My New Blog is Up

I have started a new BLOG at the CasinoGuide.com website.

Please feel free to stop by and let me know what you think.

The new link is: http://www.casinoguide.com/blogs/vegasgambler

Mandalay Bay Weekend

This is getting very frustrating. I am losing so often that I don't even like to write about it because it just puts me in a bad mood.

I spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at an event at Mandalay Bay. I lost about $7,000 playing 9/6 Jacks or Better video poker and a good six deck Blackjack game.

Fortunately the event was giving away $250,000 to the invited guests. I got to choose a briefcase which contained anywhere between $150 and $50,000. Since the total giveaway was $250,000 and there was only 20 briefcases, the average value of the cases was $12,500.

Well lucky me selects a case that contains $400. That is how my luck has been for the past few months.

Weekend Total: -$6,600

Year to Date: +$23,147

Finally a win

I have cut way back on my gambling the past few weeks because I have been bleeding off my bankroll much quicker than anticipated. But today, the day started out very good. I went to Putter's for my morning coffee before work and played the $1 Double Double progressive ($10,037). I didn't hit the progressive but I did hold one Ace and it gave me three more for $800. I forgot to take a picture of it.

Later in the day I played video poker and video blackjack at Noreen's, Kicker's, Blue Ox, and Putters. I won another $250

Daily Total: +1,010
Year to Date: +$29,747

Fremont Street

On Wednesday I met a friend downtown Las Vegas to play a little Blackjack. I arrived about half an hour before our scheduled meeting time and decided to walk around Fremont street for a while. After going in and out of a few casinos a noticed 9/4/4 Bonus Deuces Wild game (99.5%) at the Las Vegas Club. It was a very old machine that still used $1 coins instead of tickets.

I sat down and played for about ten minutes and cashed out $25 ahead. As soon as I hit the collect button I knew I was in trouble. The machine spit out three coins and stopped. A slot atendant came over and got a jammed coin out of the elevator arm. The machine then kicked out the remaining 122 $1 coins. After scooping the filthy coins into a bucket and cashing them in, I clearly remembered why "coins" have disappeared from casinos.

I met my friend over at the Golden Gate casino and we played some $5 blackjack for a total of about 2.5 hours. I ended up losing $35 at Blackjack. We went over to the Golden Nugget and had a nice meal at their Italian restaurant. The dessert cart looked incredible but neither of us could eat any more.

Daily Total: -$10

Year to Date: +$28,737

MGM Slot Tournament

I paid a $1000 to enter a slot tournament at MGM this weekend. The prize pool was $350,000 and it only had 148 entrants. My math says that is a great tournament to get into.

The tournament was broken down into two separate days with $175,000 given away each day. The first place prize was $25,000 and went down from there. The last place prize was $500 so everybody would at least get their buyin back.

In the first round on Friday I scored 12,690. On the second round on Friday I scored 12,589. With those scores I thought I would be in the middle of pack for the days prizes. Boy was I wrong. I finished 13th. Well, actually it was 13th from the bottom good for 135th place out of 148 and it paid $500.

On Saturday my scores improved to 15,300 an 13,200 for another spectacular $500 win. I guess my carrer as a professional slot tournament player is now in question.

The good news is that I got my $1000 buy in back so it really was a freeroll. I will play in this type of a tournament any time it is offered.

Daily Result: -$0
Year to Date: +$28,747

A Busy night of gambling

I checked into the MGM last night for a slot tournament on Friday and Saturday. After checking in I visited the High Limit slots room at MGM to survey any changes. I didn't see anything new so I sat down at one of the 50-play $1 jacks or better games (99.5% + 0.33% free play). This game is almost break even and a great game to play to generate lots of coin in while theorhetically losing very little. I started out playing 10 hands at a time and slowly went up and down. I varied between playing 10, 15, and 25 hands depending on the amount of credits I had. I played for about a half hour putting through $14,000 with a $200 win.

The guy next to me was playing the highest stakes video poker that I ever witnessed. He was playing a 10-play $50 denom game. In the half hour I was there he lost the $15,000 he had on the machine when I got there, took another marker for $20,000, and was down to $2,000 when I left.

After meeting my friend for dinner, she wanted to play a silly penny video slot so I sat and watch for about 20 minutes until my mind was completely numb. While she continued playing that I went back over to the 50-plays and lost $1100 in ten minutes. Our next stop was NYNY so she could play the penny 5 reel 30 line Millionaire Sevens game. For those not familiar with this game, I think it is the best mechanical reel slot introduced in the last 5 years. This is the only reel slot that I could actually sit and play for a few minutes without being bored. While she is playing the slot I go over to a Blackjack table and go on a tear. I bought in for $500 and started betting $50. After about fifteen minutes I cashed out $1725 when they changed dealers. I finished by not losing a single hand in my last 12 hands.

Next we walk over to the Excalibur to play the $1 10/6 Double Double game (100.1%). I give my friend some money so we could both play on my card while having drinks at the bar. My machine is playing pretty well and I am getting a few four of a kinds. Her machine isn;t cooperating and she loses $500 of my money. Right as she runs out I hit four four's with a kicker for $800. I cash out at $1200 and make her go collect on the ticket. When she returns we each put another $100 in and she manages to hit for Aces on the very first hand. I was very excited until I noticed she was playing quarters. Apparently, the machine defaulted back to quarters when she ran out of money. She hadn't noticed until I pointed it out and then she felt terrible. Oops, that cost me $600. When we finish playing video poker I am exactly even for the day.

At about 1am we returned to MGM where in my drunken tired state of mind I deduced it would be wise to play some more Blackjack. I found the good double deck game and proceeded to lose a $1000 in about 40 minutes. I was foolish because I was actually ahead $500 at one point and I didn't quit. At this point I compounded my stupidity by going back to the 50play machine to "win back my $1000". That cost me $1300 more and then I called it a night.


Daily Result: -$2,300
Year to Date: +$28,747

Weekend at Mandalay Bay

I was invited to a weekend slot tournament at Mandalay Bay. I had a nice room for three nights and spent a lot of time by the pool. The tournament was set up so each player got to play two sessions with the highest score of each session winning $25,000. The first session I played I cam in second and received $0. The second session I was in the middle of the pack and also got $0.

