Day 3

OK, a lot happened on this day so I may have to break this installment into two parts. I started the day with breakfast at home, with hopes to hit the gym and start the day off intelligently. Unfortunately, I'm also very tired from almost two straight days of gambling and waking up too early, and the thought of the gym is a chore.

I'm between training cycles as well, and before I embark on my next one I'm due to get my knees injected so right now I'm kind of in a holding pattern as far as training. No motivation, no plan, and honestly no real need to train- my body could probably use the rest more. So all of these thoughts are in my head as I try to plan out the AM.

I load the car with my lifting gear and the best of intentions. I let my parents know that I'll likely hit Red Rock after lifting and get in a quick Dreamcard session. They have plans until after lunch anyways so it'll work out nicely. I check what time the gym opens... 10am. It's 8:30. OK who am I kidding. I'm not waiting around until 10, and if I go to Red Rock now, no way I leave in time to then hit the gym before lunch. Might as well not kid myself- straight to Red Rock it is!



Random shot of the floor at Red Rock.

I head straight to Starbucks for more caffeine, then to the hi limit room for a new card (the actual rewards desk had an awful line). At the hi limit desk, I inquire about an offer I received- 3 free nights and 500$ slot play. Obv I only care about the slot play- how do I get that?

The lady who prints my card is very nice but tells me I need to go to the rewards desk to figure it out. No thanks, that line was too long. So I start playing Dreamcard. Turns out, the lady went the extra mile and inquired with a host- all I need to do is head to the VIP desk, "check in" and the slot play will be on my card. Obv I don't actually need to stay (I didn't tell them this bc I'm sure they'd prefer I do- more chance at my money). The whole process sounds very easy and I'll take care of it when I take a break.

Very early in, I get dealt-



Which turns into-



Gah. Not enough kickers, although I suppose 1/5 is near mathematical expectation.

I get a bunch of trips, obv (it's Dreamcard and my guess is trips show up about 1/10 hands) including quite a few aces with and without kickers. Unfortunately I only make quad aces once, and without a kicker. After a bit more play, I again get dealt-



Which turns into-



Gah. OK, that's annoying.

Despite that relative miss, I'm up about 1k and happy as a clam. I decide to take a break and go get "checked in". Along the way, I check out some 25c UX just to see what they have... and, they have TDB, 9/6 (not the worst). OK, I'll definitely play some UX after getting checked in.

The lady at the VIP desk is very nice, asking me if I want a king vs two queen beds, canyon view vs etc etc- of course I don't care and answer quickly, politely and at random. Finally she gives me the keys and confirms slot play is on my card.



Threw these away after I snapped the pic LOL. Afterwards my mom (and later my wife) asked me what the rooms were like and I couldn't answer. They berated me for not at least going up there and looking and on reflection I should have. Duh.

I start playing UX and it's generally warm. Quite a few dealt flushes, full houses, and quite a few quads on multipliers. Never premium quads but overall, not a bad session. I wash the 500 slot play through into 750$. And then I hear a ton of yelling...

I stop playing and look over at the craps tables 50 ft away. There's some sort of fight brewing between two customers- they're yelling at each other and doing that "puff my chest out" machismo BS. The floor and security are already hustling over while the dealers act like nothing is happening LOL. Then, they start going at each other, rolling around on the ground and throwing untrained punches. Women start screaming and the pit rushes in, and honestly I can't see what's happening well. I do know they pulled the dudes off each other- one guy's shirt is ripped open and I STILL hear women screaming. That worried me most of all- is one of them pulling out a gun I simply can't see? To make it worse, the other guy just disappears- I didn't see him leave, didn't see him escorted out. It's like he just evaporated. I'm standing next to this other guy and ask him, "did you see what happened to the white guy (other guy is black)?"

He says, "no, I'm just keeping an eye out in case someone pulls a gun". To which I reply, "exactly. The guy could be going to his car right now and getting a gun. That's what I'm worried about".

They kind of calm the other guy down and he goes to make a statement or something. The crowd disperses a bit, but there's still this anxiety-filled sense in the air. Meanwhile, I still can't find the white guy and have no idea if he's coming back. It'd be pretty stupid to get accidentally shot while playing F'ing quarters at the Red Rock, so I keep an eye out for at least 10 more min. Finally things calm down enough where I'm ok playing again.

Cue doomswitch. I swear, it's like night and day. Now the machine takes my money ridiculously fast. I give back all the profit plus 1k more, then decide to change machines, still slightly nervous that I might accidentally catch a bullet in all of this. I head back to hi-limit for more dreamcard (they only have 1 25c machine with sound) but of course now it's occupied. Annoyed, I play on the regular floor, no sound, and lose another 1k. I must have gotten trip aces at least 10 times but all of them blanked. So now I'm stuck 2k, playing a ****ty game at a ****ty casino I never should have been in. Damn it. I blame those two idiots and whatever they were fighting about.

