9 days in Vegas

Before I get started I want to thank the Wizard for providing this great site and the contributors who make this such an informative and entertaining forum. I stumbled across this forum when planning a Vegas trip 2 years ago and now find myself lurking at least a few times per week. I think Mosca and Face summed it up nicely in the mathematician's fallacy thread on why people enjoy this forum. To paraphrase they said something like "this forum contains educated and street smart people both and to watch them interact and think is quite fascinating"  As you can see, I don't post much, so the least I can do is give a little back to the community by providing a trip report on our recent trip to Vegas.

We have a bit of a rough landing in heavy winds but all is well and we quickly grab our bags and hop on the shuttle to get our rental car. I surprised my wife by splurging and renting a convertible for this visit. Pick up at Thrifty is very efficient and we are cruising by  noon. Since we can't check in until 3:00 my wife decides that the best way to kill time would be to start her shopping spree - so we head out to Henderson with the top down to hit a couple of her favorite stores. She ends up being quite disappointed with the selections and buys very little. I hold back on any kind of celebration since we are only a few hours into our 9 day vacation. 

Check in at the Mirage is quick and painless. The room is a little dated but nice. The king bed is comfy and we have a nice view of the casino roof. 

My wife and I both love Vegas and we try to visit at least once a year - staying for a week or more. Friends, coworkers, and family seem to find this a bit odd, especially after they ask what shows and sites we saw and our answer is always "none - we gamble, drink, eat, and shop - not necessarily in that order". My love affair with Vegas goes back to 1985 when I spent a year playing blackjack professionally. Although I did quite well financially that year, I decided that playing blackjack for a living wasn't the life for me and moved on to a more traditional career. That being said, I get a thrill from beating the casino at their own game and continue to play part time with betting levels varying from red to green to black and playing frequency varying from 20 hours/wk to 20 hours/yr depending on my situation. Playing strategies have included shuffle tracking and keeping side counts to increase betting opportunities, playing efficiency, and to capitalize on side bets. So basically just plain old standard card counting. Most of my play takes place in Alberta where the games are no hole card, so I havn't progressed to other strategies - at least not yet.

I knew that finding decent blackjack games on the strip would be limited this trip because I had decided to keep play at the red chip level. So on night #1 we head across to Casino Royal to play some $5 craps. I can't say I am strictly AP because I do enjoy playing craps once in a while - it can be just so much damn fun! My usual strategy is to play the pass line and 2 come bets, starting with double odds and progressing up to 10x odds. This session lasted a couple of hours but ended in a $100 loss. We decide to call it an early night and head back to the room at 2 am.

The next day we head out to Green Valley Ranch where I find a DD $5 min game with decent penetration. My wife and I sit down to play together for a couple hours. The pit is friendly and I have no problems spreading $5 to $50. My wife doesn't count but she knows basic strategy and also knows when to ask me for help when a strategy variation may be required. To not make things too obvious she spreads 1 to 4 for basically a break even game. Although our betting does look somewhat obvious, the bottom line is that I don't really care. We are there to have fun and I can't bring myself to play blackjack at -EV. If the pit is going to sweat our measly red action and back us off - so be it. There are plenty of other places to play and we could even come back to play a year later after getting backed off - no one will remember us. I think it is actually an advantage having her there because she is much more chatty than I am always joking with other players, the dealer, and the pit. Some may say it would be better if she just sat there without playing, but she wants to play too! If we were playing for bigger money I am sure I could come up with some good camafloge betting techniques. After 2 hours of play we are up $200 and decide to hit their buffet. The player next to me suggests that I ask for a comp. The pit said we hadn't quite played long enough for 2 comps but they did give us one. The buffet was good and then we strolled through the shops along Village Market Drive - again no purchases - but I'm not ready to press by bet. I must say we really liked this part of the city and thought this may be a good area to stay in for a couple of months/yr in the winter once we retire.

