Hey all, thought I would share the details of my recent Vegas trip. I taught myself to count for my first Vegas trip 8 months ago and made a small bit of money here. I have since learned a ton more, and I have a month till graduation, after which my BR will be replenishable so I brought $7000 with me which is all the money I've ever made counting so far. I made the plan to overbet my BR and just hope for the best, as it's gonna be awhile before I have time play BJ again. Here's how my trip went...
Night 1 @ El Commode: +$675 in 4 hours
I flew into town with my friend Mike at like 11:00pm and we headed straight to the Sweaty Spanard where we met up with another friend :grin: I played here once before and got alot of heat, but since then I've been thinking about what I would do differently. Place was packed, but there was only one other player at the $25 single deck table. I executed my plan here spreading $25-$80 with my max bet coming in at +3 and a $40 bet at TC 0 and 1, while never changing my bet after a push. My cover worked quite beautifully, and I only got 1 "cheques play" call after I got greedy and parlayed my total chips from a $25 double down. There were a few astute critters lurking about but they didn't come by too often. When I could see that they were watching from the first deal I would just flat bet my $40 and use only indices until they lost interest or got called somewhere else. Mike was pseudo counting at the $5 single deck table which was pretty full mostly. He was spreading $5-20 but was only getting 2-3 rounds before the shuffle. Nevertheless he made $200. We left at 4am and got ourselves a cheap meal, I was looking forward to getting some rest afterwards in preparation for a big day.
Night 1/Day1, 4 Queens: -$105 in 1.5 hours
Mike was staying here, and he offered to let me stay in his room with 2 beds. I had stupidly booked a 3 night stay at strip hotel, but was happy to oblige. When we entered the building, we got distracted at the craps table. There was a really hot roller who was throwing the dice very precisely every time. I watched him throw the dice about 15 times, and he would always start his throw with the same numbers facing up, his motion was the same, and the dice landed in the same spot every time. I was interested, and he hadn't lost once, but decided to hit up an empty single deck table since I was here.
Here's when the real fun started!!! I was just killing time betting small until Mike was ready to head upstairs. After playing a few decks, a suit walks by looks at the table and I hear him utter "plus 2"... I could hardly keep from laughing... Even funnier was the count was 0. I look over and see a short fat guy with thick glasses and a shaved head walk off. A few hands later he walks up on the second deal and I hear him say "minus 1" The count was +1... Just to f*** with him I threw out a $50 bet even though any advantage was negligable, if there even was one. Anyway, he came by a few more times and was right about the count about half the time. When he was right about a good count, I would forfeit some advantage, and when he was wrong I would bet to overexaggerate his error. The cost was worth the entertainment :laugh: Anyway, after the first round of a fresh deck, the count was at +5... After the dealer scooped up my bet, I quickly throw $60 on my spot. I could see that the turdball was walking up as the dealer was fumbling with the chips in the tray, taking forever to scoop up the cards. As soon as he scoops them up and is about to deal I hear TB say "plus 5". Then he quickly runs over and in a panic says "Emelio! Shuffle!". He does, and I leave my bet out out there to see what TB's gonna do, but he runs straight over to the phone which is right by the table. I hear him say loudly "Yeah, the count was plus five, and he bet $60!" It's a shame he was obviously too dumb to appreciate any of my earlier "charity". Meanwhile the dealer proceeded to deal me a 20 and gave himself a blackjack. I slam my fist on the table and yell "Dammit!", grab my chips and head straight up the elevator and went to bed.
