Trip Report

Ran all over town to get some variety and check out different areas. Unusually low expenses this time, as I used some frequent flyer miles from a UCS (unwitting corporate sponsor). Stayed at the LL downtown, whose internet price was $40/day, but using Travelaxe got $14.50 (Garden room). Upon asking at check-in got upgraded (free) to a Tower room, very pleasant. Nice view of the El Cortez & the Boulder Highway, etc., and as usual this place was extremely quiet, very clean. Only other expenses were City bus ($1.25) each way airport, $2 for each of multiple trips up & down the Strip, and about $20 for groceries, and $15 for tips. Four days (all weekdays).

The only drawback to no car is that some great looking (on paper) 2D games are remote from Downtown & the Strip & would cost a bus rider a little extra time. Too bad. Next time I may rent a car.

$8K trip bankroll stuffed into extra pockets sewn onto my shirt-tails. These went undetected (as usual) by airport security.

Scheduled the trip by checking for no big conventions, then reviewed a CBJN (unfortunately a month old, but still, I found, very useful) to select targets, with the following initial screening criteria: 1D: pen <= 0.5 decks remaing at shuffle, rules 0.18; 2D: pen <= 0.8, rules 0.40; 6D: pen <1.5, rules 0.50. I usually stick to $5 tables, but on this trip looked at both $5 and $10, because some $10 games looked pretty enticing this time. Although the 6D scene has slid downhill, with substantially lower SCOREs than previously (and especially when compared to pitch games, where I tend to spread aggressively), I still enjoy playing them, especially when I need a buffet, or feel in the mood to watch all the yuppie chickies in their low cut snake coture flipping it around on the south Strip. Nice to look at, but I do find the hyper panic shining in their eyes somewhat disturbing.

Typically played 1:00 am to about 4:00 pm to avoid the evening mob scene. This seriously limited the number of tables open, but provided for far fewer players per table. It's amazing how this town empties out at 2:00 am, like somebody pulled the plug in the bathtub drain. A brief swirl and they are all gone. I guess in that analogy, that makes me the bathtub ring ? stick around a long time ? ugly & hard to get rid of. Early afternoons downtown were also quite open.

Played 1.0 hours at 1D and 2D (with minor exceptions, as noted) and 3.0 hours at 6D. Since so few tables were open, had limited opportunities for table hopping.

Day 1
Flight got in at midnight. Headed Downtown.

4Q 2D, H17, $5, pen ranged from 0.8 decks remaining at shuffle to 1.1; 2-4 players at the table (but two night owls dropped off their limb at about 1:30 and left just two of us), spread 1-8. - $15

GN 2D, H17, rsa , $10 (no nickels open), pen about 0.8 (slot on shoe), 2 players, spread 1-8, - $445; All 1D games were 6:5

MSS 2D, H17, no das, $10, pen 0.8; 1-3 players, spread 1-10. "Czechs play" when I went to 10; how did they know my nationality? + $223

HS 1D H17, no DAS, rsa, $5, pen RO6 except when I boosted bets a little too far, then RO5; 1-3 players, spread 1-10; moved to a $10 table half-way through the session when the table filled up with a whole family: dad & mom & two sons & an uncle. Upon moving, had the $10 table to myself. +$40 and a $10 comp for breakfast: eggs & sausage & double toast & juice & a danish & three cups of coffee. Very fine. Ended up having to pay an extra $0.22 to cover the tax.

EL C 1D, H17, pen RO6; 3-5 players, glacially slow, but auto shuffler helped, spread 1-8, played 1.5 hours (lost track of time, probably due to time warp of the slow pace) + $122

Mooched back to the LL in the 102 degree oven, slept like a log.

Day 2
Somewhere after midnight, rode the 301 CAT full of Fremont Street tourist revelers bedecked with plastic beads & bulbous plastic daquiri glasses & overly loud voices to the south end of the Strip. Four of them had just gotten married last weekend at one of the drive-through wedding chapels, & loudly debated whether the were really married since the minister didn't really seem to be a minister and seemed short of paperwork. A romantic scene, as the bleary-eyed newlyweds clung together for warmth (shorts, sleeveless shirts) in the freezing bus AC. At the end of the bus line, entered through the sewer tunnel-type servant's entrance at the bus-stop level to the

MAND 6D, S17, DAS, pen 1.4 ? 1.5, 1-3 players, spread 1-12; Cool, aloof Ukraineian beauty dealt me a lot of tens, very fun. + $102. Tram was "down for cleaning" so walked over to:

LUX 6D, one table open, & that completely full. 2D game was fak21; Departed. Tram still down, walked to:

NYNY 6D, H17, Surr, DAS except AA, $5, pen 1.3 ? 1.5; 1-4 players, but played half of the three hours with only one other player, spread 1-16. Got all the tens, dealer got all the 6's. + $1205. Swarm of pit bosses (shift change) complimented me on my good fortune, (which was actually a couple hundred better than they thought it was), gave me a $15 breakfast comp. In the cute, touristy caf?, ate a very slippery corned beef hash breakfast with two eggs over easy, toast, juice, coffee, & danish. Didn't know it was possible to make bad corned beef hash. They must have worked at it. To sweat off the grease, walked down in the morning heat to the:

BWALK 2D. Only one table open & that full. 0 Hr. Their 1D game was 6:5. Whole place smelled like fried food, the last thing I needed, so headed to:

BAR C 2D, H17, DAS, $10, pen 0.8 to 1.0, 1-4 players, spread 1-6 under intense scrutiny from pit & dealer shuffling up when I tried 1-8. - $55

FL 2D H17, all tables $25; all 1D tables (back by the hotel lobby) were 6:5. 0 Hr.

