my buddy. They're at the Stardust and are gambling a bit. They both won with the $20 matchplay coupons that they gave out at the show. Plus they had some other friends in town that they wanted to meet up with [it turns out that these friends have awsome luck. Hit $6000 on one slot, $1000 on another and various other $100 jackpots. Me? I couldn't hit crap on a slot... so I don't play them]. So we took a driving tour of the strip... almost all of it. Flamingo to Fremont! LVB was closed in front of the Stratosphere as they were filming some movie. They made us detour west of the strip (this was way hood-ier than by Ellis Island), but we made it ok.
I'd wanted to go downtown to see Fremont and to try some "cheap" downtown gaming. Ugh, what a waste of time.
We go into the 4 Queens to get parking validation (no problem other than I'm a moron and don't know how to use the machine). We walk down Fremont street and cross over to the Plaza (the POV has a coupon in there). As we are walking up, there is a line forming at the big slot out front. We both spin and win show tickets + a drink at some show. When we turn them in, we tell them we would rather have the free decks of cards (the default, just for spinning) because we were leaving town tomorrow. They looked at us funny and gave us the cards.
Let me tell you something about the Plaza... when we walked in my wife said "this is the geriatric casino." She was 1/2 right. It was the geriatric asian casino. I had a matchplay in the POV that I didn't use because you couldn't get through the acrid smoke from the players to get to the tables. Worst. casino. ever.
We head outside and have brisk walk to Main Street Station. Downtown is scary at night. Main Street Station sucks. So far, downtown I've seen 1, ONE $3 table (blackjack). Sure it's saturday night, but dang, I thought downtown was low roller city! We take the skyway over to the Las Vegas Club (I think?). It was d-e-a-d and there was noone to get my free drink from the POV. Oh well.
We walked outside just in time to get the last couple minutes of the Fremont street experience. It was cool and all... but I can't think of any reason to go back downtown.
We go get our car and on the way, there's this beat up car on a trailer with a light on it and a camera in the bed of the truck pulling the trailer. It sure looked low budget and a lot like someone was filming without permission
We took a picture just in case it becomes a famous movie...
We get into the car and I ask my wife "is there anything else you want to do?" I hear "maybe go up the Eiffel Tower." I tell her I'm sick of the strip, but I'll go if she wants, otherwise we'll head back to the Orleans. She declines and we head back to the Orleans.
Notice I didn't say I was ready for bed. It's about midnight when we get back and we have to be at the airport at 6:30 to catch the plane (at 9:30, they told us to be there 3 hours early).
We get back to the orleans and I'm ready to try my hand at $3 craps again (remember my disappointment in downtown?). Well she gets pissed at me and head back to the room. I don't want any of that action so I find me a spot next to the stick man where I was at last night. Cash in my $100.
Play is down. This table is fairly cold. I'm down about $40 when a lady shooter comes up. Just like my wife she makes me even plus some. I've learned to press my 6's tonight! She finally craps out and the dice go around a couple times. By now, I've separated out my original $100, never to dip into it again. I get the dice 3 times... 7, 11, 4, 7. 7, 4, 7. 7, 4, 7. I suck at rolling the dice. The orleans didn't seem to mind dice setting though.
The table goes cold enough that the don'ts start making some money. At that point, I'm down to $7 (above my $100 buy in). I bet $5 on Pass, hit a Yo, press it hit a 3. With $2 left, I cash out +$2 for this session (about an hour). I had been up $64 at one time, but was trying to that second $100. I should have left when I could.
I walk back up to my room. My wife it not happy, but she has packed the room. By the time we get over our disagreement, it's 2am and we have to get up at 5:30. Fun. Sleepy time here I come.
[ December 21, 2004, 01:14 PM: Message edited by: goofygrin ]
It was a late night, but my buddy had told me to call him if I woke up and was going downstairs before the girls got up again. I told him to do the same. At 8, my cell goes off and he's ready to go. I roll my butt out of bed, get dressed and head downstairs. He's firmly rooted at one $3 bj table, there's only high roller craps ($5). But there's room at the other $3 bj table. I'd soon find out why.
I buy in for $100 and play a couple hands. At first base there's a mexican betting $5 on one hand, $3 on the other (and swapping around a lot). One other guy playing basic strategy $3 bets, another guy to my right and I'm next to the dealer.
