Back in Black: A Rampage through the Pits (TR 3/16-3/22)
03-25-2022
, 06:50 PM
We want so much,
When perhaps we live best
In the spaces between loves
- Tracy K. Smith, Life on Mars
It’s 3am at Resorts World. We’re in Crockford’s, the high limit parlor, sleep deprived and ****ed up beyond belief. There’s still hope in the night because we have money in our wallets and five more hours to spin things around. I have $1200 on a hand, the biggest table bet I’ve ever made. One of my best friends sits to my left, stunned to silence at my rogue bet. Of course, we have to double.
We wake up in the afternoon, blackout curtains having done the lord’s work. I bathe with bubbles, pour champagne into a half-empty apple juice bottle, and try to put together the fragments of Saturday night & Sunday morning. The drinks have blurred together and the adrenaline from betting makes me numb to what I’ve been doing. But I have money left in my wallet - it is not yet time to stop.
We bust our asses to make the Wynn buffet by 2pm. My friends love breakfast food and demanded we catch the brunch/dinner turn; we load up on bottomless mimosas and wonderful meats. I rate Wynn above Wicked Spook and Bacchanal, with Bellagio’s buffet a distant fourth. But I also rarely get seafood, which is imo Bacchanal’s specialty.
We dump a couple hundred dollars to my girlfriend’s slot choice and then $100 tracking her roulette spin. We park in the mini book at Encore by the poker room for a few hours to watch college hoops and get our post-feast siesta.
As the games begin to wrap we make a move to walk to Resorts World. A two hour craps session sees me just keeping my head afloat before losing $1000 in the last four rollers. We move to the high limit lounge and start ripping into cocktails - tanq and tonic does the job. Eventually, the blackjack table entices me. $100min is the lowest 3:2 game at RW apparently - it’s time to redeem myself after blasting off in the Cromwell $100 game.
In for $2000. The guy in the two seat seems like a colossal douche, constantly berating the dealer and waitress (“aren’t you glad I tipped you? show some ****ing appreciation” after giving her a red…)
I sit as far as possible in the six seat and the pit lets my friend sweat my action next to me.
We’re off early - dick gets hot while I stay even. The dealer busts pretty frequently; I usually don’t tip until I’m up but I kept winning with 17, 18 vs A or T. Eventually we get a very good shoe with many low cards eaten up after five hands; I increase my wager to $300 and win two straight. Then I get aces, split, and make two <17s against an 18. Back to even, we order two more G&Ts to power up for the next shoe.
Dick backslides a G during the next shoe and taps out while I get back to $2100. Its early morning at this point and we want to visit my brother, who’s working graveyard at a Venetian bar. I tell Louis one more shoe, do or die.
Die indeed. I lose five straight to start at -$100 each, but no aces have popped yet and I just feel a big win coming. I press to $200 and lose two more. “Surely, the dealer cannot win eight in a row”, I think. He can. I bet $600. I make 88 and have to split for my entire $1200 stack. Dealer shows a 2. I make 12, hit, and get another 8 for 20. The other 8 makes 18. Dealer rolls 4, hits a 5 for the dreaded backdoor 11, but pulls yet another 8 for 19. I split.
I’m tilted and slide all $1200 into the spot. KJ makes 20. dealer shows a five. Flips a five, peels a ten. Push again. At this point more sane individuals would have taken their bet down. I haven’t won in almost 10 hands and my friends are ready to go. I get 3, 7 and the dealer shows a 7. I have to go deep into the wallet to double - $2400 on one card. The dealer flips an ace for 18. The dealer puts his hand out as if he wants me to rip open my face-down double. I don’t have to look - we know what’s under there. A duck - I make 12.
For the first time all week I feel bad trying to force a big win. Stay in town long enough and everyone will backslide - I just tried to go too big with my bets without the requisite bankroll. Sunday night bleeds into Monday morning; I shake off my feelings to regroup.
We return to Caesars. I book small wins in craps and BJ while Nina plays ultimate for a couple hours. Up $1000, I would love to recoup the Resorts World disaster on my final night (morning?) in Vegas.
Finally it’s almost breakfast and time to meet my brother during his break at Venetian. I play the $50 3:2 waiting for everyone to meet outside Grand Lux and make $800 back.
We eat, drink until 7am, then begin our walk back toward Caesars. The team can’t resist an empty craps table in Harrah’s on our way back - we fire a quick roll around that goes nowhere. -$500. Running on fumes, my girlfriend and I barely get into the room to nap before check out.
