Musical Dice -- My Craps Blog

     After the disastrous craps results of my last trip, I, at times, was asking myself this very question. Fortunately, the craps results from this trip, seems to indicate that the answer is a definite yes.

     We checked into our room at the Golden Nugget casino. We rested for a few hours, then we went downstairs to play.

     I started at the blackjack table. After a while of playing at a very choppy table, I left $25 ahead.

     From there, we went to L'Auberge. I first played blackjack there. Once again, I encountered a choppy table. The moment I got my money back, I left $50 ahead.

     I then went to a craps table, and that too was a choppy table. Some were making points, some weren't, so it was hard to figure out whether to play light side or dark side. Ultimately, sufficiently enough of my Place bets hit, to get me out of the hole, and ahead $17, for a total session win of $67.

     We had dinner at the Ember Steakhouse (still at L'Auberge), which included an adult beverage for both of us, The dinner and the service was superb.

     It was my intention to play some more after returning to Golden Nugget. But we had such a hard time getting an Uber that we decided to walk back to Golden Nugget. In the heat, and with that drink inside us, that wasn't the easiest of tasks. In fact, when we reached our room, we both crashed for the night. I was content to finish $92 up for the day. More tomorrow for sure.

     This day started off with my having to call my credit card company, and dispute charges to my card (I won't get into details here, but if you want to know the details, email me at musicaldice323@gmail.com, I'll be glad to fill you in). As you'll soon find out, tjis is not the only reason why I called this day Disputes.

     After having breakfast at the Starbuck's (inside the Golden Nugget), we went to play. I first started at the craps table. I tried playing more aggressive, trying one of my regression strategies, and quickly got into trouble, due to early seven-outs. I ended up investing $900 before I got it all back. And I'm proud to say that I did that on my roll. I was shooting from the end, using the Yo-Yo dice set, and was lofting the dice quite high on this table. I ended up rolling 20 times, enough to make my Best Craps Shoots Hall Of Fame page. I ended up $51 ahead at the end of my shoot, after which I colored up.

     I added $57.50 to that at the blackjack table, for a total session win of $108.50.

     From there, I played at L'Auberge. I first got into a craps game where the people there were looking gery somber. This was an indication that at this $25 table, to play a dark side strategy. I bet $75 on the Don't Come, which traveled to the 5, then placed 30 each on the 6 and the 8. Both Place bets hit before the seven-out. I decided to leave $85 ahead at that point, since I wasn't getting good vibes from that table. Also, up to that point, that was the biggest win I had at any one table thus far on this trip!

     I then added $50 to that st the blackjack table, but I had to go to a Round 2 buy-in in order to get it back. I ended the session $135 up.

     After a simple but nice to-go lunch from Sonic, I played again at Golden Nugget. My real focus was to try to get into a poker game. I had two quick sessions, first at the craps table, where I won a quick $11 off one shooter who netted me that much in profit. Then I played blackjack on yet another choppy table, where I eventually won $25, during which I had a dispute with a dealer of her not giving my Insurance bet back, when I insured both my $25 hands for $25, and she had blackjack. I said that she needed to pay me back my insurance bet as well. After the floor person got involved, the dealer paid me my insurance bet back as well. Tht bet was exactly my profit margin. From there I went to the poker room.

     Unfortunately, the wait was much longer than I'd anticipated, so much so that I decided not to wait anymore, so I went back to the craps table. Another short session, winning $37 on another choppy table.

     When my seat was finally available at the poker table, I was already at another blackjack table trying to get my money back, so I stayed at the blackjack table, instead of going to the poker table. Maybe that was a mistake because this blackjack table was horrible. I ended up losing $905, leading to a session loss of $832. Just like that, I went from $335.50 ahead to $496.50 down for the trip. ARGH!!

     After taking a needed rest, my wife and I went swimming. By this time, the sun had just gone down, so it wasn't wuite so hot outside. But as we were entering the pool area, we saw four people, a woman and three men being escorted out of the area. Apparently, the woman was having a heated dispute with the three men. My wife and I didn't stick around long either because the mosquitoes were out in full force, and Mrs. MusicalDice especially was feeling it.

