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MDawg
12-20-2019, 07:20 AM
At the moment booked at a Premier Suite at T.I. which is 1300 square feet, for a one week stay arriving a few days before New Year's, and leaving a few days after. T.I. is old school but I've always liked it. It wasn't always old school - think of the movie Swingers

The new places down on the strip, now, those places are supposed to be it.

Oh, Mike, you don't want all that fuckin' Pirate of the Caribbean horseshit.

Or the rock and roll grunge trip.

You know, guys like me and you gotta kick it here. Old school.

Yeah, this is... This is truly old school.

At that time, in 1996, Treasure Island (not even yet known as T.I., which incidentally, I was the one who suggested that they start calling it T.I., in 1999, and they eventually took up my suggestion) had been open only a few years and was very much NOT old school.

Over two decades later (how time flies), and it is probably the only nice (as in still upscale, not including the Flamingo, or Harrah's, which are dumps) old school joint on the strip. I like it. Brings back a lot of memories, and they treat me very well.

I had also booked a suite for the same time period at Wynn/Encore, but because they have so many big players during the New Year's period, I was extended only a regular "suite" at Encore, meaning 745 square feet, but on a full RFB (room food beverage comp'ed) basis, with tickets for us to Wynn's New Year's Eve bash with Kelly Clarkson (which hey, we're no fans of hers, but she is a pretty big name for an intimate casino gathering). The plan was to put friends or family into the Encore suite, we stay at T.I., and given that the two casinos are across the street, walk back and forth between the two for gaming.

However, my intended guests decided that they don't want to go to Vegas this month, so the plans are in limbo right now as to what I'm going to do with the Encore suite. Maybe give it up, and just book our usual Encore Parlor (1408 square feet) or Encore Salon (2261 sq. ft.) for arrival right after New Year's, right after the T.I. trip. But, Palms has offered us a suite too plus free gaming chips.
Promotional chips (https://www.truepassage.com/forums/showthread.php/11979-Promotional-chips?p=40811#post40811)
Given that the plan is to stay in Vegas about two weeks, not sure yet whether it'll be T.I. then Encore, or maybe T.I. then Palms then Encore.

Decisions, decisions!

MDawg
12-24-2019, 09:33 AM
Okay, we got it mapped out, booked and reserved. First, T.I. will arrive in a few days from today, staying until a couple days after New Year's. In a Premier Suite (1300 S/F). Then, PALMS in a suite for a week, then Encore in a Tower Suite until mid-January.

New Year's and Consumer Electronics Show (CES) intervene, but the casinos must like us because they are letting us stay in suites, fully comp'ed, RFB status, for the entire two plus weeks.

We'll be attending both the New Year's Eve party at T.I. and the party at Wynn. To justify the Wynn event, I had to accept a stay at the Wynn, which they had initially booked practically a whole week there for us, but I cut it down to just one night, in December 31st, out January 1st. Will show up, check in, mess up the bed, turn on the Do Not Disturb sign, and let them check us out the next day. In meantime, we'll be ensconced in the large T.I. suite and just walk back and forth between T.I. and Wynn on New Year's Eve to attend both partays!

MDawg
01-12-2020, 08:16 PM
Leaving December 28th for a little over two weeks in Vegas. The casinos were throwing the offers at us for New Year's so that was no problem. Actually ended up double booking a suite at one casino just for one night (plus at another casino across the street for the actual stay), in order to justify going to their New Year's party which will have Kelly Clarkson. Not that either of us are Kelly Clarkson fans, but it makes the casino's NY's party a little higher grade than normal I suppose. (Although I recall the days when casinos in Tahoe would book very high end acts for New Year's, like Gladys Knight.) Will check into the room, mess up the bed's sheets, turn on the Do Not Disturb sign, and probably not enter it again.

The casino we are staying at for six nights starting December 28th is across the street and they gave us a big suite, so that's where I'll be playing. They have the best double deck BJ on the strip (dealer stands soft 17) but typically only one midi Baccarat table open - I generally try to avoid playing Bacc. at casinos where I can't switch Bacc. shoes if one is not running well or predictably. One of my friends won $60K the last time he was at that casino playing BJ. He doesn't play the double deck with the stand 17 rule, he plays the double deck in the main pits where dealer hits soft 17, or just the regular six-deck shoes in the regular pit. He says, "Ohh, I can't be playing high limit." I don't understand that. In order to win sixty grand he must have been playing big, but he avoids the table with a fifty dollar minimum?

Couple days after New Year's we switch to another casino for six nights. That stay overlaps the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) so I had to make sure my host there was aware of the length of our stay. Normally, I just ask for three or four nights comp'ed up front, at most five, then keep extending, four nights at a time. That has always worked. Going in and saying "hey guys, I'm staying here two weeks" doesn't come across so well. But in this instance, for example the casino where we are "staying" one night told us up front we're not accepting any reservations prior to January 9th due to CES, meaning that Vegas is overbooked due to CES. So, to avoid getting booted in the middle of CES with no place to stay, I told my host up front that we had to stay six nights and that this would overlap CES. She took a couple days to clear it but we are booked in a pretty large suite for that stay which is a few days after New Year's until the 9th, all comp'ed up front.

Then...lol...we return to the casino where we are "staying" for one night New Year's Eve, to stay until we feel like leaving, probably mid-January. I don't think that casino will hold it against me that I won't play at all on one trip, after all it's New Year's Eve, just one night. I don't think I've ever stayed at a Vegas hotel for just one night, real, or imagined stay.

One thing I am bringing with me that I have never brought on a travel trip before are...TRX straps.
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I got their Elite system a few days ago. I work out very hard at home every other day in a real gym, and either before or after all the cardio, free weights and machines I use TRX for a short additional workout. In Vegas only the Venetian's Canyon Ranch Spa gym has TRX straps. So I am bringing my own! I hope the guys in the weight room won't object when I hang them from whatever bar I may find that works. I know the attendants very well though I doubt they will hassle me. When in Vegas I try to go to the gym EVERY day, alternating muscle groups, just because it is important in my opinion to stay in top form when gambling. It's a battleground out there must be in top physical and mental shape. Put another way, I'm not willing to sacrifice well being for anything, even winning money.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 08:18 PM
My friend I met earlier this year in Vegas, the girl who lost the last 12 trips she went to Vegas, I mean EVERY SINGLE TIME, well I mentioned how I guided her to modify her Baccarat play, really all I did was analyze that she was betting too close to flat, and that she should vary her bet at least 1 - 5X instead of more or less flat betting until she was behind and then jumping the bet just to try to catch up, and also to give up on the stupid exotic bets like the Tiger 6, well...as I mentioned the last trip, which was the first trip that I guided her on, she won 19K which after I left her side she did dump 5K of it, but still going home ahead 14K winning for the first time ever after all those losers was very exciting for her.

Well...she pulled into Vegas the day before I will. She messaged me to see if I was there yet, no, not yet, tomorrow, so I asked her to keep in touch. Well, this is insane! I hope she holds on to it all. Who knows maybe she'll keep winning!
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MDawg
01-12-2020, 08:37 PM
I've given her ALL the disclaimers, including that I don't try to make a living out of this, etc. etc.

She hasn't messaged me since I asked her for the pics, but she doesn't lie, I mean when she loses she goes into a mild depression, but she tells the truth.

Also, she's not like me, in that I walk away very easily once I'm ahead, she'll keep playing ALL night. In any case, when I see her later this weekend either she'll have a gang of chips or not. She's not a credit line player and she's not particularly rich, she just comes in with six grand or so, and then I gather that she does cash advances on her credit cards if she loses, ALL BAD I know, but now she's winning and I hope she keeps winning.

Actually, I had gotten her to promise that if she lost the last trip to never return to Vegas again, but she won 14K so obviously she was going to return I am just surprised that she returned so quickly as she lives on the other side of the country not exactly next door to Vegas.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 08:37 PM
Okay the joke was on me, she messaged me a bit ago wrote
"I'm totally joking"
"I only won 300 today. Should've walked when I made 1."

That's the first time she's done that.

Still, I encouraged her. That she was ahead, lost about half and then walked, that's one of the suggestions I had made to her a while back - to stop after losing half your winnings.

I've taken less than what I know she came to Vegas with, to far more than $80K, so I was inclined to believe her, but...she was joking.

More to be revealed....

MDawg
01-12-2020, 08:44 PM
I just had this thought about the one night in the suite where we won't be staying, on New Year's Eve. Going to mess up the sheets and leave the Do Not Disturb light OFF - on NY's Eve the casinos always bring some gift into the room and leave it there. I have a lot of these bottles of wine crated with two Baccarat crystal goblets, but still worth receiving. One casino actually gave me a Waterford crystal clock, not bad. Where the waste of time comes in though is in having to go back up to the room at some point during the party just to check to see if the gift is there yet. Plus we're planning on dividing time between two NY Eve's parties across the street from each other. Actually my wife thinks such events are silly and doesn't even want to go, plus she thinks the typical age group is too old, but still we get to see the fireworks off the roof that one of the casinos we're staying at are launching at midnight. I don't usually gamble NY's Eve the tables are too crowded.

One thing I really like about high end casinos and high end play is the interesting people I meet. Good people, wealthy people from my peer group. Not so much the Asian Bacc. players, many of them tend to be degenerates that care only about playing, but if you get to know the people who check in to some of these top hotels on the Strip in the VIP lounges they are coming to these resorts somewhat regularly. I've gotten to know a lot of good people all around the world via casinos.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 08:49 PM
Might try to post more regularly during this trip.

Been ensconced for several hours. I don't usually play the first night.

Here are some random pictures:
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It's a decent suite, not the best but not bad as far as decor. 1300 square feet or so.

The closet is good, and we sad to say, haven't learned the art of traveling light and need a large closet. Many of her things don't need to be hung up and are easier to pack, but still, we need those drawers, which we haven't even started to fill yet! We do bring a lot of stuff on each trip, but then we never know how long we will stay here. I have some pressing business towards end of January so must get home by then, realistically, will be back by mid-January. Most of my business I am able to conduct remotely but, must return to reality eventually.
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We turned the wall art into a fruit receptacle. We're always traveling with bottles and bottles of health drinks including Kombucha; healthful foodstuffs and drinks the hotels never seem to have.
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When the bellman came he just shoved all the luggage right inside the door; this is just a few pieces of it I had already moved everything else to the closet myself. I gave him a full tip; he glanced at it and gave me a look like, well if I had known you were going to tip like that I would have brought the stuff all the way to the closet.
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:DNo biggie, like a mini TRX workout carrying suitcases?

We were actually delayed getting here. I couldn't find something that I was sure I had brought back from the last trip, but the last trip to Vegas we had arrived, unpacked, and then left the very next day for another (non-gambling, non-Vegas) trip, and it just was not where I had remembered it to be. Well I spent a good two hours looking for it, and my wife said finally, let's just go you'll find it eventually but I was half-certain that I had lost it in Vegas when, on the way out the door I asked the housekeeper to keep an eye out for it and she said, oh, I found that on the floor of your bedroom a month ago, and put it in your ____. Of course there was the why didn't you tell me, and "I forgot," but I was so happy she had found it I didn't care about any of that, the important thing was that it wasn't lost. It wasn't a watch by the way.

I hate losing things. I dislike even more having to think about that something is lost. It's not even so much about the actual loss as that the idea of losing anything seems so undisciplined.

Okay there is one thing that is annoying. We're on nearly the top floor, not exactly right above the sidewalk, and yet there is a sound like a foghorn going off somewhat regularly outside. I have not pinned this down yet. Or is it just some East Coast lean on the horn, get the buggers moving, idiot driver that is passing through on a regular basis.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 08:50 PM
Paulie in Goodfellas (the book Wiseguy, not the movie) was described as someone who loved to use stolen credit cards in restaurants. The passage was something like, "he loved to pay for a lavish dinner with a stolen credit card" and "stuff that was stolen always tasted better than anything bought."

For Paulie, the best part of the night was getting over on somebody! It didn't matter that he could afford to buy the whole restaurant, he just liked getting something for free.

Similarly, comp'ed meals sometimes do taste better.

Woke up early. Not stock market early, but early for a Sunday, definitely early for a Sunday in Vegas, and definitely early for a Sunday in Vegas given how late we went to bed.
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Will probably putz around for a bit then go back to sleep. Then eat something and head to the gym. Or maybe do the gym first then go back to sleep.

That fog horn sound from nearby - I am thinking it has something to do with the construction at Resorts World. Maybe something that started recently because I don't recall hearing anything from across the street in November, but maybe their glass is thicker, I dunno. After moving all our stuff into here would not want to move and I think this style of suite all face the same way so moving might not not accomplish anything. Hmm, actually the noise has stopped. All night but not all day?

MDawg
01-12-2020, 08:52 PM
Yes that must be it. Construction.

Other troubles in Paradise are that the shower is stopped up, been waiting close to an hour for the guy to come up and snake it.
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but he just arrived.