IP 2D, H17, DAS, $10, pen 0.9 to 1.0; 1-4 players; spread 1-8, played 2.0 hours (straddled shift change), played the second hour with two cute girls from Long Island who were partying & joking & fun but only had a vague idea of BS. Throwing their money away. + $55

CR, 2D, no tables open, all 1D 6:5, 0 Hr Too bad.

Rode the bus back downtown:

GG 1D H17, $5, 3-4 players, pen RO6 and occasionally RO7, spread 1-6, but dealer shuffled up ("Czechs play") when I tried 1-8 one time. + $12

Day 3
Slept late to start adapting my time sense to the following day, when I was scheduled to catch the midnight flight out. By the time I started, the usual morning jogger types & retired military-type guys & locals had already showed up, but Downtown still was not crowded.

LL 2D, H17, $5, pen 0.8; 3 players for only a half hour, but I departed when two more showed up, spread 1-6. - $5.

MSS 2D, pen 0.9 to 1.1; 1- 4 players, played 2.0 hours (straddled shift change), spread 1-8. - $185; got comped for a nice but not great dinner buffet just before the lunchtime crowd hit. Front loaded, if you know what I mean, tired of nothing but breakfast stuff & peanut butter for the past two days. Could hardly get out of my chair to waddle over to the:

HS 1D, $5, pen RO6, 3-5 players, spread 1-6; + $43

4Q 2D, $10, 2-3 players, pen 0.9, spread 1-8; + $45

LVC 1D, H17, $5, 2-3 players, pen 0.3 to 0.5 Pretty fast game, boosted by auto shuffler. (What the heck was I doing going to the MAND, et al, when I could have been here this whole time?) One guy who had to "squeeze" his royal match bets slowed things down for a little while. Spread 1-8, "Czechs play" called once. + $50

MSS 2D, pen 1.0, 2-3 players, spread 1-8, + $55

Walked back to the LL & slept for a couple of hours, popped awake just before the alarm clock was set to go off at midnight. Yet another long bus ride out to Surrender land:

Day 4
M-G-em 6D, $10, S17, Surr, DAS except AA, pen 1.5; When I got there, all tables were full, (there must have been forty or fifty tables open, all packed) but I managed to squeeze into a table with five oriental women who did a lot of head scatching, guessing (badly), arm-waving, and equivocating. Standing on a soft 16, that kind of thing. Extremely slow play. Abruptly, they departed en masse after half an hour, & I had the table to myself for most of the rest of the three hours, although 1-2 other players drifted in & out occasionally. Very fast dealers. Spread 1-12, except on one high count, boosted to 1-14, apparently un-noticed. + $55. Got comped for what turned out to be an excellent $33 breakfast (plus gratuity) in their little caf?, which was deserted at that hour, except for a guy & two slinky girls in black dresses who had just gotten out of the nightclub (Ga-ga's? Yo-yo's? Can't remember the hip name). As I ate a fifteen pound fruit salad and very fine Eggs Benny (on top of, can you believe it though, three pounds of greasy, slimy, chopped up fried potatoes), juice & blueberry danish and two cups of mediocre coffee, I listened to the depressing schtick of the late night revelers. Too, too clich?'d, the chubby young (and apparently $$) Hawaiian guy trying to make it with the younger skinny (actually, bony) girlfriend (black dress), while the older skinny girlfriend with smudged makeup (sequinned black dress) moped and told depressing stories about her exes. All three bleary eyed & tipsy, spent half an hour trying to remember who had had how many drinks & what were they: "I think they were Bahamo Mambos", & in what order, "Like, did we have the strawberry martinis after the Bahamo Mambos or before?" When they got into a fight over it, I almost suggested, just get a little spiral notebook and they can track their drinking.

Departed, walked a mile to the nearest bus stop, almost getting run over in the pre-dawn light by a half dozen balding joggers running every which way up & down & across the Strip, rode downtown, & although I felt like turning in to get some shuteye before my midnight flight, couldn't pass up one more shot at the :

LVC 1D, $5, pen RO6 or RO7, 2-3 players, spread 1-8; + $110.

Walked over to the Gambler's Bookstore (11th St just off of Maryland) for a little exercise and amusement in the 104 degree afternoon, bought a cool book called "Dice Angel" (fiction). Then back to the room, washed all the goldang cigarrette smoke off me, folded into bed, sank down into multiple pillows, slept oblivious for six hours until time to pack up & head to the airport. (Bus station is right across the street from the LL.)

BTW, cleared airport security in less than two minutes (pockets bulging with an extra $1400). Made it from CAT bus stop at ground zero to my gate in 11 minutes flat. Thank goodness for Midwest wide seating and lucky empty seat beside me, slept well for almost two hours on the flight.

Home by early morning, in sparse traffic and lovely humidity and the smell of new-mown hay, to admire the flowers in the sweet rustling shade of the giant maple trees & pick some tomatoes for BLTs and return to real life.