Damn Leon just unreal.

Glad to see the bankroll restored and then some! Good work Leon.

Wynn related:

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Well, that sucks!

July 26-29 2021 TR

It's time!

Backstory- set this one up a while ago. My buddy who joined me in Feb 2020 just had his third kid. He knew he was going to have extended paternity leave, and initially I tried to make it a dual family trip to allow his wife and newborn some space from everyone else. However, it ended up being too much work to try and get two families, nannies etc to Vegas but my buddy still got permission from his wife to go. It's a solo guys trip!

Buddy (from here on out, B) is also an MD. He gambles far less and far less frequently than me. We've partnered before on VP both last Feb and occasionally when I can get him to join me at the local, and he also enjoys craps. He's also heavily into bourbon and is the friend I most often bring quality stuff back for from the Wynn.

For my part, I've given back almost 40k to the local since my 200k June. Still super healthy, obv, but these -10k days eventually are going to catch up to me. I'm bringing 40k with me, and I must say it didn't feel good to grab 40k for this trip and see how noticeably lighter my bankroll has become over July.

Agenda-

Mon- gamble, dinner at Sinatra
Tues- gamble, cabana, dinner at SW steakhouse
Wed- gamble, dinner at Mizumi Teppanyaki
Thurs- head home

Day 1

We get in without issue, meet up with the Wynn driver (Rolls baby!), get checked in (2 bedroom Salon suite), grab our bourbon (Little Book, chapter 4) and head to Ultimate X!



















B's plan is to partner with me 5% of all VP. He's brought 2k with him which goes nicely my 40k. And, he'll be just as devastated as me if we lose even close to all of that.

We feed in 2, then 4, then 6k total before we start fighting back-



Duh. Quads twice, both times without kicker. Whatever, at least we've opened the account and at this stage I'm not so stuck where this would actually be tilting.

We give that back, then switch to 5 hands. Unfortunately this is going to come up a few more times in this TR- we hit a hand but I forget to take a pic! I think this mostly happened bc I'm chatting/celebrating with B, and also bc whenever he hit we had to do the ol' "shuffle and pretend it was me playing at the time" charade whereby he gets up, I sit down, and we hope we don't have an attendant who's taking their job too seriously. So anyways, we convert a pair of aces into 4AWAK, no multiplier but it's still nice to see. Machine gets unlocked, we get dealt a pair of aces again...

I say, "that's what's awesome about this game. A pair can become premium not all that rarely. Let's do it again. Again!". Hit draw-



AGAIN! Literally back to back!

Now we're well up and feeling good. Back to 10 play.



WTF quads twice AGAIN, again no kickers!



HOLY F yes. Twice, again.

This is just ecstasy. Quite honestly I'm just as if not more happy for B. I mean, I've gotten to experience these highs before. This is the first 5 digit hit he's ever been part of, and we're seeing the upside of UX. I make sure he understands, it's not always like this, and the inevitable downswing is going to be VICIOUS. Luckily, he understands enough about the math of gambling, variance etc that he gets it. I also tell him we're 1/3 of the way there- by that I mean, in my long experience, at this level we need three 5 digit hits (assuming they're not god hits like 80k) to really be assured of a trip win. Even two won't necessarily do it. Three will.



Technically this a handpay.

We give some back, then head to dinner at Sinatra. Can't remember exactly but I think at this point we're up 16k for the day.

Sinatra

We look at the menu- shockingly, I get exactly the same thing I always get. Just as shockingly, they still have their "just got these in" white truffles on the menu. B decides to go with veal parm as well, and we split the truffle fettucine.



Arugula/carpaccio, 8/10.



Veal parm, 9/10.



Truffle pasta, 9/10.

After dinner, we decide to hit craps at the Encore bc the table was empty. I'm in for 10k and decide to do my new "slightly bigger" play- 450 each on 6 and 8. Buddy comes in for 300$ which is a short buy at 25$ min, but he's in for 100% of himself and that's huge portion of his trip bankroll.

And... it's total, utter garbage. Can't remember exactly but I believe I lost 5k. B got wiped out, of course. That sucked. We decide to head back to the Wynn, back to UX and print some more money.



Which of course, we do almost immediately. F yes.

