WOV East II - trip report

I will leave the major portions of the trip to odiousgambit to report, but I would like the start by thanking him for bringing the meeting together, for the mementos, and for the trivia contest. It was a good time.

My wife went with me, and our trip started by leaving our house at 3:45 AM, for a 7 hour drive to The Meadows. I like traveling in the dead of night, since most of the idiots are home sleeping. I set the cruise on 78, and we were off. About 2.5 hours in, my wife drifted off to sleep, so she would be rested in case I needed some relief. The first 4 hours went by without much fanfare, until we started climbing through the WV mountains on I-77 and I-79. The mountains were shrouded in a misty fog. I have driven in much worse fog, so this wasn't bad, but it meant I had to really pay attention to be able to see as far ahead as possible.

We drove across the New River Gorge bridge, but the fog was filling the valley, and was level with the bridge, so you couldn't tell that you were 876 feet above the river below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_River_Gorge_Bridge

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"The New River Gorge Bridge is a steel arch bridge 3,030 feet (924 m) long over the New River Gorge near Fayetteville, West Virginia, in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States. With an arch 1,700 feet (518 m) long, the New River Gorge Bridge was for many years the world's longest steel single-span arch bridge;[4][5] it is now the fourth longest. Part of U.S. Route 19, its construction marked the completion of Corridor L of the Appalachian Development Highway System. The bridge is crossed by an average of 16,200 motor vehicles per day.[1]

The roadway of the New River Gorge Bridge is 876 feet (267 m) above the New River.[5] When it opened in 1977, the New River Gorge Bridge was the highest vehicular bridge in the world. The New River Gorge Bridge remains one of the highest vehicular bridges in the world, and is currently the third highest in the United States. In 2005, the structure gained nationwide attention when the US Mint issued the West Virginia state quarter with the bridge depicted on one side. In 2013, the bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places."
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We arrived at The Meadows about 11:00 AM, and since we were to meet up at noon, my wife and I got player's cards and sat down at a $10 BJ game. I took note that 2 craps tables were open, both $5. One had 3 players, and the other was empty. I bought in for $500 and we divvied it up $250 each. I had a rough go of it, starting a pattern that was the BJ theme for me. I lost or pushed so many 20s it was ridiculous. Somehow I only managed to lose $80, but my wife won $60, so not a bad team start. We met up with AZDuffman, GWAE, and Odiousgambit, and talked while my wife and I downed a slice of pizza as our breakfast/lunch. Teddys was going to meet us at the craps table.

We went out to play craps about 1:00 PM, and by then, both tables had many players. We managed to squeeze the 4 of us into one end, and as luck would have it, a spot opened up just as teddys arrived. I will let OG tell the craps challenge results, but I will state that I was the early leader (with 1 point). Unfortunately, this is a good indication of how this craps session went for me. I bought in for $500, and caught a decent roll on the first 2 shooters. I was playing $5 PL with $25 odds, and then playing $16 inside.
The Meadows has a FANTASTIC craps game!. 10x odds. Vig on the win for the BUY 4,5,9,10 AND as I learned later, the LAY is also vig on the win for the 4,5,9,10! Boy I wish this casino was closer to my house.

I was up $185 after the first 2 shooters. With a $500 buy-in, I try to play lower amounts, and not over bet, but it just doesn't work out for me when I try to do that. I was slowly bleeding chips, and was soon down. I then tried to follow the others by Come betting, but 2 shooters in a row had me with PL /odds, and 2 come bets with $25 odds and 7 out. So those were both $90 losses, whereas if I had played them with my $46 (30 on pl+odds and 16 inside) I would have only lost $32 each time.
I was down about $250 and decided to go $90 inside on my roll. PSO. Brilliant move, Einstein.

I then tried it again when OG rolled, since he had a good roll his first time. Alas, OG also crapped out on this roll, with a quick 7 out (notice I did not misuse the "crapped out" terminology). Since I was playing with a short BR this trip, I quit the craps game, and went to play BJ with my wife. We were planning on staying until midnight, so I couldn't afford to get crushed at the craps game. I think I left down about $350.
This game was notable for the play at the other end. One shooter bet $1000 hard way on his roll. I think someone said he had a $200 PL bet and $2000 in odds. He did not make his point. We also saw a guy bet a $100 Midnight, which did hit for $3000, but I can't recall if it was the first session, or the second.

At BJ, the first shoe was tough, but a couple of double downs at the end kept me even. My wife cut the next shoe, and I lost only 2 hands in that shoe. +$100 for the shoe. She then cut the next shoe, and while it wasn't quite as great, it was still very good. I got more back. The next shoe, the stupid dick next to me wants to cut the cards. WTH he didn't give the card to my wife, I will never understand. We were all winning with her cutting. Anyway, DH cuts, dealer gets BJ on hand 1, and proceeded to get 4 or 5 more that shoe. It was ridiculous. GWAE came to get us about 3:40, so we could hit the dinner at the cheaper lunch prices (is this considered a +EV move?)
I believe we were all in varying degrees of negative territory at this point. We had a good dinner. OG gave us all these really cool pens with the big red circle with the slash through it (you know, the DON'T sign). The words under it say "Just say no 6:5". Too cute.
We finished with the trivia contest, and then decided to give craps another try. My BR was on life support, but I decided to give it a try. We went to a new table that just opened, and caught a 4 point fire roll. I think only one of us may have been on the fire bet, for a $25 payout, but we all made money on the roll. My rail got up to around $800 or so, which put me fairly close to break even for the trip, but as usual, I stayed too long trying to chase that last two hundred, and ended up giving about 1/2 back. Everybody decided it was time to quit, so we all cashed out, and said adios. It was great getting to meet these guys!