Day 1, Rhymes with "Shcmiviera": -$3700 in 7 hours
This was absolute poop on a stick, but I guess I got what I deserved for even playing this game at all, let alone for the hours I did. After I check into my hotel which I was supposed to check into the night before I scout around and find a hand shuffled $25 min DD game with DA2 DAS noRSA and just slightly better than 50% pen. The shuffle was pretty good and with my limited ST skills I had no chance of benefiting from it. In hindsight, I have better $25 games available to me at home, so I had no business playing this game... However the table was empty, so I decided to give it a crack spreading $25-2x100. Started off horribly with alot of dealer BJ's and 20's. It never failed that whenever I would raise my bet, the dealer would get a strong pat hand, I got Aces when doubling on 11, 10's when doubling on low soft totals, just horrid negative variance, but not the worst I've ever seen. Since I stepped up my betting this trip though, this doubled my all time worst loss. Had a $600 losing round where I split 7's to three hands vs a 3 and doubled on one, then doubled my 10 on the other hand. Almost all my hands ended up either 19's or 20's. After the dealer flipped a 10 and pulled an 8, he said "I wouldn't have split that against a 3" :flame: I was down $2700 after 4 hours. I had another $1300 in my pocket, but I took a break and Mike and I ate a comped meal while I thought over my game plan.
I was almost ready for bed, but I decided I would play a bit more here, so I went upstairs to get some more money. When I came back down they had the party pit bumping, and the dancers were gettin their groove on in view of my table. The table had a few other players now I did pretty well playing the "baller" type, standing up and playing the first hand of the shoe, sticking around for the pos counts, and leaving to watch the dancers if the count went south. After winning a grand back I took a break and could have quit here and been happy. Nope... Couldn't quit... I went upstairs and came back down and hour later to find the table empty again. Bought in again and got more of the same... Gave my grand back plus another one lickety split. Went to bed at 3am and learned alot about myself that day.
Day 2, Spaniard again: +800 in 4 hours
I was now seriously worried about running out of money before my trip was over... I dumped about half my BR and still had 2 full days ahead of me... I decided that the best thing would be to head back to the Spaniard. I rode the duece back to downtown and went straight there. It was pretty early in the afternoon, and the $25 table wasn't open yet. The SD table had too many players, and many of the DD games were full, but I found a $3-500 DD table with 2 adjacent open spots. I thought I would play both spots and spread $10-80. I sat down through 2 shoes which were both pos, and on the second one the count jumped up enough to justify my max bets... I looked around and saw that everyone else was betting $3 though :laugh: I didn't have the heart... I bet 2x$30 and played a $1 tip for the dealer on each and won both. The dealer was honestly thankfull for the tip and told me to leave the table because she thought I might lose what I made :laugh: I "took her advice" and took my extra $100 to the $25 table which was just opening up... Made $500 in 2 hours, took a break and ate, came back and won another $300 in the next 2 hours.
Day 2, Palace Station: -$200 +Backoff after 4 hours
I rode the duece back to the strip and on a whim got off at Sahara Ave. I could see Palace Station within walking distance, and it was "on my list" thanks to one of ZG's threads posted about a month ago. Thanks ZG! I had actually meant to hit it up the day before, but didn't get around to it because of my stubbornness. I started heading towards it and walked past a bus stop with a few people at it. My bus pass was still good so I asked them if they knew when the bus was coming. "10 minutes"... I looked ahead and thought I would get there in 10 minutes anyway... Boy was I wrong. I came to a bridge, and the walkway disapeared, fences up underneath the bridge... I headed left down Industrial St seeing a few lights up ahead which might let me get to the station... Wrong! I ended up walking down to Trump Tower before I decided to head down an alley, hop a few fences, cross the RR tracks and hike through the desert, and walk back along the freeway to Sahara Ave again before I could underpass it and get to my destination 1.5 hours later!!!
Oh well, when I got there I thought the game would be worth it. I was pretty disoriented by this time though... The lack of sleep, chain smoking, and moderate drinking over extended periods was starting to catch up to me. I hopped into a $10 DD game with DA2 DAS RSA 75% pen and started plugging away. I wonged out at a neg shoe and came back to find everyone had left but a whale joined my table. He had about $5k in chips in front of him and I asked if he had won it all here... He scoffed that he had lost more that day than most people make in a year, and proceeded to play pretty badly betting 2x$200 with the max "push" sidebet amount every hand, staying on all 16's and even some 15's in the worst negative counts. While he was at my table they comped him $1000 in free chips and he left with little money soon after.
