Monday, October 27, 2008

My New Blog is Up

I have started a new BLOG at the CasinoGuide.com website.

Please feel free to stop by and let me know what you think.

The new link is: http://www.casinoguide.com/blogs/vegasgambler

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Mandalay Bay Weekend

This is getting very frustrating. I am losing so often that I don't even like to write about it because it just puts me in a bad mood.

I spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at an event at Mandalay Bay. I lost about $7,000 playing 9/6 Jacks or Better video poker and a good six deck Blackjack game.

Fortunately the event was giving away $250,000 to the invited guests. I got to choose a briefcase which contained anywhere between $150 and $50,000. Since the total giveaway was $250,000 and there was only 20 briefcases, the average value of the cases was $12,500.

Well lucky me selects a case that contains $400. That is how my luck has been for the past few months.




Weekend Total: -$6,600
Year to Date: +$23,147

Friday, May 2, 2008

Finally a win

I have cut way back on my gambling the past few weeks because I have been bleeding off my bankroll much quicker than anticipated. But today, the day started out very good. I went to Putter's for my morning coffee before work and played the $1 Double Double progressive ($10,037). I didn't hit the progressive but I did hold one Ace and it gave me three more for $800. I forgot to take a picture of it.

Later in the day I played video poker and video blackjack at Noreen's, Kicker's, Blue Ox, and Putters. I won another $250

Daily Total: +1,010
Year to Date: +$29,747

Fremont Street


On Wednesday I met a friend downtown Las Vegas to play a little Blackjack. I arrived about half an hour before our scheduled meeting time and decided to walk around Fremont street for a while. After going in and out of a few casinos a noticed 9/4/4 Bonus Deuces Wild game (99.5%) at the Las Vegas Club. It was a very old machine that still used $1 coins instead of tickets.


I sat down and played for about ten minutes and cashed out $25 ahead. As soon as I hit the collect button I knew I was in trouble. The machine spit out three coins and stopped. A slot atendant came over and got a jammed coin out of the elevator arm. The machine then kicked out the remaining 122 $1 coins. After scooping the filthy coins into a bucket and cashing them in, I clearly remembered why "coins" have disappeared from casinos.


I met my friend over at the Golden Gate casino and we played some $5 blackjack for a total of about 2.5 hours. I ended up losing $35 at Blackjack. We went over to the Golden Nugget and had a nice meal at their Italian restaurant. The dessert cart looked incredible but neither of us could eat any more.




Daily Total: -$10

Year to Date: +$28,737

Sunday, April 27, 2008

MGM Slot Tournament

I paid a $1000 to enter a slot tournament at MGM this weekend. The prize pool was $350,000 and it only had 148 entrants. My math says that is a great tournament to get into.

The tournament was broken down into two separate days with $175,000 given away each day. The first place prize was $25,000 and went down from there. The last place prize was $500 so everybody would at least get their buyin back.

In the first round on Friday I scored 12,690. On the second round on Friday I scored 12,589. With those scores I thought I would be in the middle of pack for the days prizes. Boy was I wrong. I finished 13th. Well, actually it was 13th from the bottom good for 135th place out of 148 and it paid $500.

On Saturday my scores improved to 15,300 an 13,200 for another spectacular $500 win. I guess my carrer as a professional slot tournament player is now in question.

The good news is that I got my $1000 buy in back so it really was a freeroll. I will play in this type of a tournament any time it is offered.

Daily Result: -$0
Year to Date: +$28,747

Friday, April 25, 2008

A Busy night of gambling

I checked into the MGM last night for a slot tournament on Friday and Saturday. After checking in I visited the High Limit slots room at MGM to survey any changes. I didn't see anything new so I sat down at one of the 50-play $1 jacks or better games (99.5% + 0.33% free play). This game is almost break even and a great game to play to generate lots of coin in while theorhetically losing very little. I started out playing 10 hands at a time and slowly went up and down. I varied between playing 10, 15, and 25 hands depending on the amount of credits I had. I played for about a half hour putting through $14,000 with a $200 win.

The guy next to me was playing the highest stakes video poker that I ever witnessed. He was playing a 10-play $50 denom game. In the half hour I was there he lost the $15,000 he had on the machine when I got there, took another marker for $20,000, and was down to $2,000 when I left.

After meeting my friend for dinner, she wanted to play a silly penny video slot so I sat and watch for about 20 minutes until my mind was completely numb. While she continued playing that I went back over to the 50-plays and lost $1100 in ten minutes. Our next stop was NYNY so she could play the penny 5 reel 30 line Millionaire Sevens game. For those not familiar with this game, I think it is the best mechanical reel slot introduced in the last 5 years. This is the only reel slot that I could actually sit and play for a few minutes without being bored. While she is playing the slot I go over to a Blackjack table and go on a tear. I bought in for $500 and started betting $50. After about fifteen minutes I cashed out $1725 when they changed dealers. I finished by not losing a single hand in my last 12 hands.

Next we walk over to the Excalibur to play the $1 10/6 Double Double game (100.1%). I give my friend some money so we could both play on my card while having drinks at the bar. My machine is playing pretty well and I am getting a few four of a kinds. Her machine isn;t cooperating and she loses $500 of my money. Right as she runs out I hit four four's with a kicker for $800. I cash out at $1200 and make her go collect on the ticket. When she returns we each put another $100 in and she manages to hit for Aces on the very first hand. I was very excited until I noticed she was playing quarters. Apparently, the machine defaulted back to quarters when she ran out of money. She hadn't noticed until I pointed it out and then she felt terrible. Oops, that cost me $600. When we finish playing video poker I am exactly even for the day.

At about 1am we returned to MGM where in my drunken tired state of mind I deduced it would be wise to play some more Blackjack. I found the good double deck game and proceeded to lose a $1000 in about 40 minutes. I was foolish because I was actually ahead $500 at one point and I didn't quit. At this point I compounded my stupidity by going back to the 50play machine to "win back my $1000". That cost me $1300 more and then I called it a night.


Daily Result: -$2,300
Year to Date: +$28,747

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Weekend at Mandalay Bay

I was invited to a weekend slot tournament at Mandalay Bay. I had a nice room for three nights and spent a lot of time by the pool. The tournament was set up so each player got to play two sessions with the highest score of each session winning $25,000. The first session I played I cam in second and received $0. The second session I was in the middle of the pack and also got $0.

On thursday night I mainly just walked the strip with a friend of mine. I did manage to win a $100 playing the 10/6 DDB $1 game at Excalibur. When we got back to Mandalay Bay I saw the 100-play $1 9/6 Jacks or Better game was open so I sat down to earn some points. I didn't play very long and quit down $1500 for the session.

On Friday we walked around more and I mainly watched my friend play all the crazy slot machines. When we got to NYNY I played some blackjack and won about $700 in 15 minutes. We return to Manadalay Bay where I wanted to play their decent six deck Blackjack game. I won 3 hands out of 17 and decided to quit because I was down $2000 in less than 20 minutes.

I decided that was enough gambling for the weekend because I have another tournament at MGM this weekend. This tournament has a prize pool of $350,000.


Weekend Result: -$2,800
Year to Date: +$31,047