Musical Dice -- My Craps Blog

     It's been about six weeks since my wife and I had set foot in a casino. This has been a rather busy summer for us, and we still have some things coming up. But during this time, I've developed a new strategy, and a possible new dice set that I want to try out. And I'm glad we were able to squeeze in this trip to Lake Charles Louisiana. How will I do? Let's find out!

     It had been a frustrating thing that the last several times we came to Lake Charles, we weren't able to go swimming due to the weather not cooperating. This time, we felt assured that the weather would cooperate, and after we checked into the Golden Nugget casino, that was one of the first things we did. It was a hot balmy 96° outside, and we were both glad we did go swimming.

     Of course, the drawback of going swimming first is that it leaves less time to play before our dinner reservation. And since this first day was also on a Sunday, the L'Auberge casino was more crowded than what we're used to. I had intended on playing blackjack, saving craps for after dinner, but all the blackjack tables were full, and there was a spot at the craps table open, but the table was a $25 table. Well okay. It still gave me a chance to try out a new strategy. It actually is a spin-off of a strategy I'd recently seen on Color Up's YouTube channel, where he allowed only $36 per shooter, playing $15 on the Pass Line, and $15 on the Field for the come-out. Depending on what the point is, you use the remainder of your allowance to place other numbers. I had intended to alter this strategy so that one is allowed $50 per shooter, and the basic unit is $20 instead of $15. But since this was a $25 table, I had to change that allowance to $70, using $25 units. But the table was ice cold. Worse yet, I didn't have enough time to devote to the strategy, as our dinner date was fast approaching. I did have a halfway decent roll from the end, shooting 10 times, using the Yo-Yo dice set to get part of my money back. But I still had to leave the table in the red, down $249.

     Fortunately, Mrs. MusicalDice, playing a slot machine, got a big hit, which necessitated the slot machine employees giving her the payout in cash, and Mrs. MusicalDice signing for it, and paying the taxes up front. All this damn near made us late for our dinner date, but I was very happy for my wife, for the payout was for over $1500. I let her pay for dinner. And as usual, the dinner at the Ember Steakhouse, was awesome.

     After dinner, we went back into the casino, still at L'Auberge. This time. I played blackjack, and after a very choppy table, I managed to win $100. The craps tables were full, so I decided to go to Golden Nugget to play that.

     After returning to Golden Nugget, I got into a craps game. This time, it was a $15 table, so I could properly test my new strategy, allowing $50 per shooter (I may call this something like the $50 Allowance Strategy). The table was bad at first, I actually did a $20 Don't Pass, hedging it with a $6 hop on the 7's, and a $4 Yo on the come-out. That left me with 20 for a Don't Come bet. I netted a profit of 30 off of that shooter. Then I switched back to the light side, and that didn't work out so good. Fortunately, it was then my turn to shoot, and instead of doing a $20 Field bet to accompany my $20 Pass Line bet, I did a $10 Whirl bet. I had a couple of 7-Winners and a Yo'Leven winner. For this shoot, I was standing at Stick Left 1, and I used this opportunity to try something else new, a new dice set (for me). I decided to use the 6/2-6/2 dice set, and shoot the dice toward the opposite corner, with the idea of the dice breaking up unevenly so maybe a 7 wouldn't appear as often as it does with similar Hardway dice sets. The result of this shoot was a mixed bag. On one hand, I did shoot 14 times, enough to net a total profit of $80, but the problem was, half the rolls were either 7's or yo's. The jury is still out as to whether or not I'm going to stick with this dice set and this new way of tossing the dice. But I think I will continue playing with this new strategy some more. Admittedly, it's kind of a scared craps strategy, but it will somewhat minimize the losses, and keep me around longer, in case someone does get on a good rally. This strategy allows for 10 shooters, with a 500-dollar buy-in. We'll see. All I know at this point is that $80 is not a bad win.

     I added $103 to the craps win, first by playing blackjack, and winning $50 there after getting off to a horrible start (had 5 bets out there on the first round, due to splits and double-downs, and the dealer made a hand, beating me on every one of them). Then I went to the poker room, where I played for 1½ hours, hardly picking up anything worth playing, but winning most of the time with the hands I did play, netting a profit of $53. A real grindy session, but a total profit of $183 was enough to get me out of the hole. I finished the day $34 ahead. Hopefully, tomorrow will be even better.

     I was considering calling this day "For All The Wrong Reasons." You'll see why I say this, once you finish reading what happened on this second day.

