Slept in till 3:45p today. Needed it.

In the spirit of the above recommendation, I slummed it at a $200 bet table for an hour this afternoon. Ran it up to about +2700, but then had a slide back to a whopping +$300. We'll take it.

Tried my hardest to invest $100 in a DDB VP after that, but it was a lost cause.

Had yummy dinner at Scarpetta, and now it is time, finally, to see Absinthe!

In Obviously.

Are you making many deviations from BS based on the count? Thx, good luck keep it up!

Enjoy! Wife and I had a blast

I make some, but sporadically. The deviations add a little EV and a lot of heat. I prefer to camouflage them amongst a series of "deviations" that are, shall we say, not so +EV.

It was good; I enjoyed it. I spend some time in an adult gymnastics class as well as trapeze school, so I have a lot of appreciation for these kinds of acts. It is nice to see them in a close-form environment like the Absinthe tent.

That said, (a) I have seen individually-superior acts in other venues, especially other countries, that have left me more impressed at the end, and (b) I have enjoyed some variety shows that have had a little more narrative structure to them. I guess my expectations were set really high by the immensely positive reviews, but I felt like it was just an A. Not an A+. (Am I crazy here?) I do wonder whether some acts of perhaps a lower quality level have been substituted in over time.

After Absinthe, sat down for a lovely stretch of $500-base-unit blackjack with a nice dealer in the Proletariat High Limit Lounge (PHLL) on the main floor at Cosmo. Shoe one ran almost at expectation, with exactly one stack of purples on my side at the beginning and at the conclusion of the very last hand.

Shoe two was another fantastic one, filled with an extended sequence at +2TC halfway in. My bet was at $4k at this stage, and I ran off several wins and pushes before the count reverted all the way to -0.5. As a personal preference, I do not reduce my bet in these situations until I experience a loss... but one did not come! The count kept going lower, and I kept winning or pushing, until finally another five or six hands had gone by, flush with lots and lots of tens and very few little cards, and now the count was -2 or something atrocious, and my big bet was still out there, teasing and taunting me to take it down. What a great problem to have, huh?

Anyway, I ended up a smooth +25.5k on that shoe, colored up, and called it a session.

This is an unusual trip, because I have only had these super-short sessions with lots of profitability. They won't (can't) all be like this, but it sure makes it seem easy. My only lament is that I am not getting enough volume in to keep my comp rate up, if this trend continues. I just don't play long if I get ahead big early. Couple that with a much greater extension of my host's generosity compared to previous trips (I have two comped suites, full FB with a group of six people eating almost every meal here, and show tickets), and I suspect I will end up overcomped this time around. Hmmm.

I would keep taking until they say otherwise and not think twice about it. Given your play they are more then happy to comp. I doubt they base it on a single trip.
Love the TR! Keep it up!

How are the suites at Cosmo?

Thanks, I hope you're right.

Alas, the "keep it up" was hard advice to heed. I went in for a late-night session and saw one of the worst runs of hands I can remember in blackjack. I even had great counts and a good spread going, and the dealer just kept getting most of the blackjacks whilst I got most of the bust hands.

My favorite one? In frustration (okay, count was +3), I upped my single bet to $8k. Dealer receives a 6. I receive a 4 and a 7. Double down, and I get a 10. Dealer flips a ten for 16, and draws a 5 for the push. Doh!

It simply was time for some mean regression last night. I burned through $70k before calling it a night. That was a little less than half my profit, so we are up $85 large on the trip now. Well, today is a new day!

gogogogogogooggo

and try to take a picture if you get close to emptying the rack of purples or yellows again!

This morning I emptied a near rack of yellows into the dealer's rack. When it rains, it pours? Down 90k in six shoes. Sorry, nothing much in the way of pictures for you!

Sigh. Time for a massage.

a massage will be perfect right about now

I'm about to go fetal just thinking about losing 90-180 units in 6 shoes. Brutal

Run like Neb, turn it around

Just saw that Neb had a new TR, first thought to pop into my head, "OMG yes!"
It's like finding a $20 bill in a pair of pants you haven't worn in a while.

+1 lol he brings the entertainment value, for sure.

It's not over until you leave Nevada, go get it, meng.

Well on the plus side I don't think you have to worry about your host talking to you about being over-comped anymore Go get 'em Neb!

in before 200k

LOL, a little bit of an oxymoron?

ha ha. Well done!

Always enjoy your trip reports Neb.
Good luck.

The massage was fantastic. After that, it was time for a burger and milkshake at Holstein's, and then I took a nap. Pretty hard to complain about that. Then it was time for room service, hacking up the TV's HDMI connection (why pay $20 for a cable) to watch episodes of Cops, and some intense boardgaming with futures contracts and other derivatives.

After making victims of all five friends, and since a storm blew through and cooled temps by 20F, it was time for a long stroll around the Strip. We concluded by taking a car over to Cue Club and shot some pool until the wee hours of the morning. Made it back to bed by 4am.

Did you note the conspicuous absence of any more gambling?

My count has you about 5 yellows down in BJ but +Thousands in RFB and fun with friends

So what you've given back in BJ profit you're still gaining big time in life experience

Basically even when Neb is losing these days, he's still winning!

So Neb, when you win, I must ask, do you take care of the dealers?

Boardgaming? You mean like Monopoly? There's an actual GAME for trading futures??

WTF is this ****? Whether he does or doesn't shouldn't matter to you. Pretty rude to ask that about someone else.