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