Musical Dice -- My Craps Blog

     My wife and I were very excited to come back out to Lake Charles for the first trip of 2024. I was hoping to at least do better than my last trip out there. Would that happen? Let's find out together!

     We decided to stay at L'Auberge this time. However, when we got there, we discovered that unlike most times when we got there, the room wasn't ready. So I decided to play until then...Big mistake!

     We first went to a craps table at L'Auberge. There was hardly anyone at the craps table--just myself and the bus driver who drove us to L'Auberge. I got the position next to the stick man on the left. But finding a dice set and a toss that would work would prove a challenge. The Hardway dice set wasn't working. The dice set that worked out the best was the Crossed Sixes (6/2-6/4) dice set, where I shot a 9. But too many of the rolls were non-productive horn rolls. And the other shooter, he tries to be a controlled shooter, but his shoots were worse than mine. I experimanted with a lower toss, but that didn't seem to work. Ultimately, I left the table $598 down.

     I then tried my luck at blackjack, but that was even worse. I lost $775 at that game. I almost stopped there, but then it occurred to me that I didn't even try my 4X strategy. So I went back to the craps table for that one reason. And for the most part, it worked. It's just that my shooting was still rusty, and after one time that I wasn't able to get the one hit on the 6 or 8, I left the table $175 down. Well at least my total loss playing craps was still less than my loss at the blackjack table!

     After such a disastrous start to the trip, I decided not to do any more gambling until after dinner, at which point, we'd go to the Horseshoe, where I'd play poker. We were at L'Auberge 2 hours before the room was finally ready. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, and watching football. We'd already seen our Texans make it to the playoffs, courtesy of their win over the Colts. But then we watched the Texans win the division, courtesy of the Jaguars losing to the Titans. It was good not thinking about gambling for a while. And the dinner meal we had at the Ember steakhouse was especially delicious. I felt ready to take a chance again.

     As planned, we went to the Horseshoe after dinner. I first played poker. It started off good, but it's hard to win at that game when there are few players, like it was after my initial wins. After three hours, I ended up losing $279 there. Then, I played craps. I got off to a rocky start there, initially standing at Stick Right 2. I used my Yo-Yo dice set at that position. I shot a 6 there. Not enough to really do anything, since most of those rolls were horn rolls. I then moved to the end and used the same dice set, opting for a stronger toss. Finally, a good roll! I ended up shooting 17 times, making two points of 8, a point of 9, and a point of 10. I even was able to say "Snowflakes" twice, one of which was when I made the point. My roll was barely enough to make up for my rocky start at this table. I ended up $40 ahead at the table. Not much, but at least I felt like a winner again, despite a net loss of $239 at the Horseshoe.

     After we returned from the Horseshoe, we were both too exhausted to consider any more gambling. We'll be at again tomorrow.

     No, the last part of the title is not a reference to a certain part of the female anatomy, but rather, keeping the bottoms of the dice parallel to the surface of the craps table. The first part of the title was a reference to the weather in Lake Charles -- thunderstorms pretty much all day. Of course, one could easily argue that I had already been experiencing nasty weather at the tables, being already down $1787. I just knew that unless I started turning things around for the better, I was going to declare myself all gambled out sooner than I did on my last Lake Charles trip.

     In light of the weather forecast, my wife and I decided to stay at L'Auverge. When we first ventured into the casino, I got on to a craps table, at Stick Left 1. This time, I opted for the Hardway dice set. My first shoot was about a 6, but I felt comfortable with my toss, so when I got the dice back, I decided to stick with that dice set, concentrating on keeping the bottoms of the dice parallel with the table, so that they'd land solid. That worked out quite well, for I shot 19 times, including 7 rolls of 6 (including two hard sixes). I had alternately pressed 6 from 24 to 48 to 90, which meant that on the last three of those rolls of 6, I was getting paid $105 for that Place bet. Yes, I got to yell out "Bull-llackout" 3 times--the first time in quite a while I was able to do that. The roll was enough for me to win $370 at the craps table. I added $175 to that at the blackjack table, leading to a $545 session win. My first 500 Club of the new year, and the tenth year in a row that I've had at least one of them (the last year that that didn't happen was 2014, a financially horrible year for me). That makes me feel a lot better about how things had been going on this trip.

     After that session and a late breakfast, we returned to our room, and for the next several hours, watched as the weather, indeed, got nasty, with booming thunderstorms, heavy rain coming down in sheets, and gale winds.

     By the time we went back down to the casino area, the rain had stopped. I wanted to get onto a craps table, but it was full. Instead, I played blackjack, where I won $100. I'm cool with that, as long as continue to chip away at my deficit for the trip.

     We dared venture to the Golden Nugget casino, while it still wasn't raining. There, I got into a craps game, playing from the left end. There, I used the Yo-Yo dice set, again concentrating on keeping the bottims of the dice parallel to the table. But doing that, shooting from the end is much harder, and I only shot a 5, admittedly, not shooting the dice hard enough from that position. Fortunately, there were other shooters, who had long enough rolls for my 4X strategy to work, and ultimately, I ended up $64 ahead at that table.

     Once we returned to L'Auberge, we decided to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant, play a little, then watch the college football championship game between the Michigan Wolverines and the Washington Huskies.

     After having a good meal at the Chinese restaurant, we entered the casino area. I first got into a very dramatic blackjack table, where I felt lucky to come out winning another $100. When I got to the craps table, I played from the right end. I got off to a rocky start there too, also not realizing until too late, that this was a $25 table. Yikes! Fortunatelt, when I got to shoot the dice, I shot them the same way I did at the Horseshoe, using the Yo-Yo dice set. I won JUST enough on my 13-roll, to get my money back, plus $10. By the time I finished, it was getting close to time for the game to start, so I decided to stop gambling for the day. It was only on this session, which was a net win of R110, that my deficit for the trip was cut down to under four digits. I won a net of $819 for the day. Something to be proud of, for sure.

     We both wanted to watch the college football championship game not only because it was being held in Houston, where we live, but also because both of have a connection with Michigan. As some of you may know, Mrs. MusicalDice is originally from Michigan (Flint), plus, for a year, I went to high school with the Michigan head coach, Jim Harbaugh (he graduated from Palo Alto High in 1982, and I graduated there in 1983. Harbaugh and I were in a trigonometry class together -- he was a senior, and I was a junior). Anyway, we were pleased as punch when Michigan won the game 34-13, thus winning the championship.

     A minor point to be made here: The weather got nasty again! It started thunderstorming again, plus the temperature plummeted throughout the game. It was a comfortable 70° when the game started, but by the time it finished, the temperature was down to 53°, plus it's supposed to dip down to about 40°. At least my results on Day 2 wasn't as nasty as the weather. Hopefully, Day 3 will continue with good results. We'll see...

     As predicted, the temperature did dip down to 40° for a low in Lake Charles. Question would be, would I be able to make up any more of my deficit?

     That question was quickly answered at the craps table at L'Auberge after my wife and I had lunch. A string of people were PSO-ing. I shot 5 times, first from Stick Right 2, using the Yo-Yo dice set. Then I moved to Sticl Left 1 when that space was available. I switched to the Hardway dice set, but only a 5 did I roll then. After a long while, I decided that enough was enough. I left the table $620 down. I did gain $20 at the blackjack table, for a net loss of $600 for the session, and a total loss for the trip at $1568. Not good, but at least it wasn't nearly as bad as it was last time. And at least, I got a 500 Club out of it. I'll be at it again next month, if not sooner.