On thursday night I mainly just walked the strip with a friend of mine. I did manage to win a $100 playing the 10/6 DDB $1 game at Excalibur. When we got back to Mandalay Bay I saw the 100-play $1 9/6 Jacks or Better game was open so I sat down to earn some points. I didn't play very long and quit down $1500 for the session.

On Friday we walked around more and I mainly watched my friend play all the crazy slot machines. When we got to NYNY I played some blackjack and won about $700 in 15 minutes. We return to Manadalay Bay where I wanted to play their decent six deck Blackjack game. I won 3 hands out of 17 and decided to quit because I was down $2000 in less than 20 minutes.

I decided that was enough gambling for the weekend because I have another tournament at MGM this weekend. This tournament has a prize pool of $350,000.


Weekend Result: -$2,800
Year to Date: +$31,047

7 - Eleven

7-Eleven sounds like a good title for a gambling post, but is actually just the place I gambled yesterday. Yes, in Las Vegas even the 7-Eleven's have slot machines.

I had a $100 in free play available so I stopped in and got a small Slurpee and proceeded to play some video Blackjack. I played for about ten minutes and quit with $122, and a free Slurpee. 7-Eleven comps sodas, coffee, and Slurpees to us high rollers.

This weekend I am playing in a $150,000 slot tournament at Mandalay Bay. It is just a mindless tournament where you hit the buttons as fast as you can and see who ends up with the highest score. I have a free entry and expect to have about a $1000 of expected value from this tournament. Who knows, maybe I will win the top prize of $50,000.

Daily Result: +122
Year to Date: +$33,847

A slow week

I haven't posted in a week because I have done very little gambling.

Over the course of the last week I did manage to lose about $410 playing video poker and video blackjack at my Putter's watering holes. Fortunately for me, and unfortunate for my liver and kidney (yes, I only have one left), I consumed many hundreds of dollars worth of booze.

On Saturday I played some online Texas Hold'em for about five hours. I was mainly playing two and three tables of $2-$4 No Limit. These games have a max buyin of $400 and a lot of poor players on the weekends. During the week there seems to be a lot more pros hunting for a lot fewer fish. I still had about $1800 in my account when I started and I began playing two tables at once.

The game started very bad for me. In the first hour I was up about $100 when I get a playable hand at each table. I don't remember the exact details but those two hands cost me $850. One hand I just played poorly and lost but the other hand I took a bad beat. I was dealt Ace King and made a standard raise ($16) from early position. The player on the button raised me $25 more. I called and saw a flop of A K 7. I checked and he bet $50. I raise to $150 and he went all in. I called. The turn was a jack and the river was a Queen. He won with a straight while holding Ace Ten. That pot cost me about $490.

Over the next four hours I played three tables and was lucky to run into some really poor players. I finshed up with a $950 win for the day.

Weekly Result: +540
Year to Date: +$33,725

Back to the internet

I stayed away from my gambling for the past few days. Last night I was home and bored so I did something I haven't done much of in the past couple of years. I played cash game poker on the internet.

I started playing poker on the internet about 7 years ago. I can actually say that I played at the very first live cash game offered by PartyPoker.com. On that first day while I was playing I don't ever remember them having more than a couple of games going for real money. Mike Sexton, the current host of the World Poker Tour, was their ambassador and was chatting with us at the table. I became an internet tournament specialist and limited my play to tournaments for the last few years that I played on the internet. I won a good amount of money playing these tournaments, but definitely nothing life changing. I did win a free cruise that included a $5500 entry to a World Poker Tour event. I lasted down to two tables and was knocked out by the eventual tournament winner, Howard Lederer. I officially finshed in 14th place and made a very brief appearence on the WPT telecast.

About two years ago I quit gambling on the internet due to possible conflicts with my work. In my work I deal with casino regulators from many different US jurisdictions and was concerned that they may require some detailed background checks. As you may or may not realize, in the US it is illegal to gamble online. About a month or two ago I decided that it is okay for me to continue to gamble online until the time when one of the regulators starts questioning me about it. I will be upfront and honest, and if they ask me to quit gambling online I will quit. To date, I am not aware of anyone the have asked to quit gambling online.

Back to the reason for this Blog. I had about $200 in an online poker site and decided to play a little. The $200 really wasn't enough for me to play the games I wanted, so I loaded an additional $500 into the account. I started playing at a $5/$10 No Limit Holdem game, but it was teribble and very boring. I then saw a bunch of seats open at some lively $2/$4 NL tables so I decided to jump in with the beginners. So far this has worked out pretty good for me. I am up $1100 in about 7 hours of play. I never won any hands bigger than about $250 while I did lose about $450 on one hand. Really it was just an easy grind. It would get a little boring but so far the good results are keeping me interested. I know me, if I get too bored I will jump in the much bigger games that are now too volitale for my measly bankroll. My goal is to slowly build my online bankroll up until I have enough to cash a few thousand dollars a month. We'll see how it goes.

I also lost $80 today at Putter's playing the $1 progressive that is at about $10,200.


Daily Result: +1,020
Year to Date: +$33,185

Happy Birthday to Me

I had another horrible night gambling. This time it was at Yorky's and I managed to lose $4900 while only hitting one jackpot for $1250. I then went to meet some friends for drinks and lost $300 at Putter's.

I have a couple of slot tournaments scheduled on the strip in the next few weeks. I think I am going to slow down on the video poker and spend more time on poker and Blackjack. These games are a lot less volatile for me.

Daily Result: -$5,200
Year to Date: +$32,165

BlackJack and Video Poker

After having a few drinks with friends at Luxor, a group of us went to MGM to play some Blackjack. We played for about a half hour at MGM where I was betting $100-$300. In that half hour we had some goods decks with good counts and I was able to walk away up $1005.

Next we headed to New York/ New York for a little more Blackjack. We had a fun table with some great dealers and good cocktail service. I started off losing here but finally climbed out of the hole playing mainly $100 or $200 bets. I called it quits around 2am with a $340 profit for this stop.

By this point I was pretty drunbk and grabbed a taxi back to Caesar's. While walking to my room I unfortunately had to pass the High Limit Slot area. In a drunken stupor I began playing a $5 triple play video poker machine and since I wasn't fast enough I moved to the $25 machine next to it. A $25 video poker machine is way out of my league. My bankroll can definitely not support the big bankroll swings. I played the 9/6 jacks or better game and the 8/5 Bonus poker game and lost very quickly. The best hand I hit was one Full House. I stumbled out of this area after about 45 minutes down $6200. I really wanted to kick myself this morning when I realized that it had been Sunday morning when I lost it. Once again, I seem to lose big every Sunday and I hadn't planned on playing at all on Sunday's for a while.

