Casino The Adventures of MDawg

This is a continuation of MDawg's casino report trips as started at WOV. I don't see the point in returning this thread to WOV as it seems not appreciated there. In any case, the Alexa rank of WOV has been plummeting since my thread was suspended, so I think I would rather just resume it here.

As background, I used to play very heavily, my average bet was around $3000. I quit at some point, life intervened and I felt like I was getting too into it, and took about a decade hiatus, returned to play about two years ago. Haven’t had any losing trips since my return, and I stopped over all ahead a decade ago. Yes, life’s been good to me, so far!

My usual games are double deck BJ and Baccarat. I play with $50K lines at most of the major resorts in Vegas. I used to play in both Vegas and Tahoe (nowhere else), but since resuming gambling two years ago all my play has been in Vegas. We (the wife (who does no gamble at all, anywhere) and I) still visit Tahoe, but I do not play in Tahoe any longer.

Been here in Vegas since Tuesday. Won 5K earlier in the week, all at Baccarat, almost took a major spill Thursday. Was down -18, pulled another -10, lost a couple or more from that, then gradually rallied with an average bet of only 500 to win back everything, and stop at just above even.

Friday didn't play at all as we were at the hockey game that evening as casino invited guests, in their suite and with ice rink side seats, and between going to the gym and lounging around, I didn't have time for casino action.

I won another 1550 today, tipped out a couple hunny along the way. Played just a couple shoes.



Had a player run at the end and declared that I would leave when it did, and when it ended...I left! bringing the winner's envelope to about 7K.



During pretty much the same period that I played, a guy came up with three grand and declared that he had twenty minutes to play until he caught the plane. He took that 3 to about 9 at one point but kept playing. In my mind, I was thinking...how much does this guy want? He got back to even and none ahead twice, but rallied each time. He kept playing. What was the goal? Did he even know?

In any case he walked with only one purple chip...down -2500.

Money management!

Packing now, onwards to the next resort later today. Cheerio!

 

I have some videos posted from prior trips here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMsfxHhvLdBwZa-grHKARjg/videos?view_as=subscriber

 

At casinos if you win, even consistently, at what they view as a game of chance, no one molests you. Win, especially consistently, at what is viewed as a game of skill, and you will be handicapped or banned (been there). Baccarat is viewed as a game of chance. Blackjack as a game of skill.

Which is why no one bothers me no matter how much or consistently I win at Baccarat.

Checked into the second resort. This is a different style suite haven't stayed in before. Great layout. Very modern.








Will start playing tomorrow. I almost never play on check in and check out days, although I did play some today, at the prior resort.

 

You're sadly mistaken on the bolded part.

 

Hi, Mdawg! Welcome to Gambling Forums! You are sure to be appreciated on here! GF is a lot more laid back than that other Gambling website that unfairly treated you like shit and suspended you many times unfairly!

 

Won barely a hundred dollars today, after being down -8K more than once. Call bets were key to the path back up! I won all of these fortunately, or at points I would have slipped to more than 8K down.

I was playing a $300. min (instead of the usual $100. min) shoe today, and I wasn't working the low-high bet spread properly. Still, it ended fine. I am very good at quitting once I reach even after being down.

I probably tipped out triple what I won.

Hey, but at least the cocktail waitress was nice, and beautiful, and she kept the hot teas coming. She's as much a regular in the high limit pit as I am, and we know each other well.

Today's win:

(I left the fifty cent piece with the cashier as a tip.)

Today's marker paid:

 

Today was a repeat of yesterday, almost to the letter. Ended with just a couple dollars more than yesterday!

and wearing platinum today versus gold yesterday didn't seem to make a difference.

I was down as much as, I believe it was, -23 at one point, but gradually rallied to even.

This is how it went: I pulled an 8, lost it, did a couple of call bets, won one or two, lost one or two. Pulled a ten, lost that too - not immediately, but eventually. Then pulled a twenty. At one point (when I was down -23 I believe it was) I slammed $15K on one hand and won with a 6. Later on I won an $8000. nine over eight player. That was pretty fun. Commission - that was killing me, I must have paid out five grand maybe a lot more, of commission along the way to a final victory. I rarely if ever keep playing after coming back from in the hole to even.

