Of course. I don't want a brick that I leave everywhere except my pocket, like I see other people do. I don't need a camera in my phone, it's a phone. Until I get a dealt royal, which isn't going to happen anytime soon since I'm Diamond through 2019.

Pig4Bill, do you still have an @aol.com email address as well?

Man, that hurt....

MM MD

Maybe a myspace account with his old friend Tom.

Lol.

"Email? I already have a mailbox"

bump. get your ass back to Vegas leon, we need updates!

Counting the days man... the last few times I've been to the local have been ice-cold. Only good to come out of it is a reminder to save the money for Vegas.

Unfortunately it seems like my work might end up being the limiting factor for future trips. For the vast majority of my career I've been lucky to pretty much get time off when I needed it- our scheduling and staffing were perfectly balanced that we could pretty much switch around our days on a whim, last minute, and BOOM, 4 day weekend. Unfortunately no longer- things are razor tight and if one didn't request a block of time off well (months) in advance, it's basically a no-go. I'm obviously spoiled and not used to that- I keep seeing all these blocks of time that are CLOSE to enough for a quick Vegas getaway, but can't quite seem to pull it off.

Next trip will likely be late May. We'll see. If I had any good updates from the local I would have of course posted here. Any one else who's had some sweet hits, let's see 'em!

I have wondered this before, but not asked since I didn't want to be intrusive, but I here I go.

Have you thought about stopping you local play all together? You often talk about you know its a losing proposition in the end, but enjoy the rush and aren't dipping into your life roll. However, let's say you do eventually have to dip into your life roll; that wouldn't be a huge deal as long as its not a ton, and you can justify is as entertainment (totally reasonable to spend a small portion of earnings on gambling as entertainment). So in the long run, where you may have to spend out of your own pocket per se; it would probably be more fun and easier to deal with losses if they were just in vegas (and less frequent losses since local is more accessible).

Just curious; feel free to ignore though; you have already been very open about your thought process with gambling and don't need to expand on that.

So you think it’s ok f he dips in to life roll for Vegas gambling because it’s entertainment, but because he loses too much at the local you think he should quit?

Honestly I’m just busting your balls. Leon probably thinks he should quit the local too. Sometimes you gotta scratch man

I'm pretty sure Leon's local rhymes with 'Sharona'..and they have the best comps anywhere, $ for $, in or out of Las Vegas, ainec..

Happy to answer- the long version is, it doesn't matter.

A quote from Marcus Aurelius that has been very prominent in my life and thought process for some time now is "Memento Mori". Basically, "remember that you will die". Ultimately we're all dead and presumably have only one life to live. So from that standpoint, I want to make the most of whatever my time on this earth is.

Clearly, you can take a thought process like that way too far and ignore basic responsibilities, feeding the kids, etc. My wife and I take care of all of that and fortunately we have plenty leftover. So now the thought becomes- how shall I enjoy my life? Is it even "irresponsible" if I lose a bunch gambling, money that no doubt could go to "better" things, if I've already taken care of all the responsibilities out there? The answer I keep coming back to is "no". In some sense we all have long ago made this decision any time we splurge on a meal, lose even 5$ in Vegas, etc. The wrong way to think about it, IMO, is that certain expenditures are "responsible" and anything else is "irresponsible" in a binary way. It's not that simple. Is taking care of one's self and being happy "irresponsible"? I don't think so.

I know plenty of people that buy food in bulk and always go for the cheapest, typically most processed option. They spend far less than I do on food, but ingest far more unhealthy calories. Which is the more "responsible" choice? There's not a clear answer but I'm sure happy with the choices I'm making for my kids' and my own health.

On top of that, my former poker player self knows "it's all one long game". Who cares where I lose it, if I'm just going to eventually lose it anyways? The result is the same. So pretty much when I feel like going to the local, I go. The only thing holding me back is the finite bankroll (wish I had infinite money to lose but then I suppose it wouldn't be fun) and the knowledge that any loss at the local MAY limit my ability to play in Vegas. Actually one huge factor is knowing just how awful I can run in Vegas- I've pretty much established any trip I may go through a 15k swing. That's so big that I HAVE to save some of those 1k, 2k losses at the local- they add up and might matter.

So, basically I've curtailed my play at the local for the reasons above, but see no reason to stop entirely.

This. I could live like a miser and leave everything to my kids... and end up with a life not worth living.