I leave, pissed at myself and hungry for lunch (leftovers at home). I finish up lunch right as my parents get home. I decide to take a nap, and the plan is my dad and I will head to the Wynn before dinner, and we'll play both before and after. Hopefully the PM session will be better.

Yeah, I wasn't able to fit all of this day in. Rest of day 3 coming soon...

Rest of Day 3

My dad and I head to the Wynn in the afternoon. We're going to fire at least two 2.5k bullets at the UX TDB machine. Dinner is at Red8 at 7:30pm with some of his business friends and their families so it's going to be a large party.

We put in the first 2.5k and nothing great is happening. I have a free game on my phone that is one of those resource-management, let time go by type of games so I'm checking in with that while my dad is pushing buttons. All of the sudden, I hear the sound of a lot of credits ringing up on the machine and look up...



Wow. What a sight. Top prize, x 4! THIS is why we're playing TDB UX! I get 20% of this, so 3200$. Nice hit and completely erases the Red Rock crap from earlier in the day.

We play off the rest of the first 2.5k bullet and another one before we decide to take a break. I'm up 2.2k from our joint ventures today so still a good outcome. I head back to my usual TDB machine.

Pretty early in, I manage to turn a pair of aces into-



As many times as I missed with a pair of aces last trip, this is really turning out to be different. I put about 1k back into the machine before I go and check on my dad again.

He's playing out on the floor, having decided to give the 10$ credit, single line progressive a shot. The progressive is near 50k which I think is STILL negative EV, but my dad likes the machine and has hit 2 or 3 40k+ royals on it in his life. Unfortunately today is cold and we decide to try the UX partnership again. The high limit room is just completely filled (pre-Superbowl crowd), but in my earlier wanderings I noticed the main floor ALSO has a TDB UX, 9/7 machine. It's an older machine with no sound, but it'll have to do.

We fire in the first 2.5k bullet. Then the second. The second is almost felted as well when I pull-



1000:1 shot. These come in not infrequently, although they are obv rare and it sure seems like you can miss more than 1000 times... no multiplier unfortunately, which made it seem like not that big of a deal.

No matter- we're up again for this collective session (barely). It's very close to when we're supposed to meet everyone for dinner so this is a good stopping point.

At Red8, we order a bunch of different things. As the table was long there were some dishes I couldn't get a good pic of, but we basically ordered two of everything so I think I got most of them. For those that don't know, Red8 is the "basic" Chinese restaurant- basic for the Wynn being pretty damn good. I'd give the food a 7/8-10 overall as Chinese food goes. If you want value, clearly Chinatown or any hole-in-the-wall place will be far better.



Stir-fried lobster with ginger and scallion. I'd prefer black bean sauce. Maybe 6/10, although in general I'm much more a fan of lobster prepared Asian style (as opposed to Western, boiled/w butter- too boring to me).



Bok choy w/ garlic. Background is some new crispy pork cutlet- pretty straightforward but I'm a sucker for fried pork chops. Solid 7/10.



Green beans, sauteed with garlic and some sort of meat stock. Pretty tasty.



The kicker- big-eyed red cod. They typically don't have this on the menu and you have to ask. Price is ridiculous, so obv comp for the win. The taste is sublime and it's pretty easy to eat- some fish have those small bones in very non-intuitive places and it feels like you're always picking out bones. 8/10, but the experience of eating something very pricey and that most Chinese don't even know is available bumps it up to a 9/10.

After we're done, I make some excuse to politely leave, knowing there will be about 20 min more chit chat before everyone else gets up that I have no interest in. I go play but don't hit anything. Then, my dad calls me to partner up again at TDB UX. I head on over there and we fire in two 2.5k bullets. I'm debating a third bullet, then realize all things considered I'm actually losing a lot slower this way so I decide why not. About midway thru that bullet, we hit-



AGAIN the pair turns into gold!

OK, now I'm up big for the day. My parents head back and I decide to fire 2k all on my own at the UX machine. Towards the end of that 2k, I make-



Like I said, I'm really the king of dealt non-premium quads. I'll take it, but always wonder what could have been...

That's a good stopping point. I head back to my parents' well up on the day, I believe 5-6k.

Day 4 coming soon...

Loving these, keep em coming.