The first 4 days/nights at the Mirage follow the same pattern - get up late, shop for a while, hit some casinos on the east side where we play DD blackjack, dinner, and then drinks and some craps and slots at the Royal late into the evening. There would have been opportunities to wong some shoe games on the strip ( one of my favorite strategies because all bets are +EV) but my wife refuses to play that way - it is just too boring for her. It would be great cover if she stood there back counting with me - I still hold out hope of turning her into an AP one day. On our last night, after putting my wife to bed at 4 am, I decide to take a shot and sit down at a $25 min DD S17 game with nice penetration at a casino nearby. One other guy was at the table, but after seeing him double down on hard 16, I figured I would soon be playing heads up. Luckily he kept reaching for $100 bills so I had someone who could play through the -ve hands. I decide to leave with a small win after exposing my max $200 bet. Not quite ready for bed I take a shot at a $10 craps table. Just me and another guy at the table and I have the roll of my life hitting 7 points before crapping out. I didn't hit many come bets however ( lost them quite a few times on the come out roll ) and was too chicken to press much on the odds. Anyway, I left with a nice win and hit the sack at 6 am

One evening we stopped at Ellis Island for the steak special. The wait was about an hour so we signed up for their players card and received $10 each in slot play along with the coupons to get the $8.99 8 oz. top sirloin and beer special. My slot credits disappear after a few minutes so I head over to he craps table to find 1 guy at the table who is playing the dark side. I had never played the don' t before but was quite intrigued about it from reading stories on this forum. What the heck, I decide to give it a shot and actually make 60 bucks before the buzzer goes off for dinner. I didn't try the don't come, just sticking with a single don't pass bet with odds. The thing I found unusual about playing this way was that when you won, you would have to pass the dice. Dinner was quite good - the steak came with a salad, green beans, and choice of potato. I chose the baked potato which took up half the plate.

This year we actually broke down and went to a show –Terry Fator. It was quite entertaining, but I was surprised by how much singing he did. I thought he was mainly a comedian/ventriloquist. Before taking our seats we grabbed some popcorn and cocktails at the concession – and of course I was talked into the giant rye and coke upsell. Although I got a nice buzz going, the problem was that I really had to pee about 1:15 into the show. I figured I only needed to hang on another 15 minutes, but I just couldn’t do it. When the lights dimmed in between a set I decide to make a break for it – excuse me, excuse me, pissing off the people beside me and I try to half jog up the aisle. Now it is bad enough with everyone looking at you doing the “I have to pee run” but when you trip and do a nose plant into the stairs – that is really embarrassing! The only thing worse that could have happened would be if I had pissed my pants in the process.

After 4 nights we check out of the Mirage and are on the way to the Golden Nugget. We stop at the outlet mall on the way and this is where our visa takes a real pounding. I just don’t get it – how many purses and pairs of shoes does a girl really need? Well maybe I do get it – it isn’t about needs, it's about wants! I guess I can’t get too upset about it because my wife makes more money than I do which I think is pretty cool.

We quickly check in to the Golden Nugget and crack a bottle of wine while we wait for our bags. We really like the Golden Nugget, and downtown for that matter. I’m even more excited about this part of the trip because I will be able to get in a lot more time at the blackjack tables. Our car will sit for most of the time we are downtown, so with no drinking restrictions in place my recollection of events may be a bit off.

To be continued....

enjoyed your report

Quote: AB21

I have the roll of my life hitting 7 points before crapping out. I didn't hit many come bets however ( lost them quite a few times on the come out roll ) and was too chicken to press much on the odds.

7 passes or 7 points? If you managed to roll 7 points but couldn't hit your own numbers, that is quite unusual ... enough to make a guy give up Craps! [g]

edit: well, 7 points would be at least 7 of your own numbers!

7 points and I would make them fairly quickly. Establish the point, then make 2 come bets, then hit my point, then roll a 7 on the come out, then establish new point, repeat. I did win a few come bets however and by no means am I complaining........

Quote: AB21

7 points and I would make them fairly quickly. Establish the point, then make 2 come bets, then hit my point, then roll a 7 on the come out, then establish new point, repeat. I did win a few come bets however and by no means am I complaining........

eww that is ugly. I had a roll similar the other day.