One night left in Vegas is relatively uneventful. We hit the Encore for Sinatra, a very good meal highlighted by the veal parm and agnolotti. I win $440 in blackjack to pay for dinner and to end the trip with a W.
[Uploading Image...]
I get to leave Vegas not with a bang but a whimper; heavy-hearted having booked a profit yet wondering what might have been. The special degenerate feeling that keeps me coming back; next time will be the big one.
Until then, I can take solace in great memories, fun company, and a special journey. Final accounting to come in a post soon
When perhaps we live best
In the spaces between loves
- Tracy K. Smith, Life on Mars
It’s 3am at Resorts World. We’re in Crockford’s, the high limit parlor, sleep deprived and ****ed up beyond belief. There’s still hope in the night because we have money in our wallets and five more hours to spin things around. I have $1200 on a hand, the biggest table bet I’ve ever made. One of my best friends sits to my left, stunned to silence at my rogue bet. Of course, we have to double.
We wake up in the afternoon, blackout curtains having done the lord’s work. I bathe with bubbles, pour champagne into a half-empty apple juice bottle, and try to put together the fragments of Saturday night & Sunday morning. The drinks have blurred together and the adrenaline from betting makes me numb to what I’ve been doing. But I have money left in my wallet - it is not yet time to stop.
We bust our asses to make the Wynn buffet by 2pm. My friends love breakfast food and demanded we catch the brunch/dinner turn; we load up on bottomless mimosas and wonderful meats. I rate Wynn above Wicked Spook and Bacchanal, with Bellagio’s buffet a distant fourth. But I also rarely get seafood, which is imo Bacchanal’s specialty.
We dump a couple hundred dollars to my girlfriend’s slot choice and then $100 tracking her roulette spin. We park in the mini book at Encore by the poker room for a few hours to watch college hoops and get our post-feast siesta.
As the games begin to wrap we make a move to walk to Resorts World. A two hour craps session sees me just keeping my head afloat before losing $1000 in the last four rollers. We move to the high limit lounge and start ripping into cocktails - tanq and tonic does the job. Eventually, the blackjack table entices me. $100min is the lowest 3:2 game at RW apparently - it’s time to redeem myself after blasting off in the Cromwell $100 game.
In for $2000. The guy in the two seat seems like a colossal douche, constantly berating the dealer and waitress (“aren’t you glad I tipped you? show some ****ing appreciation” after giving her a red…)
I sit as far as possible in the six seat and the pit lets my friend sweat my action next to me.
We’re off early - dick gets hot while I stay even. The dealer busts pretty frequently; I usually don’t tip until I’m up but I kept winning with 17, 18 vs A or T. Eventually we get a very good shoe with many low cards eaten up after five hands; I increase my wager to $300 and win two straight. Then I get aces, split, and make two <17s against an 18. Back to even, we order two more G&Ts to power up for the next shoe.
Dick backslides a G during the next shoe and taps out while I get back to $2100. Its early morning at this point and we want to visit my brother, who’s working graveyard at a Venetian bar. I tell Louis one more shoe, do or die.
Die indeed. I lose five straight to start at -$100 each, but no aces have popped yet and I just feel a big win coming. I press to $200 and lose two more. “Surely, the dealer cannot win eight in a row”, I think. He can. I bet $600. I make 88 and have to split for my entire $1200 stack. Dealer shows a 2. I make 12, hit, and get another 8 for 20. The other 8 makes 18. Dealer rolls 4, hits a 5 for the dreaded backdoor 11, but pulls yet another 8 for 19. I split.
I’m tilted and slide all $1200 into the spot. KJ makes 20. dealer shows a five. Flips a five, peels a ten. Push again. At this point more sane individuals would have taken their bet down. I haven’t won in almost 10 hands and my friends are ready to go. I get 3, 7 and the dealer shows a 7. I have to go deep into the wallet to double - $2400 on one card. The dealer flips an ace for 18. The dealer puts his hand out as if he wants me to rip open my face-down double. I don’t have to look - we know what’s under there. A duck - I make 12.
For the first time all week I feel bad trying to force a big win. Stay in town long enough and everyone will backslide - I just tried to go too big with my bets without the requisite bankroll. Sunday night bleeds into Monday morning; I shake off my feelings to regroup.
