Upstuck... never heard that before. That's good- gonna co-opt that one.

Day 4- final day

I wake up a little after 6am. We're meeting for the buffet again at 8:30. I grab my coffee and really drag out the AM play, terrified of turning what was a huge win into a loss. I have 4k on me, and tell myself that if I lose 1k at VP I'm going to give craps a shot for old times sake, and to hopefully slow the beating down. Honestly I also had dreams of a magical early morning monster run...

The 1k goes fast despite me playing slowly. Craps it is!

I cruise around looking for a table. I know from previous posts that the Wynn has gone to only double odds quite some time ago- I was never a huge fan of "just 3-4-5x odds" anyways and intend to place 6 and 8 and fade the same old disadvantage. Thus, I don't want to shoot and would like a table with some people, but I'm not opposed to shooting on my own and just placing a minimum line bet and taking double odds for the privilege.

Now, keep in mind I've played tons of dice in my life. I have countless memories of buying in for 1 or 2k and betting 100-200 avg a roll and losing, but losing slowly. There certainly have been beatings in the past as well, but also nice wins. So I figure I'll almost certainly lose more slowly at craps than VP where "1k down in 5 min" seems depressingly common.

I see a 50$ min table with a guy all alone. That's no good and I might not be welcome anyways. A 25$ table with two people, but both seem morose and it might break any time. There's a 10$ table with some space open... ok, I've found my table.



I buy in for 3k- 25 black, 400 in quarters and 100 in nickels. Sorry for blurry pic- trying to surreptitiously snap one and not get in trouble for using my phone.

I plan on placing 6 and 8 for 150$ each and increasing my bets as numbers hit. Also going to play the feature bets (all tall, small and all) for 10$ a spot. What's this, all tall pays 30-1 and all pays 150-1??? Wasn't it 35-1 and 175-1 in the past?

Confirm with pit boss- yep, they changed that too. Jesus. What a money-hungry place. Ok, they're not getting any action from me on that bet.

I jump into what seems to be a good roll- my side has two guys who seem clueless and are making bad bets, yet have several k in chips in front of them. They're betting 25-50 a spot so they're not jamming too hard. The shooter quickly hits an 8 for me and I go to 180. 8 comes back again and I go to 300. Huh, that's odd- I only got 90$ back??? I do the math in my head- oh yeah, 180 pays 210, and going to 300 does leave me with 90. It's been a while, and I realize 180 straight to 300 probably was too big of a jump- need to get a little back from the table first.

Next roll- 7 out.

The two guys next to me color up- they're both well up. Yep, I suspect I just missed a good roll. My shot- I pass. Next person- insta-out. Next- insta-out.

****. I'm stuck almost a G in three rolls. Next up is a woman- she looks like she's been up all night, and is one of those who will drunkenly yell "woohoo!" in a high-pitched voice at any excuse. You know the type. This has bad beat written all over it... I should stop. But I came to play, and specifically to take a break from VP. Plus, in my experience this type of female shooter can go either way- either ice cold or just (annoyingly) amazing. Let's hope it's the latter.

Insta-out. DAMN IT!

She goes to leave. I'm all alone- whatever. My shot- I make a point of 9 and place my bets. She comes back. Uh oh. Places her bets. I shoot- 7 out. WTFWTFWTF

Her shot- she establishes a point and then starts fumbling in her purse for some reason. Wait for it... picks up dice... wait for it... insta out.

Good god.

Another random joins. His shot. I think he makes one 8 then 7s-out. Screw this- I can't take this anymore. Just an ice-cold dice session. I lost 2k super fast and am now stuck 3k for the am session, perfectly even.

Meet my family at the buffet- I end up getting the corned beef hash, eggs benedict and hash browns again, as well as-



Beef ribs and pork cutlet. Neither of these were offered two days ago. Both were SOLID for buffet food- 8/10. Pork was tender and lightly breaded, ribs were very flavorful.