Nice report.

Part 2 - four nights downtown

After walking around Freemont for a while people watching and checking out all the freaks we head to the El Cortez for our first blackjack session. Most people reading this know that counters consider it a rite of passage to be backed off at the El Cortez and I’m no different. I was backed off on the dayshift about a year ago on our last visit for spreading 5 to 50 on their nice 2 deck game. Since that was my wife’s first time being exposed to a back-off, she was quite freaked out about returning there to play. As it turns out she had nothing to worry about as we played our regular style for about 90 minutes and then left after a small loss. The cocktail service was good and the pit didn’t seem overly interested in our play. One thing I found unusual about the pit here is that they don’t hound you for a player’s card like the rest of the casinos do.

We head back to the other end of Fremont to check out our favorite casino – The Golden Gate. I just love the vibe of this place on the swing shift – 2 girls dancing on the bar outside, 3 girls dancing in the pit, and the pounding music. Such pretty young women, but I just don’t get the whole tattoo thing. Have they thought about how these things are going to look when they are 60? My wife tries to guess how much money in plastic surgery is bouncing around that night. Sadly there isn’t a good blackjack game to play here so this will be our spot to enjoy craps. First session ends in a $100 loss after about an hour of play. Drink service is good, but many waitresses here and elsewhere in Vegas don’t always know what a rye and coke is. I figured out I had to start asking for CC and coke….. I guess rye must be a Canadian thing. Occasionally I will end up with a bourbon and coke that doesn’t go down nearly as well. Around 5 am when I started asking for CC and rye, my wife figured it was time to crash.

The next day is my birthday and we had decided to go for a nice dinner at Vic and Anthony’s in the Golden Nugget.  They had an internet special where you could get a 3 course dinner for $50. We both had the lobster bisque to start which was to die for. We were actually contemplating if it would be out of line to stick your face in the bowl and lick it clean. We have the 8 oz. fillet and garlic mashed potatoes and then share the 2 desert offerings of bread pudding and chocolate mousse. All were very good.

After this we waddle across the street to try some blackjack. That’s one of the things we love about downtown – everything is so close. From what I can see, the penetration looks very marginal (50 – 60% on a DD game) but luckily I find a newer dealer that is consistently placing the cut card at about 70%. We have a great time at his table drinking and talking about various things (such as needs vs. wants) and after a couple hours we leave a little drunker and up about $250 for the session.  We head down the street and play a DD game with marginal penetration but decide to stick around because we are having lots of fun joking around with the dealer and the other players. As a matter of principle I increase my spread to $5 - $90. The pit is quite friendly and tells us to come back tomorrow and they will comp us to dinner. We leave up $150 and head back to the El Cortez. Much better game here, but again we leave with another small loss after about an hour of play. By 4 am my wife is ready for bed so I walk her to the room and head back down for a couple early morning sessions.

After wandering around a bit I find a DD game with nice penetration and one other player at the table. Perfect……….except the min is $25. At this point I’m not too drunk and decide to take another shot at a higher level game. I watch the other player for a while who is betting wildly between $25 and $500 and try to figure out if he is counting or not. He places a $500 bet on a slightly negative count so I decide it is safe to play. I wait a couple more shuffles and then wong in with a $50 bet. For the next 15 minutes I hardly get any opportunities to bet but am winning most of my $25 min bets. This only lasts so long and then my stack of green chips starts to dwindle. Finally, a juicy count…….. I win a $50 bet, then a $100 bet, then I slide $200 into the square……my heart is pounding…… Blackjack! Sweet, I haven’t seen one of those in a while. I peek across the table and the other player gives me a big smile. I colour up and leave my short session up $425.