Also the internet wasn't connecting well, so I called and Cox boosted us to a higher tier speed free. At the end of the trip the host comps off internet charges but you still have to ask. And when you do ask asking to comp off twenty-four bucks a day for two basic devices X 11.95 each per day, is easier than asking to comp off whatever it costs for premium x 2 a day. So at the moment we have two devices running off the basic rate, but getting the premium speed. Got somethin' else for free! :)

Okay the repair guy just left, said "All set!"

Now we may start the day.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 08:53 PM
Back from the gym. Drinking a protein shake, then I have to meet a business partner for lunch. We're buying an office building here. The escrow was extended twice by us because we didn't have all the funds, and now extended once by the owner for reasons unknown. It's a good deal I think, it was empty anchor tenant left so the price was already low and we are buying it for about 15% below listing price. More importantly, with minimal improvements we are able to rent it out such that if there were a mortgage (there won't be, all cash deal) would have positive cash flow. We have been showing it to prospective tenants during the escrow and have commitments for all of it. Hey, I never said the only reason I come to Vegas is to gamble!

My business partner says "Vegas is booming!" I'm not so sure, but this particular office building is a good deal. We plan to later build apartments on its huge parking lot; zoning will allow it. For that we will need a loan or investors.

You guys who live in Vegas, in your opinion, is it booming again?

I'd love to say that I met this business partner at the tables, but no - he's from back home, and maintains a second residence in Vegas. He does come to the tables with me occasionally and brags to all his friends about how I am always beating the hell out of the casinos. Luckily every time he has come to the tables with me I have won. As we know, it's not always that way! (see below)

As far as my friend - not so good.
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MDawg
01-12-2020, 08:56 PM
Just got back in. Great day!

We are proceeding with the project. Hope it goes as planned, both short and long term.

Actually haven't even started playing yet.

To put it in the vernacular, I could dwell in this place! it's not just the size of the suite but that it has so many surface areas to put stuff on, vitamins, teas, fruit, even the men's bathroom has a lot of surface area
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My friend (down -3K) hasn't played today either but I wanted to play where we are staying, and she wanted to go elsewhere to a casino where I do play, but will not be staying this trip. I nixed that idea.

Just going to go to dinner with the wife, and if not too tired later will play right here. I played pretty big at this casino two trips ago and didn't use a nickel of comps other than a buffet, and I flat out emailed my host before coming on this trip that I expected that all of my comps were earned up front, and he didn't say a word. I calculate that six nights in this suite at RFB even if I didn't play at all they would still owe me comps. Of course, I AM going to play, but when I "feel lucky...punk." On my time, not theirs. :D

MDawg
01-12-2020, 08:58 PM
We drive from southern Cal to Vegas. From where we live, driving consistently maybe a bit over speed limit but not really, it's four to four and a half hours. It actually beats the airport because by the time we get to the airport, which these days you gotta arrive early to make it through TSA screening, and then arrive in Vegas and are driven to the casino, the time savings becomes something like...maybe a half hour. Yes, nothing beats arriving in a plane versus having to drive four hours, but we live about a half hour from the airport anyway, so that's an hour plus of driving no matter what.

Do not use an SUV for these trips. I'm a little paranoid of stacks of visible luggage in an SUV. We drive a brand new sedan, with all the latest safety gadgets in it, the auto braking, lane keeping assistant, blind spot detection, adaptive speed control, all that, the safety makes us feel okay about all the driving, and we put the valuable items in the locked trunk, the rest stacked across the back seats. Which - all that luggage - is another reason why we couldn't fly we'd have to pay a fortune in excess baggage/weight. Even if we had a private plane, which a family member used to have one so I am very familiar with them, not too many small reasonably priced planes could handle all this luggage plus passengers. Additionally, any pilot worth his weight will check out his plane very well before each flight both with instruments and by checking manually/visually moving parts, and all that takes TIME which in the end, detracts from the efficacy of flying versus driving, at least as far as versus a four to four and a half hour drive.

Once IN Vegas we generally have the casino drive us around, although my play rose to that level again (to the level where it is a given that they will drive us anywhere) only fairly recently. We don't save any money by having the hotel drive us around - I tip ten dollars for a drive from one end of the strip to the other, and twenty for a trip downtown, which these are about the same or even more than Uber rates. If I'm going on business, such as today, or going to buy something in a store etc. or needing to go to more than one stop, I will just take my own car, which I generally just leave in the valet. When the car is there long term and going out and back in, I'll tip them only when I pick it up, not return it, although on the first initial arrival I will give the valet who takes my keys a fiver, and on final departure I will give the valet a fiver too.


I did end up playing today (tonight). I bought in for five, ended up winning...nada. I didn't play long, a bit over an hour, double deck BJ, stand 17, I bet minimum 100 (although, funnee, I did bet 50 one hand, which was the table minimum on the ONE hand all night that dealer got a blackjack), max 1000. I had the two green chips from the prior hand where I won a BJ with 100.

I counted the deck perfectly, I tracked the flow perfectly, but things just weren't going my way. Hands where I jumped the bet to 1000 and was dealt say, face nine, and dealer had an eight up, she'd turn over an ace. Then I'd reduce the bet drastically, even though the count was about the same (but the flow had altered, which did justify at least some reduction), and I'd LOSE the next hand. Anyway I was never up, was down as much as -2500 at one point, and came back to minus -100 twice and then plummeted soon afterwards to -1200, TWICE. So, when I finally got back to even, I quit. I was just putting in face time anyway, I am generally not a night time player I prefer playing during the day. I've been up since early working on minimal sleep from last night and never did go back to sleep or take a nap today.

My buddy, the one who LIVES at the casino across the street in the big suite came over as I was playing DD at high limit. I'd forgotten that I had mentioned to him via text earlier that I might be playing there at such and such time, which actually it was by then a couple hours later than the time I had mentioned.

He's crazy. He pulled up in one of those electric disabled person vehicles. A bright red one. When I saw him I started to say, Oh no, what happened but then when he crawled out with a big grin on his face, I knew he was fine. I didn't get into the, hey that cart is for the DISABLED you shouldn't be misusing it, but anyway, he had rented it from the casino, charged it to his room, and now here he was driving it right into the high limit pit practically crashing into the BJ table chairs.

The pit boss started to tell him that he'd have to park it someplace else, but when he and the shift manager, who had come over to say Hi and wish me Happy New Year realized that he was with me, they told him that he could leave it there as long as he at least shoved it more against the high limit room barrier to allow people to pass by behind the table chairs.

He played for a while, mostly lost, then tried to get me to go play "Pinball." I kept thinking he was talking about some kid's arcade game - visions of the underground one at Harvey's Lake Tahoe dancing through my head - until he explained that no, this is a slots game.

SLOTS. I said to him. Those are horrible odds. Why you wanna play slots?

But he kept insisting that he had been having luck with these, and he got up and went over to some machine, telling me he'd come back over to say Goodbye on the way out.

About a minute later I got back to even, colored up 5000, decided to just walk with it for tomorrow's play
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and walked over to where he was JUST AS he hit a $2500. jackpot, with only, I think it was twenty five bucks in the machine, or on that spin. He hadn't even been playing more than a few minutes.

He didn't even have a valid ID with him, expired only, but they found him in their player card system and eventually handed him the cash with no deduction. He dumped a couple hunny more into the (nowadays, no armed) bandit, and then got back on his motorized disabled person's machine, and headed back out to go across the street. He is REALLY crazy. Before he power scootered back out of the casino, he actually called his hotel and asked them to come pick him up.

What, you're going to just LEAVE that cart here?

I don't care, was all he had to say on that subject.

He didn't follow through on that notion only because the casino told him that it would be a while before they could make it over.

The attendants were really excited for him, told him that he'd now be having a very happy New Year, but he mumbled something about Sure, I already lost two million - but that's actually crap, I think it's more like a half a million that he's dumped, and besides, these two ladies were so genuinely excited for him, I'm glad they didn't hear him say something so negative, I mean come on, let's keep the positivity flowing, people don't always need to be enlightened as to the status of the big bad world, let them have their happy moment.
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The silver haired lady was the main attendant, the one who came to pay him.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:10 PM
My friend did lose most all of her money, she keeps messaging me that she has only 800 left. I assume that means negative -5200 in that she told me her bankroll was 6000. (Okay just got another message from her, confirmed minus -5200.) She extended her flight to leave tonight. The casinos are raising their limits at all tables as we get closer to NY's, so I messaged her just now and advised her to forget about it, that 800 isn't going to do anything at a 200 or 300 minimum table.

I worked out pretty hard at the gym yesterday including by stringing up those TRX straps. No one said anything, but then the gym at this casino isn't really that regulated. I actually had to think for a moment where/how to string them up as I have never had to put them up before, but it was pretty easy.

Before I gambled last night we went to this casino's steak house. As you all know, every casino has at least one high end restaurant, even the dumps downtown, and this casino is by no means a dump, although "Old School." That was pretty nice, and set the stage for a nice evening of gambling, which I ended up winning nothing but even is a win when you're down for all of the session. I am still thinking to play DD BJ stand 17 at this casino versus their Bacc. unless they open more than one Bacc. table. It's funny because the former Director of Table games at this casino, when he was the Director at a different casino is the one that banned me from BJ years ago, which that two-year ban on BJ is what led to my starting to play Baccarat in the first place!

In case you didn't read the story, I wasn't so much banned as handicapped. This came after repeated sessions when I was clocking them at double deck BJ for low to mid five figures per session. And these repeated big win sessions came after some years of consistent BJ wins. They put a notation in my player account that I was allowed to bet no more than 3X my prior (hand before) bet at BJ. But after staying away from all casinos for about a year, and from BJ for two years, I came back into playing some BJ, casino ownerships had changed, and somehow that notation had either disappeared or been deleted from my account. Plus I had become by then very good friends with this Director of Table Games and although he kept laughing about how I like to alternate between table min and table max at BJ, he never again did anything about it. However, to this day I do remain banned from one major casino in Vegas (actually two, owned by the same company, but I was interested in playing at only one), and that is, my research shows, because someone who is the Director there now used to work under this other Director who banned ("handicapped") me.

But what is interesting is that by then, by the time I was back in at BJ, I had won so much money at Bacc. that I didn't really want to play BJ any longer. Plus I was still worried that if I did come back to BJ and play it as hard as I used to, I would get banned, for good this time. And that's the true story of how MDawg came to start playing Baccarat.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:14 PM
In BJ: A count of whatever after a sequence with a lot of face cards and aces is different in my book from the identical count after a sequence ("flow") that had no face cards/aces whatsoever, especially if you are tracking the deck or clumps. It's perhaps a little hard to describe, but there is a difference. The count, even the true count, is not everything.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:15 PM
I'm glad we made it in Saturday. We read about a couple who took twenty two hours to drive in to Vegas from Southern California after leaving Thursday morning. The article mentioned that they settled into the same casino we are in. Should find them, and compare notes!

When we arrived Saturday evening, my host said that one player of his had used a lot of unpaved side roads to make it to Vegas Friday. ("We'll take the not-so-dangerous road, whatever that might be....") For us, on Saturday, the roads were clear and there was traffic only during a twenty minute or so portion, an accident or something like that near Barstow. ("We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the urge to win kicked in.")

Vegas seems to be filling slowly with people for New Year's. I imagine today incoming traffic will be heavy.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:16 PM
Hellllo to all, and to all, Good Luck!

I went in, played basically just one shoe of DD BJ, no decisions to be made wasn't betting much, won about fifteen hunny. No decisions to be made in that it seemed like I was winning every hand but looking back I might've lost a couple or so. Was betting peanuts tho. Played one more hand the next shoe, lost that one hand, left. To the good 1350. It'll add up.

As Steve Cyr has put it:
"There's two types of players

Ones that are here for the cost of entertainment, and you love those guys, win or lose doesn't matter, they're just here to have fun,

then there's a guy coming here to win we gotta watch that guy there's definitely two types of players, you know a guy that wins Friday night, okay if he's a steamer he's going to steam probably blow his winnings and by Sunday owe me money, a guy's that disciplined [wins] Friday will go home Saturday. So, there's definitely two types of players."

As Dave Berns added:
"The one thing the casinos hate about high rollers, are high rollers who are what they call hit and run high rollers, someone who comes in, gambles for a couple of hours, wins some money, and leaves."

Here for two more weeks plenty of time.

I paid off yesterday's marker when cashing in the winnings.
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Cashing in a little over a grand I probably didn't have to pay the marker, but I did.

I needn't worry about comps in that we're far under comp'ed coming in anyway....

Until tomorrow.


By the way here's a pic of my friend's red "scooter" in his Encore room that he sent me today.
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which he tells me that he's been downgraded to a regular suite room now. Still, that he's been continuously in residence at Encore for almost all of this year, and most of last year, is impressive, no matter what kind of room he has been in, and he has been in one of their salon 2261 square foot suites most of the time.


Oh by the way turns out that recurring fog horn sound is not coming from outside. I had driven by Fashion Show mall couple days ago with windows down hadn't heard anything thought that was odd. Anyway, I had emailed my host about the internet connectivity and the noise and he emailed me back that he was taking care of the internet comp'ing it all off, and looking into both issues.