Daily Result: -$4,855
Year to Date: +$37,365

Back on the Las Vegas Strip

The night started at Treasure Island where I had $230 in free play to collect. I lost that on the $1 10-play video poker and proceeded to put in another $900. After about 45 minutes I gave up and collected a $750 ticket.

The next stop was the MGM for some double deck Blackjack with good rules. This is one of the few places where you can still find a decent double deck game. The first couple of hours the deck was terribly negative. I believe I only had three times where I had a +3 or greater true count. I was mainly flat betting $100 (table minimum) while waiting for some good counts. I would press up to $200 when the count went positive and $300 when it got to +3 or better.

Finally, after 3 hours I had a +9 true count and put out a $500 bet. I was concerned when the first card was a 5 against the dealer 9, but the second card also being a 5 improved my moral. I doubled down and won with my 20 against the dealer 19.

After 3 hours I quit with a small $250 profit. I went back to Caesar's Palace and played a little 8/5 Bonus Poker. I was in $400 when it dealt me 4 Aces for a $2000 handpay. I quit a few minutes later with a $1600 profit.

Daily Result: +$1,700

Year to Date: +$42,220

On the strip

Last night I checked into Caesar's Palace for a three day weekend of drunkenness and debauchery.

I colleceted a $230 appearence fee, Harrah's loves me, and gave it right back to them on the $5 9/6 Jacks or better game. I ended up playing for about 25 minutes and did about $8000 coin in.

Later in the evening I mets some friends for drinks and gambling at the MGM. We ended up going to Palazzo where I dropped up $600 playing the 9/6 on the $1 5-play and $2 10-play. I also played a little double deck blackjack and managed a $1200 profit.

Back to the MGM where I through away $200 on the $2.174 million dollar Lion Share progressive. I crosses the street and managed to lose $175 at Hooter's blackjack tables.

Overall, I fun drunken night that I am paying for this morning.

Daily Result: +$225
Year to Date: +$40,520

Another sad Sunday

I don't know what it is, but I just keep getting my butt kicked on Sundays. I am the least superstitious person that anyone knows, but I am starting to question my skepticism.

I stopped for breakfast at Putters and lost $40 on the $1 Double Double progressive but won $50 at video Blackjack.

I stopped by York's today about lunch time and there were two of the machines I like available. Being lazy, I chose the one closest to the door. I proceeded to cash in my free play for $100 and actually play on it for 20 minutes or so before losing it. I proceeded to feed in $100 bill after $100 bill without hitting anything. I stopped at a $5000 loss with $32,000 of handle without hitting a Wild Royal or any other handpay.

I have now lost $10,500 since the last time I hit a Wild Royal. This is the worst run of luck I have had since the first week of January.

No more big gambling for me until I head down to the Las Vegas Strip on Thursday. I have a room at Caesar's for the weekend and plan to meet some new internet friends from the http://www.vegasrex.com/ forums.

Daily Result: -$4,990
Year to Date: +$40,295

Locals Bars

Three stops today for drinks and socializing resulted in Blackjack wins of $110, $120, $105.


Daily Result: +$335
Year to Date: +$45,285

Meatball Sandwich

Stopped off at one of the Putter's after work to have some libatations and managed to win $420 by hitting 5 Aces on a Deuces game and winning a few hands of Video Blackjack.

This particular Putter's recently partnered with a pizza/Italian restaurant and offers fantastic food.

My meager gabling entitled my to a meatball sandwhich and some fries for dinner. This place has excellent meatballs. I will be back.

Daily Result: +$420
Year to Date: +$44,950

A quick loss

I stopped at a Village Pub after dinner tonight to cash in my $100 certificate and to get another one. I proceeded to lose $5500 on only $21000 coin in in less than an hour and never hit a hand bigger than a straight flush while playing Deuces Bonus.

No bounce back certificate for me today.

Daily Result: -$5,500
Year to Date: +$44,530

Back in the tournament

My name was selected as a wild card entry back into the semi-final round of the Craps tournament at Harrah's Laughlin. There were four tables remaining with 13 players at each table and only the top three chip leaders from each table would move on to the finals.

Side note: Casino tournaments require much more strategy than just playing a casino game against the house. My semi-final table was comprised mostly of beginners, which is quite common in these free invitational tournaments. Most of the players played their normal craps bets while I just made small wagers on the Don't Pass. A horrible run of luck by the shooters was great for me. I was the leader at the countdown with three rolls remaining. After the last three rolls I ended up in first chip position and received an entry to the finals.

The finals consisted of tweleve players of which about half of them had a basic idea of tournament strategy. My bets won and lost small amounts and I was in mid-chip position with three rolls remaining. The first two rolls were uneventfull with me losing a little and most others winning a small amount. I was in 8th place going into the last roll and had betting position such that I got to be the second to last player to make my bets. Being one of the last to make bets allowed me to survey what others had bet and play counter to them so if they lost I would have a chance to move up. Things went well and I was able to place the "7" bet on the last roll and noone else was on it. I bet about a third of my stack on the "7" and the rest on a field bet. The "7" pays 5 to 1 and will make me the tournament winner if a "7" rolls (7 is also the most common roll).

The last roll was a hard "10" which won my field bet but it wasn't enough. I ended up in seventh place winnings $250. First place paid $5000. Overall I had no complaints because it was a free entry and I walked away with a small win.

I returned back to Las vegas and stopped at a Village Pub to collect my $100 certificate and my $100 free play. I was in about $2500 when I finally hit five fives for $2000. I played another $1000 before hitting five Aces for $4000. I put $500 back in and quit with a $2000 profit and another $100 certificate.

Daily Result: +$2,250
Year to Date: +$50,030

Still in Laughlin

I am still in laughlin after getting booted out of the Craps tournament in the first round. there were 12 people at my table with the top 5 moving on to the next round. Going into the last roll there were still 11 of us in action. The chip counts ranged from 1500 to 2500 with me at 2100. I was fortuate enough to bet last and placed my chips counter to what most of the others bet. the roll went against me and I ended up with 1100 chips and out of the tournament.

I spent about 3 hours playing video poker. I mostly played the 16/10 NSUD Deuces game (99.7%). I put about $50,000 through the machines and ended up $975 ahead after hitting four Deuces for $2000.