You would think that this would be a good point to call it a night, but no, I head down the street and sit down at a marginal DD game and start spreading $5 to $90. After about half an hour I am down $100 but have the opportunity to slide out a max bet. I double my 11 against the dealer’s 7. The dealer pulls an 8 then a 6 for 21…….crap! He makes his way back to my hand and flips over a ten for a push….whew. Now the guy in the pit just happened to be standing there the whole time. I look at the deck and there are 5 or 6 cards left above the cut card. Knowing I will get another round, I contemplate letting it all ride but decide to just leave $90 out there with the floor person still hanging around. At this point another player wants to jump in and I can’t recall exactly what was said, but the floor person got all hot and said “you know what, you know what, just shuffle the damn deck”. Crap! Now what am I going to do? Neither leaving the bet out there or dropping to it to $5 was an option so I mumble something about a new player changing my luck, colour up, and leave down $100. If you can call this heat, this was the first time on the trip I experienced it.
 
The next day is smoking hot so we hang out at the pool for the afternoon. The Golden Nugget has a nice pool area with a waterslide that goes through the middle of a shark tank – very cool. We decide to play it safe by laying in the shade since our skin hasn’t been exposed to much light over this extra brutal Canadian winter.  On the way out of the pool area we walk past a mini craps table and I wonder to myself what Ahigh would think of it. If it was possible to control the dice on these short rolls, (I’m a non-believer by the way) I think any advantage would be nullified by the dealer being able to call no roll any time they felt like it. I didn’t bother to stand around and watch.

We head back to the casino that had promised us dinner comps and play blackjack for an hour or so before I ask the pit for the comps. The nice lady we conversed with the day before wasn’t working so I asked the guy in our area. He said he needed to check our play and would let me know. He comes back a few minutes later and says he is sorry but he just can’t comp us……..thanks for nothing buddy. The next shuffle I slide a $40 bet out on the 2nd hand and he starts to get all hot and bothered. He runs to our table, grabs the discards and quickly pans through them. Ooooh, impressive man, you can count down a deck in 30 seconds! I lost that hand and slid out a $50 bet. Believe it or not, he runs back to the discard tray and does the same thing all over again! Take a pill guy, it is only 50 bucks! We play for another 10 minutes and then cash out for a $150 loss. On our way back to the Golden Nugget I wong in to a juicy 6 deck shoe and loose every bet for a $300 loss. The tables seem to be turning…………..

We have another meal at the Grotto in the Golden Nugget. Our samplings of bruschetta, pizza, caprese salad, and chicken parm over a couple of meals were all very good. Back out to the street. This is Friday night and Freemont is hopping. This is the first time that I have seen such security.  You had to go through security at every entrance to Freemont, showing ID, maybe getting a pat down, then you would get a bracelet. It makes me think there may have been some issues on past Friday nights? We hang around the stage by the Golden Gate where a band called Arena is playing - a rock band playing mostly 80’s music that supposedly play Freemont every Thurs, Fri, Sat night year round. My wife is an eighties girl so she loved the show – especially the Bon Jovi set. I’m more of a 70’s guy, but enjoy almost any kind of music. I thought they did Guns and Roses especially well. So we went back and forth between playing craps in the Golden Gate and watching the free show outside –good times – even though we lost $150 in craps and the slide continues…….
Looking to reverse the trend we head back to the El Cortez. Finally we score a win here of $240 after playing about an hour with absolutely no heat. Maybe management has changed their tune towards counters? Most of our play has taken place between 11 pm and 4 am and the casino has been fairly busy if that means anything.

At 5 am my wife is beat and heads to bed but I figure I still have a couple hours left in me. Vegas is so exciting I can’t seem to sleep for more than 4 hours a day. I sit down at a nice $10 min DD game and play heads up for about 90 minutes to squeak out a small win.

The next day we are up at the crack of noon and hang out by the pool again for the afternoon. After equal parts of drinking, napping, and reading we head back to the room to get ready for our last evening in Vegas. On the way to dinner I notice that same DD game with a $10 min so we sit down and play our regular style except that now the stakes have doubled. We had quite a bit of fun at the table joking with the dealer that all we had to eat today was barley and we needed to go for dinner soon. We leave with a nice $420 win. We have dinner at the Golden Gate to use a $15 food credit from a mailer I had received. The prime rib and beef dip were both very good. We also had their $2.99 shrimp cocktail a couple times late in the night and will have breakfast here tomorrow. I highly recommend this restaurant – their hot cakes are outstanding.