Just before I played this evening I ran into him in the VIP lounge, and he said that the sound is coming from a transformer within the walls of the hotel, and they are working on isolating and resolving the issue. He said that another guest had complained too. I did think actually that the sound was somehow coming most prominently from one corner of the walk in closet, but I just assumed that that corner of the suite was more in the direction of Resorts World. How a transformer makes a regular fog horn sound versus just constant humming, I could not say.

I did find this by Googling, I didn't read it carefully, but maybe this guy is talking about something similar?
Power Outage Noise(s) (https://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?78994-Power-Outage-Noise(s)&p=929616&viewfull=1#post929616)

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:18 PM
We're actually not at Wynn/Encore yet we are across the street.

Will be at Wynn/Encore later during this same trip.

However, yes, that's exactly what most all of the Vegas and Tahoe casino resorts do. Even if you are full-on RFB comp'ed status the resort fee or internet (if you choose to go that route of forget the resort fee and instead just charge me per device for internet) is not included up front; you must ask the host to comp it off. (There is actually some confusion about this, at Wynn/Encore I've had some hosts say that when you are RFB internet charges will come off automatically, others will say resort fees will come off automatically, others will say nothing will come off automatically, but I've never had any of these charges come off "automatically" I have always had to ask.)
However, when you are on RFB status you have some sort of "quasi-resort fee waived" status on your account, in that you are allowed into the fitness facilities, but no internet is included up front with RFB status.

At some resorts like Cosmopolitan, WiFi is free for EVERYone, and once you achieve Platinum status in their Identity Player's Club, all resort fees are comp'ed. (But, and this is where the head spinning starts, on closer inspection I found that it isn't so much that your account at Cosmo then shows "resort fees paid" but rather that your account reflects that sort of "quasi-resort fee waived" status since you are Platinum that allows you access to the gym.)

In the old days, and I don't mean like ancient times but refer to the early 2000s, you paid a per day gym/spa access fee. This fee got you into both the casino resort gym, and its spa. You could not access one without paying for both, and it was around $40. per day. In the old days too, this access fee was either comp'ed instantly off your bill if you were RFB such that you never saw it, or disappeared the moment you mentioned it to your host. Not like today when trying to get any of these silly charges taken off takes a bit of effort.

Nowadays the resort fee permits entrance to the gym, but no spa access. Now, spa access is separate and costs - you guessed it, about $40. per day, more in some casino resorts.

The disadvantage of the new system is that since most guests cough up the resort fee (or are forced to cough it up as mandatory in some properties), the hotel gyms are more crowded these days. However, the spas are much less crowded, as people must pay specifically and separately just to go there.

To summarize the above: YES, THEY CAN AND WILL TRY TO NICKEL AND DIME YOU.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:19 PM
That recurring fog horn sound...my host did say it is internal and a transformer within the walls of the hotel, but whatever it is, it is still going on. Slept with earplugs last night, doesn't seem to bother her. This isn't Motel 6 there shouldn't be any noise in the room!

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:19 PM
What if I emailed the host, something like

The recurrent fog horn sound, which you said is from a transformer within the walls of the hotel, continues. Sleeping with ear plugs. I know you're comping the suite and all the food and we love the layout of the room, it's great - but honestly, I wouldn't take this room for free given how hard it is to get decent sleep in here.


or would that be too over the top?


The refrigerator was buzzing too, but I had them come in and replace it with a brand new one.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:20 PM
The powder room toilet (A Brit might call it the water closet) is running water, but not making much noise. I don't want to deal with maintenance I need to get to the gym and run a couple errands in town before noon.

Who is staying in these rooms, not complaining about noise and malfunctioning fixtures and appliances? One of the stays at Encore the Alexa device wouldn't work for the drapes or lights, only the music. I called right away to get it fixed, although it took them a few tries I stayed on it.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:20 PM
I have a best friend who used to travel with me, and I'd call him "my manservant" and he'd help with stuff like that, and also in the old days I'd travel with a legion of minions, but these days I travel with the wife only.

Deciding which watch to wear is not exhausting, but making sure they are all secured and safe can be.


Speaking of minions, Drake was playing at Encore last night, in the high limit pit, according to my red scooter driving friend. I want to follow up to find out if he was playing alone somewhat incognito or with an entourage. I've played in Tahoe at the same table with Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan back when Jordan used to play, and they would play alone. Same with Oscar de la Hoya, Wayne Gretzky, Howie Mandel, and others, I've seen them play alone. I watched Bill Gates play years ago - five dollar red chips only is what he played with, and I understand that he gave even that up eventually, doesn't gamble at all anymore. Gates played alone at a regular table with regular players at the same table, as did these other celebrities when I saw them playing, or was playing at their table.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:21 PM
We don't really want to move we have too much stuff, which is part of why we stay in each resort at least a week before moving on. Plus it is NY's eve this is their largest suite short of the Penthouse, and the reason we didn't take that is because that PH floor is a smoking floor, I doubt they even have another suite this size available, and anyway if the sound is like the host says coming from the walls of the hotel, would a different suite be any different? All of the Premier Suites (1300 S/F) at this resort face the same direction, so they are along the same edge of the hotel all on its top floors.

As you know, I already emailed the host about this and the internet, and then when he saw me in person he told me that the noise was an issue at the hotel itself within its walls, so the Q is whether to follow up or just leave it alone. Maybe the best approach, a la Godfather, is that when I see him next...mention it. Don't insist.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:21 PM
New Year's Eve:
Starting to get pretty busy out there. One side of the strip (LV Blvd.) is very congested. Had to drive take care of a couple errands.

The parking structure here is almost full, but I found a space. Didn't feel like dealing with the mess pulling in from LV Blvd. to valet.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:21 PM
Of course, I forgot something in the car. Have to go all the way back out there. Well, at least that is going to be easier than if I had valeted!

I have a headache already and it's not even NY's Day yet. Actually we don't even drink, so this is more of a not quite enough sleep or food headache.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:22 PM
Just so some of you know, you might have pegged MDawg wrongly. He's not putting on airs, he's keeping it real.

I just poured the hot water into one of these and opened a can of tuna.
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Now why would I do that when I could pick up the phone and order about anything and have it comp'ed? It was my wife's idea actually. She noticed that there are times when I am in a hurry, such as to get to the tables, and simply won't eat, because I don't want to hang around waiting for room service. So, here ya' go.

That's what MDawg's having for lunch.

We have a water boiler in the room,
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but actually I didn't buy that, not originally anyway, to make Ramens. It's for this, we are real tea heads - not meaning pot smokers, but
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especially, she is a real tea drinker. Many of these are organic, or herbal, and not available downstairs in VIP. Plus when you want a hot beverage, again, who wants to wait 45 minutes for the butler or for room service?

The tea we've been bringing on trips for a long time. The boiler is relatively new, used to just have the hotel rent us one, and bringing ramen and cans of tuna, crab and lobster, trying that out for the first time on this trip.
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Another important meal, that's easy to miss for gamblers, because we tend to want to rush out the door some mornings to play without eating - breakfast. Which is why we bring liquid yogurt drink, bananas and, for the first time on a trip, instant oatmeal.
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MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:26 PM
Yes I like canned fish. As far as the tuna variety for a while we were getting this expensive as hell line caught tuna in the can, but eventually I realized that it was dry and didn't even taste as good as the standard supermarket Albacore in water. The Maine lobster they sell in the cans in supermarkets is costly, but quite good.


Haven't played yet, might not play tonight, will see.


Ate lunch, went to gym, then walked across the street to pick up our New Year's Eve party tickets for that party, which just as I walked into the casino my host texted me that he was at the host station and had my tickets, so that saved a trip to one of the ballrooms where they were being distributed.

The Strip wasn't closed off yet, and wasn't closed off as I walked back either.
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Once across the street, checked into the room (the one night stay in the standard 750 S/F Encore Tower Suite that we will not be staying in), picked up the tickets, stopped by VIP to wish Happy New Year to the attendants whom I know pretty well I consider them like buddies, have even bought and delivered food to them whenever we were getting outside food for ourselves, grabbed a couple of mango drinks, and headed into the room.
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Actually don't think it matters but I messed up the bed, threw some towels on the bathroom floor and draped a robe over a chair.
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MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:29 PM
The view from this room is nice, but the glass seems spotty probably due to last week's rains here.
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Or maybe it was just light reflecting off the glass.

The crowd at Wynn/Encore is definitely far more upscale than across the street where we are staying. Actually we haven't stayed here at Treasure Island in some time, but as I mentioned, this casino is throwing us pretty much their largest suite while across the street they gave us just a standard "suite" during this impacted New Year's week. So, I suppose that over here, we are viewed as a very big fish in that the pond is smaller.

Over there at Wynn/Encore everyone is more dressed up and the girls, if they are hot, try to look not just hot, but rich. :o Here at TI, it's like, Hello, how are you, I'm here to have fun in Vegas for New Year's; over there no one wants to look other than as if he or she has already arrived and knows the score. I mean at Wynn/Encore, if you're not Drake, you want to look like you could care less who Drake is, is the impression people seem to want to give.

It's actually going to be a bit of a chore to attend both parties, but I think we will attempt it - have dinner at the party over here first then head over there for a second dinner (I'll eat again, she won't, she's a very light eater), and then maybe return here just before midnight for the fireworks. My host over there went over the timeline with me and said "I'll see you at the party" (ulp, I guess that means we should at least show our faces). Only way to do it, to attend both events, will be by walking and while not far, I won't be the one in heels. We shall see.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:31 PM
Last night we did end up going to both casino's parties.

The plan originally was to go to Wynn's party first, but at 9pm as we were getting ready to leave the room, my Treasure Island host called the room from downstairs to ask if we knew where the party was. That was something. No casino host has ever bothered to phone to ask why I'm not at an event, so we felt compelled to go to TI's party first.

TI's party was...nice. Great Old School band, excellent food, if we had gone to only that event we might have had a certain impression of a Vegas New Year's Eve casino party. The theme was a sort of, "Under the Sea" underwater motif.
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TI Appetizer:
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TI main course:
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From the blue hue of the plates, you may gather the underwater lighting motif they were trying to convey.
They gave us these sparky twinkly rings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bat4nLYmrkw&feature=youtu.be
As soon as dinner was over, we slipped out, luckily while my host's back was turned so that he didn't notice ������ then picked up the gift the casino gave us which was some kind of dashcam.
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We walked up to the room, dropped off the gift, and headed out to go across the street to Wynn. The Las Vegas Strip was closed off from all vehicles, so it was an easy walk as far as being able to cross the street diagonally, and not have to wait at any crosswalk, but still it was a good ten minute walk just to get inside Wynn, and then another ten minutes or so to get to the ballroom.

Along the way we saw many police officers, and even one fatigue wearing armed forces guy, more than a few of whom were slinging automatic weapons. Previously, during my walk to Encore to check into our "room" there, I'd seen quite a few Wynn security officers patrolling with Security dogs sniffing the bushes. (One thing I really liked about the Wynn dogs is that they are all now some kind of friendly looking little curly haired dog, no more menacing German Shepherds.) Security was definitely tight they weren't taking any chances. The last time we were in Vegas for New Year's was about five years ago, and it wasn't like this, not nearly as much law enforcement and heavy artillery presence.

Once at the party, which we arrived around ten PM, it was just clear even before we entered the ballroom that this party, dubbed THE PARTY, was on another level. It was indeed, THE party. It blew TI away, made us feel a little sorry for our host back there. I mean this Wynn party was akin to...a 500 plate Persian wedding at the Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills. The stops were mostly pulled.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:36 PM
TI menu:
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Wynn party:
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These pics don't even do justice to the event, it was pretty high end. A lot of the men were in tuxedos, and those who weren't were dressed like me in a dark sport coat with a collared shirt and no tie. (But they almost universally wore white shirts, I'd like to think that I one upped them with my purplish colorful Gucci shirt. :p)

You could just feel the caliber of the crowd. It reminded me of a line from The Great Gatsby, something about being "aware of the easy money in the vicinity."

Even though we arrived as most of the guests were eating dessert, they did a rewind for us and served us the complete meal.
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MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:38 PM
Wynn appetizer:
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Wynn Main course:
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Actually to be fair, the food was better at TI. Although presented more ornately at Wynn, the tenderloin medallion was overcooked, and while Wynn presented lobster in its appetizer, TI's prawns were unmatched - TI always somehow gets great prawns we've experienced this before at other TI events.

Kelly Clarkson came on at about 10:45pm and kept belting out a lot of her new and old classics, which again we're not exactly KC fans, but she put on a great show.

It turned out that the family at our table, their parents (which the entire family was at the table, parents, couple siblings, sons and their girlfriends) knew my parents from my hometown, and we had a good time at that table.

We left at about 11:35pm to walk back to TI to see the fireworks.
The Wynn gift was...slippers?
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(Maybe they slipped something into the room as well last night, may walk back over there shortly to check.) TI had cordoned off the "quay" in front of the casino just for the invited guests from the NY's Eve party (and also for some other casino patrons who hadn't quite made the mark for entrance to the dinner party, but played hard enough to warrant a cocktail party under the stars with a direct view of the fireworks).

