Musical Dice -- My Craps Blog

   My best win of the 2010's occurred exactly 10 years ago today. And it happened on one of my best gambling days period, and all during a tense time in my life. I'll explain. I was living in Jacksonville Florida at the time, and the whole Trayvon Martin thing was a huge deal at that time. In fact, there was talk about moving the trial up to Jacksonville, and there was even talk of the judge maybe even throwing the case out. Of course, neither came to fruition, but I was thinking, if the judge threw out that case, there'd be massive riots. But something told me not to stay inside that day, and as a result of that decision, I had one of my best gambling days ever.

   Initially, I'd only intended to play poker, which I did at the Best Bet Regency poker room, where I won $920. For some inexplicable reason, I decided after that, to go on the casino boat, then-called Jacks Or Better, in nearby Mayport. There, I played craps. At first, things weren't going my way, and I ended up investing a total of $1500 (my initial buy-in was $500--I rarely chase like this anymore). Then, the big rally came, and I was cutting up like no other time before or since, among other things, yelling "BULL-LLACKOUT!" at least a dozen times. At the end, I had nothing but black chips to take to the cashier. I was shocked to learn that I had 30 of them in my possession. In other words, I'd cashed out for $3000, making a profit of $1500. A total combined win of $2420 for this day exactly ten years ago. Yes, I was a happy man.

     Well, it's finally happening! My wife and I are back in Vegas for a five-day stay! We're celebrating our third wedding anniversary on the 18th. I'm hoping this is going to be a tradition with us. As for why I'm calling this trip Sweet Inspiration (yes I know, it's also the name of one of my music articles), I intend to try out two strategies I'd seen by different craps vloggers (ProCraps and WagerMeThis). How will I do on this trip? Let's find out together...

     There is more than one reason why I gave my first day in Vegas this title. To understand one of the reasons, one has to know that my wife and I didn't get much sleep the night before. We were planning to sleep until 12:30 a.m., but at around 9:30, my wife's sister paid us a visit, and she brought with her, her youngest son, his girlfriend, and their baby, which is almost 10 months old. The baby was fussing a lot, and we knew we weren't going to get any more rest before we had to take our early flight into Vegas.

     It didn't help matters that TSA and airport employees at both Hobby Airport in Houston, and Harry Reid Airport in Las Vegas, really pissed me and my wife off. My wife was able to get a bit of a nap on the plane, but not so much with me. But by the time we reached the Tropicana casino (where we're staying for the first three nights), I was able to give all that a rest. We were able to check into our room, which we got upgraded, at still reasonable rates (due to Tropicana being in the MyChoice group, along with the L'Auberge casino in Lake Charles LA). It is a lovely spacious suite. After we had a light breakfast at Starbuck's in the casino, we both had a nice rest.

     The gambling didn't start until after we had a rest. We went downstairs to a craps table, and I got to play my favorite position, Stick Left 1. My first shoot was an okay 9. Only problem was, most of the rolls were non-productive rolls--I was only betting 6 and 8 initially. I didn't get the courage to use the Three Unit Challenge from ProCraps, where I would have played a strategy (I was thinking 220 inside for three hits, then figuring it out from there), nor was I up for any Don't strategy. I did fall behing some, but my second roll got it all back and more. I have to say here that my grip on setting the dice was inspired by vlogger Howard Rock N Roller (a third source of inspiration for this trip). I used the 3-Finger grip, with my thumb all the way down, on the seam of the dice, and my fingers only gripping the top of the dice, with my index and ring fingers at the corners of the dice, and my middle finger on the seam of the dice. This seemed to provide a bit of a natural rotation, something I think has been missing in my tosses. Anyway, I ended up shooting 26 times (a hat trick, if I'd done this at the Fremont), and ended up $321 ahead. Probably the best part of that was, my wife telling me that a couple that was standing on the other side of her was telling her that I really seemed to know what I was doing. I couldn't help but smile at that. ☺ This was my best shoot so far this year, and for the first time in three months, I was able to up my Best Shoots page. And as for the dice set, it was the Hardway set (4/2-4/2).