     After breakfast at Claim Jumper (in the Golden Nugget), my wife and went into the casino to play. While Mrs. MusicalDice played the slots, I got into a craps game. I was using the $50 per shooter strategy, but I find that it takes too many rolls of playing scared craps to get out of the hand. How I wish I'd learned this lesson on this day! I got into trouble. I had a decent shoot, shooting 13 times using the new dice set, but again, a lot of non-productive rolls resulted. It wasn't enough to get my money back. There was one shooter who did pretty well, and at one point, I was close to getting my money back, but it didn't quite happen at this table. After about an hour and a half, I left the table $142 down.

     At this point, I was thinking I could get that $142 back at the blackjack table. So I went to plat at one that had a minimum bet of $50. Fortunately, at this casino, I don't have to double the minimum to play two hands (unlike at L'Auberge). For that one reason, that's why I played. But I got into trouble early, and in fact, had to go to a Round 2 buy-in. During this, Mrs. MusicalDice came by, and told me that she'd gotten another big payout on the slot machines, before going off to do something else. Things continued to get worse from there. At one point, I had raised my bets to $75 each, and I only had $200 left if I lost those bets. I lost one bet, and I thought I'd lost the other bet, but I discovered that I'd pushed instead. I'd almost left the table, in fact! I was that close to just taking an $800 loss at this table. But since I didn't lose that other bet, I played on, and it was an epic struggle, but after between 2½ and 3 hours at that table, I FINALLY got my money back, PLUS made up for the loss at the craps table. I won $175 at the blackjack table, for a total session win of $33. Hey, I almost doubled my profit for this trip with this win!

     We were at Golden Nugget so long that by the time we finished, it was time for lunch. After having lunch off-property at Olive Garden, we went to the Horseshoe. I played craps there, while Mrs. MusicalDice played slots. This time, neither of us did well. The dice were even colder at this casino. Once again, I put too much stock in other shooters. I had a decent roll of 14, shooting from the end, using the Yo-Yo dice set, but again, it wasn't enough to make up for the other shooters. I lost $350 at that table. I was now down for the trip.

     After what happened at the Horseshoe, I was kind of split on whether to return to Golden Nugget, or go to L'Auberge first. I decided on L'Auberge. At first, it looked like I was going to regret this choice, for the dice were even colder at the craps table at this casino. Again, putting too much stock in other shooters playing scared craps. This time, I was shooting from the outer hook, and I decided to use the new breakup way of shooting the dice, using the Hardway dice set, instead of the 6/2-6/2 dice set. More productive rolls resulted this time. I shot a 14, but again, not enough to make up for the earlier losses. When I got the dice the second time, I crapped out early, and left the table $498 down.

     At this point, I was only thinking about possibly getting some of my money back at the blackjack table. So I went to a $25 table, which at L'Auberge, plays like a $50 table would at Golden Nugget, for at L'Auberge, you do have to double the minimum if you play two hands. Fortunately, much to my surprise, I had soon gotten ALL my money back from the loss at the craps table. I almost left the blackjack table then, but something kept telling me to keep going. I did, and much to my utter shock, I found myself tripling my buy-in at that blackjack table! I colored up $1037.50 ahead!! I turned a big loss at the craps table into a 500 Club!! I left the casino $539.50 ahead!! This was my first 500 Club in nearly 3 months! Not only that, I was once again ahead for the trip!

     After returning to Golden Nugget, and after We took a rest, we decided to have dinner at Lily's, a chinese restaurant in Golden Nugget. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had enough comps to totally pay for the meal. I'm only guessing that all that time at the blackjack table earlier in the day was the reason why. Afterwards, I decided to play poker. It was kind of late, and I wasn't feeling craps at that point and time. My fortune cookie had said to take a break, so that may have contributed to that decision as well. Anyway, I played for about an hour, winning $97 before the table broke up. Overall, I ended up winning $319.50 for the day, and $353.50 for the trip thus far.

     A mere pittance, compared to what my wife did, apparently.

     Apparently, while I was playing poker, Mrs. MusicalDice got YET ANOTHER big payout playing the slot machines. So far on this trip, Mrs. MusicalDice had won over $5000 playing the slot machines!! What am I doing wrong here? LOL Seriously, I am very happy for my wife. I'm sure that she's going to be well-comped for this. Hell, her comps paid for the first two nights here at Golden Nugget.