We return to Caesars. I book small wins in craps and BJ while Nina plays ultimate for a couple hours. Up $1000, I would love to recoup the Resorts World disaster on my final night (morning?) in Vegas.
Finally it’s almost breakfast and time to meet my brother during his break at Venetian. I play the $50 3:2 waiting for everyone to meet outside Grand Lux and make $800 back.
We eat, drink until 7am, then begin our walk back toward Caesars. The team can’t resist an empty craps table in Harrah’s on our way back - we fire a quick roll around that goes nowhere. -$500. Running on fumes, my girlfriend and I barely get into the room to nap before check out.
One night left in Vegas is relatively uneventful. We hit the Encore for Sinatra, a very good meal highlighted by the veal parm and agnolotti. I win $440 in blackjack to pay for dinner and to end the trip with a W.
[Uploading Image...]
I get to leave Vegas not with a bang but a whimper; heavy-hearted having booked a profit yet wondering what might have been. The special degenerate feeling that keeps me coming back; next time will be the big one.
Until then, I can take solace in great memories, fun company, and a special journey. Final accounting to come in a post soon
Last edited by apricotjello; 03-25-2022 at 06:59 PM.
03-26-2022
, 05:42 AM
how high, we were¡
capsized
yaw motion spinning
us unravel
ling us. out
of
control.
Some final notes on my Vegas trip. My accounting isn’t exact and there may be rounding errors. I left Las Vegas roughly plus $1250. I had $4850 of gambling winnings against $3600 of expenses.
Gambling by game: ultimate Texas Holdem -$1825, baccarat -$1700, blackjack -$1645, slots +$200, roulette +$1275, sports bet +$2600, and craps +$5950.
Gambling by location: Cromwell -$2825, Resorts World -$1900, Caesar’s -$945, El Cortez: -$800, Planet Hollywood: -$770, The Linq & Harrahs: $0, Wynn/Encore: +$340, Circa: +$400, Cosmopolitan: +$500, Mirage: +$540, Bally’s: +$650, Venetian/Palazzo: +$1000, Flamingo: +$1615, South Point: +$1950, Aria: +$2500, Sunset: +$2600.
Dining: Peppermill: -$100, Beauty & Essex (Cosmo): -$300, Din Tai Fung (Aria): -$150, Primal: -$300, Javier’s (Aria): -$180, Jean George Steakhouse (Aria): -$950, Buffet (Wynn): -$140, Sinatra (Wynn): -$440.
It may be hard to justify spending so much on food, especially given that my girlfriend picked up most of the cheaper meals and half of the buffet, but 1) much of those bills are alcohol and 2) part of the reason I come to Vegas is because it’s restaurant quality is incredible.
I learned by experience that I should pump the brakes on games where I don’t have fun losing - Ultimate generally. I also need to get away from losers quicker - I tilt lost thousands on baccarat and blackjack by martingaling a few times into a frozen deck. I didn’t play any poker for the first time ever - I always make at least one stop. I would’ve preferred donking off $3k playing 10/20 to some of the bad table game sessions I’ve had - in the future, that will be a move to consider.
I also had some massive wins, and even more coming very close. Multiple hard 6s pressed up to $200, multiple times one away from hitting craps make’em all, and four-figure BJ/baccarat hands could have gone the other way. I also could have run much colder - I have never had a longer average roll time in craps. I made myself thousands of dollars with my own hands which feels pretty lucky+cool.
The rest of my team fared OK. My girlfriend lost a little over a thousand, Louis won a bit over two thousand, Andrew + Carl each won a few hundred, and Carl’s friend lost big (between $2-3k but didn’t ask). The highlight of the trip is always spending time with guys I usually see twice a year, reminiscing about bullshit, and arguing sports. This time we got to do all of that and eat right while we mostly won.
Overall this post probably isn’t too interesting but it was fun to run the numbers on my red eye back to NYC. I sincerely love all of the posters and supporters in the thread - the compliments inspire me to keep taking food or rail shots and to keep updating these threads.
Up next: I graduate law school during the week of May 16. I’ll be renting a car to drive my **** back across country with some casino stops (especially Caesar’s properties) along the way. Then I get back to Vegas with another trip report - and a new chapter of my life - waiting for me.
capsized
yaw motion spinning
us unravel
ling us. out
of
control.
