Landed in Las Vegas for a 2 day trip (actually 55 hours in town), picked up a rental car at airport. Whew, was it hot and dry! About 105 degrees or higher during the day! Luckily, I had picked a casino hotel with close proximity to covered parking. Headed to my comped room, check in was easy, the room was nice.


I had posted on this and another forum that I was going to be in Las Vegas and an old pro (maybe he is not old, don't know his age) I had never met offered to help me. He suggested I play the station casinos as I wanted to play $25 min. DD.


It was 7:00 p.m. when I went down to the casino, used players card, sat down to play. I was going to play a short session but the pit lady took my card to comp me a meal and kept making excuses that the pit boss was busy, to sit tight. At one point I grumbled that the meal was going to cost me a few hundred dollars (I was down $200) but a lucky deck and I was up $185. I demanded my card back saying I am hungry, got to go. Never did get the comped meal but I paid for the great Chinese meal. I had played 45 minutes, up $180..


After dinner, I sat down to play again, got lucky, was up $315 after just 15 minutes of play. Decided to quit for the night. With the time difference, I had a very long day.


Next morning, headed to the best of that chain's casino. I played using players card throughout the trip. I handed over my card, sat down and immediately got lucky. Count was +2, I had 2 x $75. On one of the hands I got a pair of 3's. I split, got another 3 on one of them, split and got yet another 3. Dealer had a 3 up card and I had 4 bets on that split plus my other hand. I was able to double on a 3,6 but only one of my 5 hands had better than a 17. Luckily, the dealer busted and I made $450. I left after just 10-15 minutes of play, up $475.


I made one of my errors at my next stop. In 3 short sessions so far, of less than a couple of hours, I was up about $900. I stopped at another DD game at a casino off Flamingo Rd. I was playing heads up and I was losing, soon lost all my winnings plus to be down about $900. I had played an hour, bought in for $200, than another $300 and yet another two $300 buy ins. At mid morning on a weekday, there were hardly anyone playing and the pit was watching me go down. A part of me was wanting to leave before I get in trouble as I was using a players card and was staying at the same chain in a comped room. Another part was just upset that I had lost and I stayed on.


I made about $400 back, still down about $500 when a pretty hostess appeared, asked me a bunch of questions and what she could do for me. Course I could not tell her what I really wanted her to do for me so I settled for telling her I was staying at a sister property and other than a dinner comp, I did not need anything. To my surprise, she tried to get me to shift to their hotel saying she was quite sure their rooms were much better!


In any case, I played for 2 hours, won back all but $25. I had gone into a hole of about $1k and made it all the way back. I was still cursing myself for taking a back off risk. However, I had kept my spread to 2 x$25 to 2x $125 and my act and the players card helped.


I went to a few other station casinos but mid week, they were dead or had $5 min. DD games and I stood out when I raised my bet to $50. I was tired and decided to go take a nap.


In the late evening, I hit other station casinos that had some good action. Played at the kings home, the big rock, the green lawn, won and won.


At the end of the first day, I was up just under $3k.


I almost got ripped off! I thought I would reward myself, checked backpage.com at 11:00 p.m., called a "hot blonde bombshell". She wanted $200, I offered $100, she agreed. An hour later a brunette with tattoos showed up. We ride up the elevator, she says she is "Megan". We get into my room, I lock the door. She sits on bed says first thing is the dollars. I hand her a $100. She puts it into her bag, says the $100 is "agency fee" and she expects to be "tipped". I say if she is good, it's understood. She scrounges in her bag, says she forgot to bring a condom, that she can go down to the gift store and get one. I say that she needs to return my $100 before we go out of room to get condom. She says it's not necessary and starts walking to the door. I pick up room phone, say she either returns my $100 or I call Security. She gives me back my $100, puts her arm in mine and we leave the room to go to the gift store. When the elevator door opens, I tell her that I am not interested anymore. That she agreed to $100, wants more and that I believed she would have run off with my $100. I ride back up alone.


After that I should have known luck was going south.


On my second morning, I first ducked into the Texas and Fiesta but they were totally dead. I went back to the casino off Flamingo where I had played a lot, lost and made up the day before. This time I lost $500, table got talkative ploppies and I left.


I made another mistake, went to the sweaty guys place downtown. I was playing $25 SD, Scrutiny was high. I took out about 10 Players card, pretended to check for their card, gave them my ID and got their card. They relaxed. It had been a long time since I played SD, should not have done it. After a roller coaster ride and 90 minutes of it, I lost $1k.


The first day I had won almost $3k, second day I had lost more than half at two casinos. Went back to my casino/hotel tried taking a nap, went down to the casino and managed to win $700 before I realized that I could lose my comps or worse. I ended my play.


In the end, I will have spent 55 hours in Las Vegas, played 11 hours, won $2180. A lot of driving too! My Frontier airline ticket ($130), rental car ($146), gas ($25), non comped food $50 means my travel expenses were about $350 and I made about $1800.


An old man, a good act and story, short sessions and small wins with max bet under $150 and one can get away playing rated. Scrutiny is far less playing rated. For recreational players who show up once every few months, Las Vegas is still the best place...but Man, is it hot!!! Walking around in August is tough.


I do need to get more confident playing 6 deck games.


Hope I did not bore you too much. My plane leaves in 2 hours.