This is part 2 of a trip report I originally posted on March 25th. It wasn't my intention to post a two-parter, but I haven't posted in a while and forgot about the space limitation. My move temporarily limited my access to the internet, which is why it took so long to post part 2. Part 1, which saw me go up almost 100 units, but with some portentious clouds overhead, can be found at the link below.
I decided to take a ride out to Sparks. For old time�s sake, I stopped in at the AgClub; I had many a good session there earlier in my career. Anything other than red chips sticks out like a sore thumb there, but on that day, anyone with a pulse stood out like a sore thumb. Although it�s nice to have a table to myself, I find that if it�s too lonely in the casino then the pit boss frequently spends too much time at my table. Did you ever wonder why, although there's not another soul in the casino, the pit boss is still unable to summon a cocktail waitress in a timely fashion? I got up and walked over to the Nuglet.
As with my earlier impression of Reno on this trip, I was struck by how little action there was that day; I don�t expect a casino to be filled on a weekday, but I�d been the Nuglet on weekdays in the past and it was always much more crowded than this. Like I said, I�m not keen on crowds when I play, but if the Nuglet is quiet, well, that bodes ill for the area.
Oh well, I found a group of open tables and, as luck would have it, there was a double deck table where the dealer (a woman of Asian ancestry) had dealt down to about a third of a deck. Boing! I sat down as she prepared to shuffle. Everything was copasetic for a couple of riffles and strips and she put the deck in front of me to cut. But then it happened�(go on - you know what I�m going to say)�I got the dreaded �harrah�s cut�. Very disappointed, I got up and left the casino without placing a single wager.
Even though I knew that the DEldo had all mindplay tables, I wanted to see for myself. Low and behold, every single table was a mindplay table. I mourned the passing of the Sundowner and the Comstock.
Crossing over the street, I decided to give the AgLeg a try. Although I have generally found the games to be relatively poor at the AgLeg, it never hurts to check in to see if there have been any changes. Finding a double deck game with a tall, heavy-set dealer (whose name I honestly don�t recall but I�m pretty sure it began with an �R�) who was giving about 65% pen, I sat down to play.
It seemed like I was getting a lot of stiffs, but maybe that was because I had gotten used to the 19�s and 20�s of the last couple of days, or maybe it was because the ploppy next to me was getting revoltingly good hands. The count did not vary much for a long while and I was losing slowly, but I was counting and playing well, so I bided my time.
Finally, the RC soared up to +7 with a little over a deck left. Since I had lost the last hand and I had still not shaken the conservatism I picked up on the banks of the Truckee, I only increased my bet from 2 units to 5. The ploppy next to me was betting bigger than I and winning and he didn�t increase his bet, so I shouldn�t imagine that anyone cared about my bet. Based on this, I can only think that the dealer was either counting or made a mistake, but it sure looked like a preferential shuffle to me. Disgusted for the second time of the day, I got up and left a 16 unit loser.
I headed back to the old Flamingo and found that the female dealer from yesterday was back on the job, again dealing single deck. Eagerly, I sat down, but the disappointments just kept on coming; she gave me 40% penetration! Although they weren�t that busy, I can�t believe that they would have remembered me, but it may be that someone did notice the dealer�s great penetration and told her to change. Whatever the reason, the game sucked. I tried a couple of other tables, but sucky pen seemed the order of the day, so I cashed out down 10 units.
Although I have never much liked the S*nds, I decided to give it a try. The moment I walked in I remembered why I didn�t like it; do they have some sort of cigarette butt collection in that place, or what? It�s not that it�s that much more smoky than any other casino, but it feels like an ashtray. Pinching my nose, I sat down to play. I can�t remember what ticked me off, but something the dealer did annoyed me and, since the neither the rules nor the penetration were particularly good, I colored up a 12 unit winner and decided to get some dinner.
Over dinner I considered my options. The trip had definitely gone down hill since playing in the Italian-themed joint, and that had dampened my enthusiasm considerably. I could go back to the lost city, but I have always been a loser there and I wanted to have one trip where I ended up with their money in my pocket. I didn�t want to go out to the old MGM/Bally�s since the trip would be too time consuming. Finally I decided to give it a rest and then go back to the old Flamingo after the shift change because I was curious to see whether the change in penetration was a fluke.
I found a dealer at the double deck table who seemed to be giving reasonable, though uninspiring penetration, so I sat down to play. The reasonable penetration continued but, unfortunately, so did my run of bad luck; if I had 18, the dealer had 19, if I had 19, the dealer had 20. And then there were the times when the count went up; every time the count was high and I had a big bet out, I would pull a 17. Needless to say, the dealer showed a 10 every time but, seemingly just to taunt me, he/she (a dealer change didn�t change my luck) usually only had an 8 or 9 under it.
Now I know that many counters think that stop losses are nonsense, but I swear by them. I know that I am just as likely to hit a good run beginning with the hand after I hit my stop loss as at any other time, but my thought is that, by employing a stop loss, I am cutting off the lower tail of the distribution of possible outcomes for a session. If someone who is more mechanically inclined than I could set up a �simulation of simulations�, wherein you would simulate a bunch of sessions using a stopping criterion such as x number of hands and a stop loss, and then do another bunch of session simulations without the stop loss, I would love to hear the results.
I crept out of the casino after hitting my stop loss; the day had begun so well but had gone so sour, and my rear end was now aching from the 40 unit pounding, so I tried to shower off the smoke and the bad luck and then hit the sack.
The next morning, the queasiness in my stomach from the food was all gone, but I was still nauseous from the previous day�s turn of events. Deciding to get back on the horse, I sauntered down to the old Flamingo again. That morning there were a group of dealers I hadn�t seen before, and they hadn�t seen me, so I sat down and give it a whirl.
Although the day and dealer were different, the results were pretty much the same as the night before; I still seemed to pull only 17�s on high counts, although this time the dealer did have the Andy Jacksons. This time I was taunted by only getting snappers when I had a minimum bet out. The game was getting less fun by the minute, so when it was time to decide whether to pull out more money or quit, I opted for the latter and left another 20 units behind.
It was getting close to time for the return in my Greyhound limousine, but I had a little while left after checking out, so, despite my earlier preferential shuffle, I sat down at the casino in my hotel. Nothing interesting to report here � I continued to lose until I put out my last chip, and then I went on a mild winning streak that brought me back up to par for the session. Since I was hungry and the limo would leave soon, I beat it out of there and grabbed three double cheeseburgers at Mickey D�s for the ride home.
Although I ended the trip still up by over 40 units, the last 24 hours made the trip a lot less fun to remember.
A change of coasts means that I don�t know when I�ll be back to Reno. Although I can wish for some changes while I�m gone (like reopening the Sundowner, please), realistically, the best I can hope for is that the city officials will please please please think of something to revitalize my favorite gamblin� town before it�s lost forever.
