Al Jourgenson has (or had, this was 1994) a surprisingly sweet singing voice.

Yesterday I stopped by Springfield for a quick slot run and a few hands of poker before heading down to Will's house in Norwich. Will, his wife and I went out for excellent Chinese food at Golden Palace, close to Mohegan Sun. I've never had anything but a good meal from that place.

Later on, I slept on Will's couch for a few hours, then I hit Mohegan Sun for an extensive slot run. Mohegan has a lot of Ultimate X video poker machines, in denominations up to $5. A single 10-handed play on that level runs for $250.

I did not find any really big plays—$50 was the highest—and the machines were somewhat more picked over than they were on my last visit. I ran slightly down for most of the early AM until I hit this...



MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 1 hour
(-$44.00)
MGM Springfield Slots: 1 hour
+$32.25
MGM Mohegan Sun Slots: 6 hours
+$1479.00

2024 Running Poker Total: 23 hours, (-$293.00)
2024 Running Slot Total: 24 hours, +$2544.64

2024 Grand Total: 47 hours, +$2251.64

Nice

Who needs poker?

No live poker Mohegan.

Thanks fidstar

The slots won't last forever, but I've definitely enjoyed getting while the getting's good.

I was at Mohegan from 2AM-8AM. The poker room opens at 9AM, but by then I was tired and had a 90 minute drive ahead of me, so I passed.

I've been playing the advantage slots for more than a year now, and that's likely long enough to acknowledge that the variance seems to be pretty low and the win rate has been generous. However, I still run into losing sessions, and yesterday I had one of them.

Of all the slot games, the one called Treasure Box has given me the most trouble. The game's default negative EV state starts with 6 keys, which then count down to zero as the keys appear gradually and one at a time on the reels. At zero keys, the recurring jackpot triggers. After that payout, the game resets back to 6 keys and the cycle starts over again.

A free slot grinder's website pins the +EV state of Treasure Box at 4 or fewer keys. The other, pay website would not give me the info on Treasure Box unless I tossed in an additional $895 for their premium package, which I declined to do.

I have seen other slot games compared on both sites, and the pay site typically gives more conservative numbers than the free one, so I suspect that the free site +EV numbers might be overly ambitious. I have lost a substantial amount of money playing 4 keys on Treasure box—last year I was just one spin away from punting my $1500 daily cash roll on the machine when I finally hit the last key—and I lost money again yesterday on a 4 key play.

I've mostly broken even or won on the much rarer 3 and 2 key plays on the game, so I'm going to pass on 4 key plays going forward, and hopefully save some money, even though that will substantially cut down on the volume of plays I find on Treasure Box, as the game is heavily monitored and +EV plays are snapped up quickly by other grinders.

On the poker front, I sat down and quickly lost $200 for what seemed like the 10th session in a row. I was able to get back to even this time with the help of a $75 football promo payout, but I've been feeling like a driver who starts every Formula 1 race in the 26th spot. It's hard to win that way.

MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 6.5 hours
+$6.00
MGM Springfield Slots: 2 hours
(-$159.75)

2024 Running Poker Total: 29.5 hours, (-$287.00)
2024 Running Slot Total: 26 hours, +$2384.89

2024 Grand Total: 55.5 hours, +$2097.89

This is particularly sucky since there are only 20 cars on a modern F1 grid…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If it makes you feel any better, Mr. Suited, as a effin European I couldnt tell how many teams/cars are in the F1 these days either. I stopped watchin it long ago. I know they kinda alterated somewhere between 20 and 26 drivers back in the day. Not sure how Nascar or Murican equivalents are but F1 was always a questionable effort, kinda like boxing, it had some excitement, but lots of shady stuff happening. Usually when Ferrari was behind they changed the rules in the middle of the season and stuff like that, lots. They put on some good shows like the Vegas race or also Singapore and others but more bad than good...

This made my day.

Ha ha, me too.
Good stuff Sheep!

Well memed, Sheep!

I'll be the first to admit that—like Mr. Fire—I haven't kept up with my motorsports. I actually did 15 seconds worth of due diligence on my analogy, and the first search result showed 26 cars. It was on the Internet, so I trusted that information implicitly.

As far as Las Vegas goes, it appears that the locals hated the disruption and the traffic snarls from the F1 race, and I read that the F1 folks gouged every casino that had a good view of the track, threatening to put up obstructions to the view if they didn't pay an outrageous fee.

It's the gamblers who end up paying for those sorts of things with reduced promo payouts, higher room rates, and so forth.

And there are 9 more years left on the F1 contract in Las Vegas.

Well played, Sheep.

Yes, there have been more than 20 cars in many F1 seasons, but only 20 for the last few years. But 26 out of 20? That’s a bad start.

And I have been duly shamed into unchecking the Tapatalk signature.

Won't quote the image again for the benefit of those with slow internet, but wanted to add my hearty LOLOLOLOLLLOLOLOL

For yesterday's poker session, I went down only $100 during the first hour, instead of the usual $200, so that was nice. On my planned last orbit of the session I found myself up $60 or so, until the very last hand, when I picked up red aces UTG, got it heads up, and got them cracked.

MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 4.5 hours
(-$67.00)
MGM Springfield Slots: 3.5 hours
+$174.46

2024 Running Poker Total: 34 hours, (-$354.00)
2024 Running Slot Total: 30.5 hours, +$2559.35

2024 Grand Total: 64.5 hours, +$2205.35

I cleaned my tub and shower today with a scrubbing foam that came out of the can looking like bright bluish purple spray paint.



It was the first time I used that brand, so it gave me pause for a few seconds, then—through the magic of modern chemical science—the color faded away. The stuff works pretty well, and its chemical smell is tolerable in close spaces, which is not the case for many other brands of shower cleaners.

The cleaning reminded me of a bathtub story from when I was younger. This story is going to be disgusting, so I would urge those of you with weak stomachs to give it a hard pass, lest it haunt you.

I keep my apartment fairly clean nowadays, but when I was younger, I did not. I was never a hoarder mind you; I didn't have clutter or food waste or anything lying around that would attract rats or roaches. However, I did not clean up the dust and dirt...for months or years at a time. The only exception to that was the toilet bowl. I would give that a cursory scrub every few weeks, having earlier let it go at one apartment for a few years, and then having spent several hours over the course of a few days trying to de-brownify it. I let everything else that got dirty, aside from the toilet bowl, fall by the wayside.

Once, years ago, I did not clean my shower and tub unit for 3 or 4 years. It got worse when the drain partially clogged, leaving standing water collecting dirt and soap scum on the bathtub floor after every shower. I let that state of affairs go on for another 6 months or so, until I had a continuous half inch (1 cm) thick layer of filth across the floor of my tub, stretching 8 inches (20 cm) up the walls.

I left for a 2 week business trip to Japan and Taiwan in November of that year, leaving my thermostat at around 45°F (7°C). When I returned, I found that the filth in my tub had dried out and crinkled up into one cohesive unit. The brown mat had the thickness and consistency of butcher paper that had been soaked once, then dried out. I noticed that a corner of the filth sheet had pulled away from the shower wall. Curious, I grabbed that corner and pulled.

The mat pulled off of the shower floor and walls in one continuous sheet, with only one hole in it where the drain had been. I was able to crumple it into a ball the size of a volleyball and throw it away. Underneath where the filth sheet had been, the shower floor and walls were perfectly clean and shiny.

This is hilarious.

Solid SJ update.

Thanks guys

Yesterday at the poker table I changed my recent trajectory by going up $225 in the first hour, thanks to the football promo. I would win another $75 from the promo later on in the session, making for a nice day.

At one point my table had 3 decent regs playing on it, not counting myself. Whenever I find myself at a $1/$2 table playing against 3 or more okay to good regs and no super droolers, I recognize that I'm at one of the worst tables in the room at that level, and I transfer. It doesn't happen very often, and it's always nice to stretch my legs when it does.

My second table was nice and soft.

MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 6.5 hours
+$551.00
MGM Springfield Slots: 3.5 hours
+$128.45

2024 Running Poker Total: 40.5 hours, +$97.00
2024 Running Slot Total: 34 hours, +$2687.80

2024 Grand Total: 74.5 hours, +$2784.80

A video of this would be worth millions!

Morph, you need to stop asking for videos of men in their bath being filthy.

Welcome, Tt5y6!

Last night, I planned on trying the evening shift at the poker room, then turning to the slots for a late night/early morning sweep, but as I sat at the poker table, I couldn't help but notice another slot grinder systematically going through all of the Ultimate X machines just outside the poker room.



This happens sometimes when I get called to the table early and don't have time to check the machines first, and there's little I can do about it short of abandoning my spot at the poker table to scrap for the available machines, and that kind of jockeying could lead to drama and unwanted attention from the casino, so I avoid it.

Later on, I left the table briefly to check on my semi-secret machine stash—the ones that I check early in the AM—but the other grinder was on to them as well.



So it was a short night for the slots. Fortunately, I ran well on the poker table. I didn't win any big pots, but I won most of my small and medium ones, and that was enough to make for a good night.

I thought that the poker night shift might be a little less reg-infested, but there were probably more regs playing at 10PM than there are typically at 10AM, and I had to do a table change at one point. The difference between the two times lies in the presence of the few drunk punters who are often present at 10PM, and hardly ever there at 10AM.


MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 4 hours
+$411.00
MGM Springfield Slots: 1 hour
+$58.60

2024 Running Poker Total: 44.5 hours, +$508.00
2024 Running Slot Total: 35 hours, +$2746.40

2024 Grand Total: 79.5 hours, +$3254.40

I just googled MGM Springfield, it's much nicer looking than I assumed. Looks like they converted an old armory and electric company building, really nicely done. I was expecting something much more boring on the edge of town or something. I need make a road trip at some point and include this.