Musical Dice -- My Craps Blog

     Unlike the previous three trips to Atlantic City, this trip was not just a day trip, but for three nights. Apparently, all my play at the Golden Nugget in Lake Charles, led to my having three nights fully comped at the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City. So that's where me and my wife stayed.

     To explain this reference, one has to know that this Atlantic City trip was not the first leg of my trip to the east coast. The previous leg of my trip was to my birth place of New York City. There, my wife and I stayed at a Double Tree hotel, that surprisingly, had very small cramped rooms. So when my wife and I arrived at Golden Nugget, both of our reactions were "Now this is a room!" Mot that this room was a luxury suite, but it looked to be at least twice as spacious as the room we had in New York City. It was comparable in size to what we usually get in Lake Charles. Yes. This will work.

     The gambling started after some time of much-needed rest. The first table I played at was a blackjack table, after seeing only a $25 craps table, where only one person was playing, and he seemed not to be doing well. Not willing to play at a $25 table initially, I played blackjack. I ended up $25 ahead at the table.

     The next stop was at the Borgata. I decided to play craps first, playing at a $15 table. I observed that the people were crapping out early. I'm concentrating more on observing how the table appears to be going, and bet accordingly. In this case, I decided to do a new strategy (for me), which is a variation of Pro Craps' Ladder Come Bet strategy. In my case, my first Come bet was $15, my second was $45, and the third and final $105 (instead of starting off with $25, then doubling the bet on susequent Come bets, like John from Pro Craps does). In my case, the Come bets traveled to the 5 and the 9, respectively. The second Come bet came when the point was made. The third bet of $105 was on the Pass Line to protect the two Come bets up there. The next roll was a 7 winner. I netted $45 profit because of that. I used $33 of that to place the 5 and the 8. Unfortunately, the shooter crapped out before either were hit. I still was $12 ahead at that point. I more or less repeated the process with the following shooter. It was only then that I really was playing crapless craps! For the first roll after the point was established, was a 3, and the Come bet was moved to 3, instead of just taken. The next Come bet had traveled to 8, and the next roll was a 7, and fortunately, I had a $105 Come bet out there. I netter an additional $45 profit, and decided to leave the table, since I hadn't intended to play crapless craps.

     The gambling started after some time of much-needed rest. The first table I played at was a blackjack table, after seeing only a $25 craps table, where only one person was playing, and he seemed not to be doing well. Not willing to play at a $25 table initially, I played blackjack. I ended up $25 ahead at the table.

     I then went to a regular craps table. There, I stood at Stick Lect 1, I felt it was decent, and dared play the Route 66 strategy. But immediately after regressing down to 66 inside (after betting 66 each on both 6 and 8, one of which hit), the shooter crapped out. Then I got to shoot. I placed $20 on the Pass Line, with a $10 Whirl bet. I used the Hardway dice set, experimanting with a relatively new grip for me, an ice tong grip. The first two rolls were both 2 craps. I made a net of $64 off those two rolls. I did establish a point of 4. I bet 24 each on 6 and 8, and placed 1X odds behind the Pass Line bet. I did make the point, then established a point of 9. Unfortunately, no other productive rolls came, and I crapped out after 7 rolls. I ended up $26 ahead at that table. A total of $83 ahead for the two tables.

     From there, I played poker, playing 2/5 No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em. After an hour and 15 minutes, I won $144, making a total session win of $227 at the Borgata.

     As far as gambling goes, there would be no more for the first day, for my wife and I were still very tired from our train trip from New York City to Atlantic City. I ended up $252 ahead for the first day.

     So what else happened that first day? Mrs. MusicalDice and I had a delicious steak dinner at Vic & Anthony's in Golden Nugget. Afterwards, we listen to a live musical show in a lounge. Mrs. MusicalDice recognized the husband/wife guitar-playing duo as the duo she had once seen in Vegas during one of our previous visits. But afterwards, we both crashed in our room for the night. More tomorrow.

     Mrs. MusicalDice and I got off to a late start today. We were determined to do the boardwalk thing today. Plus, I discovered that I still had a $1 chip in my pocket from the Borgata yesterday. Apparently, I had under-stated my win at the second craps table, so actually, I won $27 there, for a total craps win there of $84, and a total Borgata win of $228, and a total day win of $253. With that out of the way, let's get into some Day 2 results...