I can’t remember too many details after dinner as the rye and cokes were flowing. We played mostly blackjack with a little bit of craps at the D and a few slots here and there between partying in the street. By the time my wife was ready for bed at 5 am, we were pretty close to even. Since it was our last night I continued on at the tables until I finally packed it in at 8 am. My last blackjack session was a little frustrating. I am about even after playing heads up for 45 minutes when a cute Asian lady sits down beside me (no it wasn’t juicyjennie and she didn’t ask for chippies) part way into a very juicy deck. I thought about asking her to wait for the shuffle before joining in, but decided against it. So you can guess what happens next. I lost my max $150 bet and she got a blackjack. To add insult to injury, the exact same thing happened again on the next round! Of course she was thrilled with her luck and I tried very hard to give her a big smile all the time telling myself it could have just as easily gone the other way. I would usually leave the table at this point, but with no heat and running out of playing time I stick around for another half hour and claw my way back to even. I was a little surprised at how blatently the dealer was hitting on this lady giving her one compliment after another and even high fiving her after big wins. I didn’t think dealers were allowed to touch players. Anyway, I was happy to get back to even and head back to the room. We had arranged for a 5 pm check out so I have time for my regular 4 hours of sleep and one last shot at craps………

By the time we shower, pack, and have breakfast, I have about 45 minutes left to play one final craps session before we need to head to the airport. This is something I like to do right at the end of a winning trip – risk 200 or 300 bucks looking for that big craps win. It has to be enough time to get through a good roll, but not too much time in that I might be tempted to pull out more money if things don’t go well. I step up to the craps table at the Golden Gate where about 5 others are playing and buy in for $200. My wife wanders into the slot area. My strategy is to bet a pass line and 2 come bets for $5 with $25 odds and then press to $50 odds after each win. Things go up and down for the first half hour until the guy next to me gets a hold of the dice………... Before long I am up to $50 odds on my three bets and then I make a pure anti AP move by throwing 5 bucks on all the hardways. I hit the hard ten and hard 4 and press them to $30 and also loose the hard 6 and 8. I make a mistake and throw down another come bet, so now I have $280 of action on the table. I glance down at my rack to see 6 green chips left. Man, all this guy needs to do is hit a few more numbers…….my heart is pounding with excitement…………..the shooter picks up the dice.........then……………I get a tap on the shoulder and hear…….. Sweetie, we really need to get going………….. Well, I don’t have to tell you what happened next, but I give sweetie a loving squeeze and a half smile as we head to the cage.

All in all a great trip – won $1050 in blackjack and lost $500 in craps/slots. Sustained a bit of liver damage and I’d rather not discuss the shopping carnage. Our plane was delayed so it is 2:30 am by the time we get to our car only to find it covered in ice! Gross! In bed by 3:00 am and up for work at 7:00. Somehow it is a little different getting up to go to work instead of the tables after a 4 hour sleep. Until next time…….

Great report AB, I had fun reading.

As for the dealers not touching the players, it is a rule but it is only loosely enforced. It is mostly about customer satisfaction and if the players and the dealers appear to be having fun (within reason of course), the floor and pit manager will more than likely just let them go.

You have to be very careful in this situation though because players scream abuse and rape and all sorts of things very quickly.

This was an excellent report with plenty of detail that interested me. I will be staying at the GN in about a week and have never stayed at a downtown hotel and have really only been there once ( to have breakfast with the WIZARD ) so hearing about the proximity of all the casinos, the good time you had at the Golden Nugget and the weekend experience on Fremont Street has gotten me amped up!

Quote: aceofspades

This was an excellent report with plenty of detail that interested me. I will be staying at the GN in about a week and have never stayed at a downtown hotel and have really only been there once ( to have breakfast with the WIZARD ) so hearing about the proximity of all the casinos, the good time you had at the Golden Nugget and the weekend experience on Fremont Street has gotten me amped up!