As a non-VP dude even these posts get my degen juices flowing. As a craps dude, I would like to hear more about your craps days. I'm pretty sure you answered this already but:

- What was your general betting strat on a new table? Hot table?
- Most won in one session? In a day?

This thread never disappoints..

much better trip then last time, the onging TR is epic

I've been in town at the hard rock and I wanted to play ultimate x but it was full so I played I think it was called powerhouse dice 5 hand TDB at .05 a hand (lol stakes amirite? lol). So every few hands a pair of dice are rolled and it seems pretty often 7x-12x come up for all hands on the dice.

Didn't hit any quads on the multipliers but did have a dealt flush on a 12x multiplier and a dealt straight on a 12x both which paid pretty well for the level I was playing at.

Would be sweet to hit the 4 aces w/kicker or the royal on even one 12x hand and get like a 2.5k handpay playing nickels. Or get it dealt for 12k

Edit: for anyone curious, a dealt jackpot hand with 12x playing 5 hands .25 credits it's worth $60k, $1 credits it's worth $240k and at $2 credits $480k :0

I generally did one of two things-
1. pass line/come bet, max odds. Get three numbers working, more if I'm hitting.
2. Place 6 and 8, juice them up with each hit. Place 5 and 9, buy 4 and 10 if I'm bored or starting to hit.

Never really had a strategy for a "hot" table except I'd never take bets down, would always increase, etc.

I think I won almost 10k one day at the Stratosphere, single session. I started off with 5$ on the line and 10x odds behind, eventually filled all the numbers and went to 10$ come bets, then 15$, then 20$, then 25... the numbers didn't necessarily stay up because there were a few 7s on the come out (so all the numbers came down but at least I got my odds back, I'd just have to start filling them up again). I remember making a 25$ come bet, the guy rolls a 10, I put 250 odds and he comes back 5-5, with my new come bet it's off and on (the sweetest thing in all of craps) for 525, he comes back 5-5 AGAIN! So sick.

I had security walk me out that day- figured it was worth a 20$ tip to not get jacked at the Stratosphere. Honestly, the hot rolls were so few and far between it's part of the reason I gave up on craps. That "once in a lifetime" roll really is once in a lifetime, and I'm not willing to bet huge amounts every time on the off chance that this could be "the one" and I don't take advantage of it.

I've seen that before, I can't remember exactly but I believe Wizard of Odds said the usual paytables are pretty bad. Don't lol at 0.05 credits, as long as you're playing within your means that's all that matters. For what it's worth last month at my local casino I saw a lady playing nickels, had 12x multipliers across the board and was dealt a pair of aces. TWO of the aces turned into 4 aces w/kicker, good for an almost 5k hand pay!

Most inspiring! Yea I'm totally cool with being at the nickles on that style of game (in a .25 single line player) and I know the casino isn't mad at me playing double my usual $ per a push despite the lower credit.

Pay table probably is pretty lol worthy but I was just having fun with the soon to be Mrs. And running a c-note through the machine to keep the mailers coming.

The $10 min bet single deck blackjack that pays 3:2 is more fun than expected and is also good for the mailers

Blackjack is fun until it kicks you in the nuts repeatedly. You know the drill- 19s and 20s snapped off and pushed all night long, you end with 9s against a five, split, resplit, double double resplit etc etc and make 20s on all hands... dealer flips a 6 and your heart skips a beat...

then the dealer draws a 2. Then another 2. Then an ace. Then a 5. GG life. God I hate BJ.

Lmao thanks Doc Leon, you really can paint the degen portrait of pain

I only play UX with an advantage (not vulturing) so it's quarters most of the time for me. The game is just too volatile unless there's a real good promo to go with it.

Ha! I did the same when I used to play craps.

I generally took mine down after a few wins, which is why I never had a big win money-wise. I always left odds working on come-out because it's all just one big session, right?

I've had 3 or 4 "once in a lifetime" rolls, which is why I don't play any more.

I was always off on the come out, mostly bc it could be tilting to lose 100s or 1000s in odds with a come-out 7 while some person is acting like they won lifechanging money with a 5$ pass line bet. Obv doesn't change the math of the game but losing when other people are winning is kind of annoying (also why I didn't play the dark side).

So you had 3-4 once in a lifetime rolls, but took money down on all of them? I remember a few rolls that I missed/heard about from dealers a couple of hrs after the fact, the ones who knew me always said something like "you would have won 6 figures" or "you would have had table max on every number", something like that. Ugh. Maybe the next time I go to Vegas I'll play a couple sessions of dice. Buy in for a G or something and just go for it. Not any different than a cold VP session, I guess.

Please make this happen. I live vicariously through the high rollers. My $100-$200 buy-ins make me die a little bit inside each time.