I played some 2/5 No Limit Texas Holdem to kill some time and I ended up losing $125.

Tomorrow there is a second chance drawing for Craps tournament Semi Finals. I will stick around until that drawing and head back to Vegas if my name isn't called.

I ended up with about $600 of earned comps and I expect to get $250 cash back for the promotion.

Daily Result: +$1100 ($850 + $250 cashback)
Year to Date: +$47,780

Harrah's Laughlin

I headed out of Vegas today towards Laughlin Nevada for a tournament invite.

Before jumping on the Highway I stopped at one of the Village Pubs to cash in my $100 bounce back certificate and a $100 in free play. Of course I decided I might as well play for a little bit to earn another certificate. I had about an hour before I would have to leave to avoid traffic.

I played fore about a half an hour before I hit a $1250 wild royal. The problem was I was already in $2000. Since I still had a half hour I played a little more and was able to cash out $750 more to get me even.

When I got to Harrah's in Laughlin, about 90 miles form my house, it was 4:30 and my first promtion began at 5:00. I played the 50 play Jacks or Better (99.5%) at the ten cent denomination which equates to $25 a play. I put in $5000 in $100 bills one at a time and would collect a ticket everytime I got over $300. When the money in my pocket was gone ($5000) I went to the cage and cashed in $5600 worth of tickets. I believe I put about $44,000 handle through the machine. Because I was playing during triple points I earned about 4400 tier points and 27,000 bonus reward credits. So in three hours I made a $600 profit (instead of losing the expected $220). I also earned about $300 in comps.

I went to the double deck blackjack game (a really bad game, none of the BJ games here are very playable). and proceeded to lose $400 with average bets of $50.

Daily Result: +$200
Year to Date: +$46,680

Disregard the last post

I was able to clarify the promotion with a management employee at Village Pub and they told me that the promotion has not changed. Apparently it was just a data entry error on the bartender that resulted in my screwed up bounce back certificate. They told me to come back in and they will remedy the situation.

I went over to Yorky's and was given the $70 I was shorted on the last certificate. I cashed in $100 in free play and began. The I began feeding $100 bills into the machine so quickly their log printer jammed up. After putting in $3900 in $100 bills I hit Five Aces for $4000 (and a correct $100 bounce back certificate). I played for about 10 more minutes and was $300 ahead for the session. By the way, that is the first time I hit Five Aces this year. I was many standard deviations behind the curve on this one.

Tomorrow I am off to Laughlin for a free weekend at Harrah's and participation in a $10,000 Craps tournament. My host know I never play Craps but he knows I like to play anything where I can win $10,000 with no cost to me. It also turns out that Harrah's marketing is having a small promotion with 3x points Friday and 2x points Saturday for invited guests. They are also giving $1 cash for every 1000 points earned on the promotion (max $250).

This should give me an easy oppotunity to renew my Diamond status.

Daily Result: +$300
Year to Date: +$46,480

The Gravy Train May Be Over

I stopped at Village Pub only to find out my bounce back certificate is only for $30 and is not good the next day (must wait two days to redeem). The staff didn't seem to know, but if it continues this way it definitely won't justify me spending so much time there.

I cashed in my $30 and left.

Stopped at Putter's after having five teeth pulled today. I had a few beers, lost a $100 on the $10,039 Double Double progressive but won $210 on the video Blackjack. Decided it was time to go home because I needed to take some Lortabs for the pain and I didn't want to drive after taking them.

Daily Result: +$110
Year to Date: +$46,180

Why do I always lose on Sundays

Sunday:

Village Pub: -$4000
Putters: -$500

Daily Result: -$4,500
Year to Date: +$46,070

Hit and Run

Early in the day I stopped by the casino in which I had heard a particular dealer was giving good penetration on a double deck 21 game. I couldn't find the dealer or any good games so I just had some lunch and left.

I stopped by Yorky's to cash in my $100 voucher, and managed to hit a $2000 Five of a Kind and a $1250 Wild Royal after only putting in $300. I left after a half hour with a $3100 profit.

I stopped at a Putter's to visit a friend and won a $150. Left there and went to a different Putter's and managed to lose $400 in 10 minutes. After that I called it a night.

Daily Result: +$2,850
Year to Date: +$50,570

A win is a win

Once again I stopped off at another Village Pub. Until I start writing these, I never realized how boring my routine is. It just seems silly to go other places to play as long as Village Pub is running these great promotions. Besides, they are a lot more conveinient than going to the casinos.

I cashed in by bounce back certificate for a $100 and collected $100 in free play. That money dissapeared very quickly. I was in $2400 in about 30 minutes when I hit a wild royal for $1250. I played most of that back when it decided to give me a $2000 Five of a kind. Two more Wild Royals and I was out of there with an $1100 profit.

A friend of mine passed along some information on a Blackjack dealer that has been giving over 70% penetration on a double deck game. I might try and verify it this weekend and play some Blackjack.

Daily Result: +$1,100
Year to Date: +$47,520

A cup of coffee and a small win

Yesterday I stopped at Putter's to visit some friends and managed to lose $390. Thank god that I got a free Chicken Alfredo pizza out of it.

This morning I stopped at Village Pub for coffee at 3:00am (I couldn't sleep) and went to redeem my bounce back certificate. They refused it!!! The certificates are only good for three days after receiving them and apparently I hadn't been there since Sunday. So I missed out on a free $100 because I was three hours late.

I proceeded to cash in a $100 of free play and played for about an hour. I hit two bonus Five of a Kinds on Bonus Deuces for $2000 each (which included another bounceback certificate for $100). I also hit four natural Queens which is the card of the day, it paid an extra $400 in free play which is now on my account. Sadly, you can only cash in $100 a day in free play and I have over $2000 on my account.

Daily Result: +$2,000
Year to Date: +$46,420

I should have went to church

Instead I went to Village Pub to cash in my daily $100 bounce back certificate and cash in $100 worth of free play (daily limit). In four hands that was gone and I started digging in the pocket. I was only going to play until I received my next bounce back but I was in about $3200 when I finally got it. Instead of quitting like I had planned, I kept playing hoping to dig myself out of the $2000 cash deficit I incurred. I ended up playing for about two hours while hitting a few Five of Kinds. I quit when I hit my new daily loss limit of $5000. Hey, I got a $100 bounce back out of it.

