Musical Dice -- My Craps Blog

     This is the third year in a row that my wife and I have traveled to Atlantic City (the AC) and then to the Washington DC area (the DC) to visit my aunt who lives in Bowie MD, and who has a birthday on St. Patrick's Day (turninh 97 this year). Now you see why I named this trip the way I did.

     This time, it was PARTICULARLY exhausting getting there from Houston TX. For one thing, anxiety was running high, due to the partial government shutdown, and the long lines we heard of getting through TSA. Let me tell you, that wasn't EVEN the worst part of it! We got to the airport in the wee hours of the morning (as we usually do for a trip of this nature), and it was a relative breeze getting through TSA. Much worse, however, were the changes implemented by Southwest Airlines, our airline of choice. For since we're both handicapped (I am visually impaired, and Mrs. MusicalDice is hearing impaired), we usually sat in the second of third row, and all the screaming babies would be further back where we wouldn't be able to hear them. However, since there's now assigned seating, that's a totally different ball game. It was fine for the first part of the trip, flying from Houston to Dallas. But after we stopped in Dallas, and new passengers came aboard for the rest of the way to Philadelphia, we found ourselves saddled with THREE human ghetto-blasters!!! We had to hear that sh!t for almost THREE hours!!! Once we landed in Philly, we took an Uber to the train station in Philly, where we caught a New Jersey Transit train to Atlantic City, where we rode an Uber the rest of the way to our destination, the Golden Nugget casino, where we booked 4 nights. By the time we got there, it was close to 5 p.m. Eastern Time (mind you, our flight left Houston at 6 a.m. Central Time). We were both completely exhausted by the time we got up to our room.

     How the damn hell did I manage to forget my white cane AGAIN?? In our haste to get our stuff into the Uber to take us to the airport, I somehow failed to grab my cane (which I had with the rest of the stuff this time!). Anyway, after we rested up some, we decided first and foremost to have dinner at the Food Court at the Borgata. The pizza we ate was really good, and just filling enough.

     After dinner, I decided to play craps. The $10 table was full, but the $25 table was open, with only one other player. In fact, I got to shoot the dice first because the other player left shortly after I got there. I shot from the right end. I used my Yo-Yo dice set, focusing on keeping the dice straight throughout my throw. In the mentally exhausted state I was still in, I'm surprised I was able to focus at all. But I shot sufficiently well to get out of the hand, for I was using equivalent to a 220 inside strategy for 2 hits, then regressing down to 110 inside. Surprisingly, I shot 22 times, enough to make my Best Craps Shoots Hall Of Fame page. I ended up making $208. I would have won more, had I played more aggressively. But this was my first craps session of the trip, and I usually don't play aggressively. Plus, more than half of those rolls were non-productive rolls, given that I rolled a bunch of horn numbers, some 4's and 10's without betting them--I just stuck to the inside numbers, and a couple of 7-winners. Hey, $208 is still not a bad start.

     Normally, I'd be playing poker at this casino as well, but since I don't have my white cane with me right now (Mrs. MusicalDice ordered one online, which should arrive tomorrow), plus I was in no condition to endure a potentially long poker session, I decided against that. I decided to just lock up this win and leave the casino.

     I decided to have one more gambling session before packing it in for the night. Once we returned to Golden Nugget, that's what I did. Again, it was strictly craps. This time, it was someone else doing the shooting. For this player, I did a Progressive Come bet strategy. Fortunately, after the Come bets traveled to the 4 and 5 respectively, he managed to roll both again. This time, I was on a $15 table, and after the Come bets hit, I switched to Place bets. However, this guu was more successful at making points. I did have odda behind the Pass line part of the time. I did end up winning $117 at this table. Still not bad.

     It may not seem like much I did this first day, but hey, I'll take being ahead $325 over being behind, any day. More tomorrow, for sure.

     As far as gambling goes, Day 2 began at Harrah's, where I played craps. This was a $10 table, and I did 88 inside on two shooters, with the intent of regressing down to 44 inside after 2 hits. The first shooter crapped out after the first hit. The second shooter had a long enough roll for me to refress down, and get my money back, finishing $97 ahead. Not a bad start.

     After that, we returned to Golden Nugget, where I played a quick game of blackjack, winning $30.

     We remained at Golden Nugget until my new white cane was delivered. I felt a lot better after that.