Unfortunately, doomswitch now gets activated. We give back 4k super fast, then step back down to 5 hands. That doesn't help either, and we erase the entire 6k from that most recent hit. Screw it- we're both tired, we both tend to wake up early, let's head upstairs. Tomorrow is another day. Good start!

Day 1 result-
VP- +16k
Craps- -5k
Overall- +11k

Day 2 coming soon...

Great start! Let's go!

Now I want some veal parm

I can't remember if I told this story, so here goes.

When I was in college (many years ago), at home for the holidays and over at my friend's house. His mom had some brass letters spelling "NOEL" on a shelf.

I rearranged them to be "LEON". Over the years, it became a tradition with me, her kids and grandkids that, at some point during the holidays, someone would distract Mom, and Leon would make an appearance. I bet it's been 35 years now, a long-running gag.

That used to be my favorite Leon story. Ofc, this thread puts mine to shame.

obviously the butterfly effect is in play and Leon should skim 2% off his profit to compensate you for your effort.

Cripes, I haven't hit a vp royal in at least 3 years. Hell I hit a royal on the poker table this year. Okay, it was just a 1 card royal, but it was still a royal.

I thought the Noel to Leon story was pretty funny. I have a friend who has the same brass letters and I will have to steal your joke if we go over to her house this Christmas season.

Funny! Awesome that it is now a tradition.

ITT "NOEL" seems to be a non-sequential royal flush.

Day 2

Woke up at... 2:30am. Yes, you read that right. Obv that is ridiculous, so I toss and turn until 3:30am when my eyes pop wide open. Jesus F so annoying that I can't sleep here!!

I decide not to even fight it. I'm simultaneously physically tired but mentally excited. I'm in Vegas, I'm up, and hell I can always take a nap later today. Good thing the cafe is 24/7.



LOL breakfast #1. We're eating at Tableau at 8am, but no way I make it until then without some food. Surprisingly good actually, at least 5/10.

Head to UX, dump 2k at 10 lines, then realize I really should slow down esp since B won't be up for at least another couple hrs and step down to 5 lines. Dump another 2k, then get even-



Dump more, get some (but not enough back)-



Really could have used a kicker on this one.

Dump dump dump, hit...



Always with the non-premium quads in a big spot.

At this point, I believe I'm down 4k for the day. I decide to use up my 2k free credit. I don't even bother to take the ticket out, I figure I'll let B get 5% of whatever we generate although technically that's gifting him 100$. Whatever.





Start.



End. About 85% payback.

It's near 6am now and B is up. We decide to go back to 10 play, this is the only hand of note.



UX remains cold, and we head to hi limit to play on the multiline machine. I've been a little starved for options my last few trips since "my" old school machine that dealt me a royal twice has really dried up. There's UX, of course, but when that's cold there is no way to lose money faster. I always throw a few k in "my" machine just to see, and it's been garbage since Feb. Ditto a real old school machine- haven't found one that's been even decent. Multiline machine at hi limit has been the most productive next to UX.



Unfortunately, that was the only pic we took before breakfast, which means we lost. I think total pre-breakfast loss was 5k.

Tableau

Not much to say, I got my usual steak and eggs. Had a nice breakfast conversation with B, of course forgot to take pics beyond the amuse bouche bc things were so "standard".



Pretty nice starter, 8/10.

OK. Wall of text time. We gave UX another shot post-breakfast, I remember that. It was ice cold, and after the session I check us into the cabana. We hang out there for a bit, B is not a big pool guy, we both forgot sunscreen and he burns pretty easily. I don't believe he even took his shirt off. I hit the pool for a bit, and otherwise we just hung out and watched the olympics.

After a little while, we decide to try craps. It's terrible again, I lose a few k and B loses his 300$ buy in again. He's quite stuck from craps now, and I tell him he needs to partner with me for craps as well. His exposure is simply too much with a 25$ min, and for my part I have no problem going in for a few 100 more, esp if it reduces his exposure. So we decide on a 10/90 or 20/80 split from here on out.

Back to the cabana. I'm getting kind of tired, but also want to gamble (and get back the growing daily loss). We try VP again, and it's ice cold. Simply cannot hit a draw, and aces have just evaporated. In contrast to the 2 "pair of aces into 4awak" conversions we had last night, we can't convert ANYTHING today. SO MANY PAIRS OF ACES. ZERO conversions. Only one trip aces, at 10 play UX of course, multipliers everywhere, NOTHING. That one really hurt.