     Things got off to a rocky start at the beginning, when we went to Bally's. The craps table wasn't open yet, so I played blackjack first. This turned out to be a bad idea, as I quickly lost $295. I hadn't gone into an additional buy-in, but by then, the craps table opened, so I decided to take the hit on the blackjack table, and hope I can do better on the craps table.

     Things definitely improved at the craps table. On the first person's shoot, I did the progressive Come betting strategy, getting three Come bets out there for $15, $45, and $105. I think the middle one got sniped with a craps roll. Fortunately, the number the big Come bet traveled to, and I believe it was a 10, hit again, and I made up for that. But he crapped out when I tried to capitalize on that with some of my profits. Then I got to shoot. I decided to use the Hardway dice set from Stick Left 1, using a somewhat big pendulum swing. This seemed to work out for me, for I had a big shoot this time, shooting 21 times, enough to make my Best Shoots Hall Of Fame page, and more importantly, get me out of the hole. Along the way, I hit the 8 seven times, and on three occasions, got to yell out "Bull-llackout!" for $105 payouts. The second of the three actually made me $150, for the 8 came hard, and I had $5 on the Hard 8. Altogether, I made $455 at the craps table, making for a total win at Bally's of $160. Cool.

     Let me quickly say that while I was playing craps, Mrs. MusicalDice made over $500 playing slots. I don't know how she does it, but somehow, it works most of the time. I wish I could get a 500 Club here in Atlantic City. It hasn't happened yet. Oh well, there's still time.

     From Bally's, we walked north up the boardwalk. Along the way, we ducked into a parlor, where Mrs. MusicalDice got a temporary tatoo of a butterfly on her left hand.

     While we were there, we were approached by a man who said that his company, a new hotel resort would pay us $125 for a tour of the place. Immediately, I was skeptical, for I suspected that this was some sort of a timeshare pitch, especially since we were told that the tour would take about 2 hours. My wife wanted to at least hear about it, so I reluctantly agreed to go along with it. The initial guy that talked to us even showed us to a nice diner, where my wife and I had a delicious lunch. Then it was in for the presentation, which was, in fact, a timeshare pitch. Although the resort was really impressive, ane the deal sounded tempting (by design), we still said no--at least 20 times. We did get the voucher for the $125, which we had to go to the Ocean casino to redeem. That was cool, for it was along the walk up the boardwalk. But this 2 hour presentation ate into time I would have much rather spent gambling at other casinos up the boardwalk. I also noted that it took only 45 minutes for me to make the $160 at Bally's. Mrs. MusicalDice was happy to get the money, regardless.

     For those of you who have read previous entries in this blog, I'm sure you've figured out that I use this green notation when I make at least $100, but less than $500. I'm sure you also know that I use the ice cold dice symbol when the dice are ice cold. Yes, both were in play here at the Ocean casino. So how the hell did I make money with the dice so ice cold? Nothing but progressive Come bets. Here, it was at a $10 table, and on two occasiions, I had to go to a Level 4 Come bet, which in this case was $150 (the first 3 levels were $10, $30, and $70), which won when the 7 was rolled. I ended up winning $110. But I even said after that win, "That was the damndest way to win money at a craps table." Of course, that timeshare voucher thing (which was redeemed at the casino) was also not a pretty way to make money. At least we're still making money on this trip.

     I'm sure Mrs. MusicalDice was happy when I decided to play poker first when we next went back to the Borgata. For the long walk up the boardwalk was harder on her than it was for me. Without getting into much detail, after an hour at the poker table, playing 1/3 No-Limit Hold 'Em, I won $62.

     Then I went to the craps table--only to discover that once again, I was at the crapless craps table! And I got off to a rocky start, for an attempt at the Route 66 strategy, led to an early seven-out before I got a single hit. I lost a little at first, playing the progressive Come bet strategy, but I stuck with it, even though one of my Come bets mobed to the 11 (as this is crapless craps, an is not an automatic winner on the Come). And my big Come bet for $105 was moved to the 10. Things didn't look too good, but fortunately, the shooter shot repeaters so that all three Come bets hit. When I got the big one back, I immediately colored up, winning $72, for a total session win of $134. And yes, I cashed in that leftover $1 chip for yesterday, which didn't count in this win.

