Casino Games in Vegas

Ok, this is my casino games post. In other words, my other than poker tourney post. My, Ihadahorshoeupmyassthewholetime post.

I got to Vegas around noon on Wednesday and after checking in, went for a quick walk down the strip. The first place we ended up was at the Aladdin. We were looking for some poker and I sat in at $2/$4 limit here. I think I mentioned I got my head kicked in here. After I lost about $120, I headed down and met up with Don and Carmen for the first time at MGM. I explained before that this is where the mullet man took me for a big pot with a gutshot on the river, but I scraped back to a small profit with pocket aces.

I then met up with my buddies and we ended up going to eat at Margaritaville, then heading over to the Shadow bar at Caesars. I left one of my buddies there and headed over to Aladdin again at around 1am. Being the smart guy that I am, I decided it was a good idea to play the 2am Aladdin tourney with 19 other degenerates. This was a great decision since I had already been up for 23 hours when it started. When I found myself doing headbobs onto the top of my beer bottle, it was time to shove and lose.

Of course my buddy went on to bubble, coming in 5th. While he played on, I sat down at video poker and won my tourney buyin back. Started with $20 and got up with $80. Not too bad. We left there at about 4am to walk back to the Imperial and got harassed repeatedly along the way by some fine upstanding pimps, hoes, and lookouts. It was grand.

Having successfully made it back to my room without any knife wounds and my bankroll intact (yeah, no safes in the IP, sweet), I went to sleep for about 3 hours. I got up around 7:30 and we headed off to get some breakfast. After some food in the back of O’Sheas, we found our way to the craps table there. Now O’Sheas is a place you can always find some cheap gambooling. The $5 craps table got thrown at for a while going up and down for a while, but also introducing us to The Fire Bet. I walked away from the table up about $20 and sat in for some 3 Card Poker. I started with $100 and lost about $60 pretty quick. The dealer even said maybe I should try some blackjack. I took his advice and clawed back to even.

No, I haven’t started the lucky part. Hold on, I am getting there.

I headed up to the Barbary Coast, a place where I have always had a ton of luck at the craps tables. I toiled for about an hour, leaving about $50 up to go register for the Caesars Tourney.

After the tourney, doing a few dial-a-shots, and having some dinner, we decided to head over to the Hard Rock for some people watching and some drinking. We got there and I had a couple Jack and cokes but was getting sleepy. I tried one of my personal crack drinks (Red Bull/Vodka) but that didn’t even do the trick. I decided to take a walk around and find a perfectly placed Video Poker machine. Their machines are along the rail of the casino so you have the casino view on one side and the outer aisle view on the other. Unfortunately, I was again in headbob mode and quickly lost my $20. I stumbled back through the casino and saw a $5 3 Card Poker table. There were a couple seats so I figured I would stay awake that way. WARNING: LUCKY SHIT FAST APPROACHING!

I decided to play $10 a hand but only play the pair plus. If you don’t know the game, follow the link. They do a better job explaining than I do. Anyway, about 3 hands in, BAM, I get a straight flush for $400. I play a couple more hands and get a straight. I lose a couple hands, tip the dealer $10, and walk away from the table, maybe 15 minutes total, with $450. Sweet.

We get back to the strip and I decide to give Blackjack a shot. I end up giving Harrah’s $100 of the money I took from Hard Rock, then played 2 spins of Roulette with the numbers my kids told me. $5 per spot, lost both rolls (shockingly, I know). With that, I was off to bed at around 2 am or so.

I got up the next morning and grabbed breakfast at O’Shea’s again. It was about 9am and Don was going to pick me up at noon for the tourney at Binions. I played craps for a while going up and down. Finally, I decided to give the Fire Bet a try or 2. I play $1 for me and $1 for the dealer. A new shooter had just joined the table and he went on a tear. He was rolling forever it seemed and the money kept being pushed my way, although I wasn’t betting nearly enough in hindsight. Regardless, this guy hit 5 different point numbers before he crapped out. My Fire Bet, one of the worst house advantage side bets out there, paid me $250, and the dealers $250. I walked away from the table with about $550 after a couple losing shooters after that guy.

