Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2015 23:01:12 -0400
From: Paul McMullin
Subject: [BARGE] Saturday in Vega$

I managed to bust out of the Saturday NLH event relatively early, but not
early enough to jump into any of the Saturday afternoon tournaments up on
the strip, so I stayed for the Banquet and speaker; I didn't understand all
of the art that Jennifer Shadade
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Shahade shared with us, but she was
entertaining.

I don't get to play in casinos often enough to consider most of the
"Reindeer games" sillinesses an attractive alternative to playing against
tourists up on the strip [see "Table Selection Skills"].

I arrived at the Aria poker room about five minutes before they ended the
buy-in/rebuy period for their Saturday 7:00PM $125 NLH tournament, so I
jumped into that as they were switching from 25/200/400 to 25/250/500 level
- they start you with 10k in chips, so it isn't hopeless to buy in that
late. I doubled up once, and then donked off my chips about 1/2 hour later.

I asked to be put on the 1-3 No Limit list; "No problem, you're 26th on the
list". Crap - they just closed a table in the tournament - maybe they'll
open a new table for the long list. Stood around for 10 minutes and
determined that they were in no hurry to open any new tables. I wandered
away to look around in the casino, came back at 10:20 and found I had moved
up to 17th. I had a 9:20am flight on Sunday, so even if I got seated into a
1-3 game at 11:00, I'd have to leave after an hour.

While I was wandering around, I saw a $15 craps table... I'd have expected
that an upscale casino on a Saturday Fight Night (there was a Women's
Championship MMA fight somewhere in Vegas), all of the minimum bets would
be out of my comfort range.

I'll show THEM what happens when you piss off a ROOLING GAMBOLER like me by
not quickly seating them into a 1-3 game! I'll CRUSH them at craps!

There was only one person at the table when I returned (Aria on a Saturday
Fight Night... one player at their craps table? Their marketing department
needs to be shaken up!). I bought in for $700, the lone player picked up
and wandered off, and the dice were passed to me.

Alone at a craps table, I shoot from the dark side ("Don't pass"), and
place "don't come" bets, laying full odds. A long run of numbers with no 7s
can be expensive, but if I manage to throw non-repeating numbers with an
occasional 7, getting paid for a couple of "don't" bets all at once is
kinda sweet.

My strategy worked for a while (with no one at the table, I got the dice
back when I 7-outed), but a pair of players joined the other end of the
table. Not much changed as they both made a pass (loser for me) and then
crapped out (winner for me), and I got the dice back.

Since there were players at the table, I shot from the "pass" side, rolling
a 6 to start. The "box man" had seen me rolling from the dark side, and
asked if I had mis-placed my bet, and I told him that I prefer to shoot
"with the table" when other players are there - I'm pretty sure he's seen
and heard it all, and he gave me the sage smile.

I started another chain of making "don't come" bets, throwing a few 3s
(winners for my "don't come", not affecting my pass line bet or the other
players) and a 4 different numbers (laying odds on each) and then made my
point (threw a 6) and the guys at the other end of the table high five'd
each other. The "don't come" bet when I threw the 6 made the 5th "don't"
bet for me. I now called "Com'on Seven!" on my next roll, and sure enough
threw a seven! I raised my hands over my head and shouted "SEVEN!"... one
of the two guys at the far end looked up and agreed "That was a Good
Seven", and I corrected him - "It was a VERY Good Seven!". He gave me the
"Spock Eyebrow", and I waved my hand at the 5 "don't bets" that the dealer
was starting to pay, and he elbowed his buddy, pointed down at my end of
the table, and blurted out "OMG! That was a GREAT Seven!!!".

The rack at my end of the table now had a BUNCH of green and red chips, and
I asked if I could color up some of them... the Box Man told me that they
don't want to slow the game in progress (I think that their real reason is
that often, when a player colors up, he is 'locking up' chips that wouldn't
come back into play), and I told him that I had too many chips at my end.
He agreed to make a "One Time" exception, and I put two hands full of Green
($25) and Red ($5) chips down. They counted them up and gave me back one
Yellow ($1000) and two Black ($100) chips. I played for another 20 minutes
and won a bit more, and then colored up another three hands full (many Red
chips)... I left the table carrying two Yellows, two Blacks, and two Greens
after passing a Green chip to the Box Man "for the dealers". Needless to
say, I got a fist bump from the dealer next to me and an appreciative nod
from the stickman and the far dealer as I was picking up.

Maybe they SHOULD have opened another 1-3 table back in the poker room!

-prm