Vegas trip report-Day 4

Day 4: A Comeback?

I haven’t gone into detail about my gambling on this trip. This is because up to this point it basically sucked. I had played video poker on at least 10 different machines and lost on every one except the free money from Golden Nugget. I played 10 different parlays through Sunday and lost every one of them. A couple were long shots, but enough were 3 team parlays that I should have won one by this point. I had a couple of narrow misses, like the Colts winning by 4 instead of 5 and Missouri losing on a last second touchdown. I was getting a bit desperate to get a win. I played some slots (which I never do) and I considered betting on horses despite knowing nothing about it.

Monday was our last full day in Vegas and the wife and I decided to split up again. She went shopping at the outlet mall, I decided I wanted to play poker or blackjack with the last of my gambling allowance. I’m a low roller and I wanted to find a $2/$4 poker game. The one strip casino I knew with a regular $2/$4 game is Excalibur. It was early (about 10:30) when I got to Excalibur. They were finishing up their 9am no-limit tournament, so I got on the list for a $2/$4 game. I figure with the tournament winding down I might get some of the tournament players to play a cash game. The poker room attendant explained how the electronic tables worked and scanned my drivers license to update my information. I scanned my card to get on the list and the attendant said I should check back in an hour to see if they’ve had any takers. I sat in the sports book for awhile and scouted out some college basketball lines. I knew I was glutton for punishment, but I couldn’t see going home without at least one win. After a half hour I was still the only person on the wait list so I decided to see if I could find a $5 blackjack table.
I sat down with four other gamblers to discover the hottest table I have ever seen. I won the first five hands with one blackjack, then doubled my bet and lost. I went back to $5 per hand as I figured that’s what the poker gods (I’ve always assumed there is more than one of them) wanted me to do. I proceeded to win about another 5 consecutive hands. The table cooled a little after that, but I was still winning way more than losing. I got up about $75, then lost 3 straight hands. I cashed out at that point still up $60. My feeling on blackjack is since the variance is very low, over the long term you can reasonably expect to be about even. Therefore, when I’m up more than 10 bets I should cash out as I’m likely to come back to earth in the near future. I checked back at the poker room to see if the $2/$4 game had picked up any interest. It hadn’t so I took my winnings and headed back up the strip. It wouldn’t surprise me if my name was still on the list at Excalibur.
With my newfound gambling confidence I placed a couple 2-team basketball parlays. I wandered aimlessly through a few casinos and wound up at the Wynn. I played some video poker, mostly because they have the most comfortable chairs on the strip. I would be tempted to work more hours if my office chair was as comfortable as the ones at the Wynn. I broke even playing VP, which felt like a win, and cashed out.
I met back up with the wife at around 4. She told be about her adventures with some strange people on the Duece and how she returned some stuff she had purchased 2 days before. I’m not sure anyone can explain this behavior, as it’s not uncommon for my wife to buy a bunch of stuff only to take it back. I, on the other hand, try not to buy anything and when I do I never take it back.
We went over to Toby Keith’s bar and grill at Harrah’s for dinner. I had the pulled pork sandwich, the wife had fish. It was good and reasonably priced. We had good service again and decided against after dinner drinks as we had to get packed since we had an early flight the next morning. I watched some basketball from the room and I finally broke my losing streak. One of my parlays came through and I cashed in for a $26 gain. I decided that was a good way to end my gambling in Vegas.