FinsRule's Blog

Just returned yesterday from my family (our first family trip) trip to the Kentucky Derby!

Wednesday we left Chicago around 2:30 heading toward Horseshoe SI. It took us around 5 hours, and we made it without stopping. We ate at the Horseshoe hotel snack shop which was not bad for a snack shop. The hotel room was pretty nice, and free (Thanks Caesars). There was also a little walking path around the back which was nice for us to stretch our legs.

After the wife and baby went to sleep, I went to visit the casino. It was a pretty long walk between the hotel and casino, which I didn't mind too much. The casino is a boat. There are 4 decks with the table games mostly on the 3rd deck. I went looking for Pai Gow Tiles and was informed that they did not currently have it. It was either gone, or only open on Fri-Sun, I heard different stories. That bummed me out, so I went to play Pai Gow Poker. It was $20 minimum, and they used $20 chips which I had never seen before.

I won $125 with a dealer who was rude (old, white, female for those who keep track of that sort of thing). I won it pretty quickly for playing $20 hands, so I left. Played one hand of pair plus 3 card poker for $10 (lost) and $40 lost at Wheel of Fortune .25 slot. Got two wheel spins - 50 & 75 credits, bleck. So finished up $75 for the night in about 75-90 minutes of play time. Overall, Horseshoe SI is okay, but I was expecting more based on some of the comments I read here.

Thursday we drove to Lexington to tour some horse farms. The drive was about 90 minutes, and nice. We saw a lot of famous horses, and I got to touch 2010 champion 2 year old Uncle Mo (you're not supposed to touch them, but I couldn't resist) We headed over to Three Chimneys Farm where they were giving away posters of a horse running in the Derby, I'll Have Another. We took a poster, and my wife asked if I wanted to get the autographs of the owner, trainer, jockey, who were graciously giving up their time. I said "Nah, they have no chance of winning, I don't need their autograph"

Friday we went and toured Keeneland on Oaks Day. For anyone who loves horse racing, Keeneland is a must see. Even though there was not live racing, the place was like a party. A live band, all the concessions open, it was great. A beautiful track that I would love to see on a live race day. We bought some souvenirs, lost some money, had a good time. They even had drive-thru wagering which I thought was pretty cool. Oh, we ate at a restaurant called Alfalfa which I highly recommend.

Saturday was the Derby. I underestimated the chaos, and overestimated our parenting skills as we brought our 9 month old to the track. Thankfully, our seats were not in the sun, or the day would have been a complete disaster. Everyone we passed said "Bringing a baby to the Derby? You are brave"

We ended up breaking about even on all of the undercard races. We couldn't really see much, just the beginning and end of each race. And couldn't really hear what was going on either. We lost a couple hundred on the Derby as I'll Have Another stormed home. I had 7 horses in my exotic bets, I had the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place finishers, but not the 1st. You can't win anything that way...

I'm glad we ended up going to the Derby, but I don't think we'll go back until the kid(s) are grown. We'll just have a Derby party at home next year and really get to enjoy the races.

Our Vegas trip (without the baby) is in less than 3 weeks, so we're looking forward to a more relaxing vacation than this one.

Thanks for reading!

This Superbowl just isn't that compelling to me. I really don't care who wins. I have a little bit of money on it through various contests and squares and small future bets, so I have decided not to put an actual real bet on the game. (Actual for me is $50-$100)

But I had some extra dollars lying around my bovada account, so I made the following 3 prop bets for $1:

Will the Giants score exactly 36 points? 80-1
Will the Patriots score exactly 36 points? 75-1
Will the Patriots score exactly 43 points? 100-1

So I guess I'm rooting for Patriots 43 - Giants 36...

I know, it's been a while.

A lot has happened in the last 3 months.

1) Today is my 2 year anniversary.
2) My baby daughter is turning 50 days tomorrow.
3) Haven't had any significant gambling wins/losses.
4) I'm gearing up for Breeders' Cup

1 - Been married 2 years. Nothing special about that but I'm really happy.

2 - Having a baby is an unreal experience. I've always said that the meaning of life is procreation. Because there really can't be another answer. Imagine if no one had any babies for 50 years. That would be the end of human life as we know it. I think we have a responsibility to have at least 2 children to keep our civilization alive. Why keep our civilization alive - not sure, but it seems like the right thing to do. I'm so happy to have my daughter and thankful I didn't have to give birth. I could go on and on about it, but I won't.

3 - Nothing too significant in the gambling world. BUT - I must have gotten placed on the wrong list at Horseshoe Hammond, because they invited me to a VIP celebration where they gave me a diamond necklace that they say is valued at $600. Now, I would never have paid $600 for it, but I suppose I might have paid $200-$250... I think next time we're in Vegas we'll head over to the Pawn Stars store and see what they will offer us for it, before saying "no thanks".

Horseshoe also sent me free $105 table game bets. After I ran in, won the $105 and left, they sent me coupons for $60 for this month. I went back later in the month to actually give them some of my sweet green chip action for 2-3 hours, but I don't think it's enough for them. Soon they'll see the error of their ways, but the high roller treatment was fun for a couple of months.

4) Finally - I do see myself as the resident horse racing expert on this site. I enjoy future betting because you can invest a little up front for a potentially huge payout down the road. In horse racing, the "road" is the problem as horses can become injured literally any day. The Wizard says future betting is one of the worst sports bets you can make, but I don't think that is necessarily the case for horse racing.

Last year, I won my Breeders' Cup future bet by betting on Blame at 20-1 to win the Breeders' Cup Classic back in June after his big win in the Stephen Foster. This year, I have made three selections. I will make public two of them, and keep one of them off this blog, because it seems like when I post, the odds get cut. I know, it's probably coincidence.