About an hour after he left I got the tap... My very first one, I felt so honored!!! I was spreading $10-2x50 at that game... The backoff was as polite as I could have imagined, but I thought it was hilarious that I would have had to work full time for a year using that spread to make what the whale lost so far that day. I told the shift manager "thankyou for letting my play at your fine establishment" and to "enjoy the $200 donation I made". Also funny that the only time I got any heat on this trip was while I was playing for the lowest stakes...
I headed back to my hotel, and took a much better route this time :laugh:
Day 2, "Schmiviera" again, +$400, 1 hour
I was done for the day, and just played here to get another food comp. I requested it after 1/2 hour and left after getting it a half hour later... Made some of my money back, but still ended up paying $1600 for each meal :sad: At least the 16oz ribeye and yorkshire pudding was quite good. This time, I went to bed (relatively) early with a small win for the day.
Day 3, sounds like "Bandalay May": +$41 and a buffet comp in 2 hours
Woke up late morning and checked out of my hotel. Was well rested and in a great mood, and looking forward to playing my las day. MB was a real classy establishment Too bad the duece took forever to get there, as I probably could have made the same time on foot. Played for a short time at a $25 DD table using my usual spread and got nervous even though nobody seemed to be watching. The game conditions seemed to be too good to be true. I went to use my food comp but after I loaded a plate I found out the buffet was closed! They let me eat what was on my plate and didn't charge me anything.
Day 3, "Final Countdown" at a place that rhymes with "SchmAria", +$1200 in 4 hours
I was debating as to whether I should head to Bellagio or Orleans... Decided it would be worth it to check out the former... The only games I thought would be worth playing were for a $50 minimum. I checked my "list" and decided I was running out of time, and my best bet was SchmAria. Found only $50 DD games there too, but saw an empty table and got the pit to drop the minimum for me only... Started off losing pretty bad, but after awhile was in a great mood and started playing like a speed demon. In the last hour I started humming the tune to "Final Countdown" and was feeling great and getting some good counts. Won a $600 round where I split 4's and 9's vs a 6 with a double and an extra split. Finished up with my second to last round receiving a double-blackjack on max bets... Left just in time to make it to the airport to catch my flight back in a great mood.
Well that's it... Had some negative variance which I was "due" for (pardon the term) But had a great trip, and left with $5000 more than I needed... I'll consider that a win... For those of you newer players that read this novel, I hope you can learn from my negative experience and do things differently when you get your chance.
Good luck/variance! Everyone needs it
Night 1 @ El Commode: +$675 in 4 hours
I flew into town with my friend Mike at like 11:00pm and we headed straight to the Sweaty Spanard where we met up with another friend :grin: I played here once before and got alot of heat, but since then I've been thinking about what I would do differently. Place was packed, but there was only one other player at the $25 single deck table. I executed my plan here spreading $25-$80 with my max bet coming in at +3 and a $40 bet at TC 0 and 1, while never changing my bet after a push. My cover worked quite beautifully, and I only got 1 "cheques play" call after I got greedy and parlayed my total chips from a $25 double down. There were a few astute critters lurking about but they didn't come by too often. When I could see that they were watching from the first deal I would just flat bet my $40 and use only indices until they lost interest or got called somewhere else. Mike was pseudo counting at the $5 single deck table which was pretty full mostly. He was spreading $5-20 but was only getting 2-3 rounds before the shuffle. Nevertheless he made $200. We left at 4am and got ourselves a cheap meal, I was looking forward to getting some rest afterwards in preparation for a big day.
Night 1/Day1, 4 Queens: -$105 in 1.5 hours
Mike was staying here, and he offered to let me stay in his room with 2 beds. I had stupidly booked a 3 night stay at strip hotel, but was happy to oblige. When we entered the building, we got distracted at the craps table. There was a really hot roller who was throwing the dice very precisely every time. I watched him throw the dice about 15 times, and he would always start his throw with the same numbers facing up, his motion was the same, and the dice landed in the same spot every time. I was interested, and he hadn't lost once, but decided to hit up an empty single deck table since I was here.
