New Year's Vegas trip

[MDawg]

Noticed these videos yesterday in both high limit and regular pit, that include both this

and this animation.

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]

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]

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

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.

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]

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!

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

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.

[MDawg]

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]

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]

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]

There are some of us out there really living life, and sharing our high volume experiences. That might bother some, not others.

[MDawg]

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]

There is no such thing as bad press!