     After a quick blackjack session at the Excalibur, where I won $66, we had lunch at Nathan's (in the New York New York casino), and the hot dogs were superb, as always. From there, we went swimming back at the Tropicana. By that time, the temperature was approaching 100°, and we partied with some folks for about two hours. I had one drink, and my wife had two. After that, we took a short rest before heading out to Caesar's Palace.

     My biggest win of the day came at the poker table at Caesar's. After just over an hour of play, I managed to win $553. I had never won that much playing poker in Vegas! That shocked the hell out of me. Maybe I am getting better playing poker (maybe Brad Owen will be a fourth source of inspiration on this trip). Anyway, we decided to have an elegant steak dinner, in light of this big win, and so we ate at the Homestead, which is in Caesar's Palace. The steak dinner and salad was awesome!

     However, when we got back to our room at the Tropicana, it really hit us how tired we really were. The moment we got inside, we basically crashed. I said that maybe we'll be able to hit the tables later on in the night. However, when I woke up, it was close to 11 p.m. (Vegas time), and I knew there'd be no more gambling for the first day. But hey, I made a total of $940 the first day. That's good enough. Time to give it a rest.

     The initial reason why I gave this day this title, actually refers to something that happened more than once yesterday at the craps table, after I had that big roll. While we were in the pool, one of the guys came up to me and my wife, and told me what an awesome shoot I had, and how he hopes he's on the table next time I play there. Also, after my wife and I had left the pool, she had to use the ladies room, and couldn't wait to get back to our room first, so I waited for her, and while I was waiting, three more people came by and asked me if I was going back to the craps table. They said pretty much the same thing as the guy in the pool did, after I said that I'm not going back there just yet. And this morning, as my wife and I returned back to the Tropicana from breakfast at Denny's, we passed by the craps table, and one of the dealers said to us "We could use a good shooter." Clearly, the dealer wanted an encore from me. Did I deliver? Let's find out together...

     After returning to our room first, to semi-plan out our day, among other things, we went back downstairs to that craps table. This time, things got off to a rocky start, as on my first shoot, I sevened out immediately. On my second roll, I shot a 16, but so many rolls were non-productive rolls (horn numbers mainly), that I don't know if I made any money off the roll. My wife had a so-so roll after my second roll, and oddly enought, I'm pretty sure I made a little money after that roll. Still, I had to buy in for a total of $900 (my initial buy-in usually is $500). My third roll was a 15m with a lot more productive rolls, and I made enough to get back to where I was behind by less than $150. Then my wife got the dice again, and she went on a tear! I kept the bets low, for my wife is a random shooter. I didn't keep track of how many rolls was in this whoot of hers, but I'm sure she greatly overshadowed anything I did today. We were definitely cutting up and having a grand old time. I even said to one of the other players, "I'm being overshadowed here, but I don't mind. I don't care who's the shooter, as long as I make some money." I only wish I'd played more aggressively, because after all that, I only ended up $57 ahead. They wanted an encore performance, they got one, but it came from my wife, not me. Who would have thought that?

     From there, we went to the Encore casino. This was the same casino, where last year, we went there, but I didn't play at all, because the stakes were too high. This time, I was determined to play at the Encore, and not be intimidated by the higher stakes. Fortunately, I was able to get onto a $25 blackjack table, which reminded me of L'Auberge in Lake Charles. After a drama-filled session, I left the table $50 ahead. From there, I played poker for an hour, at the 1/3 level, just like at Caesar's Palace yesterday (I wasn't aware that they had poker at the Encore last year). I got the feeling that I was dealing with much better players than the ones I'd run into at Caesar's yesterday. Without getting into too much detail, I'll say that I won several small pots, didn't play too many hands, but this one hand, where I had Pocket Kings, which turned into quads, I won a fair amount of money because my opponent flopped a flush, and the last king came on the turn. After that hand, I figured my wife and I were overdue for lunch. I left the table $172 ahead, and $222 ahead for the whole Encore session. Surprisingly, while I played poker, my wife profited on the slot machines, making $138. I guess you can say that my wife and I did a complete 360 at the Encore!