Here's when the real fun started!!! I was just killing time betting small until Mike was ready to head upstairs. After playing a few decks, a suit walks by looks at the table and I hear him utter "plus 2"... I could hardly keep from laughing... Even funnier was the count was 0. I look over and see a short fat guy with thick glasses and a shaved head walk off. A few hands later he walks up on the second deal and I hear him say "minus 1" The count was +1... Just to f*** with him I threw out a $50 bet even though any advantage was negligable, if there even was one. Anyway, he came by a few more times and was right about the count about half the time. When he was right about a good count, I would forfeit some advantage, and when he was wrong I would bet to overexaggerate his error. The cost was worth the entertainment :laugh: Anyway, after the first round of a fresh deck, the count was at +5... After the dealer scooped up my bet, I quickly throw $60 on my spot. I could see that the turdball was walking up as the dealer was fumbling with the chips in the tray, taking forever to scoop up the cards. As soon as he scoops them up and is about to deal I hear TB say "plus 5". Then he quickly runs over and in a panic says "Emelio! Shuffle!". He does, and I leave my bet out out there to see what TB's gonna do, but he runs straight over to the phone which is right by the table. I hear him say loudly "Yeah, the count was plus five, and he bet $60!" It's a shame he was obviously too dumb to appreciate any of my earlier "charity". Meanwhile the dealer proceeded to deal me a 20 and gave himself a blackjack. I slam my fist on the table and yell "Dammit!", grab my chips and head straight up the elevator and went to bed.
Day 1, Rhymes with "Shcmiviera": -$3700 in 7 hours
This was absolute poop on a stick, but I guess I got what I deserved for even playing this game at all, let alone for the hours I did. After I check into my hotel which I was supposed to check into the night before I scout around and find a hand shuffled $25 min DD game with DA2 DAS noRSA and just slightly better than 50% pen. The shuffle was pretty good and with my limited ST skills I had no chance of benefiting from it. In hindsight, I have better $25 games available to me at home, so I had no business playing this game... However the table was empty, so I decided to give it a crack spreading $25-2x100. Started off horribly with alot of dealer BJ's and 20's. It never failed that whenever I would raise my bet, the dealer would get a strong pat hand, I got Aces when doubling on 11, 10's when doubling on low soft totals, just horrid negative variance, but not the worst I've ever seen. Since I stepped up my betting this trip though, this doubled my all time worst loss. Had a $600 losing round where I split 7's to three hands vs a 3 and doubled on one, then doubled my 10 on the other hand. Almost all my hands ended up either 19's or 20's. After the dealer flipped a 10 and pulled an 8, he said "I wouldn't have split that against a 3" :flame: I was down $2700 after 4 hours. I had another $1300 in my pocket, but I took a break and Mike and I ate a comped meal while I thought over my game plan.
I was almost ready for bed, but I decided I would play a bit more here, so I went upstairs to get some more money. When I came back down they had the party pit bumping, and the dancers were gettin their groove on in view of my table. The table had a few other players now I did pretty well playing the "baller" type, standing up and playing the first hand of the shoe, sticking around for the pos counts, and leaving to watch the dancers if the count went south. After winning a grand back I took a break and could have quit here and been happy. Nope... Couldn't quit... I went upstairs and came back down and hour later to find the table empty again. Bought in again and got more of the same... Gave my grand back plus another one lickety split. Went to bed at 3am and learned alot about myself that day.
Day 2, Spaniard again: +800 in 4 hours
I was now seriously worried about running out of money before my trip was over... I dumped about half my BR and still had 2 full days ahead of me... I decided that the best thing would be to head back to the Spaniard. I rode the duece back to downtown and went straight there. It was pretty early in the afternoon, and the $25 table wasn't open yet. The SD table had too many players, and many of the DD games were full, but I found a $3-500 DD table with 2 adjacent open spots. I thought I would play both spots and spread $10-80. I sat down through 2 shoes which were both pos, and on the second one the count jumped up enough to justify my max bets... I looked around and saw that everyone else was betting $3 though :laugh: I didn't have the heart... I bet 2x$30 and played a $1 tip for the dealer on each and won both. The dealer was honestly thankfull for the tip and told me to leave the table because she thought I might lose what I made :laugh: I "took her advice" and took my extra $100 to the $25 table which was just opening up... Made $500 in 2 hours, took a break and ate, came back and won another $300 in the next 2 hours.