Yes Barona's comps are the absolute nuts. I used to play craps there, switched to Viejas when Barona started doing a "shuffle the cards that represent the dice" every roll thing (don't ask), then came back to Barona once I started up with VP. Cashback, mailers etc just too much value. Too bad their food isn't top notch or the comps would REALLY be sweet.

I consider myself a 'small to medium' video poker player. That means typically 3 lines of quarters, or 10 lines of nickels. I play poker there too, cash and tourneys, but poker comps suck everywhere, and unfortunately Barona is no exception. I don't ever play slots or pit games.

Some comps I get from Barona each month:

Up to 4 room nights each month. Weekdays only, unfortunately, but still nice.

A couple hundred dollars of cash each month. NOT 'Freeplay'..they actually give you the cash. Sometimes up to $500 each month, but more typically $200-$300.

Lots of food vouchers. I think the food there is 'aight'..certainly not up there with The Wynn and top Las Vegas casinos. Barona's steakhouse and buffet can be hit or miss.

They also do a lot of other things..for example, on my birthday, they brought me a cake to my video poker machine and had a card signed by many of the customer service employees, and it included $200.

They really do comps well there..I just wish they had a better poker room there, like you find at Pechanga or Ocean's 11..

Sorry; I can see how my post was confusing. When I said "losing proposition"; I meant VP in general. Leon has said countless times how he knows that he is not a favorite in VP. My comment had nothing to do with wins or losses at his local (I don't pay that close attention so wouldn't know if he was winning or losing locally); rather, kind of the degen part of it; just gambling to gamble. In my experiences, it is a lot of fun in Vegas; different atmosphere; vacation mode; good eating, etc. But not as fun locally; unless I am with fun people; etc, which is not as often as Vegas.

So my original question was more so; does playing locally make you feel more dejected in a degen kind of way; like "why did I play", "I could have been doing xyz", etc. However, even though I asked the question poorly, Leon answered it anyways and pretty much talked about how he enjoys playing locally still; so thats all that matters. End of discussion. Money never was the issue; Leon has talked about his financial situation and job in the past, and based on his posts, it seems very unlikely that gambling would affect his financial situation/or that he would let it. Furthermore, I don't think people should feel obligated to leave wealth behind or to spend wealth on xyz; i truly dgaf; i think people should spend their money how they want to.

Thanks for the response Leon!

The cash instead of freeplay thing is cool and smart of them- seems to mean so much more to most customers, but of course most of us will just plow it into the machines anyways...

They pay attention too- for my birthdays, they figured out fast that I don't care about cakes, cards, public to-dos, etc, just give me the cash. So the voucher comes in the mail now haha.

Only real downside to me is the drive and the sheer number of people- when that place gets crowded, man... I can pretty much figure I'll have a machine or two free at the Wynn no matter what, but at Barona, geez. I've gone entire weekends at the Wynn where every time I return to "my" machine, I see the exact amount I cashed out for the last session still on the screen LOL.

So true, and I don't think I have seen any other casino, anywhere, give you cold hard cash like Barona does..I'm sure there are other casinos somewhere that do that, but I have never seen it..

Glad there was a bump by the way. I’m no photographer but the Cosmo high limit room just got a shiny new toy



High limit 10 play and spin. It’s been an absolute pleasure Leon. I’ll be in the tunnels by Christmas


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Me too, for the WSOP.

Short version - degen gonna degen

CET does/used to. My Seven Star VP buddy used to get weekend offers all the time that include from $1-2k cash monies on arrival.

We all float down here

I guess what I meant is for a lowly peon, like myself.

There are 4 levels of players cards and I am only on level 2..

[QUOTE=TheCanoe;53763472
High limit 10 play and spin. It’s been an absolute pleasure Leon. I’ll be in the tunnels by Christmas


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/QUOTE]

LOL try and at least make it to 2019.

What Stu and I were referring to is more the fact that the typical mailer/freeplay offers that every casino offers are redeemed for CASH at Barona. So even if you're a peon and get 5$, you get 5 real dollars, not 5$ in freeplay which need to be bet to be claimed. Off the top, your expectation is 100% instead of whatever amount x -EV it would be for free play.

Every year I see casinos offering Hot VP keeps on changing
Which one current hot VP leaders in Las Vegas(.25c to $1) ?
Which are new Hot VP games ?

Thx