We ended the night outside, watching the fireworks, which they were coming off of the rooftop of the Venetian too, and down the strip as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDJu92KZYpg&feature=youtu.be

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:42 PM
After walking over to Encore, I ran into one of the hosts I know over there, he gave me a NY's hug, good guy, he thought I had been up all night lol because I was wearing the same overcoat I had worn when we walked into the Wynn party last night. I just laughed it off and went with it, told him I had slept some. He kept saying, "I gotta get me one of those," meaning the overcoat. "That's hot!" He complimented it last night too. I wish I were rich enough to just hand people any item of mine that they compliment, wouldn't that be something? but this coat cost something like ten grand and I'm not at that level! of largesse capabilities.

So that you may get a visual, that this isn't just an ordinary coat:
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All mohair, with Persian lamb around the collar.
I love haberdashery.

Okay enough fashion drivel.

On the way there I walked past this homeless guy on the bridge over LV Blvd. He was holding some kind of ID card, saying something about Please help the homeless vet.

I walked right past him soundly ignoring him, but just before I got on the down escalator, I paused.
All gamblers are superstitious. One superstition I have involves homeless people. On one trip years ago when I used to gamble in Tahoe, after the hotel limo picked me up at the Reno airport just as we were about to get on the highway I saw this homeless person under the bridge, had the driver stop, and gave him some money. That trip I won big!

The next trip, I saw another homeless guy by the same bridge, ignored him. Lost that trip.

After that, whenever the limo to Tahoe passed by a homeless person, two words invariably came out of my mouth. PULL OVER!

So today, I pulled $5. out of my wallet, and turned back towards the guy. He probably never scurried so fast wherever he was deployed, assuming that ID he was holding that no one bothered to look at was in fact some kind of military ID, because he was on me in seconds.

"Good luck." Quietly, handing him the bill.

"Good luck to you!" he came back with, booming.

He knew the score. I think anyone who would hand money to these guys on the bridges, in between casinos, is doing it out of some kind of hope that the good karma will carry over to his gaming. "At least, that's the way I feel about it."

The room at Encore was empty, no casino gift, but it also looked like it had been made up, and not just turn down service from the night before but full final check-out service (but, my key still worked). So, if there was a gift in there the maid had picked it up. I stopped in VIP downstairs, ate a couple of yogurt granola bowls and some kind of not too sugary Danish, grabbed a hot tea and a couple of mango drinks (which both bottles fit easily into even just one pocket of this trench coat, another plus to wearing it :D), and headed out. Was nice walking outside. Not too many people out yet, at least not on the streets, but had to nix the idea of bringing Tacos El Gordo (local authentic Mexican taco place on the Strip next to Encore) back to the room, due to the long line.
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Tacos El Gordo often has long lines inside, but I have never seen it go all the way down the street OUTside. Forgettaboutit.

All right, order some room service, eat, maybe rest a bit, and then the tables. I actually wanted to go to the NY's Day brunch at the buffet but she rejected that idea: "We were around people ALL NIGHT."

Today will most likely be putting in some hours.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:46 PM
One thing to keep in mind is that the true definition of karma is not that if I do something good, that good will come (right back) to me...but that by doing something positive it may inspire the recipient of the positivity to do something positive himself, and that ultimately this positivity that is spread out there may come back to you.

Now, I'll agree as far as this homeless guy, who was tellingly no longer on the bridge when I walked back (why leave a spot that gets you five bucks so quickly?), that maybe all he did was run off and buy a five dollar rock of crack cocaine. Who knows, maybe after smoking it he did something bad and so far from spreading positivity he spread some kind of mischief. But in general, if you do good things and treat people positively it will (or should) inspire them to do the same, and spread good and positivity themselves, which may indirectly come back to you. That is karma.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:46 PM
I do know there is a big crack and heroin problem in Las Vegas, just a walk down Fremont away from places like the Golden Nugget and past the El Cortez. I don't know how much they have to spend per dose minimum.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:47 PM
I am not posting about which direction I wiped my a** this morning, or how many times I am having sex each day, whatever I post here has to do with my trip report i.e. gambling, in this case, my gambling superstitions! with giving money to mendicants while on a gambling trip. Yes there are a certain amount of extraneous details presented but they have something or other to do with the trip narrative.

I suppose if I thought that having sex just before a session would lead to winning, I'd mention it though. Should I mention it?

Okay gotta eat, and get ready for a session. Will most likely just be playing the double deck BJ stand 17 here unless they open up more than one Bacc. table. Haven't played any Bacc. this trip yet.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 09:48 PM
The sex thing: For me, it's gotta be twice a day. For her, she's fine with once. Another thing I like about Vegas trips is that I can say something like, Come on babe, you know I gotta be loose before I go down there, and she'll laugh and there we go. So sometimes I get my twice daily easier on trips than at home. Before someone calls TMI - the relevance to gambling: I'm not saying that you're more likely to win if you've just had sex. What I am saying tho, is that if you're running out the door to gamble passing up food or sex that might mean that you're too anxious to play, in which case your judgment might be off.

I played a fairly long session today, double deck stand 17, won some, not much - the total for the trip is pushing two grand, which was not bad considering I was down some at several points during today's session. I've played only three days so far; did not play at all two days. (I decided I am going to email something to my host about how this fog horn sound is keeping me from getting good sleep and is part of the reason why I haven't played that much. When I was in VIP today the girl there told me that there have been other complaints - "you're not the only one.")
At the end of today's session I was just going to walk with the chips after coloring up and hold them all until tomorrow, but the pit boss asked if I wanted to pay off my marker so I said Yeah, and did, then cashed the winning chips.
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When I pulled in a different pit boss came up and asked me if I was trying to look cool, 'cause I was wearing these shaded Chrome Hearts. I had the lenses specially made they start darker at the top almost clear towards the bottom, the pic might not show that so clearly but that's the way the lenses are tinted.
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Actually the story on these is, and I relayed it to this pit boss, that there is a certain pit boss at Cosmopolitan that told me, "You know ____, it's OKAY to tint your glasses just a LITTLE darker," after he saw me wearing a pair of Gold n Woods that had a very slight gray tint in them. He himself was wearing some pretty dark shades. So based on his suggestion, I had these Chrome Hearts darkened.

"Well, it's working. You ARE looking cool." this pit boss at TI said after he heard the story.

We shook hands, I gave him the double handed Chauncey Gardiner ("Being There") presidential clasp. "Happy New Year!"


There was a guy who also won at my same BJ table. He won only about a hundred or two hundred and stopped. He said that he was going to take a break to go watch the Baccarat table for a while, which is right next door. It was crowded with a group of Asians who all seemed to know each other, and they were doing pretty well, a lot of shouting and cheering.

"So, you just stand there and put down a bet occasionally?"

"No. I just watch. I just like to watch, especially when there's a group like this shouting and getting lively."

"Well they're doing pretty well, the shoe looks pretty good to me."

"What's the difference between a good shoe and a bad shoe, it's just a fifty fifty game isn't it?"

I could tell I was dealing with a non-believer.

"Well, there are shoes when it runs - in streaks." I made up and down sweeping motions with my hand. "I've won a lot at Baccarat."

He just sort of shrugged and went over to watch.

"I'll be back."

Before he left he did say something about how he was a "hit and run gambler" so he does believe in that, but not in the Baccarat.


I'm probably not going to play Bacc. here until/unless they open more than one table, so that I may switch back and forth if one shoe is bad. Anyway, I'm doing fine with the BJ and it brings back a lot of good memories even though I'm playing relatively small with it at the moment.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 10:36 PM
It Is a chore hauling in and hauling out, especially given all the stuff we bring, which is part of why I like to stay a while on each trip. I must admit I am much more into it than my wife, in fact she'd rather we not come at all, come less frequently, or go someplace else. The only reason she supports it is because of the positive cash flow, which is in fact the only reason I support it - losing is not anything I consider fun or behavior that is worth repeating. And as I have said, I don't do this for a living, I just do it for fun and because my business is such that I'm able to handle most of it remotely. As far as appeasing her: We're going to be on a tropical island (with no casino) for a full month later this year, which we did the same thing last year, and she loves those types of trip. And some other trips to non-gaming locations in 2020. So I tell her, come on, we're here now but we'll be in _____ next month. She does not gamble at all, not a nickel, so it is understandable that she gets bored of Vegas far faster than I do. Plus besides all the other non-gaming trips this year, we'll go skiing a couple weeks in Tahoe and I do not gamble in Tahoe anymore.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 10:38 PM
I scrolled quickly through the above, may read them more closely another time. Headed to meet my buddy at Wynn for dinner, my wife isn't up for it she's staying in.

Final session here was no sweat, won, stopped. Didn't play very hard here and only the DD stand 17 BJ, final tally about three grand to the good. I did keep an occasional eye on the Bacc. next door but the shoe wasn't very good today and there was no shouting or cheering. BJ is just such a grind though, but whatever it takes...to win!

I still don't get why anyone thinks stopping while ahead doesn't work. About the only thing it doesn't necessarily work for is getting comps, as in - if you win a grand or whatever it takes to get your juices flowing in ten minutes and just leave before you have earned any comps, but since we were comp'ed up front for this trip based on prior play, I didn't have to think about putting the hours in.

Will check in from the new resort tomorrow.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 10:39 PM
My friend and I ate at the Wynn buffet. Whenever I go to the buffet I always get a four-top table, even if there are only two of us. Next thing you knew he brought these two Korean girls who couldn't speak English to our table. He was trying to get them to go to a Strip club with him.

"Strip club? You know what Strip club is?"

They were hamming it up for their own selfie pics, and giving us their phones to take pictures of them, but when I snapped a pic of them they acted indifferent as hell about being photographed. Was cute actually.
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Then we went to high limits slots, my friend is the only one who played. He won some, about $700. at that "Pinball" slot machine he favors, cashed out, and abruptly pulled out his player card, then slid a hundred dollar bill into the machine.

"Now the machine doesn't know that it's _____." He said, saying his name.

I gathered the premise - that the machine was not going to give him any more because the casino was somehow controlling his wins, so he wanted to continue play as a different, anonymous player.

"You BELIEVE that?" I was incredulous.

He shrugged. "Gotta believe in something."

Inane as it sounded, those four words actually made a sort of sense.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 10:40 PM
The other players at my BJ table last night were incredulous that I had been here since Saturday. And impressed that I was up a couple grand (which ended up being three grand after last night's session) while having been here that long. "Hell, up a dollar after being here that long is good in my book." said this guy from Texas. I didn't mention that this was just the first leg of the trip.

The guy from Texas was talking about how great they were at taking care of you in the '70s in Vegas.

"If you were a CONSISTENT player, even playing just five ten dollars a hand, they would pick you up from the airport, take care of you really well, everything."

He was also talking about how quickly you got drinks back then.

"The pit boss would just clap his hands, and the waitress was THERE."

He is right about how slow service is these days, even in high limit. Two nights ago after I won and stopped I had ordered a green tea, and even though I sat there chatting with the dealer and pit boss for quite some time, the tea took so long that I just left without getting it. As I was walking away I saw her enter the high limit pit, and was going to circle back and give her a fiver anyway without even taking the tea, but I decided against it - if she was going to take that long she wasn't going to get the tip.

And last night at the high limit slots at Wynn we ordered drinks, including a Macallan for my player card superstitious friend, but the server took so long that we just left.


BTW as your attorney I advise you to buy on dips today. (As opposed to driving over to the Tropicana and picking up on Guy Lombardo.) I already made a nice little pot of money buying in the pre- and selling up to 20 points higher on stocks like AMZN. It's like...money from home.

My best friend used to hate when I used that expression to refer to how much money the dealer was paying out on a run.

"You gotta understand ____, when I call home to ask for money they just hang up on me."

MDawg
01-12-2020, 10:41 PM
re: the stock market
I've been doing this since I was a kid (stock trading and investing). I have a massive long term portfolio, but I also trade extra shares most every day.

If AMZN had dropped lower I would have just averaged in more shares, and held however long it took.

It's not gambling the stock market is a sure thing over time for industry leader stocks, and even my short term trades have a close to 100% success rate. Just stick with trading the top stocks that tend to go up over time. If you want a list, pay me for it, or do your own research.

A friend of mine sold all his stocks at DOW 23.5K just before that massive dip in December 2018. (Actually he didn't own individual stocks, he was in a mutual fund tied directly to the DOW JONES index.) He was crowing about how he got out before it got really bad. He put all his money in a one year CD. I told him that the stock market would recover and that he'd never get back in because after it soared above his exit point, he would be loath to re-buy. I even predicted that we would have a full recovery by March 2019, while he predicted a long and dark recession. He's a professional poker player I should have made him a money bet, but anyway, he was spectacularly wrong and I was right. I've been around so many of these panics and drops, like the one in 2008, to know that buying when the market is down is the right thing to do, definitely not selling.

Anyway see here we are a year later at close to DOW 29K, his CD matured several weeks ago, and he's not going to buy back now because the DOW is almost 5500 points higher than where he sold at, he's done, ruined from investing for the rest of his life unless he swallows his pride and rebuys much higher than what he sold at.