     From there, we went to the Venetian, so we can take a gondola ride on the inside, and have lunch. The last time we did both these things, was on Valentine's Day back in 2016. Back then, we were only celebrating being together exactly 31 months. But now, we're celebrating being married for 3 years (and being together for 106 months now). We first ate lunch at an Italian pizza shop that reminded up of Maude's Pizza back home in Houston. I made sure I got a sausage and pepperoni pizza with pesto sauce, with extra sausage and pepperoni. The pizza was so good that I remarked to my wife, "Now this is a f***ing pizza." My wife had the same comments about hers. From there, we eventually got on the gondola (after waiting in a long long line to get the tickets, and then waiting another 45 minutes from there to actually ride). As before, the ride was wonderful and very romantic. We both reflected on how far we've come since the last time we did this. Also, this reminded me that there are more important things in life than playing craps and gambling.

     We returned to the Tropicana, and spent 1½ hours at the pool before it closed. Then we decided to go to the Paris casino to go to the Eiffel Tower there. We got to see a good view of the city, but to be honest, we'd seen better views at the Linq, and especially at the Strat. The latter we plan to do on a later day.

     After that, I played at the craps table, still at Paris. This time, I got off to an even rockier start, again, sevening out immediately on my first shoot. Worse yet, I decided to try the 3-Unit challenge, which meant for me, doing 220 inside with the intent of collecting on one hit, then taking the bets down, and repeating the process on other shooters twice more--that was my intention. Unfortunately, my timing was lousy for such a strategy, for both times I tried this, the shooter crapped out before a single hit. Things had gotten so bad that I had bought in for $1000 total, and was down to my final $300 or so. Then I remembered Bryan (from Hawaii Craps Shooters)'s video on a Hail Mary strategy. When I got the dice again, I decided to try such a strategy. For me, that meant doing 220 inside on my shoot, and keeping the bets up for three hits. Fortunately, that worked, and I regressed down to four units all the way across. Also fortunately, I had a great shoot this time, shooting 21 times, sticking with my Hardway dice set. I played more aggressively than I did this morning, and I went from being about $700 down to finishing $141 ahead.

     My final gambling session of the day was at Caesar's Palace. Maybe I was hoping for an encore performance from myself there, but I think I failed to recognize how mentally exhausted I was after that comeback win at the craps table. I didn't play as well at the poker table, which this time was a 2/5 table--something I wanted to do at least once while I was in Vegas. The table broke up after 2½ hours, and I ended up losing $307. Fortunately, I was still able to salvage a net win of $113 for the day, which means I'm now $1053 ahead for the trip. Hopefully, I can add to that tomorrow.

     A big chunk of this day was spent in Henderson Nevada, about 13 miles from Las Vegas. My wife wanted a special charm for her bracelet for an anniversary present, and for what she wanted, I knew there was an outlet stort very close to the Green Valley Ranch casino. So that's where we first went.

     Unfortunately, the dice didn't go my way at the Green Valley Ranch. I had two mediocre rolls (7 for both), and not enough productive rolls to be profitable. I admit going on tilt after a while, and I ended up $662 down when I left the table.

     The next stop for us was the M Resort casino, also in Henderson, but roughly halfway between the Tropicana and the Green Valley Ranch casino. The first thing we did was go to the pool there, something different from the pool at the Tropicana. It was definitely different all right. A lot more kids at this one, plus a lot more women wearing thongs. In my opinion, if I was a parent, I wouldn't want my young child to be seeing women in thongs, but also, in my opinion, kids don't belong at casinos, as to me, casinos are adult playgrounds. The worst part was the fact that the lifeguards didn't do anything about a group of kids running around the pool (what if one trips, hits his/her head, and starts drowning as a result?). Despite all that, my wife and I still enjoyed ourselves, for the people were friendly, and we had nice conversations with several of them (even a few of the thong girls LOL).

     After the pool, I played at the craps table, which was a $10 table. There, I shot the dice from the end, and, using my Yo-Yo dice set. I ended up shooting 20 times. I started off slow with the bets, but still ended up $270 ahead. I lost $225 of that at the blackjack table, but I thought I'd take a shot at maybe getting a 500 Club out of the session. Didn't happen. $45 was the net win there.

     We had dinner at the Vig Deli, still at the M Resort, and it was then that we noticed that the theme of this casino is the Las Vegas Raiders with all sorts of memorabilia from previous great Raiders players to the Super Bowls they'd been in. And the food there was pretty good.

