Vegas trip report...

WOW what a blast...I mean I'm only used to playing for 2 hours at a time, twice a week. Playing all I want for 4 days was a real treat.

I arrived Wed. evening checked in at Binions for 2 nights using the 2 for 1 coupon from A.C.G. and went to Golden nugget first. I wanted to start out with 6d games, as that's all I have ever played. My betting unit was nickels (5-50).

Back-counted and jumped in at +2 and the shoe went hot and I got to push out my max 3 times. Walked out +105. Practically jogged over to 4 Queens, played 6d for about 40 min and lost 190.

So now I pop over to the Plaza - I actually wanted to go to El Cortez but it was dark and I wasn't walking over there with 2k in my pocket.

At the Plaza all they had was DD. It was dead in there. I was walking around and a dealer asks me if I want to give it a try, she says it's easy. I bite and lose 200 in about 10 minutes, my first DD experience.

Ok so now I'm stomping all over town winning a little but mostly losing. It's 4 am. I'm down 825 at this point. I'm going to bed and will start fresh when I
get up. Thats 165 units in 1 night. And believe me, it wasn't my playing strategy - just real bad cards. I have been waiting to get to Vegas for so long that I was willing to give up some EV by not back counting, but only playing in fresh shoes and wonging out at tc -1.

After 4 hours of shut-eye and a cheap breakfast I head down to Cortez and go straight to the DD shoe game...play for a couple of hours and lose $75 more. Time for another break.

Now I'm walking through 4 Queens again and I see only 2 players at a table and it's single deck. The dealer says to me 'do you want to give it a try?'. I think to myself I've heard that before, just about to say no because all single deck is 6-5 but I look at the sign and it's 3-2, I'm in.

The guy on my left is counting and spreading 15-60 (he was a real good player) and the guy on the right was a ploppy taking a real beating, I mean he was bleeding hard. I was spreading 10-40. I played 3 hours - hammered them for $300. What I noticed about this is that the counter on the left (and his wife that showed up later) seemed to know the female pit boss real well. So I take it he plays here a lot. Also, they watch real close on single deck but didn't seem to care. I mean c'mon...we're both spreading 1 - 4 and they're watching close but don't say or do anything.

Back to Cortez for double deck. I played a couple of hours - hammered them for $125, no cover. The pit boss here watched even closer than 4 Queens but, again, does not seem to care. Why?

Buzzed around for the rest of the day in Old Vegas and got the rest of my money back - playing only single and double deck games.

On Friday, I met my wife on the strip. We caught a show then went to MGM and hammered them for $400 - my biggest win ever. I was spreading only 10 - 50...not ev but I couldn't find a $5-game anywhere. Saw the pit get pretty excited here when some players from Spain (whose English was not great) started messing around and exceeding table limits. They weren't counting - just lots of money and no strategy.

Back to Fremont the next day - first time for my wife. Played only at 4 Queens, SD, for a couple of hours. Lost $175.

Trip net total = -$60.

a solid report.

i hit vegas for the first time a little over a month ago, and got hammered, had a huge session win at the el cortez, and then lost again!

Thems the breaks, but being able to play a variety of really good games, being able to jump around from casino to casino, it was all a blast and i can't wait to go back!

Nice report, thanks for sharing.

I'm heading to Vegas sometime in August (won a trip by sitting through a time share speal).

Planning on hitting old town to see how I can do. I've heard the plaza has really gone downhill in rules since new ownership.

I'm guessing 4 Queens was $10 min?

I had a pretty easy time of it at El Cortez and Four Queens. As in they'd watch like hawks but then do almost nothing about it. Pretty puzzling. A few shuffle-ups was about all I got.

I definitely preferred hopping around the casinos downtown to fighting the mobs on the strip (and the $10-15 mins).

Seems like it won't be long before $15 is the new $5 on the strip.

Maybe the intense scrutiny was just because the floor was observing you, but decided your action wasn't enough to bother with.

Down $865 when having a $40-$50 max bet is a drag.

Were they any good wonging opportunities at MGM?

Also, when were you there that everything was so seemingly deserted?

Sorry for not responding sooner, I left for Germany the day after I started this thread. Anyway, yes 4 Queens is $10 min but for my br it was perfect to spread 10-40. Actually I should have been spreading 15-60 for my 6000 br. I think spreading 10-40 on SD is far better than 5-50 on 6D.

I was there May 8-13 but I stayed and played only downtown Wed-Friday afternoon then had to meet my wife on the strip and stayed at Ballys till Sunday.

The wonging opportunities at MGM were not that good as my wife wanted to play with me and it was too busy to be wonging in and out when there was 2 of us. So I just played all but was taking bathroom breaks at tc -1 maybe -2 but it didn't seem to matter as even when it was - I was still winning. Actually everyone was winning, this table was a dump truck.

I was quite surprised to walk in to 4 Queens with my wife on Sat night to see it packed, but walked up to the SD table and it was empty.

Down 160u after a few hours is NOT "real bad cards". 10-50 WONG on MGM-type games is fine. zg

Assuming you WONG the 6D, if the 1D is mediocre pene then the 6D is better.

You must not allow something like the wife to erode your EV. Must figure out how to abandon, sit out the -count hands consistently. And it doesn't help if she's "only" makimng minimum bets if she's playing on the same BR. zg

I was 165u from playing downtown spreading 5-50 on 6D before playing at MGM.

Hey Zengrifter, would 6D @ 75% pen be better than 1D @ 50% pen? I wasn't sure about what would be good pen for 1D? As I wasn't planning to play 1D.

That will be the day my wife plays off my BR... she just plays with our entertainment $ and not very often.

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You must not allow something like the wife to erode your EV.

My wife has erode my EV for the last 25 years.

If the wife counts, wouldn't it be better to work as a team? You could back count or play two tables and call the other in at good counts. I think it would be less noticed than calling in a friend, so you wouldn't have to hide it. Maybe even play the sweetheart role other to play together or "have a fight" when you want to wong out.