Musical Dice -- My Craps Blog

     My wife and I discovered on this trip to Lake Charles that when we're away for a while, when we return, it's like we're making a comeback -- although in our case, it's only been two months since our last trip to Lake Charles. I'm on a quest to see if I can get a 500 Club for this month, continuing the streak for this year. Will it happen? Let's find out!

     On our way to the charter bus station to catch the bus to take us to Lake Charles, we usually take a slight detour to the drive-thru at Jack In The Box near our place. We did so this time, but we discovered too late that our order was completely messed up, and I ate something that didn't exactly agree with my stomach. To make matters worse, my wife is battling allergies, and her voice was half-gone for this first day. Another detour I have to mention, the bus had to take a detour on a side road, due to a 10+ mile backup from the Texas/Louisiana border on I-10. That delayed us roughly 25 minutes. That may have worked to our advantage because the room was ready by the time we got to L'Auberge in Lake Charles.

     While my wife ran an errand, I played craps at a $10 table at L'Auberge. At first, I was at the end, where I tried my Even Crossed Sixes dice set. I PSO'ed that time. Then Stick Left 1 was available, and I shot at least three times using the Hardway dice set. Things got off to a rocky start there as well, but I was able to get part of my money back with a shoot of 19. The rest of it was gotten back on a random shooter's roll. I was using a hybrid of the 4 PM strategy as well as the Repeater's Regression II strategy, but I didn't play the 4 and the 10. Moreover, I couldn't bring myself to do the Martingale part of the strategy. This may be why it took a long time to get my money back, but I didn't feel like putting a whole lot of money out there so soon into the trip. Anyway, I ultimately won $42 in this session -- it took so long that my wife returned from her errand just before I finished.

     After a delicious dinner at Ember Steakhouse, I wanted to play poker at Golden Nugget. But before then, we detoured to play blackjack at L'Auberge. Bad timing. I lost $400. It was even worse when I actually played poker. I lost $944. That was it for the day. I ended up down $1302 for the day.

     After yesterday, I was on a mission to try to chip away at what I'd lost. Will I be able to do it?

     At L'Auberge, after breakfast, I started out at the blackjack table. I won $125 there. Then, I went to the craps table, but unfortunately, I kept crapping out early from SL1 using the Hardway dice set. Nothing else was happening. I took a $347 loss, and went back to the blackjack table, and won $300 there after quite a battle. I ended the session $78 ahead, in spite of myself.

     From there, I went to Golden Nugget, with the intent of playing poker--yes, even after that big loss the previous night. I first played blackjack, and won $50 before getting an open seat at the poker table. There, I actually won -- $228, in fact. Then I went back to the blackjack table, and won an additional $47.50. At this point, I was ahead $325.50, and I thought I'd try to get that elusive 500 Club at the craps table. Unfortunately, the dice, once again weren't nice, playing the Hardway dice set from Stick Left 1, and I lost $261 there. I did retain a $64.50 win, again, in spite of myself.

     After a late lunch/early dinner (a "linner" as I like to call it) at Olive Garden, we returned to L'Auberge, and went to the blackjack table. There, we met a guy who told us that he'd lost $7000 that day, and he was planning to go back to get more, and come right back to do it again. Both of us believe that is a bad strategy. He didn't do any better while I was there at the table, but I managed to win $125 before leaving. In fact, he gave me crap for leaving the table ahead. Excuse me, but I'd rather leave this much ahead, rather than lose 56 times that. I'm only making a whole paragraph out of this to illustrate how some other gamblers think, and to bring home the point, not to be afraid to walk away when you're ahead. And trust me, this sort of thing also happens at the craps table.

     My wife and I then took a rest for a few hours (I think the meal at the Olive Garden had hit us). Afterwards, we went back downstairs, where I went to the craps table. This time, I stood at the end. I got off to a rocky start, betting on other shooters. When I finally got the dice, I used my Yo-Yo (6/5-5/6) dice set, shooting the dice from a slight angle, and I shot 13 times, JUST enough to get my money back, plus $9. But the big takeaway from this session was my discovering (or maybe re-discovering) what works best with this dice set. I added $75 to this win at the blackjack table, for a total session win of $84.

     From there, we went to Golden Nugget, where I decided to play poker, hoping to build on the momentum from this afternoon. Not to be, I ran into two huge buzz saws, and was quickly down $695. I left there to stop the bleeding! Another night game where I was torched. Ironically, my best win of this year was $898, won at a poker table at night. Go figure.

     We returned to L'Auberge, where I won $175 at the blackjack table before calling it a night. Overall, I ended up down $168.50 for the day.

     By this time, I saw my chances for getting a 500 Club for this month slipping away on this trip. So my wife and I agreed that if I didn't get one on this trip, we'd come back to Lake Charles toward the end of the month to try it again.

     After my wife and I checked out of our room, the first thing we did was go to the craps table at L'Auberge. Once again, I stood at the end, using my Yo-Yo dice set, I shot at a slight angle. This time, I shot 17 times, and not using any regression strategy whatsoever, I won $146. From there, I decided to make another try at a 500 Club, by going to the blackjack table. There, I managed to win $400, completing the task, winning $546 for the session. No need to come back to Lake Charles this month!

     Would you believe I went over to Golden Nugget with the intent of playing poker AGAIN? Maybe fortunately for me this time, that didn't happen. However, I did lose $442.50 at the blackjack table, playing from first base, which hasn't worked out well for me on this trip. Both my blackjack losses was from that position. I only bring this up here because position at the table is important in all three games I play at the casinos, including craps, where I use different dice sets for different positions, for example. Anyway, I stopped gambling for the trip, ending up with a net win of $103.50 for the day, and an overall loss on the trip of $1367.

     One more thing I have to say before concluding this entry on this Lake Charles trip: If it weren't for my poker results, I actually would have ended up ahead on this trip! Yes, only by $44 (I had a net win of $455 playing blackjack, and a net loss of $411 playing craps), but I would have been happy with that. My wife and I still had a great time on this trip. And the lessons I learned on this trip, I hope I can take into future trips.

     I just added Casino Quest to the Links To Other Craps Sites page. They put out some exciting content on YouTube. Check them out!