The right time to invest in the stock market...is whenever you have money.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 10:42 PM
There are spectacular exceptions to the industry leader buy in idea, Soopoo you are right, but for whatever reason, probably just luck, I haven't owned large amounts of the industry leader losers. I did own some JCP for a while, which I did eventually sell at a loss, but a very long time ago, not a huge loss. I also own a very small amount of GE, which I still hold.

Dell, etc: I suppose the reason I never got into PC manufacturers is that I have always been an AAPL user. I did buy MSFT and held it a long time and did very well at it, but eventually sold most all of it and have been holding a huge amount of AAPL since 2006-2007. I love AAPL stock, products, everything about it. So there's one free tip, BUY AND HOLD AAPL. lol

(I was pretty much cut in half on AAPL in 2008, but I did not sell.)

MDawg
01-12-2020, 10:43 PM
So now I am waiting to see if the host will comp all of her spa charges, which come in around a grand. I put in my case. We shall see.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 10:43 PM
Until you've traded 1000 - 3000 share blocks of a stock that costs $1000 - $2000. per share, you are not qualified to comment about how other traders might affect what you are doing, let alone laugh.

Even when I try to sell I have to sometimes put the order in at last second, if I leave it up for too long invariably some punk retail or algo jumps in with a .01 lower price. Or ease it in in segments. Same with buy orders, they jump in with a .01 higher price. They line up ta getchya!

MDawg
01-12-2020, 10:43 PM
Anyway gotta shave :oeat breakfast and we start packing for the trek across town.

MDawg
01-12-2020, 10:44 PM
Okay, as Manny said to Scarface,

Do you want to hear some good news, or do you want to hear some good news?

He comp'ed the spa!


Just got the email back.
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MDawg
01-13-2020, 08:44 AM
Excited! to be moving to the new resort. Why, I don't know. Just am!

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:15 AM
While packing I was thinking about what a chore it is, which, IT IS. But now settled in the new suite and UNpacked, it's all in the past.
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(Took these pics before the bellman delivered our luggage.)
This suite is about half the size of the TI one, but my wife likes this suite, and the resort itself, more. The last time we were here, they gave us a much bigger suite. Given that CES starts Jan. 6th, this is a pretty good score for a comp'ed suite through CES. We'll be here about a week.

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:16 AM
Internet here is free with paid resort fee, which is comp'ed for us anyway;
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also seems to work better than at TI.

Will get $400. in promo chips, and play something or other, probably Baccarat, with their chips and mine, later tonight, after dinner. I usually don't play on travel arrival days, but this is just an inter-city move not a long distance drive.

One thing nice about this resort is all the different restaurants they have, up there on the level with Wynn/Encore almost.

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:17 AM
Ended up not playing yesterday. We went to dinner and then back to room, after a while didn't even feel like going back down. I was a bit shagged and fagged and fashed it having been a night of no small energy expenditure. ;)

The promo chips are $400. I asked for them in all black.
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Of course, 400 is nothing, could go in a blink of an eye, but you never know, they might go somewhere. Once at Harvey's Tahoe, this was back then, they gave me I think it was a few thousand in promo chips but I was playing catch up by that point and they all went nowhere quickly.

Palms has more offers around the corner if we come back soon.
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As long as you play and keep up that average bet they keep churning out the offers, win lose or draw. One thing I like about Palms is that when you come in on an offer, yes they give you the offer, but also your host still puts you into the size of suite you are accustomed to versus just the standard room. Now this time, due to that people will start checking in for CES starting Jan. 6th, we got a slightly smaller suite, but we sure didn't get just a standard room.

However at Cosmo, for example, whenever we come in on a promo offer, the host's assistant always says that you must stay in the type of suite (which isn't bad, but not huge) that is tied to the offer, versus the larger suites they give us at other times.

Going to eat, go to gym, hang out in room for a while with wifey again if she is back from the spa by then, maybe eat again, then play later. Never be in a hurry!

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:18 AM
Done with the gym, had a quick Shin black noodle soup with a can of tuna. Not anything anyone rich would everrrrr eat. Gobbled a few tiny sandwiches in VIP on way back from the gym while waiting for the girl to take care of something.

Now, going to get ready to go down and play.

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:19 AM
I played DD BJ hit 17 first, 100 min table. I used the four promo chips occasionally, all together. I actually won on them something like 5 times out of 6, and they were the type that remain until you lose with them, so these were helpful. But over all I was told it was a brand new deck and I generally don't have a lot of luck with brand new BJ decks and there were shuffles when I literally won only a few hands in the entire shuffle, playing heads up, and winning only 3 hands in an entire DD shoe playing one on one is BAD. I was staying alive just through sheer luck of hitting some of the bigger hands with BJs. The count was never that great, or when it was, SHE'D get the face/ten on top and I'd get a fifteen or some such crap with a million tens on the way. It was one of those sessions where it seemed like her face/ten was invariably glued to a match underneath.

It is a pitched game though, which is cool. I was the only player so I had no trouble viewing each card, and I decided the pace.

Eventually I went down the tubes, down -5K.

So I went then to Bacc. 300 minimum table and pulled ten, and I putzed back and forth +/- 2K, and then hit a bad run until I put down four grand on a player hand which the shoe indicated that four players were in order, and I got a natural nine but then I chickened out put only 300 on the next hand, got a nine again.

After that tho I got two shoes that were so symmetrical and beautiful it was just a question of how much I was going to win, but even underbetting pretty soon I had paid back the ten marker and had just under five on the table. I ended up leaving because at that point I was just trying to win a few hunny and not wanting to risk much since I was just playing for even I was betting 300-400 each hand and flat betting just is not the way to go no matter what. In other words, don't try to win 300 at a 300 minimum table!

So I paid off the ten K marker and took 4400 to the 100 min Bacc. table in the regular pit, and played just 100-300 per hand but it didn't take long I hit a tie bet that followed another tie bet for 100, and that gave me 800, so that was it, I stopped 300 ahead. When I tossed a few nickels at this regular pit dealer he just took them lol, but they were meant to pay off the tiny bit of commission that was left which I thought was just under fifteen turns out it was just under ten. So I had another red chip, plus two bucks out of my pocket and I was Mr. Clean, with a chocolate chip and three blacks. I actually won closer to a grand but at the high limit Bacc. table I tipped out about 600 - 700 to the dealer (via tie bets that we hit together, and other hands where we won together), along the way when I was killing it on the two great shoes. If I hadn't tipped those hands though, I probably would have stopped at the same point anyway, close to even, so they really had no effect on my bottom line other than requiring me to play a little longer to reach my goal of back to even.
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For whatever reason I just feel more comfortable these days betting big on Bacc. It coulda gone the other way but I won again, today, not big, but I came from a minus 5000 - 7000 loss to stop slightly ahead. (Actually come to think of it, I was minus -11, or close, at one point.) Why is it so easy to win when you have to, instead of when you don't? Whole session was a little over three hours but brother (not that all of you are my brothers, some of you are more like jealous enemies), it felt like longer.

Okay MDawg needs to get in some R&R and frolic (not necessarily in that order) in the suite.

G'night.

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:20 AM
Up since 5:30am. I am a finely tuned machine, wake up early even when I don't have to! (Either that - or I am getting older. :))

I am not saying that it's a good idea to gamble large sums, but the amounts I wager and am willing to lose are insignificant compared to my assets, which is as it should be. I can take a full hit on all of my lines and it would not affect our lifestyle whatsoever, just would be a little less money in the bank. As it should be - should never gamble with money you can't afford to lose.

In general what I have observed is that the self employed are more willing to gamble than the salaried, as self employed are risk takers. This is not universal, I mean for every Kerry Packer who played big there is a Bill Gates who won't gamble a nickel, but it is a fair generality.

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:21 AM
Yesterday when I won 4K with a natural nine that was exciting, I slammed the cards on the felt, but in a way even more exciting were two hands when I had 1500 and 1000 and won with nine over eight.

At the blackjack table a couple BJs I hit with 400 were nice snappers too, given that most of my bets at that table were 100 in that I was LOSING most every hand. Back to the old days when you could throw down your "snappers" I gotta salute this casino for allowing us to hold the BJ cards.

But the grand daddy of all recollections was during this one trip in the old days when I ended up winning almost 290 grand (over about a ten day period) at that casino which had been preceded with a just under 130K win (in one night) at the prior casino, all of which I had wired home. That 290 grand run started with a $15K bet (this is the short version of the story) where I examined the cards and said,

Open,

very quietly.

There was complete silence all around the table when the dealer opened a natural 8.

"NINE!" I exclaimed, slamming the cards on the table.

And that's when this homeless guy who had wandered into the high limit pit and latched onto me grabbed me and literally lifted me off the ground and started spinning me around. He was just a LITTLE guy but wiry, evidently! (That whole story, is part of the long version, you gotta buy the book to get it.)

I'm not saying that these moments eclipse other beautiful moments or memories of my life, not at all, but as gambling goes, you can't put a price on the feeling you get with a table limit nine over eight win, especially if it's not a bet that you make every day. Not quite as beautiful, but nice, is when you have a million plus in stock on a trade and your fill to sell it gets hit just minutes or even seconds after you entered it. Until any of you guys have experienced these things, living at a high volume like that, you can't really understand what it means, and should perhaps think: do I have a right to question or put it down?

Good luck to any of us that are actually DOING it today.

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:24 AM
Just finished eating this
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and she's on her way to the spa pretty soon, so I shall be heading down to play.

I guess I'll just wish myself luck unless someone else is going to. :cool:

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:26 AM
I went to high limit and went first to the DD BJ hit 17, but she said it was a brand new deck since noon that NO ONE had played. I have an aversion to brand new decks they usually end up either really good or really bad for me, and I didn't feel like testing this one out again after how it went yesterday with a brand new BJ deck.

So I went to the same Baccarat table as yesterday, 300 min. The first shoe was pretty awesome, the ties were coming in just where expected, one of them that I won was a complicated six card draw where banker started with one, I drew and was holding a nine, and player hit to zero, I flicked the last card down so hard just as the waitress was bringing me a tea that she jumped back startled. I had to calm her down.

"I didn't mean anything, I just get excited when I get a good card."

I startled the dealer a couple times too, with the way I slammed the winning cards down. I bet a $200. TIE ONLY that hit too, for $1600.

The moment I sat down she said, "Fendi?" referring to my sweater.

"How did you know?"

I don't like to wear stuff that has any kind of designer's name on it. I wear pretty much only designer clothing, but nothing with the designer's logo or name on it other than maybe, the Ralph Lauren polo, and that was in the old days I have been far above Ralph other than maybe his purple label for a long time now (and Ralph purple label does not have the polo player on it, has no insignia whatsoever).

"Oh," she laughed, "I just know."

The first shoe I was doing really well, great streaks, hitting ties, and I was barely betting much above the minimum, I am sure I was up a few grand at least without even trying. But then the last part of the shoe was unpredictably random and I should have taken the dealer's hint when she said, Do you want me to shuffle? but I kept playing. Anyway, by the end I counted 16 purples - the same eight grand I had started with.

You mean, you won, and I didn't? I thought to myself, as I looked at her stack of chips that she hadn't dropped yet. I had tipped out at least a couple hundred in match bets X 2 meaning she had won about four hundred.

Next shoe I played small again but as soon as I realized that I was up I just stopped. I was about even at the beginning of shoe, then losing, but nothing big. This shoe had this LONG sequence when the doughnuts predicted the next hand something like fourteen in a row without fail, I mean it was a PERFECT two bank one player two bank one player two bank one player for the LONGEST, and as soon as I detected that pattern I was ON it. The dealer next door kept cheering me on, saying, Well you know what to do next! Just follow the shoe! After that easy easy part I started to lose some, so this time, I just stopped, before I could give more back. After commission and everything I won 710. I paid off the marker and told her I'd be back later. She assumed I meant later today, but I meant...tomorrow. What's the hurry?
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Is 710 anything? Actually no, it's nothing for a 300 min. table, but still - it adds up, and chances are one of these days I will hit a big run and win big, and in the meantime, the total win for the trip is around four grand. Anything in the plus column is all MDawg looks for.

Tomorrow have some business to attend to regarding our office building escrow. There's more to Vegas than gambling!

Is it hard for me to play just a little and stop? Hellll no.

I did have a conversation with the pit boss about how much TIME I get for playing Baccarat. I mentioned to him how most of the casinos give you an hour per shoe, whether you race through it or drag it out for hours.

"Well, no" he explained, "it depends on how many hands per shoe you play. If you play like ten hands a shoe, I'm not giving you actual time for your play. I'm going to give you more like two minutes per hand."

"Well, what about me?"

"You play almost every hand. I'm giving you actual time."

I was about to say, that's still not right, I play an entire shoe, betting most every hand in twenty to thirty minutes, I should get a full hour credit per shoe, but, I didn't say anything more. At least I know how this pit boss does it.

Along the way the dealer was commenting on the waitress.

"Isn't she beautiful?"