     From there, we went to Vic & Anthony's (still in Golden Nugget) for dinner, where I had a very nice big lobster tail. I felt like I had the energy to play once more before the day was through.

     Not long after dinner, I went to the craps table. Initially, I got into some trouble, investing a total of $700 before getting it all back. This time, I was betting with a good shooter. starting with 4-unit bets on the 6 and 8, then branching out to the other numbers, then parlaying them up slowly as they hit. At one point, I had the 5 up to $75 and the 8 up to $90. I requested that if either of those numbers hit, for me to get a black chip. I did get to yell "Bull-llackout!" once when the 5 hit--something I hadn't been able to say in quite a while. Yes, I was doing some good cutting up. I ended up $299 ahead when the shooter crapped out.

     I did manage to get onto a poker table. Unfortunately, for the 2 hours I was there, I only won 2 hands, and when I finally picked up a decent hand, Pocket 4's and I raised, two people called, and the flop came out an ace, a deuce, and a four. Much to my surprise, everybody went all-in. I thought I had a decent shot to win this, since I'd flopped a set of 4's. Turns out, one of my opponents had called my raise with only a five and a trey, and had flopped a wheel! I lost my $500 buy-in, and I went from having a $299 winning session to having a $201 losing session. ARGH!!! I ended up losing $789.50 for this day, and thus far, down $697.50 for the trip. Not good! At least I haven't lost yet playing craps on this trip!

     Today, my wife and I decided to have breakfast at a restaurant at L'Auberge, instead of Golden Nugget. After a fair breakfast, I played blackjack, where I won $50 on a table that ws bad at first. From there, we returned to Golden Nugget to check out.

     After we checked out of Golden Nugget, we returned to L'Auberge, where our charter bus would eventually pick us up to take us back home to Houston. I decided to give getting my money back a shot. I first played blackjack, which was a good table at first, then I lost to the point that I only had $75 in profit.

     I then went to the craps table, where I decided to play slow against this one shooter, only betting 6 and 8, using my $10 Whirl bet on the come-out, and 4 units on the 6 and 8. The shooter did make one point. Then my Whirl bet hit several times, and despite having enough extra money to place additional bets once the next point was established, I decided to stay put for the time being, making sure I green-zoned this win. The shooter soon crapped out, and I left the table $108 ahead, for a total session win of $183.

     I then walked over to Golden Nugget, where I first got into a craps game. There, I decided to employ the same slow-play strategy that I did at L'Auberge. This shooter was even better, and I was able to get all my bets to 4-unit levels. Then I decided to press the inside numbers to quarters, and transitioned my play to what I call the Accelerated Quarters strategy, where for each hit on the box numbers, I'd press by 25 (30 on the 6 and 8). At one point, I was considering taking those bets down, and locking up a 500 Club win. But the shooter crapped out before I could do that. I did win $317 at that table.

     I then played blackjack, hoping to win the rest of the money to get me to that 500 Club. I did come close a couple of times, but after losing a couple of double-down hands at the end, I left the table only $30 ahead, and $347 ahead for the whole session.

     At this point, I was down only $117.50, so naturally, when I returned to L'Auberge, I thought I'd play once more to try to win that back. And naturally, I chose to play the game that I have the highest win percentage, and that was blackjack. Unfortunately, the blackjack table was un-naturally bad. NOTHING seemed to go right. I pulled the plug when I had two decent hands, but the dealer ended up with blackjack. That was it! I left the table $825 down, and $942.50 down for the trip. I declared myself all gambled out at that point. Needless to say, I was pissed!

     At least I can say that I never lost playing craps on this trip. And I even had a Hall Of Fame roll on this trip. I won a total of $725 playing craps. Unfortunately, a win on this trip wasn't in the cards (no pun intended).

     My next gambling trip probably won't be until next month, as my wife and I have a lot coming up for the rest of this month. But we do have a Vegas trip planned for next month. Stay tuned for that. But that's all for now! ☺