New Year's Vegas trip

[MDawg]

Wynn appetizer:

Wynn Main course:

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?

(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.

[MDawg]

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:

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 ), 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.

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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.

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]

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]

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]

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.


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]

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."