     After a nice simple dinner back at Golden Nugget, I decided to play once more. I started off at the craps table, and got off to a rocky start there, with my big Come bet getting sniped by a craps roll. Then another Route 66 strategy ended with an early seven-out. But the table was still an enjoyable one, for there was a woman standing next to me that was great to talk to (strictly craps, people). She was a random shooter, but nonetheless, I bet 5-5-5 on the All-Tall-Small for her roll. She enjoyed my antics, especially when I said "Snowflakes!" when she rolled a hard 10, and I had 5 on the Hard 10 bet. She did make the small (paying 35 for 1, or $175 including my bet), just barely getting my money back, before she crapped out. I ended up $31 ahead at that table.

     Then I went to a blackjack table, where I got off to an even rockier start, losing the first six rounds, and forcing a second 500-dollar buy-in, before battling back to finally end up $50 ahead. A hell of a way to grind out $81 for the session. Overall, I ended up $485 ahead for the day, and so far, I'm now ahead $738 for the trip. Hopefully, I can continue this success tomorrow.

     Since this was my last full day in Atlantic City, I figured I'd play at places I meant to play at yesterday, but because of the wasted time at the timeshare thing, I didn't get to play at some places I wanted to. So how would that turn out? Let's find out...

     The first place I played at was Caesar's. I played craps there. At first, the table was choppy, which was okay for my progressive Come betting strategy. I was up nearly $100 at one point, but one of my burning desires was to try to get a 500 Club, since I never had one in Atlantic City. But then, things went south, and my Come bets started getting sniped (with crap rolls, and the 7 coming after the Come bets had all traveled to numbers). I then switched to Split The Sisters for 132 inside, and early seven-outs killed that. I ended up down $693 for the session. I had sic straight casino wins here in Atlantic City, and really, 10 casino wins in a row overall (including the last four from Lake Charles last month), and that all came crashing down here. ARGH!!

     I had never played at Harrah's here in Atlantic City. At the time, it seemed like the thing to do, since I've had big wins at three other Harrah's properties--those being in Las Vegas, Kansas City, and New Orleans. But it was like I ran into a brick wall there. Again, my Come bets were getting sniped, and my Route 66 and Split The Sisters strategies were not working out. To quote a song from 1975, I must have picked a bad time to play some dice (taken off of "Bad Time" by Grand Funk). I lost $457 at that table.

     I then played blackjack, trying to get the money back from the craps table. Sometimes, that works, but this time, I only succeeded in losing an additional $375. I lost my area code here at Harrah's! ($832)

     At this point, I felt I only had one final chance to get a 500 Club here in Atlantic City. And I was going to try with the one game that I've had the most success at lately, and sorry folks, it wasn't craps. I hadn't intended om playing poker again on this trip, but given my results earlier in the day, that was the only thing that made any sense, as far as what to play next. So I went to the Borgata, and played 2/5 No-Limit Hold 'Em. It soon turned out to be a wise decision, for soon after I sat down, I busted a player flopping a set of kings vs. a flopped set of 8's for my opponent. This led to a $523 win at the Borgata. Yay!!

     At this point, I was still down $264, and upon returning to Golden Nugget, I thought I'd try to win that there. Not to be. I lost $662.50 at the blackjack table. That convinced me to declare myself all gambled out for this trip. I ended up down $926.50

     Since I had already declared myself all gambled out for this trip, Day 4 is only going to contain some analysis. The good news is that I won $729 playing poker on this trip, racking up my fourth poker win in a row, including one from Lake Charles. Of course, the bad news was what happened on the other two games. I ended up with a net loss of $398 playing craps, and a net loss of $1257.50. Do I detect a shift of focus for MusicalDice on future gambling trips? For the sake of this blog, I hope not.

     For now, it's on to Bowie Maryland to visit my aunt who is turning 95 on St. Patrick's Day. Stay tuned for future craps articles and trips. ☺