Things get wierd for me when the guy to my right doubles a 13 against a 7 (and loses, surprise surprise). He's out of money and gets up.
Next hand the mexican hits a 16 against a 3. Busts. His other hand, he splits two faces. Gets another face. Splits. Gets a 10. Splits. Gets a 10. Wants to split again, but can only split 4 times. He wins a couple of those 4 hands. He would continue to split 10's until there were enough of us at the table telling him not to that he only did it 1/2 the time. It get's odder with this guy.
Another guy comes up, really bookish. He starts playing basic strategy (like me, unless my "internal count" is saying there are lots of little cards left; yeah I'm a rainman and can keep pretty good track of faces/tens in a 6 shoe). He's up and down like me. The mexican? well he bets $27.50 and $5. His last money. He wins the $27.50 and loses the $5. He loses the $55 in about 3 hands due to doubles and splits and gets us.
Right as we got done making fun of him he comes back. I guess he just went to the ATM or something, because 3 fresh $20's get traded in. He continues his erratic play, but has calmed down a little when he sees that I and the bookish guy aren't losing quite as much money. This hobo-lookin' lady sits down and cashes in a $20. She brings good luck
At some point my buddy and his wife had walked by and said they were going to the strip for breakfast and to go to the 1/2 price show tickets place to get some show tickets for that night, since my wife and I were going to the OSU/UNLV basketball game that evening (at which I'm sure he would have had more fun). I was still playing so I bid them goodbye =)
I go back up to the room and scare my wife awake. Yesterday on the golf course, I had gotten a call about my golf bag. The place had a replacement, but it might not be as big as mine... Since I was in Mesquite, I didn't take care of it on Friday and they were open 10-2 on Saturday (today). She gets dressed and we grab my clubs to go test fit them in this bag. We get over there in no time. The bag is much nicer than mine and just a little smaller. My clubs fit and I've turned a $60 club case into a $120 club case! Thank you TSA!
On the way back we are both hungry, so we stop at In-n-Out. We don't have those in Texas and we've both never been. Dang that's a good burger, fries and shake! If they opened those up here, they would be swamped the whole time they are open! We get the requisite shirts for her family (which again are very reasonably priced!) and head back to the Orleans.
It's 1pm, we've got to be at the UNLV campus for a 7pm tipoff, so we decide to go walk the strip so I can see it and take some pictures.
We hop the shuttle over to the BC and start walking north. At the IP we had a coupon for free entry into the car museum. We went up and took a gander. There's some nice cars, but just a few were truely awesome. On the way out, we took our Elvis picture and spun the wheel. I won $50 free slot play and she won a hat. We go back in and get our stuff, I "lose" my $50 and on the way out, she remebers I have a matchplay there in the LVA... well there are actually two of them! I play my first hand... and win! I play my second hand and... lose =(. But IP just paid me $5 to walk around their casino, look at cars, get two pictures with Elvis, get a free hat, play $50 on their "slots" and pee in their bathroom. That's a win in my book!
We keep walking north just looking at stuff til we got to Casino Royale. We both lose our "free" $50 in slot pulls and head on out. We walk north all the way to TI (we stopped at the Venetian and looked around; the mall is nice, but we have all that crap at home). We head back south on the west side of the road, checking out all those casinos.
We stop at Bellagio and watch the fountains... much more impressive at night I think, but still cool. We get to NYNY. While walking around, we see a Zoltar machine (like from the movie Big). I have to get my fortune told by Zoltar (it was like 5 fortune cookie fortunes in one). I take my picture of the green lady and we head back north. We got our free mugs at Alladin and headed back to the BC to catch the shuttle.
Notice we only gambled where we had match plays, only did free things, got free things and didn't really sit at any one casino. Not what the casinos want, but we were on a schedule!
We catch the shuttle back to Orleans, drop off our crap and head back to the car to get to the game. We meet up with my buddy and his wife when we get off the shuttle and they are getting on. They got tickets to Havana Nights (she *really* had wanted to see that) at the Stardust and were going to walk! all the way there from the BC. We told them to have a good time and that we'd give them a shout when our game was done.
