Musical Dice -- My Craps Blog

     It's been a very busy summer for me and my wife, and we finally got some time to go to Lake Charles for gambling and some R & R. It's been 2½ months since we took any such trip, and it sure feels good to be on this one.

     This time, we had to wait about two hours before we could check into our room at L'Auberge. I did do a little gambling while we waited.

     The first thing I did was play some craps at a $15 table. I got my favorite position at the table, which is Stick Left 1. I used the Hardway dice set the one time I shot the dice. I also tried a couple of new strategies. One, I'm going to call in a future craps article, the Knockdown strategy, where I start out with the table minimum, and Martingale them up as they lose, but bring them down to base level, when they hit. Another feature with this strategy, is if you seven-out before all the numbers are paid for, I don't bet them again until the others are paid for. In this case, I started out with 66 inside, got the 6 paid for early, but the other numbers I had to bring up to five units, as an early seven-out came on another shooter. Fortunately, I got the other numbers paid for without having to raise them up further, but that's all I was really able to do before he crapped out. On the next shooter, I was hesitant to bet on him at all, but he was having a nice long shoot, and I tried to get in on it, but he crapped out before I could really take advantage. On my shoot, I went back to the Knockdown strategy, and of course, placed a Pass Line bet with odds. I think that's the main reason why I got most of my money back on my roll, for during my 8 rolls, I made a point of 4. Then I tried a different strategy on the next shooter, which is really a variation of Waylon Way's Two Hits To Glory strategy, only that I played two numbers, the 6 and the 8, and only at $30 levels, not $100 levels, like Waylon did in his video. I got one hit on each the 6 and the 8, then decided to take the bets down, netting a small profit of $45. At that point and time, I had only to get my feet wet a bit, and not risk booking a loss for my first session on this trip. I didn't feel comfortable going for more at that point.

     After adding another $125 at the blackjack table, for a $170 session win, the room was ready. By this time, my wife and I were both tired, and spent the next couple of hours resting on the very comfortable bed in the room.

     We went down to play before our reservation at the Ember Steakhouse at L'Auberge. Not enough time for craps, I felt, but I did get into a blackjack game, which I had to do a $1000 buy-in before getting my money back plus $25. I definitely didn't feel comfortable sticking around after getting my money back, given the circumstances. The steak dinner was delicious, as always.

     We then went over to Golden Nugget, with the intention of purchasing wristbands to use their hot tub the way we usually do. But then we found out that they don't do that anymore, and that we had to be a guest staying at their property. Damn!

     From there, we tried to get onto a craps table, but it was too crowded for comfort. Instead, we went to a blackjack table, which was pretty bad at first. During this time, my wife was talking to this woman at the table, who said that she'd lost over $2000 on her trip. Whether she had just started her trip, or this was over the course of several days, I didn't find out, but I felt this kind of talk made for bad vibes at the table, and it was for that reason that I colored up when I got my money back plus $25.

     The craps table was still too crowded for comfort, so I went into the poker room, where I played for three hours. I'm amazed that I had the energy for that, given that usually, after a meal like the one my wife and I had at the steakhouse, we'd be ready to crash. Anyway, I first was seated at one of the end seats at the poker table, which is very uncomfortable for me. It wasn't until I moved to one of the seats next to the dealer, which is way more comfortable for me, since the dealer can more easily tell me what the cards on the table are, since I am visually impaired, it was only then that I started to get my money back at the poker table, and start winning money. I'm not going to go into too much detail about what happened, since this is a craps blog, and I'm only mentioning this in this level of detail because it goes along with today's theme, comfort levels. However, I will say that my best two hands were my last two, after which, I left the table winning $282, for a session win of $307, and a total day win of $502. Not bad! I did say to my wife that to quote Vanessa Williams, I saved the best for last. And what was the name of the Vanessa Williams album that that song was from? "The Comfort Zone."

     For this day and the next, I have to work my gambling around my work schedule, as I'm working a remote contract--which is part of why MusicalDice has been so busy lately.

