Musical Dice -- My Craps Blog

     This trip fell in the middle of the NFL wild card playoffs, with two of my favorite teams, the L.A. Rams and the Houston Texans being two of the wild card teams. How will they do? More importantly, how will I do? Let's find out together!

     Like last time, when we arrived at L'Auberge, the room wasn't ready at first. So I decided to play some. First, I went to a craps table, which was a $15 table. There, I played the Progressive Come strategy, where the shooter crapped out on the third Come bet. I made a little money. When I shot the dice, I shot 10 times from Stick Left 1, using the Crossed Sixes dice set. I covered more numbers on myself, but it took longer for me to get out of the hand. I crapped out just after I was able to do that. I ended up $16 ahead. I added $150 to that with a win at the blackjack table. A $166 win is not a bad way to start off the new year.

     By the time I finished, the room was, so me and Mrs. MusicalDice went upstairs, and spent most of the afternooon watching football. We saw the Jaguars lose to the Bills -- the Jaguars being another team I like, since I used to live in Jacksonville FL until I moved to Houston in December, 2013. We saw part of the 49ers game with the Eagles. I was rooting for the 49ers, and eventually, they won, but that didn't happen until after we had dinner at the Ember Steakhouse. Great food as always.

     After dinner, I decided to play craps again, still at L'Auberge. This time, I stood at the left hook. And I got off to a terrible start. No matter what I did, and I changed up strategies, it would be the absolute wrong thing to do. By the time I was even able to shoot, I had already invested $1200. I did have an excellent shoot, using the Hardway dice set, but employing a crooked toss, which seems to work for me with this dice set lately (totally defies logic, I know). At any rate, I shot 28 times, definitey enough to make my Best Craps Shoots Hall Of Fame page. I didn't quite get all my money back, and when things subsequently started going south again, I decided to leave the table $364 dpwm. But I was down a whole lot worse before my shoot. It was just that I was mentally exhausted at that point.

     I did get $100 back at the blackjack table, for a total session loss of $264, and a total day loss of $98. Hopefully, I can do better tomorrow.

     As for what we did for the reat of the day, we watched the other wild card game, the game between the Chargers and the Patriots. Now I was rooting for the Chargers, since I went to high school with Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh (he attended Palo Alto High for only his senior year). I had him in a trigonometry class, when I was a junior, and Harbaugh was the one the teacher was telling to shut up most often! He was also voted most athletic. Not surprising, huh? Also not surprisingly, the Chargers lost to the Patriots. So the team I wanted to win was different from the team I thought would win. I am so glad I don't do any sports betting!

     As far as gambling goes, the day started at the blackjack table at L'Auberge. I won $125 at a table that was good at first, but when I lost a round, I decided to stop there. That win put me back in the black for the trip--$27 to be exact.

     Would it last?

     The next gambling session I had was at Golden Nugget. I got on the waiting list to play poker, then went to the blackjack table. After a pretty long battle, I ended up ahead $77.50

     I felt I still had time to play craps before being called to the poker table. When I played craps, I got off to a rocky start. I started off placing $60 each on 6 and 8, and the shooter crapped out. However, on the next shooter, when I did the same strategy, the shooter got me out of the hand, plus had a decent roll, enough to get my money back plus $54. I figured I'd head to the poker room at that point, and secure my seat, as there was a possibility that there'd be a new table opening up.

     I secured my seat at the poker table, but it would be another 45 minutes before the table actually opened. I played for 3 hours, but unfortunately, this would not be successful session. A bad beat at the end sealed my fate. I lost $642 at the poker table, for a total session loss of $510.50. ARGH!!

     My initial plans were to play a quick round of poker and then go to the Horseshoe afrer lunch. But things took so long at Golden Nugget, that my wife and I had to do a very late lunch, and then head back to L'Auberge, for we also planned to watch the playoff game between the Texans and the Steelers.

     After a very late lunch at Olive Garden, we returned to L'Auberge. At that point and time, there was roughly two hours before the football game. Plenty of time, I felt to play blackjack, and then craps--that was my plan. But fate had other plans. What ensued at the blackjack table, ended up being an epic battle to get my money back. I even had to buy in for a total of $1000. It was a very time-consuming struggle. When the dealer busted and I finally got my money back, both me and my wife were cheering loudly. I ended up $75 ahead. However, there was only a few minutes remaining before the game started, so that was all the gambling I did for the day. I ended up down $310.50 for the day, and $408.50 for the trip thus far. I plan to play more craps before this trip is over.

     And for those interested pparties, the Houston Texans crushed the Pittsburgh Steelers 30-6. Both my teams that entered the playoffs as wild cards, the Texans and the Rams, survived. Will my trip fare as well as far as gambling goes? The answer lies ahead on the last day.

     My last gambling session was a craps session at L'Auberge, and it was a loser. And there were shooters at the table who were setting the dice (like myself). But NOTHING went right! Early crap-outs for everybody! I left the table $631 down, and $1039.50 down for the trip. At least it wasn't quite as bad as last time!

     I have a few things I'm goin to try on my next trip to the casinos. For one thing, I'm going to use these regression strategies more on random shooters. For one thing, those who set the dice, yes they may average more rolls than a random shooter, but there's also more variance, I feel. And apparently, on this trip, I got mostly the lower end of that variance. Unfortunately, I fell into that category too, as that 28-roller I had on Day 1, was a fluke. I'm also going to try a slighly higher toss, putting less muscle into it (which I did to make sure the dice hit the back wall). For other shooters, maybe I won't bet so much on them. Anyway, all of this will have to wait until I get to Biloxi for my next trip, which will be in two weeks. Until then!