I still maintain that you will have an excellent time if you keep your expectations in check. The canopy can be a whole lot of fun with street performers, bands, drinking, canopy shows and so on. Gaming is also fun if you keep your expectations i check (I hate to sound like a broken record here :) )
Also, decent restaurants, Mob Museum, Pinball HOF, Insert Coin(s) (bar with coin operated video games, lound music, bar food and a decent vibe). The pool at GN is a lot of fun with a blackjack table that you can swim up to (last time I was there). The slide through the shark tank is pretty fun too.

I think you will have a good time. After all, it is really what you make of it!

Quote: Tomspur

Quote: aceofspades

This was an excellent report with plenty of detail that interested me. I will be staying at the GN in about a week and have never stayed at a downtown hotel and have really only been there once ( to have breakfast with the WIZARD ) so hearing about the proximity of all the casinos, the good time you had at the Golden Nugget and the weekend experience on Fremont Street has gotten me amped up!

I still maintain that you will have an excellent time if you keep your expectations in check. The canopy can be a whole lot of fun with street performers, bands, drinking, canopy shows and so on. Gaming is also fun if you keep your expectations i check (I hate to sound like a broken record here :) )
Also, decent restaurants, Mob Museum, Pinball HOF, Insert Coin(s) (bar with coin operated video games, lound music, bar food and a decent vibe). The pool at GN is a lot of fun with a blackjack table that you can swim up to (last time I was there). The slide through the shark tank is pretty fun too.

I think you will have a good time. After all, it is really what you make of it!

I am keeping my expectations low for downtown

LOL at the liver damage add in

How do you card count in vegas and not get the boot

deleted

Quote: Tomspur

I still maintain that you will have an excellent time if you keep your expectations in check. The canopy can be a whole lot of fun with street performers, bands, drinking, canopy shows and so on. Gaming is also fun if you keep your expectations i check (I hate to sound like a broken record here :) )
Also, decent restaurants, Mob Museum, Pinball HOF, Insert Coin(s) (bar with coin operated video games, lound music, bar food and a decent vibe). The pool at GN is a lot of fun with a blackjack table that you can swim up to (last time I was there). The slide through the shark tank is pretty fun too.

I think you will have a good time. After all, it is really what you make of it!

The Pinball Hall of Fame is on East Tropicana, no where near downtown.

AB21,

Excellent report, thoroughly enjoyable read!!! If I could make just one minor suggestion, everything is, "Down the street," most of the time. I want to be able to paint the scene in my head, especially since I can (mostly) accurately picture every Table Games Pit Downtown except for California and MSS, what specific casinos!?

Quote: bw

The Pinball Hall of Fame is on East Tropicana, no where near downtown.

He can cab it :)

Maybe I can be a surprise guest on GWAE!

Outstanding report, very well written and entertaining.

AB21, which El Cortez game did you play? You didn't spread $5-$90 there, or did you?

I've had 4 or 5 dinner meals at Vic and Anthony's in the GN and been extremely pleased each and every visit.

CC and coke I haven't had one of those since they laid me off in 1999 .... Windsor plant from 1200 people working (including head offices and all salary hourly workers) to about 250 today

ALL CANADIAN CLUB WHISKEY is now bottled in Tennessee ( Johnnie Walker plant?) only CC bottled in Canada is stuff for Canada seems the added value tax for them to send it back to Canada bottled was a few million dollars more than they wanted to pay

All these write ups about DOWNTOWN area makes me want to try a few of those places out next visit

Quote: coilman

All these write ups about DOWNTOWN area makes me want to try a few of those places out next visit

Downtown rocks! It's not close. In my opinion, anyway.

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Quote: Mission146

AB21,

Excellent report, thoroughly enjoyable read!!! If I could make just one minor suggestion, everything is, "Down the street," most of the time. I want to be able to paint the scene in my head, especially since I can (mostly) accurately picture every Table Games Pit Downtown except for California and MSS, what specific casinos!?