Daily Result: -$5,000
Year to date: $44,420

I took a week off

Well, after taking a week off of my gambling I decided I was ready to give it another go and hope my losing streak would come to an end.

I went to Yorky's to play the Bonus Deuces. I was in about $2500 when I finally started hitting a few hands. After playing for about two hours I walked away up $2,800 and received another $100 bounce back certificate.

After Yorky's I decided to go and see a friend of mine that was bartending at Putter's. While having a beer I put a $100 bill into the triple play Super Times game and started playing. In the first fifteen minutes I Must have hit the "Super Times Multiplier" about ten times. Unfortunately I wasn't completing any winning hands. After getting down to my last $20 I go a 2X multiplier and pulled three cards for a Royal on the top line. The Royal paid $2,000 and I forgot to take a picture of it. This is the second time I hit a royal on this same machine and also forgot to take a picture of my 3X Royal in December. When all was said and done I ended up ahead $1,600 for this stop.

Daily Result: +$4,400
Year to date: $49,420

Lake Tahoe Weekend

This past weekend I spent at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe for a free skiing weekend with my daughter and her college roomate. We arrived on Friday and did a snowmobiling tour through the state park. It was great because they had lots of fresh powder and we were able to play for a while. They said the tour was going to be 28 miles, but i don't think it was more than 15 miles or so. The snowmobiles were very basic, but perfect for first time riders like ourselves.

Friday night I wanted to play a little blackjack but most of the tables were full so I ended up in the high limit room playing the $100 minimum tables. I played for about 90 minutes and ended up $380 ahead for the session.

Saturday I took the kids up the mountain for skiing, dropped them off, and headed back down to the casino. At my age skiing is no longer a priority. I just don't heal as quick as I used to.

I goofed around both Harrah's and Harvey's casinos looking for new video slots that I hadn't played before. Everytime I ran into a new game I put $20 in and played until I lost the $20 or made it through a bonus round. At the end of the day I was down $180 on the video slots.

Sunday morning I was up at 4:30am and back in the casino while the girls slept. I managed to lose about $860 playing a bad DBL DBL video poker game and some Blackjack. I was back in the room by 7:30 waiting for the girls to wake up (It turns out teen girls don't wake up til 10:00am).

Weekend Result: -$660
Year to date: $45,020

I got a little back today

I stopped after work at one of the Village Pub bars and managed to play for about two and a half hours and come out ahead. A had quite a few hits and was up over $7000 at one point. Unfortunatley, I didn't quite and lost a lot of it back. I got home with $4,200 more than I started with.


Daily Result: +$4,200
Year to date: +$45,680

Grand Disaster

On Saturday I went to the MGM to meet a friend and play some video poker. I decided to play the $1 50 play 9/6 Jacks or Better game. I started by playing only 25 hands to reduce wait time for W2G's when being dealt a full house. Playing 25 hands a dealt Full House Pays $1125 which is under the $1200 W2G requirement.

My luck started bad and continued that way with me losing my $5000 bankroll in about an hour. I was never dealt a pat hand greater than Three of a Kind. I think I put about $24,000 coin in through the machine.

Luck me, when I got home I found a hundred dollar bill in my pocket. Therefore I only lost $4900.

Daily Result: -$4,900
Year to Date: +$41,480

Back in Vegas

I am now back in Las Vegas after a three day business trip. Sadly, it appears that being away for a while didn't change my luck.

I played the Bonus Deuces game at Village Pub today and managed to lose $5,000. The session started out very bad because I didn't hit any handpays in the first two hours. I was down about $3500 before I finally hit a wild Royal for $1,250. From there it was up and down for the next two hours when I finally had a bad run and lost the remainder of the money I had budgeted.

I did happen to hit a couple of natural straight flushes which were bonusses for a promotion they were having. Each natural straight flush earned me an additional $600 in free play. I currently have about $2000 in free play on my account but they only allow you to redeem $100 per day. At that rate I don't imagine I will realize that money anytime soon.


Daily result: -$5,000
Year to Date: +$46,380

Ely Again

I am travelling again this week and I am currently in Ely Nevada.

I played the high stakes Blackjack game today ($25 maximum bet) and managed to continue my losing streak by losing $40 whole dollars.

If anyone is looking for low stakes blackjack, all tables have $2 minimum. I was happy to see that they recently changed the rules to allow doubling after splits. This gives 0.14% back to the player.

Daily Result: -$40
Year to date: +$51,380

A quick loss

I stopped by Yorky's today and managed to lose $3,000 on $9,500 coin in (or 190 hands).

I drank about half of my coke in that 25 minutes and then went directly home.


daily result: -$3,000
yEAR TO DATE: +$51,420

Poker tournament

Well the evening started out well because I received an email from an online poker site that reminded me that I still had $45 in my account. About two years ago I cashed out most of my online poker account because I had some concerns about being able to get licensed in Nevada.

Well today I jumped in a $22 45 player poker tournament. The game lasted about two and a half hours and I finished in first place for a payout of $280.

Later that evening I went to the Village pub to cash in a $100 bounce back certificate. I played about $25,000 (about 500 hands) and never hit a hand pay jackpot. This is the first time since they started this promotion that I didn't qualify for another certificate. Not only did I not gt the certificate, but i lost $2,500. I guess I was overdue for this couple day losing streak.

Daily result: -$2,242
year to Date: +$54,240

I got stupid today

Today I had a dinner meeting scheduled at the Wynn for 6:00. I got there early at about 4:30 and decided to kill a little time on the Five Play poker machines. These machines have both 9/6 Jacks of Better (99.5%) and 9/6 Double Double at 99%.

I started playing on the $1 denomination betting five hands at five coins per hand ($25 a hand). Before I knew it I was down about $300 when I realized i was on the Double Double game instead if the Jacks game. Instead of changing games I decided to continue on this game hoping to hit a Bonus four of a kind to dig out of the hole (This was really foolish and not something I normally do). Before I know it I am in $1500 before I hit a few good quads and got ahead $500. Normally I wouldn't be playing a 99% game at these stakes unless I was trying to accomplish some goal (maybe a tournament invite or some special complimentaries). Foolishly I lost most of it back and cashed out at $500.

I still had about 2o minutes before my meeting so I jumped on a Blackjack table and lost $470.

Daily result: -$1,470

Year to date: +$56,482

Back to reality

Yesterday ended my big win streak. I played for about an hour at the Village Pub and kept feeding in $100 bills as fast as the machine would take them. I finally hit a wild royal for $1250 after being down $4,400. I played a little longer without hitting anything at all.