     After having lunch at Carmello's, in the Tropicana casino, I then played craps there. This session got off to a rocky start. I was standing at Stick Left 1, and for the first two or three shoots of mine, I was using the Hardway dice set without success. But then I switched to the Crossed Sixes dice set, and although none of these rolls were spectacular, each one was enough to earn me a little money, with my playing 88 inside, regressing to 44 insidr after two hots (this was a $10 table). I ended up $15 ahead when I colored up.

     I added $100 to that win at the blackjack table, for a session win of $115.

     Unfortunately, my win streak came to a crashing halt at Caesar's. Too many times, my timing ws off--meaning whenever I did my two-hit regression strategy, the shooter crapped out before I'd get the second hit, or if I was playing a DC strategy, the DC bets would get sniped. A few times, I'd come close to getting mu money back, but it wouldn't happen. Eventually, I became mentally exhausted, and I left the table $375 down.

     For dinner, we ate at a steakhouse at the Hard Rock casino. There, a live band was performing some rock and roll classics. We enjoyed it, and the food was pretty good. Only thing was that the service wasn't that good.

     Not wanting to get back into craps just yet, I played blackjack, still at the Hard Rock. I made $37.50 after struggling to get my money back.

     Since I now had a white cane with me, I felt comfortable enough to play poker at the Borgata. It seemed like a smart move, playing 2/5 No-Limit Hold 'Em, since I did so well at that table 2 years ago. But this time, completely different results. Two key pots I lost, one was where I had a f;ish, but ran intp a bigger flush. But the big kicker was when I had queens in a pot that I'd four-bet pre-flop. Unfortunately, I was all=in, and my opponent had kings. I was busted, losing $1700, my worst loss of the year! I went from being $325 ahead at the start of the day, to being $1470.50 down! That's it! I'm taking a long hiatus from poker!

     After the disaster of last night, I really wanted to feel like a winner again. This may explain today's results. Also, the weather forecast called for possible snow flurries. All me and Mrs. MusicalDice knew was that we didn't want to be caught out in that mess, which was predicted to start in the mid-afternoon.

     After breakfast at The Hash-A-Go-Go (similar to the one in the Plaza casino in Las Vegas--only that this one is in the Tropicana in Atlantic City), I played blackjack, winning $75. The craps table was closed, so that's all I played at the Tropicana.

     From there, we went to Harrah's, which is close to Golden Nugget. There, I played craps. I only stayed for two shooters, both of whom I barely broke even against, using my two-hit regression strategy. I left $31 ahead, then me and Mrs. MusicalDice returned to Golden Nugget.

     Before returning to our room, I played blackjack, winning $45.

     During the time we were in our room, the weather got worse, as the temperature dropped. By the time we went back downstairs to play before dinner, we did in fact see some snow flurries.

     When we did go downstairs, still at Golden Nugget, I first played craps. The first shooter crapped out before I could regress down from the 88 inside I initially placed out there. The second shooter got it all back for me, plus $26.

     I added $110 to that at the blackjack table, for a total session win of $136, my biggest win of the day, and a total net win of $287. This may not seem like much, but hey, I felt I could win again, and I'll take this over a loss any day.

     We then ate dinner at Lillie's, in Golden Nugget, and then we went upstairs to retire for the night. We saw some more snowflakes outside our window. Too bad I wasn't able to yell out "Snowflakes" in either of my craps sessions today. Oh well. I still won four times in a row today.

     One thing Mrs. MusicalDice wanted to do the previous day, was get something printed out (related to bible study, a big passion of hers, and what she's a big part of at our church, when we're not out of town). She discovered that the nearest place in Atlantic City where she could do some printing, is at the Harrah's casino business center. But by the time we found all this out, the weather was starting to get nasty already, so that idea was scrapped. So I hit upon the idea of having breakfast there this day, and while my wife gets her printing done, I can play, thus killing three birds with one stone.