Thanks for the nice comments everyone. As I said, this is a great forum and I was just trying to give a little back. I enjoyed writing it too, even though it took a while.

Mission - I left out most of the casino names and dates on purpose. Most of my play was for low stakes, and you would think that the casinos really shouldn't care who I am, but I figured there was no need to take unnecessary chances. Basically I played at every casino downtown that had a double deck game. BTW, I really enjoyed reading your report as well!

Quote: 1BB

AB21, which El Cortez game did you play? You didn't spread $5-$90 there, or did you?

I played their double deck face up game and kept my spread at $5 - $50. In the past I have got away with spreading to $90 for short periods.

This was a great report, and your gambling activities mirror mine pretty closely, aside from my moderately higher stakes at blackjack. Other than that, lots of blackjack with some craps mixed in is how I like to play as well. Unfortunately my significant other has no interest in learning to play blackjack at all, whether just BS or counting. I think you may be right that having a lady friend at the table with you is good cover...but if we were both spreading green chips, I have a feeling it would hurt more than help.

Quote: AB21

Mission - I left out most of the casino names and dates on purpose. Most of my play was for low stakes, and you would think that the casinos really shouldn't care who I am, but I figured there was no need to take unnecessary chances. Basically I played at every casino downtown that had a double deck game. BTW, I really enjoyed reading your report as well!

Understood, and thanks for the compliment! I think I was able to put together most of the places you were at, based on other context clues.

Quote: AcesAndEights

Unfortunately my significant other has no interest in learning to play blackjack at all, whether just BS or counting.

Unless you guys have been together for a long time, don't give up on her just yet. My wife and I have been together for 19 years and when we first met she wanted nothing to do with a casino, period. At that time I was playing blackjack part time for about 20 hours/wk at the green chip level. When I first told her about my "part time job" it almost ended our relationship - and I totally understand that. I have crossed paths with many degenerate gamblers over the years and I wouldn't want one as an acquaintance let alone to be in a relationship with one. Over a number of months she accepted this part of my life either 1) because I took the time to explain the theory to her and show her how it worked in practise (which I am sure you have done) or 2) because I told her if she felt that strongly about it I would never set foot in a casino again or 3) because one day she came to me in tears because the furnace in her condo had crapped out and she didn't know where she would get the money for a new one. I don't know if this was a stupid or brilliant move, but I said to her "come on babe, let's go to the casino and win you a new furnace" and we did! Anyway, 19 years later, she loves blackjack and casinos almost as much as I do. And I still hold out hope of turning her into an AP - so many more opportunities.......

Quote: AB21

Unless you guys have been together for a long time, don't give up on her just yet. My wife and I have been together for 19 years and when we first met she wanted nothing to do with a casino, period. At that time I was playing blackjack part time for about 20 hours/wk at the green chip level. When I first told her about my "part time job" it almost ended our relationship - and I totally understand that. I have crossed paths with many degenerate gamblers over the years and I wouldn't want one as an acquaintance let alone to be in a relationship with one. Over a number of months she accepted this part of my life either 1) because I took the time to explain the theory to her and show her how it worked in practise (which I am sure you have done) or 2) because I told her if she felt that strongly about it I would never set foot in a casino again or 3) because one day she came to me in tears because the furnace in her condo had crapped out and she didn't know where she would get the money for a new one. I don't know if this was a stupid or brilliant move, but I said to her "come on babe, let's go to the casino and win you a new furnace" and we did! Anyway, 19 years later, she loves blackjack and casinos almost as much as I do. And I still hold out hope of turning her into an AP - so many more opportunities.......

We have been together just short of 3 years. So I will hold out hope :). That's hilarious about the furnace.

She is smart, and has the intellectual capacity to learn BS and counting if she were interested in it. Just no interest at this point.

Great report and sounds like you had a great time! Your Terry Fator story is why I tend to avoid drinking before or during a show. I definitely could see myself doing that too! And even though you might like her to do more, having your wife being a rough even BJ player is definitely better than most people's SO's.