Some might ask why would I even get down, reading the cards and varying my bet. I am not actually playing this $300. minimum table correctly. I need to vary my bet more and press into the runs better. Once I was on a roll, the dealers kept commenting that I wasn't betting enough and could have emptied their tray if I had been playing harder. But, I was gun shy after being down so much, and just wanted back to even.

Sad isn't it, how "easy" it is sometimes to win twenty or thirty grand when you have to (are down), but not so much when you don't have to (are ahead).

Towards the beginning I had this really cool cocktail waitress. I recall her from last trip although I don't know her as well as the one from yesterday. Towards the end this Russian blonde took over and although hot she had a masked but visible (at least to me) attitude, and if anyone did not deserve a tip, it was she, but she did deliver my teas, and so, she got the same fiver per hot tea as any other waitress who serves me. The Russian girl spent most of her time in the back bar behind the tables surrounded by about five guys, a combination of customers and employees. I was in such a good mood as I inched in on my goal, that I felt like leaping back there and saying, wow, you sure have it nice surrounded by male minions, now how about bringing me a tea mine has gotten cold again. But, so what, it's the Palms and hot cocktail waitresses at least at high limit are the norm. Let them enjoy the attention. I was busy winning back my money.

All markers paid, waiting for wife to come back from the spa, then probably a long dinner at Bobby Flay's. I have too much energy to dine in the room tonight. That was pretty intense today. I may be getting tired. I misplaced something valuable in the room and when I didn't find it in the safe I started panicking. I was about to login on my laptop to GPS search for it, when I discovered that my wife had hidden it for me. I must have left it out on the bed. Careless. Maybe time for a break.

In any case I play one session per day only so tomorrow I will go to the gym and get grounded before resuming play.

 

One thing that is annoying me a tad. They told me that they tagged my average today at "only" $900. I was slamming yellow chips regularly, and did that $15K hand and that $8K hand and a few $5K hands too. True, I played a lot of table minimum hands too, but still.

I could tell that some of the pit bosses I encountered today could have cared less whether I won or lost, and in fact were rooting for me, and then one or two might have been hoping I lost.

As far as big wins, most pit bosses don't care if you even empty the tray but would prefer that you not do it on their watch.

 

I found another marker in my wallet. This one was was from one of the call bets that I won, where the pit boss printed the marker so fast that I had to go through paying it versus having the chips simply disappear from the tray against the win.

In the "old" days (meaning over a decade ago), casinos used to allow the chips in the tray for call bets to accumulate even past one hand, but nowadays, especially at the Palms, they seem quick to print that marker versus holding it in the tray.

Another thing that has changed - no more call bets where players would toss a stack of bills on the table and declare how much it is, and get paid that amount if they won without the casino's even counting the money. No more cash bets at all, in fact.

 

Pretty smooth sailing today. I arrived at a shoe that was about half played, completed that one, played one more shoe, and walked with some money. Not a ton, about fourteen hunny. That's a purple at the end of the stack.

Marker paid. That is an 18K rose gold Breguet I am wearing today by the way, not a Rolex. What they call, a "complicated" watch.

I was down no more than a couple thousand before starting to win, which is within expected variance for a $300. minimum table. Also, I was losing on the shoe I walked up to, while I won on the shoe I cut. Does it make a difference? Well, maybe. All I know is that I tend to cut very good shoes.

Tomorrow we move to the next resort, so I didn't want to spend time playing catch up all day again today or take any big risks. So as soon as I got a little ahead I just left. I generally am cautious on the last day of play at each resort. Anyway, success! Leaving this casino, too, ahead!