I guess all good things eventually end. I think I am going to slow down a little for the rest of the week. Hopefully I will get an opportunity to play in a poker tournament at the Venetian this weekend.

Daily Result: -$5,500
Year to Date: +$57,952

Dug out of a hole

After work today I decided to stop at a Village Pub that I haven't been to in about a year. As soon as I got there they informed me that the tracking system was down, I should have turn around and left. Instead I stayed and redeemed my $100 bounce back certificate, lost that, and dug into my pocket for another $2,500 while enjoing one Diet Coke. With no luck at all I decided to leave and go to a different bar and hope the tracking system be back up by the time I got there.

I arrived at Yorky's to find that one of the machines I like was out of order, and the only other one was being played. I decided to playone of the new machines (short pay on the Straight Flush by one coin) just long enough to earn myself another bounce back certificate, and then I would leave.

I was in about $1,500 when it dealt me three deuces and I was fortunate enough to pull the fourth deuce. Four Deuces pay $10,000 (and a bounce back certificate) and I still had some credits left on the machine.

By the time they arrived to pay my jackpot, only about 20 minutes, the full pay machine had opened up. I changed machines and hit many small jackpots for $1,250 and $2,000. By the time I left about two hours later I was ahead about $13,900 at this stop. Also, I forgot to mention that I hit a natural straight flush and was awarded $600 in future free play.

Daily result: +$11,400
Year to Date: +$63,452

Super Bowl XLII

This morning I woke up early and headed over to Barley's to make some bets on the Super Bowl. I didn't care for either side or the total so I settled on just making some proposition bets. I made ten bets for $20 each.

After Barley's I stopped at Yorky's to cash in my $100 bounce back certificate and another $100 in free play. I lost those very quickly on the $5 Bonus Deuces game and started feeding hundred dollar bills into the machine. After putting in $900 I started to build up some credits and was able to play for a while. I was fortunate enough to build my credits up to $1850 when I finally hit a jackpot (I was going to continue to play until I hit one so I could get another bounce back certificate). I hit a Wild Royal for $1250 and also got my certificate. I played a few more hands and cashed out when I got to $2000 on the credit meter giving me a net win of $2,300.

I went to Putter's to watch the football game and participate in their many football pools. I ended up losing $200 on their slot machines and another $95 on the football pools.

My football bets started great with me winning the first three on the Giants first possession. I had bet the Giants would score first, first score would be a field goal, and first first down would be by the Giants. These three bets alone recouped the $200 for all of my football bets. I ended up winning four of the remaining seven football bets for a net profit of $167.

Daily Result: +$2,172
Year to date: +$52,052

A cup of coffee and a Jackpot

I stopped by Yorky's to redeem my $100 bounce back certificate that I got yesterday, lost that $100 and a $100 in free play that I had before I even got my cup of coffee.

I dug into my pocket and played $700 before hitting a wild royal for $1250 (and another bounce back voucher for $100). I was going to cash out and leave but I decided I had time for one more cup of coffee. I ended up putting about $800 back in before it gave me five "Fours" for a $2000 handpay.

I finished my cup of coffee and headed out the door with a $1600 profit for twenty five minutes of my time.

Tomorrow I will get up early and head over to Barley's or Green Valley Ranch to make the rest of my Superbowl proposition bets.

Daily result: +$1,600

Year to date: +$49,880

A slow day

I took the $100 bounce back voucher I got yesterday to Yorky's to hopefully follow up with another Royal Flush today. It didn't quite work out that way.

I played for about ten minutes before hitting five Fives for another bounce back certificate. This one was also only $100. I am pretty sure they told me that they averaged $200 but all three I have received so far have been for $100.

I played another ten or fifteen minutes before cashing out for a $1750 profit.

Next stop was Putter's for some play on the progressive $1 dbl dbl game and a few hands of Video Blackjack. Overall a $120 loss here.

Daily result: +$1,630

Year to date: +$48,280

A Royal Day

I had a $100 bounce back voucher that I earned at Yorky's yesterday so I decided to go out after dinner to cash it in and hopefully win another one.

I went to the Villiage Pub by my house, same owners as Yorky's, and cashed in my $100 and bgan playing with the hope of hitting any jackpot $1200 or more to get another bounce back certificate. After playing about $600 it dealt me four to the royal in Hearts, and in popped the Jack I needed. It took about an hour for them to process and pay the jackpot, all the while I continue to feed $100 bills into the machine next to it. After losing about $1,500 they were all finished and I escaped with a win of $47,600.

A great way to conclude the first month of my tracking of my play. Hopefully every month will show this type of profit. Of course I really don't expect that because I don't play enough to warrant winning this much every month even though most of my big gambling is on positive expectation games.

I also got another $100 bounce back certificate for this win. Hopefully I will be able to repeat this tomorrow.

Daily Result: +$47,600
Year to Date: +$46,650

Downtown and Yorky's

I got called downtown last night to go to the El Cortez to help resolve a problem they were having. It took about fifteen minutes to identify and resolve the problem. When finished I decided to take a little stroll around downtown Las Vegas.

After wandering around the Fremont Street Experience and watching some acrobats perform I had had enough and decided to head back to the car. But First, I had to stop off at Mermaids for the 99 cent Deep Fried Twinkie. Hopefully you know me well enough by now to know I wouldn't actually eat one of these, but they sure make for a disgusting picture. Upon enter Mermaids I see a guy half sprawled on the floor and half between two slot machines with a couple of attendents holding him. Of course my first thought was just another downtown druken bum being held until the police arrive, but fortunately it was even better. Apparently this guy was having a seizure and the attendants were holding him so he wouldn't hurt himself (very commendable for someone that makes minimum wage). Then the thought hits me, I will give 10 to 1 odds that this guy just ate the 99 cent Deep Fried Twinkie. Here is a picture of that culinary delight:

After leaving downtown I decided to stop at Yorky's becuase I recently heard that they have some of the video poker games I like. This brief stop cost me $2,000 but I did get one wild royal jackpot (pictured below). It turns out they are doing a promotion that any jackpot gives a three day bounceback voucher that is suppossed to average $200. This is a fantastic player promotion even though it is limited to one per player per day.

I have one more day to improve my first months results, hopefully tomorrow will bring some luck.