     And si it went that after we had breakfast at Harrah's, and while my wife was getting something printed, I went back to the craps table. This time, I got off to a very rocky start, p;aying from the left end of the table. For most of the time, I stuck to my two-hit regression strategy. Unfortunately, the shooters, including myself, was crapping out before I got the second hit. But my shooting became better. enough to get me out of the hand. Eventually, I observed that I was the only shooter that was consistently getting me out of the hand. By the time I made that deduction, I had invested $1100. When it became my time to shoot again, I decided to play a little differently. This was a $10 table, so my regression stratetgy was 88 inside initially, then regress to 44 inside after two hits. This time, however, I had 20 on the Pass Line, and the same amount of odds, with the first point being 9, and my putting 68 inside, to cover the other inside numners. I wasn't even planning to regress this time. I was fully prepared to lose, this session. What I really wanted to do, was to try my "Quarters" strategy, where I press by a quarter on each hit on a box number. Fortunately, I had a long enough roll this time, where that worked out beautifully. A hardway hit (I believe it was a Hard 10 for "Snowflakes"), prompted me to press the inside numbers up to quarter levels, and it was then that I put my quarters strategy to work. And boy, did it work out, especially on the 7, which I rolled 8 times on this roll! After the first several hits on that number, I was yelling "Bull-llackout!" as I was making over $100 on each hit of the 8. In fact, it was a "Double-Bull-llackout!" on the last hit, as I's had 180 on that number, and it made me 210. In fact, that roll lasted so long that it easily made my Best Craps Shoots Hall Of Fame page, as it turns out, I'd shot 30 times!! I got all my money back, plus $270. Not a 500 Club, you understand, but after the way I started off in this session, I'll definitely take that!

     It wasn't until after we both had a big hearty lunch at Marie Callendar's (not in any of the casinos), that we went to play some more. Next atop was Bally's, the very first casino I ever gambled at (dating back to 1993). There, I played a somewhat quick cra[s session, where I did a progressive Come betting strategy on both shooters. The first one crapped out quicklu, while the second one stuck around for both my Come bets to travel to bad numbers (4 and 10). Fortunately, he was able to hit both numbers, so I was assured of making a profit at this table. However, he crapped out when I switched to Place betting. I left the table $62 ahead. I added 50 to that at the blackjack table, for a total session win of $112.

     Our next stop was the Ocean casino (it had been about 2 years since we'd been there). There, I played another relatively quick craps session, playing the progressive Come betting strategy on the first shooter (if I'm not mistaken, this was the first casino where I'd used this strategy). He crapped out quickly. For the second shooter, however, I did my two-hit regression strategy, putting out there 132 inside (this was a $15 table). The shooter was going through this routine of sliding the dice around and around several times, then throwing them, WITHOUT setting them. I even said to an amused neighboring player that the guy should consider doing a dance, if he was doing all this. The shooter did stick around long enough to get me out of the hand. I ended up ahead $69 this time. The blackjack tables were full here, so that's all she wrote at this casino.

     Then we returned to Golden Nugget. Before going back upstairs to our room, I decided to play craps again. This time, I'd employed the two-hit regression strategy for 88 inside (this was a $10 table). I usually play the Pass Line with a Whirl bet to hedge the Pass Line bet. I was lucky enough to have several come-out winners. And this shooter lasted long enough to get me out of the hand. I left this table $102 ahead.

     At this point, I was still down $630.50 for the trip. I was thinking after dinner, I'd make a real push to get the rest of my money back.

     It was so cold in Atlantic City today that the high temperature was only about 42°, and that wasn't until after we had dinner! Worse yet, it was very windy, so we really felt that wind chill. We especially felt that, as we were getting into our Uber ride at Marie Callendar's, and also getting out and into Uber rides at Bally's and at Ocean. It was because of this that we decided to have dinner on-property at Golden Nugget.

     We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant adjacent to the gaming area. However, we both didn't eat too much, since we still were digesting our big lunches from Marie Callendar's. I did consume a pretty strong adult beverage while at the Mexican restaurant. I seemed poised and ready to make that final assault on the casinos, and try to get the rest of my money back.

     However, when I got to the craps table, I was quickly jolted back to reality, for the two shooters in front of me were both random shooters. It was a damn good thing I did a Come bet on the first shooter, for she PSO'ed, and that made me break even, for the Come bet was just large enough to cover my Pass Line bet and my Whirl bet. On the second shooter, I decided to do my two-hit regression, putting out 132 inside (this was now a $15 table). He got me out of the hand, enough to make me $86. Instead of pushing to try to get the rest of my money back (and especially since it would have been my turn to shoot), I decided to declare myself all gambled out. But hey, I won a total of $639 today. Not bad at all!

     No gambling to report today. However, I can give an overall analysis: I won a total of $447.50 playing blackjack, with no losses. Even with the one loss I had playing craps, I still had a net win of $708. Of course, I ended up down for the trip because of the poker loss. I ended up with a net loss of $544.50, but I'm still quite happy, especially ending the trip with 9 straight wins, and the fact that I did good at the craps tables.

     I'm now in Bowie MD with my wife, as I write this last part. We're now on the DC part of our trip.

     Our next gambling trip, at present, isn't until April 6th to the 9th in Biloxi. We may slip in a Lake Charles trip before then. I'll keep you posted! ☺