Day 2, Palace Station: -$200 +Backoff after 4 hours
I rode the duece back to the strip and on a whim got off at Sahara Ave. I could see Palace Station within walking distance, and it was "on my list" thanks to one of ZG's threads posted about a month ago. Thanks ZG! I had actually meant to hit it up the day before, but didn't get around to it because of my stubbornness. I started heading towards it and walked past a bus stop with a few people at it. My bus pass was still good so I asked them if they knew when the bus was coming. "10 minutes"... I looked ahead and thought I would get there in 10 minutes anyway... Boy was I wrong. I came to a bridge, and the walkway disapeared, fences up underneath the bridge... I headed left down Industrial St seeing a few lights up ahead which might let me get to the station... Wrong! I ended up walking down to Trump Tower before I decided to head down an alley, hop a few fences, cross the RR tracks and hike through the desert, and walk back along the freeway to Sahara Ave again before I could underpass it and get to my destination 1.5 hours later!!!
Oh well, when I got there I thought the game would be worth it. I was pretty disoriented by this time though... The lack of sleep, chain smoking, and moderate drinking over extended periods was starting to catch up to me. I hopped into a $10 DD game with DA2 DAS RSA 75% pen and started plugging away. I wonged out at a neg shoe and came back to find everyone had left but a whale joined my table. He had about $5k in chips in front of him and I asked if he had won it all here... He scoffed that he had lost more that day than most people make in a year, and proceeded to play pretty badly betting 2x$200 with the max "push" sidebet amount every hand, staying on all 16's and even some 15's in the worst negative counts. While he was at my table they comped him $1000 in free chips and he left with little money soon after.
About an hour after he left I got the tap... My very first one, I felt so honored!!! I was spreading $10-2x50 at that game... The backoff was as polite as I could have imagined, but I thought it was hilarious that I would have had to work full time for a year using that spread to make what the whale lost so far that day. I told the shift manager "thankyou for letting my play at your fine establishment" and to "enjoy the $200 donation I made". Also funny that the only time I got any heat on this trip was while I was playing for the lowest stakes...
I headed back to my hotel, and took a much better route this time :laugh:
Day 2, "Schmiviera" again, +$400, 1 hour
I was done for the day, and just played here to get another food comp. I requested it after 1/2 hour and left after getting it a half hour later... Made some of my money back, but still ended up paying $1600 for each meal :sad: At least the 16oz ribeye and yorkshire pudding was quite good. This time, I went to bed (relatively) early with a small win for the day.
Day 3, sounds like "Bandalay May": +$41 and a buffet comp in 2 hours
Woke up late morning and checked out of my hotel. Was well rested and in a great mood, and looking forward to playing my las day. MB was a real classy establishment
Too bad the duece took forever to get there, as I probably could have made the same time on foot. Played for a short time at a $25 DD table using my usual spread and got nervous even though nobody seemed to be watching. The game conditions seemed to be too good to be true. I went to use my food comp but after I loaded a plate I found out the buffet was closed! They let me eat what was on my plate and didn't charge me anything.Day 3, "Final Countdown" at a place that rhymes with "SchmAria", +$1200 in 4 hours
I was debating as to whether I should head to Bellagio or Orleans... Decided it would be worth it to check out the former... The only games I thought would be worth playing were for a $50 minimum. I checked my "list" and decided I was running out of time, and my best bet was SchmAria. Found only $50 DD games there too, but saw an empty table and got the pit to drop the minimum for me only... Started off losing pretty bad, but after awhile was in a great mood and started playing like a speed demon. In the last hour I started humming the tune to "Final Countdown" and was feeling great and getting some good counts. Won a $600 round where I split 4's and 9's vs a 6 with a double and an extra split. Finished up with my second to last round receiving a double-blackjack on max bets... Left just in time to make it to the airport to catch my flight back in a great mood.
Well that's it... Had some negative variance which I was "due" for (pardon the term) But had a great trip, and left with $5000 more than I needed... I'll consider that a win... For those of you newer players that read this novel, I hope you can learn from my negative experience and do things differently when you get your chance.
Good luck/variance! Everyone needs it