     After returning to the Tropicana, and getting some rest, we decided to play some more. First, it was the craps table. I shot from the end there too, but whatever magic I had at the M Resort from that position, just wasn't there. I only shot a 3, a 7, and something in between. Eventually, I left the table $359 down. Fortunately, the cards were kind, for I won $425 at the blackjack, salvaging a $66 win for that night session at the Tropicana.

     That ended up all the gambling I did that fell on May 17th. I only say that because I started a poker session at the Venetian, but it ran well past midnight, so the results from that won't be counted until the next day. As for this day, a net loss of $551, still leaving me in the black by $502.

     Today is me and my wife's three-year wedding anniversary. As far as gambling, the day didn't start off too good, for that session at the Venetian ended up going until almost 3 a.m., and I ended up losing $322 in the process. Now my profit margin for this trip is only $180. Hopefully, I can stay in black ink, and not fall into red ink. We shall see!

     Unfortunately, for most of the day, my wife felt over-heated and tired. I figured that that was due to my late-night playing poker at the Venetian, and she staying up with me. But throughout the day, she didn't get much better.

     I did get to play some this day. I had one last session at the Tropicana, after we checked out, but before we went to the Plaza casino to check in there. I did have a mediocre shoot at the craps table, but enough to win $55. I thought I'd add to that by playing blackjack, but ran into one of the coldest deck ever. I lost $1000 at that table, making for a losing session of $945. I am now in red ink for the trip. But that seems like a small matter, given that my wife was not feeling well.

     We ate at Nathan's, and my wife barely touched her hot dog, which was very unusual. And after we checked into our room at the Plaza, she started breaking out in a sweat, and was feeling nauseous. I thought maybe she was about to throw up, but it turned out, per a question I asked her, she was feeling constipated. She didn't throw up, but whatever it was, it came out the other end. She felt better, but still tired. I think it was a result of being out in the heat for so long yesterday, plus she drank more than I did, and she had a lot of the fries at the M Resort, which may have clogged her system.

     Once I was assured that my wife was past the worst of it, I played some, letting her rest. Prior to dinner, I played craps, and had a bad shoot, but two shooters that I bet a little on, got me ahead $35 before leaving the table. I added $80 to that at the blackjack table, for a win of $115. I needed a win like this, for I needed to feel like a winner again.

     Fortunately, my wife was well enough to eat at Oscar's Steakhouse, for our anniversary dinner. It was very nice and elegant, and we had a great time. She ate some, but not too much. I had New York steak, which we split, and I had a lobster tail. It was all delicious.

     While my wife rested in the room, I played once more. Back at the craps table, I shot from Stick Left 1, using the Hardway dice set. After I established a point, I bet 220 inside, with the intent of keeping the bets out there for two hits. I had one hit, then I rolled at least three non-productive rolls in a row. I decided to take the bets down, and do 64 inside instead, since the one hit I got, was for $70, which covered the 64 inside. The point during most of this, was a 6, and I rolled an 8 six times, the last two times of which, I had $90 on the 8, so I was able to yell out "Bull-llackout!" both times. I ended up shooting 16 times, and left the table $250 ahead. This time, I decided not to try to add to this at the blackjack table.

     As for final numbers for the day, overall, I lost $902, and now I'm exactly $400 down for the trip. Hopefully, tomorrow, we will be rested up, and able to do more. And hopefully, I'll be able to pull out of this red ink.

     In terms of temperature, today was the hottest day of the trip. It got up to 102°. As far as my results go, today was the coldest day, though it wasn't all bad. My wife and I still had plenty of fun. Well, here's what happened...

     After breakfast at the Plaza, I decided to play there again. This time, the dice were ice cold, and I got smacked whenever I tried to make a move. I left the table $579 down, and tried blackjack. Added $351.50 to the loss column. It occurred to me that this Vegas trip would yet be another one coated in red ink, but I decided that I was going to have fun even if it kills me, and play how I want to play.