     One could easily argue that I ended up ahead for the day for all the wrong reasons. I once made that kind of a statement back in late 2006 (my first casino session in about 8 months), when I had a win playing craps, but losing at the poker table -- back then, I was trying to focus on playing poker. But in reality, when it comes to gambling, there is no wrong reason for winning. I am really glad that I am still ahead for this trip, even though it wasn't because of my craps playing. At least I can still play some effing cards!!

     After all the excitement of Day 2, Nrs. MusicalDice and I decided to chill out for much of this day. But there are still some gambling results to mention for this day.

     After having lunch off-property at Five Guys, we went to L'Auberge, where I got into a craps game. At first, I'd gotten off to a rocky start. My shooting wasn't that great, and the table was pretty cold. I switched to a strategy I'd used in Vegas with some degree of success, placing a Don't Come bet, enough to cover three Place bets. That kept me from having to re-buy. Then came a shooter, whom I'd seen the previous day at the Horseshoe. He told me he'd lost roughly 11 times as much as I did. Regardless, I decided to cautiously go light side on him. Turned out to be a smart decision, for this guy went on a monster roll--and he's a random shooter! I was gradually building up my Place bets, plus I was playing the Hardways, and at least 6 of them hit on his roll. You can bet that I was doing some major cutting up at this table. There were 4 occasions that a hard 10 was rolled, and I had a bet on it. Of course, each time, I'd yell out "Snowflakes!" Apparently, I was getting a little too loud for some of the dealers, and one of them asked me to chill out some. It wasn't long afterwards that the guy crapped out. No matter. As I told the guy, I made more than twice what I'd lost at the Horseshoe. To be exact, I made $729 at the craps table. Prior to the craps table, I'd made $75 at the blackjack table (after a major struggle to get it back), for a total session of $804. This clearly was the highlight of this Lake Charles trip. A second 500 Club on this trip, and this one at the craps table? Who would have thought that?

     After that session, I returned to Golden Nugget and chilled out in the room, while Mrs. MusicalDice got her nails done. After that, we went swimming. Now we weren't planning to stay out there for nearly four hours, but it was great, chilling out in the pool on a nice hot day to old school music, most of which I knew well, and conversating with different people.

     After that, we had dinner at Saugrass, inside the Golden Nugget. After dinner, I decided to gamble, as one session for this day was not enough. Maybe I should have just chilled out for the rest of the night. At first, the session started off a winner, with me winning $100 at the blackjack table.

     However, the craps table was a different story. My shooting wasn't good, in general, and not even my Don't Come strategy was working. My timing was plain off. I lost $275 at the craps table before leaving.

     Up until that point, I was ahead over $1000. But the craps loss dropped me just below that mark. I went into the poker room thinking that if I didn't get back over the $1000 mark, or if I lost, I'd declare myself all gambled out, for I'm determined to stay ahead for this trip. For most of the hour and 45-minute session at the poker table, I was down, but I managed to get it back plus $25 by the time the table broke.

     This led to a total loss of $150 at the casino, but a net win of $654 for the day, and my being currently up $1007.50. Am I going to play some more tomorrow, or am I going to declare myself all gambled out? The jury is still out on that one.

     My initial plan for today, once we checked out, was to play blackjack first, and only if I had a sizeable profit there, would I play craps, using the proceeds from the blackjack winnings. Unfortunately, the blackjack tables were initially full, so quite reluctantly, I played craps first. I was already thinking, if I lose, that is it, and I'd be done for the trip. On another shooter's roll, I placed a $60 Don't Come bet, abd when it traveled to the 10, I placed $24 bets on the 6 and 8. One of them hit, and the shooter crapped out. I really wasn't in the mood for another major battle, especially since I was already ahead. I colored up $40 ahead. Quick and easy.

     It was only then that I got to play blackjack. But with a player who didn't know what he was doing, I decided to make this a quickie as well, before this guy could screw up te cards and possibly screw up my results. I left $50 ahead, and declared myself all gambled out at this point. Yes, it was only a $90 session win, and a $90 win for the last day, but hey, that's still better than what it was for the first day. I ended up $1097.50 ahead for the whole trip. I'll take that anytime!

     This exciting news I'm only revealing to the readers of this blog this early. I managed to get flight tickets to and from New Orleans for $49 each for me and my wife for September 25, returning to Houston on September 29. We're actually going to Biloxi for these days (catching an Uber to and from Biloxi). We're going to Biloxi to celebrate Mrs. MusicalDice's birthday (9/27). Planning to stay at the Golden Nugget for this trip. Maybe I'll even see some of you there. Just look for the black man with the white cane, hopefully cutting up at the craps table. ☺