Back to the cabana. Dinner is slightly later tonight, so we grab a snack, some bourbon and then... let's try craps again. It's garbage, AGAIN. Only upside is B won slightly- he likes to shoot more than I do and relatively more line bets came in than 6 and 8. I think he won like 30 bucks though LOL. I lose "only" 2 or 3k more but let's face it, today just sucks.

Back to UX. Straight ice again. We're now DOWN for the trip despite being up huge less than 12 hrs ago. We head upstairs to clear our heads a bit, then back downstairs for a pre dinner session. Back to UX- ICE AGAIN. We're now stuck 10k, and B is stuck relatively more bc of the two craps sessions where he had 100% of himself.

The mood is garbage. I'm so upset, specifically at UX. Why the F can we not make anything come in any more? So now you readers can tell- lack of pics was from lack of hits. It wasn't purposeful. We head to hi limit, looking for a save.



Time stamp on this pic is 5:30pm. Literally played the whole day and this is the first jackpot since before breakfast. Note the credits in the machine- FAR lower than before. We actually busto'd the giant ticket we had, this is a new 5k ticket. And of course, finally converted three aces, twice, of course no kicker either time.

At least we have some blood. The machine is generally warm- we're making lots of regular quads, dealt two pair, etc. We're getting to play. Then, we finally make our first dealt quads of the trip, just about 4000 hands in (so right at expectation).



But that is WAY above expectation!

B was on his phone, I was driving and we had the speed turned all the way down. I got to watch each glorious card come in. When I realized we had trips I started hoping against hope that we'd see the HOLY F THERE'S THE FOURTH THREE!!!!!

I say to B, "DUDE! F'ing pay attention!". He looks up- and his face just blanks out. I think he was having trouble processing, honestly. I tell him, this hand is a



hand!

We let the credits ring obnoxiously the whole time. Huge smiles, many fist bumps. We're BACK!

I wanted them to just key the win off in the machine, but for some reason they can't do it. I decide on 20k cash and 10k ticket, I pay B his share directly so we can keep the remaining ticket pure. We move to 25 lines of course. Play for a bit more, give some back, step down to 20 lines and give more back until





That gets the ticket back to around the original 5k. It's close enough to dinner, we head upstairs to change and then to SW. B and I discuss- we're now at 2 5 digit hits. One more, esp with this one being 30k, and we're going to win for sure. As it is now, though, anything can happen...

SW





I go with a regular NY. B wanted the kobe rib cap but told himself to save the comp. I encouraged him to use it up on himself, we'll have enough and I've had it plenty of times, so he did. So I think I'd better behave. 7/10.



Stuffed squash. 9/10 presentation, pretty interesting. 8/10 flavor, the peppers on top were HOT (in a good way).



Au gratin potatoes, 9/10.

After dinner, I'm super full and tired, so we stay away from dice. Still can't stay away from UX though, so we head there and... get raped again. UX has really gone cold. Most frustrating, we finally start getting dealt trip aces- I think we got them three times. Blanked them all, of course. We decide to hit hi limit again, better stay with what's working. Pretty much 5 hands in-



TWICE! Actually, technically three times- once without kicker!



That makes up for SO many misses. This is becoming my new favorite machine. We play on a bit more but don't hit anything else. It's after 10pm now and I've been up since 3:30am. We decide to call it- we've gone from (just VP)- up 16k, to stuck almost 10k, to up 27k in a day! The swings...

Day 2 result-
VP- +11k (+27k overall)
Craps- -5k (-10k overall)
Overall- +17k

Day 3 coming soon...

The imagery of him looking over on his phone all bewildered is awesome. Nice work

What a rollercoaster, thanks man. Your friend must be losing his **** since he's a low stakes gambling guy.

Seatbelt strapped in, popped corn popping!

If B starts thinking the deals are better when he isn't paying attention...I understand. Seems like frequently if I hit deal while not watching the cards come up I get great dealt hands like quads way more often than I should

Day 3 please!?

Please, please, please ?

Sorry all- been pretty busy at work. Taking the wife out for date night in a bit, probably not going to be up until tomorrow.