Post-breakfast: plan is my dad and I play, kids are going to the pool with the nanny (they ended up watching a movie instead). We're going to play until checkout, lunch, then head back to the condo. We have an afternoon flight and need to leave for the airport at 3:30. It's now or never!

I try and put a happy face on the situation- I've played for almost 3 days hardcore and am even. With that thought in mind, and the fact that my dad and I have missed so many draws yesterday, I convince him to play 10 play UX instead of five play. He agrees- for that, we need to head out to the floor (hi limit doesn't have 10 play UX for some reason).

We fire 3k bullets, so we're a little short. I'm in for 1/3. The first bullet goes really fast. Fire another bullet- we get a draw very early.



Result-


Thank god. Really wish it had come in on the 12x. Since I only have 1/3, my share isn't quite 3k. I'll take it.

I'm up again, at least...

Conclusion coming soon.

Great thread Leon. Very enjoyable read.

I had a good summer at the Borgata last year.







The last one was a nice $2 hit.

LOL, as soon as I saw the pic I knew leon would be pissed he missed the 12x.

Leon,

got to give you some love...not just for taking the time out to write these up in detail and give us all some vicarious joy which we all really appreciate, but also doing them so well. your use of spoilers and memes and pics etc is top class and really adds to the enjoyment of reading your reports

I also laugh at you taking all your fitness gear to Vegas and then not using it. I travel for work and vacations a lot and the number of times I unpack unused gym gear at the end of my trip is exponential.

fingers crossed you have a good last day and thanks again - we appreciate all your efforts

Nice of you to say, honestly it's my pleasure. It helps me relieve the memories, which ultimately are all that any of us are going to have anyways since the money comes and goes.

Day 4 conclusion

My dad and I forge ahead with 10 play. We pick up this soon after-



Result-



I decide I'm going to recommit myself to snapping before pics on every draw since it's working so well.









Of course, as soon as I start that, we start missing draws again. Sigh.



Now that I'm NOT taking the before pic, it comes in. Again no multiplier. Whatever- just confirmation that it doesn't really matter either way.



Random minimal hand pay.

It's time to finalize packing and break for lunch. I head to the valet to drop all of our bags off- my mom goes to secure the comp for lunch. We're going to go to Charlie's the new place right next to the sportsbook that I've never been to.

And... as I walk up, I see NFL games on every screen. Uh oh. We're screwed. As a non-football fan, I have no awareness of the NFL until it impacts my life. Walk up to the counter- yep, 1.5 hr wait. Call my mom- divert to Red8, again. I'm kind of tired of Chinese food but we don't really have many other options.

We get pretty much the same thing as always. The plan for the last few hrs is my dad and I play while my mom, kids and nanny head to the condo. The car doesn't have enough room for all of us anyways so my dad and I will just cab it when we're done. It's now or never.

I resume taking before and after pics-





Great result in terms of multipliers for the next hand. Poor result in terms of actual money.











Out of nowhere again, again on spot 5. Hmm, maybe we don't even need to be playing 10 hands.

Between all those hits and the 3k bullets, we're up a bit on the day. It's 1:30 and we need to leave for the airport at 3:30. I'm done, of course my dad is not. He wants to play some random crap slots so I head back to my usual machines for one last hurrah. In particular, this one machine has dealt me quad 3's on both Fri and Sat- how about Sun?



Aggh. Close but no cigar. Missed the draw too.

If I had to summarize the trip at this point, I'd have to say the 2,3 and 4's got it done. I can't even recall all of the quads we've made with those values, including the 9x/18k hit, the dealt 2's w/kicker for 16k, and the two dealt quad 3's I got. I'd also have to say the aces and royals just haven't come in this trip. Zero royals, and only 2 4 awak total, biggest multiplier was 2x. ZERO 4 awak from dealt trips, although we've had plenty.



BOINK! OK, make it COUNT!!!



Supremely frustrating. By my rough estimate, I've missed the last 100 trip aces draw.