Of course I agreed. She was, in an innocent kind of way. I do like thin women, I've never been into any girl who wasn't rail thin. I also do like the more innocent looking types. But, I'm here to play Baccarat not flirt with cocktail waitresses. My wife blows away any of these girls. However I will say that Palms has some beautiful servers, while for the most part many of the other casinos seem to have gone downhill over the years as to their eye in picking beautiful ones. Does anyone agree with me on the decline? Is the decline because of a strong union that is keeping the older servers in their jobs, or simply because all the hot girls nowadays want to be...Instagram models so the pool of beautiful candidates for cocktail server jobs has diminished?

All good, now what to do with the rest of Sunday?

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:27 AM
MDawg's four grand + in winnings so far.

I just like to make it look real, it seems paltry, and it is pretty paltry I mean I'd never work nine days to make just four grand, but the point is that I AM here, and I CANNOT justify being here and gambling unless I am winning.
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And at this rate it WILL add up. (If enough of you keep wishing me luck. THANK YOU HUGO.)

Also seriously, when you go home the money becomes real. I try to make it seem real WHILE I am here, but it's hard, and the casinos are set up to make you feel like nothing is real.

As someone once said, the person who invented gambling was smart. The person who invented the casino chip was a genius.

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:28 AM
In case someone couldn't follow: I described a tie hand that ended up 0 - 0 , player hit to 0, I had a nine (in my hand) and flicked it down on the table hard to add to the total of 1 that was already there, to tie the hand. Until such time as she hit the player to zero, I was holding probably the worst draw possible, reducing my bank hand to 0, hence my great excitement when she opened her third card to hit the player to 0. On that particular hand I had bet bank and tie.

A two card draw hand. In case you don't know how this works, typically when there is a mandatory two card draw and all players are on the same side, or, as in my case there is only one bettor, dealer deals the two cards and leaves the one for the other side face down until the bettor has finished looking at his card, and says, Open.

There was another hand I won where I bet tie only, $200. On those typically the dealer opens all cards, but by request you may examine one of the hands even though you have no wager on bank or player.

Also in case you don't know, in the US Baccarat rules are fixed, there is no way to "choose" to draw.

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:28 AM
It's only 7:45pm? Seems much later.

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:32 AM
I pulled only a five tonight there were two guys at the 100 min DD BJ hit 17. It pretty much went nowhere and then they changed the cards. Before they did the count wasn't really any good other than for about two or three hands on one shuffle and I jacked the bet some for two of those, hit a BJ on one, busted on the other when she got a ten up. The one player went completely bust and the other was barely holding his own. All three of us were playing perfect basic strategy, and the guy at the end seemed to increase his bet whenever I did, so maybe he was counting too. But it's only a double deck, the count only gets you so far. Lack of luck may negate all else.

Either I am constantly showing up just when they change the BJ cards or have just changed them, or because it is a game where we are allowed to touch the cards, they change them frequently. Anyway, I don't usually like playing with a brand new deck so I went over to the 300 min. Bacc table. One other player there a big one with stacks of yellow and purple chips.

The Bacc. shoe was near the end on not a very easy shoe, pretty random. Then I cut a new shoe and I started to lose I actually got down to just a grand, because I made the mistake of playing somewhat big into what looked like a pattern early in the shoe when in fact there was no pattern yet. Then I hit a sequence of 2 bank 2 player 2 bank 2 player and got them all for five hundred a hand. I read the shoe as two two two because it hadn't passed two yet, the entire shoe. That sequence got me basically even again. I putzed around a bit more, lost some of it back, and then hit a seven bank run but I entered it late I think on the fourth one? but I got four out of five on that run, and I pressed a little tossing a hundred on each win, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, but I lost the 700 and won 1800 to make it 1100 minus commission on that run. Anyway, after that run ended I decided to quit and pay off the marker,
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and after I paid commission this is what I walked to the cage with to cash. As I was leaving one the dealers was smiling broadly.

"I watch you play. You win, you go!" She made a chopping sweeping motion gesturing outside the pit. "That good!"

I just laughed and said, "Yes. It adds up."
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HOWEVER, I am actually not liking the risk to reward benefit some of these days. Down almost four grand, then rally to walk with about five hunny ahead? That's no way to be.

But, it still remains - a win. And it adds up. But not really worth my time spent in Vegas honestly if I had nothing else to do here I'd be feeling like I was wasting my time here. I need a big run, but my mentality right now is small time hit and run, and I will not get a big hit unless I step it up. Sometimes though your big bet and the runs coincide and that is when you really take home the chips.

As I was standing at the cage, I was thinking, do I have some method to win at Baccarat some - special technique that is teachable? No, I do not, nor have I ever claimed to. I can teach general principles that apply to all gambling. But for whatever reason, I do tend to win at both BJ and Baccarat, and I have my ideas as to why, which I have expounded on many times here, but what difference does it make WHY I win, why change what isn't broken.

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:33 AM
Noticed these videos yesterday in both high limit and regular pit, that include both this
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and this animation.
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Yeah...SOUNDS GOOD, in theory anyway. But you also may lose more, lose big by following this advice.

There is also a debit card terminal right at the high limit table to allow withdrawals of up to $2500. is what the pit boss said. That is pretty evil! I suppose the only thing more evil would be a credit card cash advance machine right at the tables.

MDawg
01-13-2020, 09:34 AM
I don't have anything else planned today, no gym either since it is an off day and we just ate breakfast so...I'll probably go down and play early today.

I actually had to go back to the table last night to retrieve something I had left behind, which luckily the pit boss had put aside for me, and when I went back there the lady with all the yellow and purple chips had lost half of them. She made a face when I asked her how the shoe had been. I played alongside her two days ago briefly at the lower limit table too; she is a pretty big player I'd say average bet at least a couple thousand. But see that's the thing, many high rollers just play until they have lost it all, on each trip.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 05:40 PM
It was a long session. I pulled 5K, lost it, more or less PROMPTLY, at DD hit 17 BJ. Just wasn't happening.

Then I pulled a ten and it took me HOURS of Bacc. play to win it all back, which actually, I had a shoe like this
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where I was just CREAMING them on the bank runs, but...I was having such a good time I was barely betting more than four hundred a hand. That's the thing, I gotta step it up when I am winning.

Took a break to go to lunch with the lady who plays pretty big, and she is a local who plays pretty much daily. Very nice lady. We were discussing hit and run and she was saying that she had given up entirely on hit and run, because she found that it would lend to her winning say a few grand a day and stopping, and then losing MASS in one session where she gave back a week's worth of hit and run winnings, and then some. So now, she says she tries to win as much as possible each session. Anyway, she seems to have limitless funds because I've seen her playing here daily with around fifty grand each day, and she says she is in the hole for the week, trying to play catch up.

Not long after we resumed play, she left and I kept playing. This guy showed up and put 2200 in chips on player, on a brand new shoe, lost. Before he bet he said that this was all the money he had, but then he pulled out 2500 cash, converted it to chips, and put it all on one player hand, won, kept playing, ended up walking with about eight grand. He went to the bathroom for a while when I kept hitting players; it was a player's shoe. If he had stuck around for that portion of the shoe he could have won a lot more, because he bet player only, but still turning 2500 into eight grand in just a few hands was not bad. This last shoe I played was a player's shoe.

Anyway, I got just a hundred above even, quit. I paid the ten, and held on to the five K chip for tomorrow without paying off that first marker. Look at that five K chip, it looks phony I mean no substance to it. Do you agree?

I really do have a hard time not leaving when I come back from a loss to even.
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After I stopped, I spent a long time talking with one of the pit bosses who used to work at one of the casinos I used play at big time in the old days. We exchanged a lot of "what happened to so and so" stories, and talked about the recent fate of Kaos at the Palms. Great guy, we really connected, warm talk.

During the session I glanced at my phone to check out the AH (after hours) and noticed AMZN down -43. Since we don't discuss politics we won't discuss why that is. Not good.

Nice day, lot of work, I did earn a lot of comps. Out of curiosity on the way back to the room, I stopped and asked their player's club how many points I earned today - they said a little above 32,000. Not bad for just one session. With Palms player's club all points start over January 1st, and I have about 76K now is what they said. 100K needed for President's level, which I am already President's anyway from last year, but 300K points needed for Chairman's level, which is their top level. All points must be earned by the end of June.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 05:54 PM
Today, was a good day. Finally! some real money, 6100 to the good from today's session. Total winnings now exceed 10K, which makes our stay seem a little more worthwhile.

I paid off yesterday's 5K marker at the cage with their flimsy 5K chip from yesterday's session, on the way to the gym this morning. They really verify everything here, even phoning the high limit pit to verify that they had issued me the chip. Given that I got it last night, I would have thought that by now their computer would have updated., without the need to phone additionally yesterday's pit!

After workout, and breakfast in the room, as I arrived at the scene, my friend was coming back from -75K in the hole, and betting 5-17K per hand. Luckily for us, it was a banker's shoe and it was just a question of HOW MUCH we were going to win. Her betting big inspired me to bet bigger too today.

How ya' gonna lose with a shoe like this? I left after the last natural 8 bank. I even caught nearly all of that five player run, which ra perfectly symmetrically and predictably side by side with the five bank run, and after that one she reasoned that the runs were stopping at five and she slammed fifteen grand on the bank and I supported, and we won that hand too. (On that hand I actually was going to stay on the player, because I try never to get off runs, but she asked me not to bet against her, so I supported her.) I was SLAMMING down the naturals on the player's side when we did pick the occasional justifiable player's bet, and my friend handled opening the bank cards, which we'd win together even with just a six as the player was unable to outdraw us. Another banker's shoe! with an almost sure thing third banker's bet all but one time!
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She went from -75k to +20K, on this shoe, pretty incredible to watch. I played just this one shoe today, not even all of it, seemed no need to play onwards how could it get better?

If any of the "language" used in this thread seems unfamiliar, or you are misreading the action, I will wager that it is because you don't play Bacc. and know little about the game! So, for the detractors here: please go back to whatever it is that you do in casinos to make money, and stop knocking what is working for others!

So now the winnings have piled up to 10K plus
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and it's not feeling so much like a waste of time.

This is it for this resort, on to the next tomorrow. Gonna drive into town to run a couple errands and bask in the winner's glow.
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MDawg
01-17-2020, 05:54 PM
Someone asked what I declare to the IRS in terms of gaming income?

As Ratso Rizzo said, "That's a matter I only talk about at confession." Or in my case, at tax time. With my CPA.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 05:55 PM
What I will say and will defend to the end, is that for the true Baccarat player there are good shoes and bad shoes.

A good shoe such as the one I got today that helped me win six grand and my friend win ninety-five grand. Or a good shoe such as the ones that whales use to clock the house for millions.

A Baccarat player worth his weight in black chips will always win when presented with a good shoe. There is a certain degree of luck and other factors involved such as what his initial bet unit happens to be during the sweet spots, the runs or streaks, of these good shoes, how he presses and so on, but give MDawg a good Bacc. shoe and he will always win money. I have posted images of some of those good shoes in this thread, and I have been presented with some of those good shoes recently during this trip.

Whether I've just been lucky enough to get more of these good shoes than bad shoes during my gambling life, or whether I have developed the sense to realize whether I am in the midst of a good or bad shoe and back off if bad, press if good, is a matter for interpretation.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 05:55 PM
Someone asked something about what is a bad shoe or what about the guys who bet the opposite side on a good shoe?

If you're not a true Baccarat player you won't be able to follow a shoe and you won't win. For example I had a friend who always bet player, when he did bet and didn't even bet every hand. He lost a lot. And I've come across people who bet only bank, and bet every hand, even if it is not a banker's shoe. They lose over time too.

Anyway, the proof is in the pudding. MDawg wins.

If there were no such thing as a good shoe there would not be sessions where high rollers clock the house for millions.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 05:55 PM
There are some of us out there really living life, and sharing our high volume experiences. That might bother some, not others.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 05:56 PM
We went to one of the nicest restaurants at this casino last night, was packed with CES tech types. Very loud conversation.

On the way there we stopped by high limit because I wanted to say hello and introduce my wife to my friend, and my friend's chips were there under the plexiglass, she had about twenty grand out. She plays daily, and was taking a break, which she does often. When she leaves the table she doesn't take her chips with her just leaves them under a plexiglass cover. I do the same sometimes.

Seriously last night when she had a hundred and twenty grand out that she had just won (back) after getting as low as twenty five, all those chips looked pretty impressive. I have had wins in that neighborhood in the old days, but I accumulated over a period of days, such that I was culling a small stack of "melons" ($25K chips, also called "pumpkins" but I called them melons since my penthouse at Bellagio at that time had melons on the wallpaper, and I was professing kinship in winning, with my room decor), and somehow a stack of even eleven melons, which is what I ended up with that trip, just didn't look as impressive as all the stacks of yellow chips she had in front of her yesterday, especially knowing that she had just won 95 of them on just that one shoe we played together.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 05:56 PM
There is no such thing as bad press!
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MDawg
01-17-2020, 05:57 PM
The one chip I never got my hands on was the steel gray 100,000 chip at Bellagio. During that trip after I had accumulated over two hundred grand in melons, I tried to get one, both at the Baccarat table and at the cage. I was refused. They said, We'll give you one if you want to bet it, not just to hold.

I recall one dealer telling me that the 100,000 chips are the prettiest thing you will ever see in your life. Well, I don't know about THAT, but casino gaming wise, I might agree!

