Posted the details of my Vegas trip back in September and they seemed well received so here's the sequel. I love to read other people's road trips, the more details the better so warning; this is very long.
Highlights from the September trip:
Won a 1000.00 at the tables.
Came a missed field goal away from hitting a four team college f-ball parlay that would of paid out 2200.00
Got kicked out of Light at The Bellagio for getting in a little scuffle after paying a 100.00 bucks to get in.
Drank enough for four days even though we there only 2.
Back in September I was very new to BJ and just became skilled in learning perfect BS for any type of game. After some initial luck in my early adventures of playing I proceeded to get beat down and realized if I wanted to keep playing recreationally I was gonna have to do some research and that's where I discovered BS and card counting. Really became fascinated with counting and after learning BS for all games I thought by the time I made my next trip to Vegas I would of learned to count but have not dived in due to the following.
1. Hours needed to learn and practice in order to play effortlessly and without mistakes in a casino. I have a regular full-time job plus a part-time job and a pretty active social life and just can't find the hours in the day to learn.
2. I live in the Midwest and the casino conditions suck including my local Indian casino which is packed constantly and the only time I could get good conditions would be at an hour that I need to be in bed for work the next day. Counting is all about the long run and getting in alot of hours and hands for your advantage to manifest itself. Do I really wanna take the time to learn to use if for a couple of trips to Vegas each year and the one or two times at most I go every couple of months to my local casino which is the short run and in the short run anything can happen?
3. Fear of peeling off 5000-10,000 dollars of savings to use as a starting bankroll only to lose it. I'm sure the percentage of counters who have gone belly up is greater than the number who have actually had success in making money.
Since September I have read several books, some for fun, some to gain any further insights or to see if it would inspire me to learn to count.
For fun: The Counter, You've Got Heat and Bringing Down the House
For knowledge: KO Blackjack and The Blackjack Zone
Was heading out to Vegas March 3rd to the 6th. My plan was to originally go downtown to play some single and double deck but after purchasing a copy of CBJN and seeing that several casinos in the area I was staying had good shoe games I focused on playing there. Was looking for 10.00 tables and S17,LS,DOA,DAS,RA and to my surprise Mandalay Bay, Luxor and MGM all had these conditions listed in CBJN and we were staying at the Excalibur so I was set.
Day 1:
Caught the 9:35 PM flight to Vegas on the 3rd and landed at about 10:50 PM Vegas time. A friend of mine had arrived earlier so I had him put in a 100.00 3 team parlay so hopefully I could hit the ground already up. As we were taxing to the gate I pull out my phone and check the scores and see I hit the first two so now my heart is pumping. One more and I'm up 600.00 only the third game is a push so it will be a 260.00 pay out instead. Good start.
We get to the hotel, get changed quickly and roll out. We end up at Run Jungle at Mandalay Bay only there's a 25.00 cover, not much happening inside and too loud of music. We find a really intimate martini bar right next door, Red Square, which was more my style so in we go having drinks and kicking it tell about 3:30 -4 when the place was closing up. We meet these girls who claim they know how to play craps and I've always wanted to learn so we follow them out to the tables at Mandalay Bay and watch for about a half hour. Maybe they knew how to play maybe not but all they kept doing was betting the pass line and it was boring as $hit so I excuse myself to go find a pit with the limits and rules I was looking for. Found one pretty easily so I settle in. I'm pretty drunk at this point so I don't really remember much of the session except for the fact that I never once won 3 hands in a row and proceeded to get beat down for about 400.00. Got a comp out of them for the buffet and between the 5-6 beers I had that's like a 45.00 value so really my losses are about 350.00 for the session and softened with the parlay win.
Went and had breakfast at the buffet, went back to my room to get my parlay ticket to cash out at NYNY and check lines for the next day's games and by the time I do this it's about 9-10 AM when I hit the sheets and end up sleeping tell 5 PM that afternoon along with my roommates.
Total winnings: -140.00
Day 2:
Got up about 5 and hung around the room for a while and go out to NYNY to get something to eat. On the way back to the room we stop at a roulette wheel and I throw down a 100.00 on black and of course it hits red. Make our way back to the room and chill gearing up for the night's events and mixing some drinks in the room. We head out about 11 and walk around the casinos checking out lines for Saturday's games at Mandalay Bay. We make our way over to Tabu at MGM and I roll out of there about 4 ready to play again.
Once again found a pit with the limits and rules I was looking for so I settle in and proceed to get up about 300.00 in about 10 minutes and things are rolling. The only problem is the drunk, obnoxious guy next to me who looked like a San Quentin parolee was flirting with the dealer or with what his idea or flirting was with sighs of "You're so pretty", "Dealer you so pretty" "Why won't you talk to me pretty dealer" all in a sloshed, slurred speech. The dealer who actually was very pretty was in total agony over this and just ignoring him as best she could but it just made him try even harder. I catch her eye and give her a sympathetic look and she smiles back at me acknowledging attempts at pity for the situation she is in. This guy gets up from the table and tries to play the roulette wheel next to us at the same time but the pit cuts him off. Now he's agitated and being very obnoxious so I figure it's time to break this guy down and get him off the table so I ask him if it's wise to spend all his unemployment money on two games instead of one to which he proudly proclaims that he has a job. "Great", I say. I hear they pick up the garbage pretty early in this town and you should probably get going. Not that there's anything wrong with being a garbage man. Well, this gets a good laugh from the table and the guy gets the hint and picks up his chips and leave to which I get a heartfelt thank you from the dealer and the rest of people at the tables.