Daily Result: -$2,000

Year to Date: -$950

Palazzo or Bust

I decided to go back to the Palazzo and upgrade to their Gold Player's card. I presented my Diamond card from Harrah's and they immediately gave me their Gold level card.
Now that I am Royalty at Palazzo I decided to throw my money out to the peasants. Actually the security guards frowned upon this idea because it might cause to much of a commotion, so they convinced me the best thing to do would be to run my $25,000 through the five play $1 JOB game. After about 90 minutes of constant losing I decided to bid the peasants a fond farewell while allowing Mr. Adelson the opportunity to dispense of my $1,400 donation any way he sees fit.

A couple of the Four of a kinds I hit while playing:

Daily total: -$1,400

Year to Date: +$1,050

I Love Hooter's

Well, at least last night I did.

I decided to visit the Palazzo yesterday afternoon and check out the sites. I thought the hotel and casino were very nicely done. Sheldon Adelson has always done a great job with his hotels. Most of the shops in the promenade were still closed and a lot of them had signs up saying they should be open around March.

I gave the 9/6 jacks or better triple play games (99.5%) a play at the $1 level for about an hour. True to form, not much varaiance here. I was playing $15 a game and I was never down more than $200. After about an hour I quit with a $60 victory. I was with a friend that didn't want to try the Blackjack tables so we left.

Next stop was Hooter's to visit a friend that works at Dan Marino's restaurant. What a joke that restaurant has become. It used to be a nice mid-level steak house that I would enjoy a couple of times a year. It has been turned into their 24 hour coffee shop with very little of the original menu remaining. They still have the $16.99 all you can eat Baby Back ribs and the beef tips over garlic mashed potatos, but the rest of the menu looks like any other coffee shop on the strip.

I played the Double Deck Blackjack game for a total of about an hour, mainly jumping in when the count was good and jumping out when it went negative. I was only spreadin $50 and $100 and ended up with a $550 win. By the way, this isn't a very good double deck game becuase they cut a full deck out so you will never get a big count advantage.

Daily total: +$610
Year to Date: +$2,450

Been sick. I haven't been exploring very far from home.

I haven't been feeling to well lately so I haven't been out visiting the casinos very much. I hope to go check out the Palazzo tomorrow and give their $1 9/6 Jacks or Better games a test.

Yesterday (Wednesday):

Stopped after work at Putter's to see some friends with the intention of going back to Village Pub later in the evening. I got busy talking with my friends and before I knew it it was 10:00pm and time for me to go home.

I lost $40 on the $1 DBL DBL progressive but cashed out $450 on the video Blackjack.

Daily Outcome: +$160
Year to date: +$1,790




Tuesday:

On Tuesday I went to Rae's Bar and Grill to play the $5 Bonus Deuces game. I only had $1000 on me which didn't give me much hope of playing very long (these are ten coin games so it is $50 a hand).

I was fortunate enought to play for about an hour while only hitting one hand pay (Wild Royal for $1250). I will put a picture up later. I am trying to remember to take a picture of any jackpot that is $1200 or higher.

Daily outcome: -$850
Year to date: +$1,630

Watching Football

I didn't have any bets on the two championship games yesterday, but I was please to see the New York Giants win their game.

I watched the games at my neighborhood bar Putter's and played the $1 Double Double Bonus Poker progressive machine that was at $10,200. This game is very volatile but has a payback of 99.36%. I ended up losing $420 while never even hitting a four of a kind.

Daily Outcome: -$420
Year to Date: +$2,480

A little blackjack

I visited the MGM Grand for the first time in probably three months to play some Blackjack.

I had about $800 in my pocket so I began playing for $50 a hand. The table I was at was a full table and played rather slowly but was pretty entertaining. A couple of the guys were in from Maine and telling horror stories about the snow.

I played for abou 90 minutes spreading my bet from $25 to $100 depending on the deck composition. I was ahead $400 until my last hand where I bet $50 and was dealt two sevens against a dealer four. I split the sevens getting a two on one hand and a four on the other hand. I doubled down on both hands resulting in a 19 and an 18. The dealer flips over a ten for a total of 14 and pulls a six for a 20. I lose both hands and decide it is about time to leave.

Daily Result: +$200

Year to Date: +$2,900

Lucky Free Play

Today I stopped at one of the Village Pub bars by my house because I wanted to play some of the Bonus Deuces games. When I logged in it showed I had $100 in free play. That is two hands on the $5 ten coin game I play. I redeemed my points for $100 on the machine and hit this on my second hand:




That gave me some seed money to play with. After putting back in about $600 it dealt me the following hand. If I would have pulled the Ace kicker it would have been $20,000.



I was very fortunate today because it gave me a lot more 5 of a kinds than would be statistically probable. Throw in a bunch of wild royals and I had a great day. This day actually put me back ahead for the year.

You either love or hate these high denom volatile games, but they have been pretty good to me over the years.

A few random pictures I took:

The best thing about my session today was that I never even had to pull any money out of my wallet.

Daily result: +$15,010

Year to date: +$2,700

Another losing day

On Saturday a made a $550 bet on the Seattle Seahawks +7.5 points against the Green Bay Packers. This was the only game of the weekend that I had a strong feeling about. AFter 6 minutes of the game I was up by 21.5 points and feeling pretty good. All of a sudden the Packers get motivated and completely dominate the game. I was clearly on the wrong side of this game.

Fortunately, I played a little video poker after making my bet at Barley's Casino and I had a positive outcome. I won $450 playing $1DBL DBL progressive.

Daily Result: -$100

Year to Date: -$12,310

WoW, What a sportsbook

I am still stuck in Ely, Nevada for one more day. I decide that tonight I might go over to the sportsbook and watch a few games. Now this is Ely, so I wasn't expecting to have a skybox like they have at MGM Grand. Instead I found that their sportsbook is a little small. Yes, this is the sportsbook:

Did I mention this is the only sportsbook in Ely, Nevada.




Today I visited the most colorfull casino in Ely:

Yes, that is the famous Jailhouse casino. I decided to play a little video poker at the bar. I start by playing a Deuces wild game at $.25 so I could get a free beer. Now at the Jailhouse casino bar they don't seem to have a bartender. At first I thought maybe it was closed, but no, eventually "the" casino employee came over and gave me a beer. That beer ended up costing a hundred dollars so I do what any brilliant gambler does while playing terrible video poker games. I lose $200 more playing a bad $1 Deuces Bonus game. Once again it is not the $300 loss that bothers me. I just am having a real bad streak now where I can't hit a hand better that 4 of a kind on Deuces. I believe I am now the number one high roller at the Jailhouse casino.