I decided to try the high limit slots, and headed for the Ultimate X machine. For you vultures: Wouldn't ya know I walked in and found a 7x play on the machine at $.50 level. :-) Whoopee! Finally my luck has changed! I did not see a JoB game, but luckily I had been practicing the deuces wild game, so I did a 3 play deuces wild. I did hit 3oak on the 7x row, but that was about as good as it got. I had no big win, and lost $160 pretty quickly. Found my wife, and we headed back for some more BJ. Many tables were $15 and a couple $25, but we still managed to find a $10 table. Unfortunately. This dealer pulled so many freaking 21s out of shit, that I was almost rooting for her to have made hands, so she couldn't draw to the damn thing. I got brutalized for 2 shoes, and my wife suffered her first bust out. Luckily, I got two $20 hands out, and ended up with a split with a double down, and a double down, to score a nice win to come out ahead on the shoes. When the replacement dealer came in, things got better for the first shoe. My wife again cut the second shoe, and it was a good shoe, but when someone else cut the third shoe, all hell broke loose. 3 dealer BJs, and a couple more 5 card charlies to 21, and I was out of there. By far the worst BJ table I have played at in the past year. Somehow we managed to not lose much money, and I have no idea how that happened. Obviously we won more hands than I realized.

I decided to hit craps one more time. Got to the table as the shooter was shooting at fire point number 4, which he made. Since I had chips, I started playing right away, and made out pretty good, since he made 3 repeater points before he made his 5th fire point. Once again, I am only a $200 short of break even, and once again, the game turns ugly. I decide to fall back on my old trick of the NO 4 or NO 10. This is when I find out the LAY bet vig is on the win. SWEET
I go $100 NO 10, and win $48. But the next shooter sets the point of 4, and sure enough, throw number 3 takes out my Lay 10. I put it back up, and win the bet a few rolls later. So I am only down $4 on this bet. Next shooter takes it out on the comeout roll, so now I am down $104. I leave the table, find my wife, and watch her play her slots for a bit. We are about to leave, so I decide to try one more time for the LAY strategy. Go big or go home. And since I have not been able to throw the dice worth a hoot, I go to the table, Lay a No TEN for $200 on my turn, and throw a #@!$$%$^$%#$@# ing 10 on the come out roll. Unbelievable. Of course I also manage to 7 out to add salt to the wound. The dice pass, and I do a $200 No FOUR. Shooter rolls a 10 as the point. I decide to move my no FOUR to the no FIVE for $150 instead. 3 rolls later, the shooter rolls the 4. I look at the dealer and he smiles, and says "that was a good move". Next roll? A 5. Seriously? in my best John McEnroe impression, " YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. ARE YOU SERIOUS?". I thank the crew and head off to cash in the remainder of my chips. At least I did manage to bring some money back home, instead of my usual coming home flat broke, but that was a crushing loss of $350 on 2 rolls. I hate craps.

We drove 1 hour back towards home, and stayed in Fairmont, WV. Around Morganton, we came upon an accident scene that had just happened. It was on the inside of a corner, still in the travel lane. Luckily, with no traffic, I was able to get left just in time. 5 or 6 cars had pulled over and were running back to help, so we continued on. Comfort Inn is under renovations, and has been changed to a Quality Inn. Since they are doing major room renovations, it was a construction zone, and had the associated clutter. Our room was an old one, and not very nice, but the bed was good, and after 22 hours of being up, we slept well. We stopped to visit the New River Gorge Canyon Rim and River Bridge look-out. It was great, and we will be going back another time to do some hiking in the area. This was the best part of the trip, other than meeting the WOV members of course.

Tall bridges scare me, I won't drive over them.
There are truck drivers who won't drive over
the Mackinaw Bridge, they have surrogates
on hand at all times to do it for them.

Quote: RaleighCraps

We drove across the New River Gorge bridge, but the fog was filling the valley, and was level with the bridge, so you couldn't tell that you were 876 feet above the river below.

I've always liked the New River Gorge bridge, and the last time my wife and I crossed it was last June on our way to the WoV gathering in Niagara Falls, ON. The view from on top of the bridge, even in clear weather, is not the most scenic, at least not to those of us who like views of a bridge more than from one. You can get a fairly good view of this one from one of the trails out of the visitors' center, or -- if you are willing to take the time to drive down to river level -- you can get a really nice view.

Three years and a couple of weeks ago, I posted three of my photos of catenary arch bridges in a thread here, including the New River Gorge bridge.

I forgot my Paigowdan moment.

In our session after dinner, after it was starting to turn bad, I had a $5 PL bet with $25 odds down. GWAE had just 7'd out next to me, and somehow the dealer missed clearing my PL bet and the odds. I tried to catch his eye to point out the miss, but he was looking away. Finally, I just reached down and flicked the two bets into the field area, and set down a new $5 PL bet. Now the dealer saw the chips, but so did the box woman, so now the jig was up. Stick asks what those 2 chips are, and I said, missed clean up from the 7 out.

Alas, karma failed to smile kindly on my good heart, and I still had another miserable roll.... :-(