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

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

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