Nov recap Part 2- Thanksgiving
We spent all of Thanksgiving week with some good friends who live in rural Indiana. Their place is literally 1.5 hrs away from a major airport, you need to drive 10 min to see another building, etc. Of course, they have a ton of land and it's a good place to just relax and unplug. I essentially had zero internet access for the week and found myself getting bored there towards the end, so a week was the perfect amount of time.
The couple we stayed with also love Vegas and they try and make it out there at least twice a year. The wife is not a big gambler, but the husband has more degen in him (esp if you let him sit at a BJ table and they keep the drinks coming). We have met up with them in Vegas multiple times before and it's always a blast- the women can do the spa/pool/non-degen thing, and me and the husband have hours to degen each day. Both of them are MDs so they can afford it- they like to stay at WynnCore. The wife's loss limit seems to be somewhere in the several hundred/day range, while husband is more like 1k/day, 5k/trip at the most.
Here's a story of how the husband can degen- the last time we met them in Vegas, we were supposed to stay for a few days then drive to Sedona for a couple of days prior to a mutual friend's wedding. Well, that's too short of a Vegas stay for me, so I convince everyone to stay in Vegas one more day, cut Sedona trip a day short. OK, they're down with that, esp after I get that add-on day comped. So now we're on our last night, supposed to leave after breakfast the next day.
My wife, his wife and I play craps for a few hrs- it's a decent table and I book a few K win, wife wins several hundo and his wife (bc she bets so conservatively) won I think 200$. She's stoked, it's pretty late so we all elect to call it a night. My friend is playing BJ and tells his wife he'll come up to the room "soon"...
The next AM, my wife and I wake up, finalize packing then text his wife about breakfast. No answer, x many texts. Finally she answers and explains-
- she's not done packing
- she has no idea where her husband is and is worried
We tell her we'll search the floor for him. I know I'll snap-find him. I simply head back to the same BJ table he was at when we went to bed last night.
AND... there he is. Still playing.
Apparently he went on an alcohol-fueled heater and is up several K, which is a lot for him. He has literally been playing and drinking all night. We let him know that his wife is worried and that we're supposed to be leaving soon, so he colors up. He REEKS of alcohol. He apologizes, says he'll go upstairs to help his wife pack, but that he's going to need a couple hrs sleep before we can leave. I get to play more, so hey that's cool.
They end up skipping breakfast, we leave more like after lunch and that car ride for him is... shall we say, miserable. LOL
In any case, that sets the stage for this Thanksgiving. Text from his wife prior to trip-
"Do you guys want to go to French Lick Resort while you're out here? It's a decent place, spa, kids can bowl/play video games, they have a casino..."
OK, you had me at casino.
So we went to the French Lick resort for 24 hrs. It is, I can report, a decent place for being basically in the middle of F'ing nowhere Indiana. Think mid-level Vegas casino. We bring all FIVE kids (two ours, three theirs) and pretty much spend all pre-bedtime hours entertaining them. Our friends had the good sense to bring a babysitter with them so at least we've got childcare for after the kids go to bed. We eat a decent (not great) steak dinner, then it's time to GAMBOOL!
So, the casino- it was ok. Both wives want to play craps. My friend wants to play BJ. I, of course, now have zero interest in anything other than VP. The one craps table they have is PACKED. No way we're getting on that. I roam to see what VP is on offer- I'm ok with less than optimal paytables given the situation, but I still don't want to put my money in THAT bad. I find-
1. high limit room- they have 9/6 TDB, and 9/6 DDB.
2. Also high limit room- 9/5 TDB Extra Draw Frenzy (bet an extra credit per hand, and when dealt trips you get more draws). It's very swingy and 9/5 is not great.
3. On the floor- UX TDB, 9/7
but highest denom credits is 10c.
Since it looks like craps is not on the table
my wife and I play a bit of Walking Dead. The machine takes our 200$ in 5 min. We go to Game of Thrones and she gets a bit more play for 100$, but ultimately that goes too.
My wife decides she wants to sleep and let me do my thing. We can't find either of our friends so we guess they may have gone to bed as well. It turns out his wife played BJ and got up 100$ pretty fast, and that was ENOUGH TO MAKE HER CALL IT FOR THE NIGHT. LOL non-degen. Husband is actually playing BJ in the high limit room, so I head there.
Finally, some VP- just me against the machine.
TDB, 1$ credits. No good.
Extra draw Frenzy, 50c credits. No good.
DDB, 1$ credits. No good.
I literally can't hit anything. Get a bunch of good draws but of course blank everything. I think I was stuck about 4K at my low point (I only brought 5K with me). Finally, I decide I'll just go play UX TDB since I won't have a chance to do that anywhere else.
Pretty much as soon as I sit down I realize I should have sat here from the get go. So what if it's 10c credits- 9/7 TDB UX is actually a good game. And if I get dealt a monster or make a nice hand I can STILL get a hand pay out of it. How stupid of me to donk off most of my session roll playing suboptimal tables in the high limit room. I'll decide I'll play 10 lines, since 10 lines/10c is close to 5 lines/25c. The machine elects to point out how stupid I was to not play UX from the get go with-
MAN. Dealt premium quads at TDB. Kicker comes in a few times, including on the biggest multiplier available. Such a pretty looking hand. Too bad only 10c credits.
Despite the low denom, this is a handpay! 1,560$ or something if I remember correctly.
It takes FOREVER to get paid. I literally get up from the machine after 10 min and roam the floor looking for a slot attendant. After that, they take another 15 min to pay me. And, they MANDATORY have to withhold state tax here- WTF? They ask me if I also want federal withheld as well- obv I'm all F that ****. Why would I let the government hold my money for me, esp given I'm going to post a loss for the year? Likelihood of getting that money back = zero.
Anyways, I play far too long, too late, but hit a couple of other nice hands-
LOVE the handpay at dimes. LOL
Wasn't a handpay, but I thought it was interesting. If you look in the upper left corner, that's the machine forcing a ticket on me- you can only have so many credits in the machine at once. I've encountered this before, in another sort of ghetto casino. Very weird and annoying.
Those evening hits get me back only stuck 2K. Unfortunately, I jam in an ill-advised AM session and lose another 2K, so stuck 4k in 24hrs. GG French Lick, I'd still come back if I'm ever in BFE Indiana again.
French Lick/Thanksgiving week result = -4K
Rest of Nov recap to come...