We didn't have a lot of time before the game, so we were trying to find something fast and cheap to get on the way... on Maryland just east of UNLV there is an... In-n-Out. I'm such a loser I had the same thing twice... on the same day... while in Vegas! Ugh. Was still good though
We get to the game. Fun times by all clad in orange as OSU pulls of the win in one of the worst officiated games I've ever seen. We didn't feel like staying for the second game (we should have, it was a good one, with Gonzaga pulling out the upset).
We head out and call my buddy. They're at the Stardust and are gambling a bit. They both won with the $20 matchplay coupons that they gave out at the show. Plus they had some other friends in town that they wanted to meet up with [it turns out that these friends have awsome luck. Hit $6000 on one slot, $1000 on another and various other $100 jackpots. Me? I couldn't hit crap on a slot... so I don't play them]. So we took a driving tour of the strip... almost all of it. Flamingo to Fremont! LVB was closed in front of the Stratosphere as they were filming some movie. They made us detour west of the strip (this was way hood-ier than by Ellis Island), but we made it ok.
I'd wanted to go downtown to see Fremont and to try some "cheap" downtown gaming. Ugh, what a waste of time.
We go into the 4 Queens to get parking validation (no problem other than I'm a moron and don't know how to use the machine). We walk down Fremont street and cross over to the Plaza (the POV has a coupon in there). As we are walking up, there is a line forming at the big slot out front. We both spin and win show tickets + a drink at some show. When we turn them in, we tell them we would rather have the free decks of cards (the default, just for spinning) because we were leaving town tomorrow. They looked at us funny and gave us the cards.
Let me tell you something about the Plaza... when we walked in my wife said "this is the geriatric casino." She was 1/2 right. It was the geriatric asian casino. I had a matchplay in the POV that I didn't use because you couldn't get through the acrid smoke from the players to get to the tables. Worst. casino. ever.
We head outside and have brisk walk to Main Street Station. Downtown is scary at night. Main Street Station sucks. So far, downtown I've seen 1, ONE $3 table (blackjack). Sure it's saturday night, but dang, I thought downtown was low roller city! We take the skyway over to the Las Vegas Club (I think?). It was d-e-a-d and there was noone to get my free drink from the POV. Oh well.
We walked outside just in time to get the last couple minutes of the Fremont street experience. It was cool and all... but I can't think of any reason to go back downtown.
We go get our car and on the way, there's this beat up car on a trailer with a light on it and a camera in the bed of the truck pulling the trailer. It sure looked low budget and a lot like someone was filming without permission
We took a picture just in case it becomes a famous movie...We get into the car and I ask my wife "is there anything else you want to do?" I hear "maybe go up the Eiffel Tower." I tell her I'm sick of the strip, but I'll go if she wants, otherwise we'll head back to the Orleans. She declines and we head back to the Orleans.
Notice I didn't say I was ready for bed. It's about midnight when we get back and we have to be at the airport at 6:30 to catch the plane (at 9:30, they told us to be there 3 hours early).
We get back to the orleans and I'm ready to try my hand at $3 craps again (remember my disappointment in downtown?). Well she gets pissed at me and head back to the room. I don't want any of that action so I find me a spot next to the stick man where I was at last night. Cash in my $100.
Play is down. This table is fairly cold. I'm down about $40 when a lady shooter comes up. Just like my wife she makes me even plus some. I've learned to press my 6's tonight! She finally craps out and the dice go around a couple times. By now, I've separated out my original $100, never to dip into it again. I get the dice 3 times... 7, 11, 4, 7. 7, 4, 7. 7, 4, 7. I suck at rolling the dice. The orleans didn't seem to mind dice setting though.
The table goes cold enough that the don'ts start making some money. At that point, I'm down to $7 (above my $100 buy in). I bet $5 on Pass, hit a Yo, press it hit a 3. With $2 left, I cash out +$2 for this session (about an hour). I had been up $64 at one time, but was trying to that second $100. I should have left when I could.
I walk back up to my room. My wife it not happy, but she has packed the room. By the time we get over our disagreement, it's 2am and we have to get up at 5:30. Fun. Sleepy time here I come.
[ December 21, 2004, 01:14 PM: Message edited by: goofygrin ]