     From there, we went to the Aliante casino in North Las Vegas. For me, this was a new casino, my 63rd Vegas casino that I've been to since I first visited Vegas in 1998. Anyway, I got to a craps table, and I got my favorite position, Stick Left 1. I used the Hardway dice set, and placed all the numbers with minimum bets, with this being a $10 table. I had pretty much a monster roll. I ended up making three points of 6, and two points of 4, and was alternately taking the winnings, and pressing the bets. In this manner, I got up to a profit of $270, shooting 29 times. This was my best roll of the entire trip! I even added $273.50 to that at the blackjack table, culminating with my splitting treys twice, and doubling down on at least one of the new hands. A new casino, and I ended up with a 500 Club -- $543.50 to be exact. Wow!

     Unfortunately, I wasn't able to build on that win, for when I next visited the California casino, back in downtown, the dice weren't very nice to me. From my favorite position, I pretty much PSO'ed. Then on the next shooter, I tried to make a move with 220 inside with the intent of taking the bets down after one hit. Seven-out on the next roll. I decided not to continue there -- a better play may have been to try to shoot again first, but I just wasn't feeling it. I left the table $342 down. So I tried my luck at blackjack. I lost another $100 there. I decided that was all I was going to lose there (booking a total loss of $442 for the session), for I had one more property I was determined to visit before I was due to leave Vegas tomorrow.

     The other property I was determined to visit was the Fremont casino. This time, I was shooting from the end (just like I was at the Plaza). But again, it wasn't happening. The best roll I had out of at least four was seven, according to the counter, which I think is a cool feature at the Fremont. But after losing $342 at that craps table, I tried blackjack. There, I discovered that Boyd Gaming rules dictate that you cannot double down after splitting cards -- something that I was also told at the Cal, another Boyd Gaming property. Well damn, that's how I made my 500 Club at Aliante! I sure know where NOT to play blackjack! I lost an additional $272.50 at the blackjack table, for a total loss at the Fremont of $614.50.

     By this time, it was in the afternoon, and we took a much-needed break. We decided against going swimming, for it was already up to 102°, and we didn't want to risk another episode of what we now figured was heatstroke, being what my wife had. I needed a chance to take a break and lick my wounds.

     Afterwards, my wife and I went to the Venetian to have a late lunch at the pizza place we both loved. I now discovered that the pizza place is called Social Life Pizza. I had the same pizza as last time, only that I added bacon to mine. My wife opted for a nice salad, still leery of eating anything heavy, in light of what happened the previous day. We both greatly enjoyed our meals.

     Still at the Venetian, I decided to play poker again. This time, I played 2/4 No-Limit Hold 'Em -- this is not a typo (usually, 2/4 is Limit Hold 'Em). Without getting into detail, I'll say that I won $174 after 2½ hours of play. That felt good, being able to win again. At least I'm still ahead for the trip playing poker!

     From there, my wife and I visited the Strat, like we usually do on our last full day in Vegas. It was very romantic. And oh yeah, I did win $100 at the blackjack table prior to going up to the observation tower. But no more gambling I'd do for that day, for by the time I returned to the Plaza, I was all crapped out physically and emotionally. After a late dinner, we returned to our room, and I crashed. For the day, I ended up down $1169.50, and $1569.50 down for the trip.

     Today is the day my wife and I return home to Houston. However, I felt I had to give this one more shot before I declare myself all gambled out. For one thing, I only had 20 sessions on this trip, and on last year's trip, which was a day shorter, I had 21 sessions. So I at least wanted to match the number of sessions. Let's see what happened...

     My initial plan was to win a fair amount on the blackjack table, then do my risky betting with the profits from that. Well, I only won $87.50. Not much I could do with that. But I went to the craps table, got my favorite position, Stick Left 1, used my Hardway dice set, but I had two very short rolls. I left the table $295 down. Then I went back to the blackjack table. It was only then that I had my sizeable win--$325 this time around. But now, I'm all gambled out. I cashed in these chips without returning to the craps table. I booked an overall session win for $117.50. The only reason why this paragraph is written in red ink is because I lost at the craps table.

     Overall, my wife and I had loads of fun, even though I had an overall loss of $1452. I still have plenty of gambling money left, and it will be used to fight another day on another trip. Stay tuned, and I'll tell you all about it! ☺