 

No one's trying to make a living at gambling. But at the same time, if I lost money at it I wouldn't continue with it. I just somehow have managed to stay ahead, and the only dent they have made in my progress was when they banned (handicapped) my BJ play. To summarize, they got tired of my wild fluctuations between table min and table max at double deck BJ and that I was winning all of my table max bets including many double downs. Obviously the count alone could not have justified such luck, but after this went on for a number of days on yet another winning trip, the casino I was playing at, owned by Steve Wynn, stepped in and "handicapped" me - to a 3X spread.

"From now on if you bet $25. on a hand, you can't bet more than three times that, $75., on the next. No more $25. $2500. $25. $2500."

The limit at that time was $2500. This wasn't that long ago actually, about twenty or so years ago, but that was the limit at that casino at that time, $2500. This was when I was barely of legal age to gamble, but I had been playing blackjack and other card games since I was about eight years old, for fun, so I may have been relatively new to casinos but not new to playing cards.

After the BJ "ban" (handicap), I stayed away from Vegas entirely for almost two years, came back to the same casino, kept playing the same way, won for a matter of hours only, and got booted again from BJ.

Then I switched to Baccarat, and won even more at it than I had ever won at BJ. Eventually I became friends with the Director of Table Games who had set the handicap on me, who had since transferred to a different Wynn casino on the Strip, and he let me resume BJ play, and even laughed about how I liked to alternate between table min and max. But for whatever reason, I never really went back so hard to BJ, and have stuck with Baccarat. I just feel more comfortable betting big at Bacc.

I still play double deck BJ occasionally, but there is only one casino on the strip where they stand on soft 17 double deck BJ, so I pretty much play BJ at that casino only. There is one other casino, off the strip, where the double deck BJ is not only stand 17 but allows resplit aces and comes to a 0.14 house edge, but I am banned entirely from that casino - they fear me.

 

I have had about ten Vegas trips since I got back into playing in 2018.

On each trip have stayed at about three different resorts, sometimes hitting the same resort more than once during the same trip, such as during my MONTH LONG trip to Vegas in late Summer / early Fall 2019.

However, if you view each "segment" of the trip - each stay at a different casino - as a separate trip, then that would be more like about thirty Vegas trips since 2018.

 

Checked into the wrap around terrace suite - 1200 square feet.

Upon arrival in the Foyer, everything looks poi-fect:

 

But then, as we start to put our things away:

The bathroom closet is not big enough for both of our hanging clothes:

and there actually isn't any drawer storage for other clothes, so I end up putting some clothes into the bar cabinets:


(This is common at all of the Cosmo suites - lack of drawers for clothing storage.)
And because my clothes won't fit alongside hers, my hanging clothes end up in the hall closet:

This building was originally to be a living complex of condominiums, later bought out to be used as a casino. All these shortcomings could just have to do with that whoever bought this unit originally as a condo never finished it, and it was left to the casino to slap it together, and they forgot some living necessities such as clothing drawers.

I mean here we have a wine cooler:

which is an upgraded amenity for any hotel suite, but no drawers for clothing anywhere near the bedroom?

As well, there is no jacuzzi tub in this suite:

and again perhaps the original purchaser of this particular condominium unit decided not to upgrade to a jacuzzi tub, which is why some of the suites here have jacuzzis, and some do not.

There are some niceties for a hotel room, such as this hanging cabinet, which she puts to good use:


The powder room is more than just a powder room, it is a 3/4 bathroom:

 

and then of course...the view. The wrap around terrace view:

 

As planned, no play today. Staying in.

For dinner we had

that I brought up from the second floor.

 

Tonight was like...money from home. Barely betting (average around four hunny), never behind at any point, walked with 6400. I played just 2 and a quarter shoes.

Cashed 1400 of it because when you cash too much they threaten to temp close your line, and held onto the 5K chip. When I cashed the 14 hunny I slid the cashier ten bucks from my wallet.

Marker paid.

Tomorrow is the Bacc. tournament. I start playing early in the afternoon.

Waiting for the wife, she's at the gym, to go out to dinner. High energy night!

 

Even the Eiffel Tower looks patriotic tonight!