Today: -$300
Year to date: -$12,210

Ely Nevada

I am travelling for business today to the metropolis of Ely, Nv. I am staying at the oldest hotel/casino in the state of Nevada.

I easily Won my Tulsa football bet last night for $200 but lost $100 tonight on a moneyline bet for Ohio State.

Year to date: -$11,910

A very light gambling day

Yesterday was a light gambling day for me. I bet $220 on Seattle and $120 on Pittsburgh +3 (-120). So for my football bets I won both for a $300 profit.

I watched the ball games at Putter's. I played $80 on video blackjack and cashed $220 after about 15 minutes of play.

Today the only football game I have bet is Tulsa -5.5 for $220. They are currently up 21-0 so it looks good so far. I haven't pulled the trigger yet but I think I will be betting Ohio State in tomorrows game. I just need to decide if I want to bet the side or moneyline. I am leaning to moneyline.

Played a little video blackjack today at Putter's. Put in $20 cashed out $50. Put in $20 cashed out $40. Put in $20 lost. Put in $20 lost. Put in $100 lost. Put in $100 cashed $320.

Won $130 total today on video blackjack.

Year to date: -$12,010

The worst day I remember

Wow, Yesterday is the worst day I ever remember having gambling. Not only did I lose a lot of money but I really didn't get much play.
My morning started at Putter's where I decided to take a small shot at the $10,208 progressive on the $1 DBL DBL game. While having my coffee I proceeded to lose $60 very quickly.
In the afternoon I had to go to a doctors appointment. On the way home I passed Rae's and decided to stop in and get back some of the money I lostthere earler in the week. I played the $5 Bonus Deuces game again and it ate $900 in about 10 minutes. Walked accross the street to the bank and took out $5000. I proceeded to give all $5000 to Rae's while not moving from the same machine. For some reason Rae's was having a problem with their check verification system and they couldn't give me any more money.
This is where I probably made my biggest mistake. Instead of going home with a $5960 loss I proceeded to one of the Villiage Pub bars to continue gambling. The Villiage Pub bars are owned by Gary Elis, the owner of Elis Island casino. They offer the best pay schedules for any bars in town. I plopped down on a machine, ordered a Black Sambucca, and proceeded to lose $4000 more on the same Bonus deuces game I was playing at Rae's.
On a side note, I had a wonderful filet and some shrimp scampi that cost me $4000. I am definitely on the bad side of the volatility curve right now. I think I ended up with around $75,000 coin in for the day and my biggest hit was a bonus five of a kind (which I forgot to take a picture of. It paid $2000). Other than that I hit a few wild royals for $1250 and not much else.
No more big gambling this weekend for me. I will probably make a couple of football bets and play a few dollars in the $1 Progressive at Putter's while I watch some football. Hopefully things will turn around next week.
Daily Total: -$9,960
Year To Date: -$12,580

January 3rd

No gambling yesterday, hence no blog update yesterday.

Today started out good. I went out for my morning coffee at Putter's Bar and Grill, pushed a $20 into the $1 Double Double game with a progressive jackpot at $10,018. On the second hand I hit four 7's for $250. Play for a few more minutes and cash out $240.

After work I stopped for a cold one and visited friends at another Putter's. Played a few hands of video Blackjack. This is a terrible blackjack game where the Blackjack pays even money (2.27% house advanage). I fed a few twenty's into the machine and lost playing $10 a hand. Put a $100 bill in and played $20 a hand. Had a little luck and cashed out $250 for a $50 profit. After a few more beers I put another $20 and played $10 a hand. I do this about every time I go into this bar. My goal is just to turn that $20 into $50 and cash out. Ended up putting $60 in and cashed out for $90.

Decided to go to Green Valley Ranch to cash my two winning sports bets from Jan. 1st. I collected $420 and headed straight over to the $1 10/6 Double Double video poker games. These games return just over 100% with proper play. I fed in $100 bill after $100 bill until my four $100 bills I just collected were gone. Not a single four of a kind and very few Full Houses or Flushes. I am a very stubborn and competetive person so I couldn't walk away from a 100% game without hitting anything. I went to the ATM to get some more money and proceeded to chase my losses until I was in $1300. Fortunately it dealt me Four 2's with an Ace four a $800 win. With this hit my credi meter read $905 so I played one more hand and lost. I cashed out a ticket for $900 and called it a night.

Day's results were +$300 at Putter's and -$400 at Green Valley Ranch for a net loss of $100.

Year to date: -$2620

I hope the whole year doesn't go like this.

I ended up 2-2 on my bowl bets today for a net loss of $20. In my infinite wisdom I decided to go to Rae's, a neighborhood bar, to watch the first half of the Sugar Bowl. Poor decision. They have Bonus Deuces wild games that pay back 100.35% + 0.10% in cash back. These are great games that can be found in a few bars in Las Vegas.

Some people would be happy playing a video poker game with a small edge, but I absolutely hate playing video poker because it bores the hell out of me. So why did I play? These particular games are available in a $5 denomination where you can play ten coins per play. At $50 a hand these games become a little more interesting because hitting four deuces pays $10,000 and a Royal Flush pays $50,000. It is very rare to find 100%+ video poker in high denominations, so I like to take a stab a couple of times a week.

Today was a quick disaster. I lost $2500 in 45 minutes with coin in of only $12,000 and not a single win larger than a straight flush.

Hence, I decided to come home to watch the second half of the football game.

Year to date: -$2520

January 1st, 2008

Today I begin documenting my wagers for 2008. I will try and record my wins, losses, and any highlights from my gambling.

My first wagers for 2008 are four sports wagers I made on the above football games. I fought the New Year's Eve crowds at Green Vally Ranch casino (http://www.greenvalleyranchresort.com/) and purchased these four tickets for $110 each. Being a Big Ten fan I have chosen to bet on Michigan and Illinois while betting against Wisconsin. The Hawaii bet is probably a bad bet considering Hawaii was getting 11.5 points a few weeks ago.

Later today I will probably go to Putter's Bar and Grill to watch the Rose Bowl and take a shot at their $1 Double Double Bonus Poker progressive that starts at $10,000. I will update my results tomorrow.