1. I put $10 on Shackleford to win the Breeders' Cup Classic at 50-1. At 50-1, he's an okay bet. He's now down to 25-1, which is not so good. I think if he races in the Classic, which as of right now, I would guess that he is, he'll go off at around 20 or 25-1. So I'm not too upset about having him at 50-1.

2. My 2nd selection is $15 on Tizway to win the BCC at 10-1. Tizway is the best male horse in the country. He'll probably go off as the favorite in the BCC at around 4-1. 10-1 on him is a steal. We're less than 2 months from the race, meaning he probably just needs to survive one more race and training to run. This one is less flashy because 10-1 isn't a huge price, but it's better than you'll get on race day.

3. I can't post my 3rd selection because it's so good that I'm worried it could leave any second. I have put $35 on the horse so far, and I'm thinking about putting another $150-$200. If anyone really wants to know it, I'd be happy to PM it. The key is getting the horse to run in the race, but that is what makes these bets so exciting.

I'll blog again in a few weeks when I turn 30, and I can talk about how depressing it is to be old...

Well, I did it.

I went to Horseshoe Hammond yesterday, and played Pai Gow tiles for the first time. The $25 minimum was probably about $10 more per hand than I would have liked, but I don't go to casinos much anymore, so it was fine.

I definitely was nervous sitting down. I'm used to having at least the basic strategy of a game down pat before I play it, but Pai Gow tiles is tough for me. Add that to the fact that everyone was staring at me when I sat down, and the dealer said "Do you know how to play?" and it was a little intimidating.

So I answered "I hope so" and I played two hands before lunch. I got the tiles and I asked for help and pushed. The game went a lot faster than I thought it would. The other players set their hands very quickly. And the dealer set his hand in literally one second. For some reason, I thought it would be more like Pai Gow Poker where at least some of the Asian players study their hands, look slowly at each card, curse, then put their cards/tiles down. But no, everyone went quick and I was stuck trying to decide whether to play like gong, 6 or 9,7.

Next hand, I got the tiles, asked for help and won.

I went to lunch, excited about my new experience, and ready to play some more and improve my speed and not asking for help.

Came back and sat at an empty table. This was good and bad. The game went quicker, but I also had time to think without people waiting on me. I probably would get about 3 out of 4 hands set myself, and then ask what the house way was on the other 1 before making my decision. Some times I would go with the house way, sometimes not.

I lost $100 at that fairly quickly.

Walked around a bit, had some terrible luck at Texas Hold 'Em Bonus and came back for one more try at tiles.

This time the table was full. My first hand, a guy three seats over gave me like $250 to cap on my bet. Well at that point, I'm asking him how to play the hand, and it pushes. He does it again, and I push, then he gives up. I end up playing for about 1-2 hours and get very confident. I ended up making like $5 in that session. So my total was being down about $70 at tiles for the 2 hours. The only things I was still unsure about were unmatched pairs, and the ranking of tiles. Now I have a vague understanding of each, but once I get both down, I think tiles will become one of my new favorites.

Unmatched pairs - I just need to remember that the umatched pair that adds up to 7 is the 5 and 2 dot one with the 4 and 3 dot one not the 6 and 1 dot one. Then I should have that down.

Ranking - This is the tougher one. I have a tough time knowing if my 9,6 is going to beat the dealers 9,5. That might just come with time.

Strategy - For some reason it seemed to click better in real life than it did practicing on here. Getting the low up to 6 or 7 is real important unless I have a high gong or a wong. Then I might be okay having a 4 or 5 on the low.

Obviously, I'd like to thank the Wizard for having such an extensive tutorial and calculators and excellent practice game. There's obviously no way I would have been able to learn without it.

I'm going to practice some more and maybe try to get back there once more before my baby is born in July. I guess the only problem I see eventually is that I don't have anyone to play with, and I can't really talk with any of the other players too much because of the language issue. My wife and I love playing Pai Gow Poker together. She seems open to the idea of learning tiles, but I'm not sure if she has the patience to learn.

Overall, it was a great experience.

Thanks for reading!

I'm so angry about this, I decided to make it a blog post.

The Illinois House of Representatives have passed legislation removing the ban of smoking in Illinois casinos.

They feel that Illinois is losing too much tax money to Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Iowa casinos that don't have the smoking ban.

Illinois casinos are all terrible. They have a law limiting gaming positions to 1200 per casino. There are currently nine casinos in the state. They are all very heavy on slot machines, and light on any variety in table games. This makes the table minimums very high ($15 craps/bj on weekends is the only place to get a spot). Some of them have tiny poker rooms.

So do I think people are going to Potawotomi, Horseshoe, Four Winds, Lumiere Place and River City casino because they can smoke? NO! They are going because they get a better gaming experience. Every single one of those casinos is new, and every Illinois casino (besides Casino Queen) is old and rundown.

If Illinois is serious about increasing revenue, they could increase the gaming positions allowed at each casino, and allow slot machines at racetracks. The lifting of the smoking ban will provide a minor increase, and just give momentum for bars/restaurants to push for the repeal of the smoking ban.

The only reason I would actually go to an Illinois casino is because there is a smoking ban.

It's unbelievable to me that we allow smokers to be able to send cancer to other people in public places. My grandchildren will not believe it in 50 years when I tell them that this went on.

And I know the argument. "It's the free market. If you don't like smoking, then stay away from places that allow smoking. These places obviously make more money allowing the smokers" And the problem is that people like me put up with smokers, when we shouldn't.

I know, I shouldn't be this upset. But I am.