Day 4

We start the day off with breakfast at home- straightforward stuff like scrambled eggs, bacon etc. Afterwards my dad and I head to the Wynn for a partner session but can't get anything going. I think I dump 2k in what is collectively a 10k bullet. The best that can be said is we hang around until lunch- between the money and my dad pushing significantly slower than me, I think we play for about 3 hrs.

We return home for lunch- my Mom's dumplings which again IMO are simply the best. I actually have a hard time eating dumplings anywhere bc I'm spoiled by these. They are very labor-intensive to make, unfortunately- it takes my mom all day and is very physically demanding. I think these are from when she made a batch the year before and she froze them. So the downside is I haven't had her dumplings in at least a couple of years. I've offered to help her before but unfortunately there's not much I can offer. The kneading of the dough is part of the labor-intensive part and I can do that, but the main part is the rolling/flattening- there's this technique where if you're good at it, you can take a lump of dough and roll it into a small, flat circle in a few seconds; or, if you're like me, it takes minutes per piece and it comes out all messed up. So I'm useless for that part, which unfortunately is also labor-intensive. When you're making hundreds of dumplings the skill (or lack of it) really adds up. It's hard to describe what I'm saying but if you've ever seen those little old Chinese grandmas in the back of a Chinese restaurant rolling these out by the hundreds, you'll know what I'm talking about. It sounds easy until you try it.

In any case, we crush those dumplings, I take a nap, then head back to the Wynn for the afternoon. Early into that session, I get dealt the white whale of draws-



Which turns into-



Luckily, I manage to hit this before dinner, which basically makes me even on the day-



Loving how the 4 aces w/kicker are getting it done this trip. Such a contrast with the previous week.

Dinner is at Mizumi- the Japanese restaurant.



Random shot of the bathroom- I like their sinks, for some reason.



Dad got these rolls- I believe some sort of spicy scallop/crispy shrimp inside. It was a special roll and much better than I thought it would be. Solid 8/10.



My spicy tuna rolls (5/10, waste of stomach space honestly), Oh toro (7/10) and salmon sushi (6/10).



Shrimp tempura (6/10, standard) and brussel sprout leaves (6/10). I've gotten the sprouts before and they come with a balsamic reduction which is just too sweet, so the last couple of times I tell them to leave the reduction off. It's better that way, but leaves it lacking flavor in general. I got them to be able to get some greens but we ordered too much food this time and I think I had a few bites at best.



Udon, noodles are amongst the best I've ever had (8-9/10).



The capstone- "snow beef" (because it's so fatty it looks like snow). Goes for 50$/ounce if I remember correctly- we got 6 ounces. In the past, it has been the most sublime beef I've ever had (10/10) but on this night for whatever reason I'd give it a 8/10. Maybe it's bc I had some the week before, maybe it didn't have the same amount of fat, maybe bc I was already full by the time it came.



Snow beef, cooking on the hot stone.

After dinner my dad and I give it another brief joint attempt, but come up dry. They turn in early and I play on a bit more, putting back another 1k or so. Unfortunately I have no more pics from this day to show, didn't hit anything and (probably wisely) went to bed as well.

Day 4 result- can't remember exactly, stuck around 2k?

Day 5 coming soon...

That sort of stuff didn't bother me. I'm playing my game, they're playing theirs.

I started playing craps in my early 20's. I was a low roller playing $3 bets. I was on a table that stayed hot for about 90 minutes total, with me having 2 twenty minute rolls along the way. Everyone else were geriatrics on a junket bus, complete with name tags. Among everyone on the table, I was the boss player, lol. It got so crazy we had 4 dealers and 2 boxmen. At the end when everyone was leaving and I was getting colored up, both boxmen were laughing with relief. I had won $268. These guys DID say I should have won at least a hundred grand, lol.

You need one of those dough rolling machines. Just stick in a hunk of dough and it rolls it out for you.

I've never seen one that can make small circles that are appropriate for folding into dumplings/pot stickers. It WOULD be helpful.

Dam Leon you are the man - really loving these reports!

That Italian meal from earlier in the trip blew my mind - those portions were colossal


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Remind me again, if you get dealt AAxx with a good kicker, do you keep the kicker and draw 2 or dump it and draw 3 cards?

So you don't play poker?

Just the pair. Kicker only with premium trips.

LOL not anymore. And when I did play, to me that's part of the game. Somehow in a neg expectation, complete-luck game like craps, hearing someone cheer when they win a small amount while you just lost hundreds or thousands is infinitely more annoying. If I'm losing 1000s in a pot, someone else is winning it so at least the amounts are consistent.