Some final notes on my Vegas trip. My accounting isn’t exact and there may be rounding errors. I left Las Vegas roughly plus $1250. I had $4850 of gambling winnings against $3600 of expenses.
Gambling by game: ultimate Texas Holdem -$1825, baccarat -$1700, blackjack -$1645, slots +$200, roulette +$1275, sports bet +$2600, and craps +$5950.
Gambling by location: Cromwell -$2825, Resorts World -$1900, Caesar’s -$945, El Cortez: -$800, Planet Hollywood: -$770, The Linq & Harrahs: $0, Wynn/Encore: +$340, Circa: +$400, Cosmopolitan: +$500, Mirage: +$540, Bally’s: +$650, Venetian/Palazzo: +$1000, Flamingo: +$1615, South Point: +$1950, Aria: +$2500, Sunset: +$2600.
Dining: Peppermill: -$100, Beauty & Essex (Cosmo): -$300, Din Tai Fung (Aria): -$150, Primal: -$300, Javier’s (Aria): -$180, Jean George Steakhouse (Aria): -$950, Buffet (Wynn): -$140, Sinatra (Wynn): -$440.
It may be hard to justify spending so much on food, especially given that my girlfriend picked up most of the cheaper meals and half of the buffet, but 1) much of those bills are alcohol and 2) part of the reason I come to Vegas is because it’s restaurant quality is incredible.
I learned by experience that I should pump the brakes on games where I don’t have fun losing - Ultimate generally. I also need to get away from losers quicker - I tilt lost thousands on baccarat and blackjack by martingaling a few times into a frozen deck. I didn’t play any poker for the first time ever - I always make at least one stop. I would’ve preferred donking off $3k playing 10/20 to some of the bad table game sessions I’ve had - in the future, that will be a move to consider.
I also had some massive wins, and even more coming very close. Multiple hard 6s pressed up to $200, multiple times one away from hitting craps make’em all, and four-figure BJ/baccarat hands could have gone the other way. I also could have run much colder - I have never had a longer average roll time in craps. I made myself thousands of dollars with my own hands which feels pretty lucky+cool.
The rest of my team fared OK. My girlfriend lost a little over a thousand, Louis won a bit over two thousand, Andrew + Carl each won a few hundred, and Carl’s friend lost big (between $2-3k but didn’t ask). The highlight of the trip is always spending time with guys I usually see twice a year, reminiscing about bullshit, and arguing sports. This time we got to do all of that and eat right while we mostly won.
Overall this post probably isn’t too interesting but it was fun to run the numbers on my red eye back to NYC. I sincerely love all of the posters and supporters in the thread - the compliments inspire me to keep taking food or rail shots and to keep updating these threads.
Up next: I graduate law school during the week of May 16. I’ll be renting a car to drive my **** back across country with some casino stops (especially Caesar’s properties) along the way. Then I get back to Vegas with another trip report - and a new chapter of my life - waiting for me.
03-27-2022
, 07:57 PM
03-27-2022
, 08:48 PM
I should be back the final week of May
Happy to spin some dice up - let’s find somewhere with low minimums, good max odds, and quick waitresses
03-27-2022
, 09:02 PM
03-28-2022
, 12:59 PM
I'm a finance guy but used to work in the legal industry (LPO, so not practice), the best colleague I ever had was a Columbia law graduate who decided 4 years in he hated practicing and came to PM for us (before getting a job for the DoD, lol).
03-28-2022
, 11:16 PM
Quote:
You accepted an offer for when you graduate yet?
I'm a finance guy but used to work in the legal industry (LPO, so not practice), the best colleague I ever had was a Columbia law graduate who decided 4 years in he hated practicing and came to PM for us (before getting a job for the DoD, lol).
I'm a finance guy but used to work in the legal industry (LPO, so not practice), the best colleague I ever had was a Columbia law graduate who decided 4 years in he hated practicing and came to PM for us (before getting a job for the DoD, lol).
Nah I’m still looking for a clerkship with a judge. Have no interest in biglaw / corporate law so worst case scenario involves me going to CA, taking the CA bar, and finding a job after I have my admission.
What do you do now? Glad to hear you had a good experience with someone from CLS - they can be quite hit or miss
03-29-2022
, 10:20 AM
I'm sure everyone must know or have an inkling on this, but I had no idea the depth that some of the products go. It's not just a case of "get 10 people in a room, ask them what they like about your brand/want to see from your brand" any more.