You are choosing your wife over us?

Day 3

I wake up at 5am... better than 3:30 I guess!



B is not up yet, I head over to UX. Same old story, I donk off more than I get back.



I've given back about 4k when B shows up. I'm already feeling bad that I've lost 4k without him, but of course he's cool with it (knowing if we were up he'd have a piece of that as well). We head over to hi limit and try the multiline machine but it's garbage too. Not sure how much we lost before breakfast but at least 6-7k.

We grab a room service breakfast, forgot to take pics but it was the usual 6-7/10. After, I grab a pic of all the chips I have on me.



This isn't good, since we know we're stuck big for craps this trip.

We really don't have anything on the agenda until dinner- let's try and preserve this win!





Hi limit is break even thanks to this hit.

We're trying everything we can think of, and losing money on everything. UX is straight ice again. Craps is terrible. We head to a true old school machine and get dealt the most undervalued hand in the game-



Why couldn't this start with the 10 and end with the ace?!



From memory, we ended with a very small profit from the old school machine. I know we gave UX another try and it was terrible AGAIN. We skipped lunch but in retrospect should have grabbed something. We're just hemorrhaging money. At some point in the early afternoon we headed upstairs just to stop the bleeding. We're down at least 10k on VP and another 5k on craps, so barely up for the trip. So, so, so bad. I'm particularly annoyed at UX- sure, the first day was great, but since then it's just been a straight bleed. Draw after draw that doesn't come in. Zero lightning strikes.

I grab a very quick nap and wake up with a slightly better attitude. Sure, we're not up much, but we are up. We've got about 24hrs to go and I've been down 20-30k at this point on MANY, MANY trips. We head back to hi limit and try and make something happen. I'm already considering how much I'm willing to lose this trip (let's be real, the way this is going this 2k profit is going to last 5 min).

We get dealt 3 aces fairly early in the session-





And finally manage to convert! First 4000 in a LONG time.

The machine is generally warm. We're getting lots of regular quads, two pair, etc. Still giving money back, but very slowly. Then, B gets to push the button and find his first lifetime dealt quads!



3s to the rescue again!

BOOM. Hold everything. He gets up and I sit down so as not to create a hassle over the jackpot. We both turn on the video, say a prayer to the elder gods and hit draw-

Result-


BANG! 1/3 get kickers!

We're on cloud 9 again. That's our third 5 digit hit of the trip. This SHOULD lock in a trip win...







Machine stays warm- 2 hits in 20 lines.

I've qualified for an additional 1k free credit and elect to use it up.



Start.



End- pretty crappy, 67% payback.

It's close enough to dinner. We head off to Mizumi.

Day 3 so far- -2k (but a huge recovery, so still up 15k).

Rest of trip coming soon...

I really enjoy this thread, makes me feel like I’m in Vegas

Holy sheet! I've been playing this game 3 or 4 years, maybe 5, and I've NEVER gotten dealt quads!

If I had any brains I'd quit playing it for good.

Some on the fly math here bc statements like yours always make me curious. I know I've run hotter than the sun, I don't need calcs to tell me that. But, how hot? All of these are very rough obv-

I've average about 6 trips to Vegas x 5 yrs. Total number of hands played is much tougher to figure, but let's say 8000 unique deals per trip (has been higher or lower over the years).

30 trips x 8000 hands = 240,000 unique deals

I "should" get a dealt quad 1/4000 hands or so. By extension, a premium quad 1/4 of those times, so 1/16,000 hands.

240,000/16000 = 15 times.

I've been dealt quad aces at least 10 times in Vegas in that time period. The 2s, 3s, 4s don't stick out in my mind as much. Anecdotally I feel like I haven't been dealt those 3x as frequently as aces, but let's say at least 20 times. So I'm running at least 2x above average. I've also been dealt a royal 3x in Vegas, at a projected rate of 1/650,000 hands.

Even if we assume 10 trips x 5 years, and 10,000 hands per trip = 500,000 hands, I'm still way over-dealt royaled.

Not sure if you have the data for you to do a similar calc for yourself. I actually didn't have any real expectation what these numbers would come out as until just now, it's interesting to look at the numbers and realize just how hot I've run.

Didn't the rookie hit the dealt quads?