MinvanDon picked me up and we went to Binions for that tourney. After all that, he drove back to the MGM where he went to work on the cash game donkeys while I met up with my buddies (also donkeys) who had been drinking at NYNY all afternoon.

We ended up over at Hooters for dinner (what, good wings?). We actually had to check it out because my first trip to Vegas, I stayed at the San Remo, the dump that was remodeled as the new Hooters hotel and casino. They did a great job with it and I played a little more break even craps for a while after we ate.

We headed back down the strip at that point and stopped into the Barbary Coast again to see what damage we could do. The craps tables were packed so me and my buddy sat at a $5 3 Card Poker table. I lost the first 6 hands and decided to walk around and try to find a blackjack table. I made a loop around the room and it was pretty packed at each table. I came up to another 3 Card Poker table that was empty and started for it, just as 3 other people sat down at it. I decided to just jump into the corner of the table for a few hands. On the very first hand I get dealt another straight flush! I was only playing $5 this time, but still, I had another $200 hit. I played for a little while later but left the table shortly after that with about $270.

By this time it was about midnight and I was getting tired again (I know, I am an old fuck). As we walked past O’Sheas, the craps table was packed. We walked in and I saw a spot next to a guy we had seen there that morning when I won the Fire Bet. I decided what the hell and jumped in with my first hundred. The table minimum had moved up to $10 so the swings were faster than my normal games. I was quickly down to about $30 but tried to convince my buddy to jump in with the other hundred I had just won at Barbary. He refused and said he was just going to sleep. He was hurtin from the booze, lack or food and sleep. You know, the normal Vegas stuff.

Anyway, I had my pass line bet out and plopped down the other hundred to get the come bets going. I was getting low again a little while later when another new shooter joined us. A woman that said she had never shot before. I threw down $2 for me and $1 for the dealers again on the Fire Bet and wouldn’t you know it, she went off. I was having fun yapping it up with the guy I had seen in the morning, and a couple that was on my right making just field bets.

Anyway, I could see my chips growing and turning from red ones to green one pretty rapidly. Again, I was still betting too conservatively but hey, that’s how I roll. Anyway, when the shooter hit the 4th different point number, the guy who saw me hit the Fire Bet in the morning says, “Hey, she just hit her fourth number. You won that shit again.”

I didn’t even realize it. So at that point, I had a $50 bonus coming to me, since 4 numbers is 25-1. I needed her to roll either a 4 or a 6 for a point to move on. Sure enough, she rolls the 4. I am pleading with her, amongst everyone else at the winning craps table of course, to hit the 4. After about 5 harmless rolls, BAM, she hits the 4! I am up to the $500 bonus. If she rolls the 6 on the come out roll, I am going to get real excited. She rolls a 5. Bummer, but about 3 rolls later she hits it! Ok, come on 6! Nope, a 9.

The drama was over shortly when she finally did roll the dreaded 7 but it was pretty hard to complain. I had about $1,000 in front of me. The last roll, I had about $100 on the table too. It was an amazing roll. I threw 2 green chips to the shooter and then watched her friend roll the come out, then crap out. Same thing with her other friend. As soon as that one happened, I colored in and walked away with about $900.

The funniest part was I was the only one playing the Fire Bet and the dealers were loving it. I put $500 in their tip can on the day. Not too shabby. Anyway, I went off to sleep after that.

The next morning was when we were going home so I didn’t have a lot of time to gamble. Probably a good thing really. I did manage to win another $100 playing single deck blackjack at Harrah’s though.

One last thing too. We were walking back to our room to get our bags out and check out. My buddy got a call on his cell in the middle of the casino at the IP. I was standing there, itching for some more action so I decided, wtf, let’s give the Roulette wheel another shot. I grabbed another 4 red chips and put one on 3 and one on 25. Nothing. One more try, one on 3 and one on 25.

All I did was watch the dealers as her eyes went wide as she said, “25!” I almost knew it was coming. With that $175, I paid for the room for both of us at checkout (oh yeah, the IP is high class baby). It was a sweet way to end the trip.

Ok, I think that is all I had for casino games. I was lucky, lucky, lucky for sure. Hope Mookie and the gang have the same experience. I know that Rocco likes his dice too. Play the Fire Bet man!