Things were dying down so they closed the table with me up about 350.00 and I make my way over to the craps table to watch. For the life of me I can't figure this game out so I head back to the Roulette wheel and thrown down a 100.00 on black and it hits. Found another pit with the same limit and rules except the table was H17 so I settle in and my buddy from Tabu joins me. He doesn't know squat about BJ so I walk him through his hands and things are rolling for us again. On all our stiff hands when we need the dealer to bust she does and during those hands I have to endure cries from my friend of "bust that shit!!!". He doesn't gamble much so when he wins money he gets very excited. It's real late so I ask the pit for a buffet comp and color up about another 300.00 up and my buddy makes about 150.00
We head over to cash out and on the way I stop at the roulette wheel for another 100.00 spin on black and it hits. We cash out and head to the buffet and then lay down some money on some games for that day at NYNY. I take a 3 team parlay for a 100.00 and beat another game straight up for 200.00 We head back to the room and crash as it's probably 8-9 AM by now.
Total Winnings: 710.00
Day 3:
We crash once again until about 5 and wake up and dink around and I go lay down another 100.00 on a game but lose. Only hit 2/3 teams on my parlay but hit my 200.00 straight up bet. We go back to the room and clean up and hang out in the room until about 10:00 and make our way over to Galagher's at NYNY. A supposedly nice steakhouse. I order the NYNY which is a surf and turf dinner. Sirloin steak and a lobster tail. The steak is about as bad as I've ever had, way over cooked. The waiter came to our table maybe twice the whole time and it took us like a half hour to even get bread. I gotta pay 100.00 bucks for this plus 20.00 for a tip? Oh well.
We head over to Hard Rock where a friend of mine had us on the VIP list for a bar there I can't remember but we are late getting there and they are over capacity so people on the list are not even getting in. We don't wanna wait for drinks so we head to Shadow in Caesars and finally get some drinks going at about 1:30 AM. There's not much happening in the place and between the late start and lousy dinner my enthusiasm is not very high and I'm just chilling waiting to get in some more action at the tables. They close up the place at about 3 or a little after and while there's discussion of heading elsewhere I'm in no mood and wanna get back to the hotel to play some more BJ. My buddy drops me off and while the plan is to go find the good tables I found earlier in the trip at Mandalay Bay or MGM I'm too tired to walk and settle in at a 10.00 table at Excalibur even though they got $hitty rules. No LS or S17.
I'm hot again and things are rolling only once again there's some drunken punk trying to act all cool hassling the dealer for a cocktail waitress, rambling on like a little bitch about how he's new to BJ but Texas Hold Em is his game and he can clean up in it. He finally gets his drink he's been waiting for and proceeds to spill it all over the table. Me and another guy who was playing perfect BS glare at him to try and get him to leave but he's not catching the hint. He's bitching and bitching about how much he is losing to the dealer like it's his fault. You deserve to lose when you stand on 14 V. A and won't double an 11 even against a bust card. The guy is rambling on and on about how he's trying to learn but hole em is really his game so I tell him that every or most casino should have 24 hour poker rooms so maybe he could beat it and try his luck there. Luckily he runs out of chips real quick and leaves the tables for good.
Things ended up well and I color up about 700.00 up and ask for a comp to their shitty 24 hour restaurant or buffet and the pit lady tells me she won't give me one since I didn't sign up for a player's card. What!!! MGM and Mandalay Bay compd me to their buffets without a card and they're just a little bit nicer than this place but she won't budge so me and my friend who was playing the slots proceed to have the $hittiest eggs benedict breakfast we ever had at the Sherwood Forest Cafe. We go chill in the room for an hour, check out and make our way to the airport for our 9:00 AM flight home.
Total Winnings: 1310.00
Day 4:
There wasn't supposed to be a day 4 but when we got to the airport to get on our flight Sun Country informs me that because of an error on their part they have moved our reservation to 6 and our 9 AM flight is overbooked and we can't get on. In talking to reservations they also tell me the 6 PM flight is delayed due to mechanical issues and won't leave until 12:10 AM that night. We head back to the hotel and check back into a room but can't get into it until noon and we crash out. I wake up about 6 and head to MGM where I win about another 175.00. We eat dinner, chill in our room for a while, head to the airport and leave midnight and walk in my door back home around 7 AM. Don't think I'll be going to work today.
Total Winnings: 1485.00
All in all it was a great trip and my second consecutive big win enabling me to have a free Vegas vacation at the casinos expense. Have another trip planned for the Fall so we can sit in the sports books and bet some college and pro games and I hope I win those cause my luck is bound to turn at the BJ tables on my next trip.