     The first gambling session of the day was at the craps table, at L'Auberge. I started out shooting at the end, which didn't turn out so good, trying the Yo-Yo dice set. Then I moved to Stick Left 1, and my first roll with the Hardway dice set didn't turn out good either. In the meantime, I was playing the Knockdown strategy, raising the bet levels on the inside numbers from 2 units, to 5, and then 10 before my last shoot. Fortunately, the last roll was very nice, shooting 19 times, sticking with the Hardway dice set, but concentrating on keeping the dice parallel with the back wall, and gently lofting the dice. I was able to knock each of the numbers down to base levels, before pressing some of the numbers back up again. Overall, I ended up $190 ahead.

     But after lunch, the bubble burst at the blackjack table, with my losing $875. I was down $183 at this point.

     After work, my wife and I went over to the Horseshoe. My intentions were to play craps and then poker.

     I played cra[s. and I shot first, and that didn't work out too good. I continued the Knockdown strategy on the next shooter. I got the 6 and the 8 paid for, then after several rolls in a row that were not inside numbers, I decided to take all the bets down, locking up a profit of $28.

     It was my intention to then play poker at the Horseshoe, but the dealers were in the middle of a tournament. I did manage to see my favorite dealer, who used to deal at the Golden Nugget, and she liked my music ttrivia. I gave her one of my cards advertising this website, but as far as playing poker at the Horseshoe, it just wasn't in the cards. But here's a big shout-out to you, Ivy! You're the best dealer I know! ☺

     Since I didn't get to play poker at the Horseshoe, I decided to play poker at Golden Nugget. But another win there at the poker table was not in the cards. Without getting into too much details, bad beats marred this session, capping it off with kings getting cracked, and I lost $700.

     Given that stinging loss, I'm surprised I even considered playing blackjack back at L'Auberge. But fortunately, I was able to do something I wasn't able to do in 5 months--get a 500 Club. I won $525 at the blackjack table, at which time, I really did some celebrating.

     One more incident, going along with today's theme that I have to mention: We got back to our room, and our key cards didn't work anymore! At first the front desk thought that simply replacing the key cards would do the trick. But when the new ones didn't work, it was only then that they discovered that the batteries operating the lock for that room were dead. It wasn't in the cards after all. We got moved to a junior suite, which I have to say, is very nice,

     As for where I stand as far as the gambling, right now, I'm down $330 for the trip. Hopefully, I can make it up tomorrow.

     After checkout, I decided to try to win back the money I was down. Did I succeed?

     I first played at the craps table at L'Auberge. I did the Two-Hit Wonders strategy on another shooter, with little drama. I won $136 at the table.

     I next went to Golden Nugget, where I got into another craps game. But the dice were not so hot at that table. The best I shot was a 10, but that wasn't enough to get my money back. I tried the Knockdown strategy at this table, but some early seven'outs caused me to raise the bets. After a while, the bets were getting high, and the two most difficult numbers in the Knockdown strategy, the 5 and the 9 still had to be paid for. After one more crap-out, I decided to just take the hit, and leave the table $192 down.

     We returned to L'Auberge for one final assault. I decided to play blackjack. I won $50 at one table, and $75 at another blackjack table. The tables were both drama-filled, and it was mentally exhausting. Ultimately, I decided to pull the plug, take the $125 session win, and also tahe the hit for the trip, ending it with a $261 loss. At least I won $69 for the day, and lost a little for the trip. I can't be too upset over that, especially since I finished up ahead for craps. Plus, I have two new strategies that I used on this trip, and they will be the subjects of two new upcoming craps articles. Stay tuned! ☺

     Well, the one game I ended up ahead overall at, was craps. I was $207 ahead. With blackjack, I ended up a net of $50 down. With poker, I ended up $418 down, for a net loss of $261. Maybe I should just focus on craps next time. LOL

     Today, I have a very special announcement. For the first time in nearly 12 years, I am heading out to Reno Nevada!! I'll be out there October 17th to the 20th. I plan to visit some of the casinos where some of my craps terms originated. For example, it was at the Peppermill where the term "Snowflakes!" originated. And it was at the El Dorado, where I first said "Can you say Yo baby, yo baby, yo!" back in 2002. My wifr and I are really looking forward to this trip. Stay tuned for results from this trip!