My limits at casinos have always been standard ones, which at that time the limit at Baccarat was $15,000. (these days $20,000.) so I don't know if what they were saying was that they were willing to raise my limit for that trip since I had won so much, or if they were just giving me an excuse for not coloring me up. Plus, even though I ended up with close to three hundred grand in winnings at Bellagio alone, that is not enough to get your limits raised much, even if I had deposited it all at the cage instead of walking around with ever increasing stacks of melons. I think with a $250K line you might be able to bet $25K or $30K per hand max, and I know that back then friends of mine with million dollar lines were able to bet $50K per hand, which still, is only about 3X the normal limits of any player.

There is also a difference between limits for credit line players, and cash deposit (front money) players. While a million line may get you a $50K per hand limit, I knew of a guy back then who wired in $5M (and lost it all) at Baccarat, who was allowed to bet no more than $50K a hand. In other words, a credit line will get you a higher pro rata bet limit compared to front money, probably because they figure that a credit line will or at least should get the casino repeated chances at that sum of money, while front money might end up being a one time thing.

There was a period when the Rio, before Harrah's bought them, would allow anyone off the street to bet $100K on Baccarat. Once Harrah's took over, the limits went way down.


I actually used to bet more when I had less, although that doesn't make a lot of sense. Back then, I'd bet fifteen grand a hand regularly, at least a few times a session, and nowadays, not so much. Part of the reason might be that long hiatus from gaming that gave me more time to reflect on the value of money. Part of the reason might just be that the richer you get, the more conservative you get. Sometimes anyway.

In any case I'm pretty f'ing happy that this trip is turning out to generate some decent winnings. Anything under five figures for a multi-day trip, I mean - that's nowhere!:o Onwards to the next resort, LATER TODAY!

MDawg
01-17-2020, 05:58 PM
Someone stated:
<<I recall MDawg making that distinction several times, and also providing screen shots demonstrating good and bad shoes.

MDawg has explained that good shoes are those that contain recognizable patterns, and especially...long streaks.

My understanding is that his strategy is primarily to press into streaks, so that if a substantial streak occurs he'll be pressing up his bet for the duration of the streak.

He hasn't claimed to be able to predict whether or not a shoe WILL be good or bad, only to reflect on whether or not a shoe HAS been good or bad...primarily based on the streaks.

Am I correct in my assessment?>

And...yes, this is more or less correct.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:01 PM
Where people who never play Baccarat get lost, is in thinking that there is no way to know whether a shoe is good or bad.

Well, one infallible way to know is that...you'll be losing money while playing a random, no pattern shoe. In which case...drop your bet...or leave!

But beyond the obvious, if you are playing a shoe where your attempts to play into patterns is bearing fruit, then this is a good shoe...one where the patterns repeat or streaks are present.

Just...if you haven't played the game, and I mean, for years, and from the inside not just watching, you are in no position to comprehend, let alone, judge it.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:01 PM
Waiting for host to clean up the bill, comp off all the food and maybe some of my wife's spa charges, although given that I won and actually didn't play a huge amount of hours for a six night stay (more than a few hit and run sessions), I am not hopeful about the spa this time. At the prior resort all the spa was comp'ed off based on huge play from a few months prior.

The two times that I took a break from play yesterday and the day before, my friend who plays huge here but is a local got a comp ticket for the restaurant for us, and the first day since my wife didn't want to join she made sure the ticket was large enough to cover take-out that I carried upstairs to the suite. It seems like a throwback to the old days, where the pit boss "throws you a comp ticket," but then, there has to be some system still in place to comp players who are not in house? She also gets a daily massage and for that she texts her host to comp it. I mentioned to her that she must have nearly "unlimited" comps given the level she plays at and in that she isn't even staying in house. I was seeing her play average hands in the five to seven thousand dollar range, with many fifteen to twenty thousand dollar bets.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:02 PM
To quote someone else, in response to the naysayers:

<<How would you know. You heard this somewhere
and are repeating it because you think it sounds
good. Have you ever played bac long enough that
you can verify what you're saying? That would be
years, BTW, not a couple weekends 10 years ago.>>

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:04 PM
All around the world staying in hotels I ask for the toast to be "already buttered." Does it always arrive that way? Not always, and not today.
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so I had to butter it myself, and the results are never entirely satisfactory as by the time it gets up here it's never quite hot enough to melt the butter.
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What about all this ketchup (pronounced catsup)?
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If you stay in enough hotel rooms is there ever any need to buy ketchup? Sometimes they bring us four little bottles of ketchup with the room service order. We like the organic variety so we do have our own at home, but if not, all you'd have to do is haul off a bag of this stuff after each stay and you'd be set. Same with all this jam. At least they don't provide marmalade at this resort, who likes that stuff? Not I.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:05 PM
I got carried away with posting a bit too much related to my personal finances. That's not the point - the point of this thread is about how's it going at the casinos, in the context of commentary on life in general and the stays themselves.

If some of you want to twist yourselves over trying to figure out what MDawg's got going on at home, that's just human nature but I will try to no longer feed into that.
Directed to the few lingering naysayers ONLY:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqpjyt6Zo88

It's ON to the next resort, shortly.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:08 PM
This time the packing didn't seem to be such a chore. Maybe it's easier to pack from a smaller suite, since don't have to examine every nook and cranny?
Still, quite a lot.
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As your attorney I advise you to stock up on Tumi and Briggs & Riley luggage. Some of the Tumi we own, which we have almost two dozen pieces total, is of the lifetime guarantee variety, and all of the B&R is lifetime guarantee. Anything more expensive, like Louis Vuitton, which we have a fair amount of that too, you end up not even wanting to use for fear it will get stolen. We do bring a few Louis Vuitton pieces along each trip for personal items, but Tumi and B&R hit the right price point of neat, but not ostentatious.

Sometimes I see some of the Asian high rollers who flew in from out of the country checking in, and they have even more stuff than we do, with almost all of the stuff that belongs to the wife in Louis Vuitton (evident to me due to the feminine color scheme of the luggage and the tags), and the stuff that belongs to the husband in crappy suitcases you wonder why anyone would even use. Lets you know right away who's spending the money on what, in that family. I suppose it's the same everywhere; I have a Tumi leather computer case, she has a Chanel backpack (more than one actually).

When we drive though, we usually end up just throwing a lot of stuff into bags, versus packing it neatly into suitcases, and even moreso when traveling between resorts. Why pack fully?

Plus, two hanging garment bags:
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Now we're ensconced in the Encore suite, and she's dancing around it. I asked her why this suite makes her feel so good. I guess it's the atmosphere, all the floor to ceiling glass windows, and the view straight down the Strip, because actually this is just a regular Tower Suite 750 square feet. Due to CES all the large suites are taken until about the twelfth, at which point we may move, but I doubt it, too much hassle. This is cool, and we are on a full RFB stay basis, and will probably leave by the 15th.
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Not sure if I will play tonight. Usually don't on check in days, and almost never on check out days.

I want to look up my friend who LIVES here at Encore, he texted me a couple days ago. He is still here.

Although we are RFB thinking of taking a quick walk. To Tacos El Gordo! to bring something back to the suite. That's the way MDawg wishes to roll, tonight, and I just confirmed it with the wife. She said, Oh yeah, yeah! when I suggested El Gordo. "You read my mind." I just hope the line isn't too long this time.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:09 PM
On the way back from Tacos El Gordo, I talked to a guy who swiped his key at the special sensor towards the bottom of the panel, in the Encore Tower Suites elevator. He was on his way up to the Sky Casino.

"What do you play up there? Baccarat?" I asked him.

"Yes!"

"Me too. I play down there." I pointed in the general direction of the Encore high limit pit. "I like Baccarat too. I like it more than BJ."

"It's interesting...."

I could tell he was on the verge of discussing the finer points of the game with me, and I would have loved nothing less, but we reached my floor before we could get into it.

"Good luck!" on the way out of the elevator.

"You too!"


I believe you need a half million line minimum to play the Sky Casino.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:10 PM
My record back then wasn't nearly as plus plus as it is these days. Back then I'd always end up ahead but with some big losses at different casinos that were eclipsed by even larger wins at others. Looking back there were some casinos at which I almost always won, and others at which I much less frequently won. If I'd only thought about it, I could've avoided the losses by avoiding certain casinos, with the common denominator being that I won consistently at casinos that had lots of Bacc. tables, seemed to lose more consistently at casinos with only 1 or 2 tables. (For example this trip, I avoided Bacc. at T.I. because they have but one Bacc. table open.) When there are lots of Bacc. tables it is easy to just get up and switch tables if the table you are at has a bad shoe going on. Not so easy to get up and walk out the door entirely, when the casino has but one Bacc. table!

These days it is more of an even keel with consistent wins, at all casinos at which I play. It's really not that hard to win four figures when you are playing with a mid five figure credit line.


Back to the trip report, I'll mention the obvious...that Wynn/Encore is more luxurious than Palms which is in turn more luxurious than T.I. I think that's partly to do with the atmosphere and decor, partly to do with the layout of the rooms. All these mirrors! and floor to ceiling glass windows. Nice. If you ever want to get lucky arrange to meet that new girl you just met on the internet at Encore, you'll do fine. Or if you want a happy wife (happy life), bring her to Wynn/Encore.

Is there any other casino in the U.S. that has glass walls that permit an outside view?

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:10 PM
Some others that were pointed out to me include, The Lodge Casino in Black Hawk CO and Magnolia Bluffs Casino in Natchez MS.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:12 PM
Played just two shoes. First one wasn't any good, random. I held my own because I avoided some hands, bet small and simply got lucky occasionally, but there were no streaks or patterns to speak of. A group of Koreans came up in the middle of this shoe and proceeded to get annihilated.

Down some, I declared that I was going over to the next door shoe. I hit a six or so bank run right off the bat, but held onto it with just five hundred per hand, although I should have pressed, but I was gun shy from the prior shoe. Still, that run got me even, or a little ahead. The rest of the shoe was pretty much just a banker's shoe, and easy to follow. I played the entire shoe. What was interesting was that one of the Koreans came over and got killed on my shoe, in a few hands. He arrived right when the player started to run, unpredictably. As soon as he left, I got on that player run, which actually kept going, and collected. Later the Korean guy looked at the screen, shaking his head.

"To lose, on a shoe like that."

It really was a good shoe. For a good Baccarat player, that just went with the flow on it, that is. I played it much too small though.

I decided to stop at the end of this shoe, ahead 1325 after commission and all that I tipped out to the dealer, probably a few hundred or so. The pit boss said, "That's good, we see you after lunch," but of course, I am not coming back. Until tomorrow.

Paid marker plus winnings:
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On the way up the Tower Suites elevator, I ran into this really hot Jewish girl I have seen before in VIP. She had an attendant with her and they were carting up a few boxes and a garbage bag.

"Where's the party?" I asked her.

She explained that it was all kosher food. I quickly realized that it was Friday.

"Shabbat Shalom!" I said to her loudly.

I'm not even Jewish, but I'll ride with it if the times call for it. You gotta understand that MDawg, whatever age he might be, looks about twenty five. That's the age my host at Cosmo thought I was, until he was told my actual by his assistant. (I made a deal a couple decades ago where neither my portrait at home, nor I, age. Constant exercise, great nutrition, lots of sex and staying out of the sun help too.)

So smiled broadly and started telling me about how "they have NO food for us here" and complained about how even with all the "stupid Israelis" who play here, that none of them have pushed for kosher food.

And that's what I mean, as far as today's action (at the tables, not in the elevator), about how it's much easier to win at a casino with multiple open Baccarat tables. Not happening at one, move to another. Mazel Tov!

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:12 PM
Don't ever get behind one of these on the Strip. They drive very slowly and deliberately trying to expose their billboards as much as possible, and since so long, often get caught at stop lights, leaving you stuck behind them.
168
Actually, don't ever get on the Strip at all, take a side street like Koval, Paradise or the equivalent on the west side, unless you're in a good mood as I was, simply taking in the Friday evening vibe on the way back to Encore.

Since someone asked, I think the really religious Jews would be inside by now, for the Sabbath, with a servant doing everything for them, even turning the lights on and off.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:14 PM
Got a text from my host at this resort. Basically, suggesting I step it up with play if I want to maintain RFB status. Hit and run is good...for me, but not in terms of hours of play. He also mentioned that I did not play at all NYE. :cool:

I initially didn't get a good vibe from this host. He seemed too much by the book, plus he seemed to be more of a slots than table games host, but after he started taking care of us better I figured that he was fine. We shall see.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:14 PM
I stuck it out for over four shoes today, a quarter of the first shoe plus four full shoes after that. At the middle of the fourth shoe, I was ahead about 2500, and wanted to stop but I decided to give them their "four hours" of play today. By the beginning of the fifth shoe, I was ahead only 800 and not liking my decision, actually was even maybe down a couple hundred at one point for that fifth shoe, and now that I think about it, down maybe more than that at one other point.
Buut, the last shoe was this:
169
and over all, how ya' gonna lose on a shoe like that? BEAUTS!

