Sunday morning. Sunday Funday. The final day in Vegas, and things haven’t gone how I’d planned: there’s about $400 in my wallet from the initial $2600 and that just will not do.
Dan I woke up and debated the plan for the day, which ends up with a notion of Eggslut for breakfast followed by the Aria $240 11am daily: the trusty final stop of many a punter’s attempt to tripsave, I’m sure. Dan went ahead to meet Jon, and I hung around in the room to write up a post and take a shower.
Upon arriving at Eggslut I eyed up the menu and noted that the queue was acceptable to hang around for a short while and try it out.
And then I went to join said queue…
Er, next time then I guess! I headed onwards to the Aria and met Dan and Jon. We agreed we’d late reg the 11am (it was already 11:30), swap 5%s all round, and Dan and I went to grab a sandwich from the Aria Patisserie prior to the grind.
For Dan and I, it was generally a struggle. I never really got into any rhythm and found the players to be surprisingly stubborn with a tendency to play back and a frustrating refusal to just lie down and let me ship this thing to get out of the hole. Dan hit the showers when he shoved about 15bb over an open with KJhh. A German chap re-shoved with the AT and won. A level or two later I’d managed to find a full double with KK when I ripped in about 18bb over an open and got a quick call from the 66, but after that I found my opens being raised, whiffing flops, and generally back to a 10bb stack pretty quickly. I can’t quite remember how I busted but that’s about as interesting as it was.
So, the tournament takedown tripsaver was DOA: a minor setback. Jon Boy was still going strong though with plenty of chips.
When we were at Five50 the night before I’d noticed a long list for the single 10/20 game and assumed there to be some kind of large aquatic mammal perpetuating things.
This game was still running on table 12 and it transpired that an Asian chap looking slightly worse for wear was the game’s benefactor. A couple of grinder characters were sat with $15-$18k in front of them and the list remained well populated as the whale ordered more money from the casino having just been stacked by AA on an A high flop.
Dan had just returned from the front desk.
“What are you on?” I asked.
“Everything from 1/3 to 5/10,” Dan grinned. I smiled,
“You might as well get on this list as well then,” indicating table 12 in front of us. Old Daniel Swongs did draw the line there at least. He ended up in a 2/5 hold’em game, and I wasn’t quite feeling playing any cash games just yet. I also didn’t even have enough dollars in my wallet for a buyin, so would need to change some of the emergency £500 I stuffed in my pocket when I left the room.
I had a few orphan twenties knocking around in my wallet and decided I’d attempt a slots grind, with the overarching goal of hitting the $12m Megabucks jackpot. A solid plan. I flitted around between anything and everything, generally managing to cash out of each slot for no loss once I was (quickly) bored of each one. I was keeping a close eye on the craps tables too, in case of imminent heat. Megabucks treated me kindly with its $3 spins, an early win taking my $20 investment up to $95. I thought about taking that and running…and five minutes later I cashed out $30. I managed a bonus round on a $5 spin Temple Of Treasure slot which got me a bit excited: bonus round on a $5-a-spin bandit? Could be a trip-saver right there! Alas, it sent me on my way with $45.
Bored of the slots grind, I headed to the Cosmopolitan to 1) check out the craps tables for imminent heat and 2) change up my £500 into dollars for one last assault at craps once I’d found a table I liked the look of. I changed my pounds (at 1.22 – not too bad a rate given that the casino has you by the short and curlies when you’re a week into a trip and swivel-eyed asking for currency exchange), but didn’t like any of the craps games and headed to the PH to say hello to Tom and check out the games (craps and poker) over there. I picked up a beer on the way, and spent about half an hour roaming the floor and visiting Tom, without any games taking my eye enough to get involved in. I got another beer and went back to the Aria to check on Jon in the tournament and Dan at 2/5.
Pete had piped up in the group Whatsapp and I invited him over to the Aria to drink beer and roam with me, and we got a couple of those absurdly large cans of pisswater American light lager. Jon was in the money now, down to the final 6 and looking in good shape, and better yet Dan and my 5% in him was good for about $12 at this point! Things were looking up!
Dan was hovering around even at 2/5, in for $1k, but having a good time and starting to lubricate the wheels with a couple of Stellas. Pete and I headed over to the craps tables once more, and then… it happened.
Well, not immediately: the first few shooters were no great shakes at all and $200 fairly quickly went the way of the wind. I was a determined, and slightly drunk, man at this point though and was insistent that I’d stick this out until a heater arrived. I’d table-selected carefully and we were surely due another run-up. I dropped another $100 on the table, a young lad across the table picked up the dice, and I instructed Joseph in the dealer crew to full press everything of mine.
When Joseph started sliding me greens as change from pressing my bet, it was clear that things were going rather well. I was on the entire board, buying every number that wasn’t the point, and this guy just kept the dice rolling with particular success at hitting the 5.
‘How are you liking those 5s?” another guy across the table asked me.
“Lots!” I replied, acknowledging the $120 or so I had on 5 at this point and the blacks that had started to infiltrate my rack.
By the time the dice came to an eventual but unfortunately inevitable stop on seven, I had $100 on 4, $300 on 5, around $180 on 6 with 8 as the point and another $100 or so on 9 and 10. There was probably $50 on the hard 8 with a similar amount on the hard-ways for the crew. And I had this in my rack:
Stripy shirt guy is this story's hero.
During the roll, we received news that Jon had taken a chip-chop in the tournament for $3,750! A fantastic result for him as well as Dan and I, and it finally felt like we were getting some justice for the good guys! Dan and Jon came over to witness the tail end of the fantastic roll, and we celebrated with a beer together. In this kind of form, there was no chance that I wasn’t also about to roll like a demon and I also put together a decent stint with the dice. The next guy didn’t last too long, and I took that as the sign to accept this heater from the craps gods and draw stumps.
Things are hazy after this point, but Dan returned to what he said was a great 2/5 game and Jon and I ended up over at the PH to Tom’s immediate left. We got caught in some bizarre and heavy Vegas snow/rain on the way!
Fresh off of our successes it’s fair to say ranges were wide. I managed to stack Jon at one point when I turned a straight and I was generally managing to run up a bit of a stack, to the chagrin of sober Tom who was trying to grind out this game!
At around 3.30am I decided to lock up the win here and cash out around $500, calling it a big winning night.
In the morning, as the events of the night before flooded back and I comprehended the good news that was temporarily forgotten in slumber, I croaked to Dan to ask how he got on in his 2/5 game.
“Good…won 1.4k,” he chirped. “I was up around 2k at one point which meant I was technically out of the hole for the trip. Until I bluffed off 600 late doors.”
Still, a fantastic win for Dan and a highly satisfying last night in Vegas for the three of us. The craps run was incredible and literally what the pre-trip dreams were made of. I think I’m yet to experience anything in gambling with the intensity of adrenaline and excitement that a dice heater can offer.
One more wrap-up post to come from our final day!
Last edited by joist; 02-21-2019 at 05:41 PM.