I'm now only up 1.5k for the trip. I decide I'll play off 500$ and leave a very small winner. I'm already disappointed so whatever.



Dealt quads. Again. Non-premium. WITH kicker. AIDNFIANSFNUASNFASD

To really describe this properly, some of you may know I hate 8s when it comes to VP. I know it's subjective memory, but it seems like an 8 finds a way to pop up and screw me every time. Eg, if I need a 4th card, the misses are usually 8s. I can turn a pair of 8s into quads so easily- eg, June TR with my dad where he turned a pair of 8s into quads 3 TIMES in 5 spots! A883x comes up all the time, as does the dead man's hand. It's just weird. So OF COURSE if I'm going to be dealt quads going out the door, what other value could it be?



I take the jackpot and immediately cash out. It's not going to get any better than this. I'm 4k winner for the trip. Collect my dad, head back to the condo, and take one more limo to the airport-



Day 4 result- +1k
Overall- +4k

General thoughts

Pretty crazy trip. I think I was dealt quads 5 times, twice were premium. Aces and royals dry as hell. Standard food at Wynn is getting standard. I need to change things up a bit next time to keep this interesting, and to try and preserve money- had I not had that magic run on Fri, this would have been a disastrous trip and I know one of those is inevitable.

Plan for next TR-
1. Eat at some new places
2. Play more craps- my cold run this time aside, it really should be a slower loser than VP all things considered. Maybe I'll head to my old stomping grounds, the Stratosphere and buy in for 5k and bring some unwanted attention to myself
3. Try a "live" session. Question for everyone- tapatalk is easy to use and will let me upload pics quickly, right? Plan is to take a before and after pic for all major hands during this session

One final thing- we might be able to say Sept was the "month of dealt 3s". I went to my local casino earlier this week...



Great result. My only lament is I was playing 30 lines a few min prior. Exactly 1/2 the amount as my 10 play result in this TR, but 25c instead of 1$ units. 1/4 the unit, twice the lines. I guess that makes sense.

Hopefully next TR will be the "trip of dealt aces". At least my bankroll remains healthy... thanks for reading!

As always, thanks for the trip report..

Great report! I hate vp or any other slots that are -ev but i always enjoy your trip reports somehow, wish you the best

Literally the only TR poster I genuinely get excited about reading, well done as always Leon.

Tacos el Gordo is about 150 yards from Encore Tower Suites valet. That's my go to for food when playing poker there

Thanks for the report, Leon. Awesome as always.

Mostly a craps player here and haven't been back to Vegas in a few years. Did hear about Wynn dropping their line odds to 2x across the board. Curious, do you know if everyone else went "follow the leader" and dropped their odds also or if most places are still 3,4,5?

Wizard of Vegas craps survey as of 2/16

love me a good craps report.

After losing several hundred thousand at craps over 40 years, I am thinking of turning to the dark side.

I think any serious craps player has at least considered darkside betting. I ultimately decided against it bc the minuscule gain was more than offset by-
- not having fun when everyone else was
- losing money while other people cheer
- getting dirty looks from people when I won, as if somehow the "wrong" bet caused the loss
- bet more to win less = nah

a pit boss said that to me once when someone was laying odds on the don't pass line '...betting more to win less...' then he said just up the line bet and make 1 to 1 instead of betting 100 to win 50.

And I have watched the don'ts go broke when a player hit 3-4 points in a row.

Playing the dark side is not fun at all. Even when you win it isn't much fun.

Sometimes you look at a shooter and know he's no hero and you have to Don't his ass.

Great trip report as always, thanks!

Not sure how Feb 2016 data is relevant to recent changes.

awesome TR as usual; happy to see you came out ahead!

The LV terrorist apparently was a $100/pull video poker player - did your Dad ever see him around, Leon?

Plot twist: it was the guy reserving machines.

LOL thanks for this little chuckle amidst this horrible tragedy.

On a side note, glad to see you are posting again..don't ever let the haters win..