I ended up about three thousand five hunny ahead, having tipped out to the dealer about five hunny additionally, so a four grand win. I did bet one hand three thousand and won, and this was a bit of a catch up hand, but then I eased on the gas which was a mistake...this three thousand win was on the second hand of the six player run.
170
I kept laughing and saying, Ya'know, you win a big hand and you think you were lucky, and then a bunch of winners come right after it and you realize you weren't lucky at all, you were just in the midst of a great run.

I also did a tie only hunsky bet, and hit it, and started crowing about how, "SEE! I must know SOMETHING! Tie ONLY and I hit it!"

It was a very good time, over all. Lot of fun.

When I went up to the room the maids were working on it so I went back down to VIP, relaxed, and tipped out a tenner. Gotta keep the money flowing, five bucks to the cashier minimum with each cashout too.
171
Marker paid off, of course.
172
Exchanged some more texts with my host. He's still unappeased says I need to put in more hours to qualify for the full RFB ride. Oh well, I just remembered I still have that hundred bucks Celebratory Dinner for Caesar's on my diamond card there, maybe we'll eat there tonight because otherwise it will expire unused by the end of the month.

Palms emailed me and turns out they didn't cover the spa over there, but I didn't expect that anyway. Looks like they didn't even cover all of the food. MDawg's "full comp" number is coming up. They don't like winning with minimal hours. If I LOST in seconds, or won with the requisite four per day they wouldn't mind though.

With about fifteen grand in the winner's envelope though I gotta focus on the big picture. I'm here to win, not just for comps. I'll pay my own way with THEIR money if I must.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:17 PM
I LIKE walking down the Strip after a casino win. Feels like...Victory.
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I also like taking the stroll to take some time to talk to different friends of mine on the AirPods. It was a bit chilly out but I was wearing a light sweater, the Prada trench and fur lined black leather gloves so I wasn't cold whatsoever. And my walking shoes made the trek effortless.
Turns out I didn't need to walk at all though. I just couldn't get hold of anyone at Caesar's TR inside the Caesar's casino by phone, and the lady I got hold of on the phone at the TR toll free # before I walked over said that I didn't even have the offer on my card. I didn't want to deal with any of that upon arrival. Once at the TR booth inside Caesar's the agent there said that the $100. is all there all set, and she made the dinner reservation for us too.

So, had a walk,
174
and put my AW5 titanium to use.

But we're not walking to Caesar's. Already arranged the car Wynn is driving us there and back. Thanks SiegfriedRoy for the tip. We're going to Nobu I am sure the bill will be well over $100.

She's dancing around the suite again, and about to ask why I'm on the laptop. We have some time until the car arrives.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:19 PM
Someone was concerned that my resting heartbeat was so high.

Actually, my resting heartbeat is more like 50bpm. Here it is even after being awake and walking around the room for a tad, then sitting down.
175
I am an athlete. I bike and lift weights every other day, and my usual BP tends on the low side and is under a hundred systolic / under sixty diastolic.

I actually was dancing around the room with her upon return to the room but that's not why the AW5 reads over a hundred heartbeat. (Nor did I run into the hot Jewish girl in the elevator again, which anyway my wife is much hotter so if I got an instant rise out of a female presence, it was that of my wife, no one else.)

Actually, it has to do with a quirk of the Apple Watch. I took the watch off when I got to the room, without Ending the "outdoor walk" exercise cycle. So, the watch was frozen in whatever heartbeat I had achieved during the walk when I put it back on to take the picture I posted above. Also, the AW tends to record the heartbeat from some point in the past, especially during exercise. For example at the gym on leg days one of the exercises I do involves throwing two or three forty-five pound plates on the prowler sled and pushing it back and forth across the outdoor turf without stopping at each end. By the end of the first lap, my heartbeat gets over 130 at least, definitely, however often when I look at it, it is still recording something like 91, which would be the average heartbeat in between sets before I have had a chance to rest, versus the actual heartbeat right after pushing the sled back and forth.

Interesting point about the distance I walked and average speed. I was walking faster than most when I could. I was passing up people whenever the sidewalk wasn't crowded. I walk very fast. However, I did spend ten or fifteen minutes at least at the Total Rewards desk just standing there, and also checked in at Nobu to make sure they gave us a booth, which they did, and each time I had to cross the street there was what seemed like an interminable wait for the crosswalk. The AW doesn't start and stop its exercise monitoring when you stand still for such periods unless you pause it.

I also drank a lot of tea that afternoon, and drained another cup that I picked up from VIP on the way out the door, so maybe that caffeine and theophylline had something to do wit' it.

They took us to Nobu in their Rolls. I am actually familiar with this model, the Phantom, because my brother has one, but the Wynn Phantoms are special stretch versions with extra legroom in the room. Actually, every one of us including me (but I have an older, "cheap" :D Rolls) has at least one or two Rolls each in my family, and being driven in one in Vegas is always a great experience. "A Rolls in the desert is above rubies."
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It is a coddling experience, but not quite the same as the pump I get from walking the Strip.

By the way, we didn't really care for Nobu. It seems more for people who want heavily salted, sauced up food.

Question for people: does anyone still tip maitre d's for taking you to a good table? We were taken to a great center booth and the girl took off before I could give her anything, and the way she walked off quickly told me that she wasn't expecting or used to getting tipped. When she came back by immediately afterwards to set something on the table, I slipped her a bill, and again, her smile and genuine thank you told me that she doesn't get tipped often, if at all. My usual is ten dollars for a party of two, twenty for a party of four, to the maitre d'. I watched my Dad always do that growing up, so I follow suit. But does anyone still do that anymore? I didn't see anyone else give the maitre d' anything.

Which actually, nowadays many restaurants don't really don't have a maitre d' - more like a bevy of slinky black cocktail dress clad girls at the front, one of which at random takes you to the table. Even old school Delmonico at Venetian doesn't seem to have a full time maitre d' any longer, as the one who takes you to your table isn't always the same person whom you see standing at the front. When Stefano's still existed at the Nugget I knew the maitre d' well and always tipped him, same as I always did at one of the top restaurants in Tahoe that we still frequent. But still, even if the restaurant doesn't have a designated maitre d', I like to tip whoever takes us to our table or booth, if it is a good location and seating.

And how many people still object if the seating is not a good one - say, near an aisle, near the kitchen door, or near the bathroom? I always do, and insist on being moved. The other night when we dined we started off at a table, but I had them move us to a booth even though there were only two of us.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:20 PM
Today is the most dangerous day. Looks like we might just leave tomorrow since I don't want to extend here given how bitchy the host is being, and unless we switch over to another resort, which is too much of a hassle for less than four nights and not sure we want to stay another four nights, today will be the last day of gaming. It is dangerous in that the final tally of win or lose will in effect be determined with today's action.

MDawg approaches each session with a healthy respect for the possibility of a loss.

Going to the gym first.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:21 PM
The main features I like about the Apple Watch are that it alerts you to texts and phone calls that you might miss otherwise, as it pairs with your iPhone. It is the main watch I wear at home. Vegas and special events are for my expensive watches.

For a while I was considering wearing the AW on my right wrist and the expensive watch on the left at the tables, but I figured I would run into the same issue that compelled me to stop wearing bracelets in Vegas - that I pound winning Bacc. cards down on the table so hard on huge hands that I was bending the clasps on my bracelets. As I result, I wear nothing on my right wrist while gambling.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:21 PM
Just back from the gym.

Remember: I just got back into playing two years ago. Other than the one host at one property who has known me since the beginning of time, all of my hosts are known to me only two years or less.

My hosts at this resort and the one we stayed at just before this one are especially new ones I don't know well.

The other one is okay though, even though she didn't comp everything from this last stay. I think she'll be fine I don't get a bad feeling from her.

This one, mostly because he is a slots hosts, although he says he has table games players too, probably isn't used to how table games player don't play on the clock, or at least I don't. Maybe slots players do. As mentioned, I had some doubts about this one, but then he came around, started showing up at the tables when I played (BIG) and started throwing huge suites and comps our way, so I left it alone. I get where he is coming from - he saw me make a $16,000. bet last Fall, and lots of five to ten thousand dollar bets towards the end of last year, and this trip my average is so far only about four hunny, so he is probably wondering if I am going to start betting huge again. But in any case, that's his problem. My goal is to win, which I do consistently, and if he has a problem with my doing that in less than four hours a day, we'll just stay more often at the other resorts where they haven't voiced any concerns.

Also, our stays are anywhere from four days to two full weeks at a single resort, per stay - not just your typical three day or weekend visits. We check in, and stay - indefinitely!

I'm very good with people, so for me, it presents more of a challenge than anything else, the challenge presented in my mind being: that this guy is going to take care of us. But sometimes the cookie cutter corporate mentality has nothing to do with whether a host likes you or not.

MDawg
01-17-2020, 06:56 PM
The final tally on this trip, from all three resorts, was about 26K in my pocket on the way home. I probably won closer to 35K given all I tipped out and what I spent in cash tips and miscellaneous. Most everything was comp'ed at the first and last resorts, but at the middle one, they ended up comp'ing none of the spa and not even all of the food.

Still, the final hotel bills including spa charges that were not comp'ed, from all three resorts, come to a mere two grand. So we're talking a free two weeks in vacation at high end resorts, and going home with about $24K to the good.

On the last day I ended up playing 7 and a quarter (maybe a half) Baccarat shoes. I raced through them so quickly, because I was playing alone much of the time, that the pit bosses ended up giving me credit for only 6 hours, but this plus the other play at this last resort was enough apparently to appease my host, who comp'ed everything but spa and tips. There really wasn't much food on there anyway at this last resort, as we were dining out, outside the resort, much of the time, or carrying in TACOS EL GORDO :cool: or the equivalent.

A friend of mine showed up near the end of my session with $250. Just by placing quarters on my bets, he was able to double his money. For a while he was placing nickels on my smaller bets, twenty five or fifty on my larger, but one pit boss eventually stepped in and told him that as a concession to me - the big player - they would allow my friend to bet less than $100., which was the table minimum, and only $25. on top of my bets, but no less. Still, he was able to double his money easily and each time he put a quarter on my bets I should have kicked his quarter off and called the table limit $20,000. because we lost absolutely no bets where he placed the green chip on my stack.

Towards the end, including an $8000. marker I had pulled, my chip stack was looking like this
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and this was with an average of around $400. per hand - barely betting.

Tie bets - don't even get me started. The main pit boss at my table was advising any players who came up to bet the tie whenever I did.

"It's uncanny." he explained. "He's hitting something like 80% of his tie bets."

I have a system for predicting the ties. I bet them rarely, but when I do, I usually win. In my life I have bet a couple of $3000. tie bets (paying off $24,000.) and hit them both. 2/2. I have also bet a few $2000. and $1500. tie bets, and hit them all too. Of course, my average with smaller tie bets is not 100%, but when I am running hot (get me some antifreeze!), I will hit the majority of my tie bets.

After I paid off the marker, my winnings remained
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at $10,710. after commission paid, for this one session alone.

Pushing me to play more hours had worked out. For me, not! the house.

Combined with the over $15K cash I had stuffed into the winner's envelope over the course of the trip
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and a check which I received the next morning.

Mmy winnings, as noted, came to 26K.

Later as we relaxed in VIP, my friend commented on how the pit bosses had been acting during my play.

"They were all shaking their heads, frowning, trying to figure out how you were winning so consistently."

"Hmm," I mused. "You really think so? You really think they care about someone's winning ten grand?"

The pit bosses weren't the only ones who had noticed me. A young Asian guy had been watching much of my play. When I stood up to color up the chips, he stepped up to say hello and shake my hand.

"I just want to say, that it is very rare to see a player with such a good attitude."

I just laughed, and thanked him.

"Really though, you don't see that much. I just want to commend you. I think it is because of your attitude that you are winning."

Whatever the reason, I did win. And do win, consistently, in Vegas.

Another triumph, another success.

And what was the Winner's Dinner? How did I celebrate (other than the usual celebration :rolleyes: with my wife, that has nothing to do with consumption of food)?
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As I got up to the suite I was trying to decide between our going out, room service or walking next door to Tacos El Gordo again. I had a lot of energy. But, after we celebrated, my wife wasn't really in the mood to dine at all, as she had already had a late afternoon salad for dinner.

And somehow, the beauty of chowing down my own Ramen in my comp'ed suite was the final gesture that seemed most fitting. Plus I was somewhat hungry, and not in the mood to walk, or wait for room service, and neither of us felt like being around people at a restaurant.

"I'll show hm," I thought to myself. "I'll not even put a last meal on the room, even though, after all that play, I am now more than entitled."

I wanted that host to know that if I wanted to put food on the room, with little or no play, I would do it, just as quickly as I would put nothing on the room, even after long hours of play. I ate, slept, and gambled my own way, not his. Even if I had played a little longer today after he had mentioned that my hours were a little lacking, I wanted to make an impression that I had done it for myself, not to justify comps.

The next morning too, we ended up eating some of the food I brought up from VIP, and not ordering anything from room service. I picked up some sandwiches from VIP for the road on the way out, and we hit the road by about 2:30pm, to head back home. Victorious.