Vegas Stories

Well my annual March Break Las Vegas trip looks highly unlikely at this point. They're locking us down pretty hard right now in Ontario and the travel restrictions are still in place. I didn't get to Las Vegas at all in 2020, but I will be back as soon as things calm down.

Given all that I thought folks could share their favourite Las Vegas stories.

Here's one from my March Break 2018 trip. My first death threat at the craps table.

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Monday morning I was up at 6AM to play some craps at TI. I was pleasantly surprised to see a single table open and empty for a $5 minimum.

I started on the don’t pass and resolved to stay there during the session. I managed to 7-out on three of four points before other players started showing up. The new faces didn’t change how the table was rolling however. It was choppy, but the don’t was a better bet overall for that session.

One fellow with a strong Southern drawl shows up about 40 minutes into the session, parks beside me, and pulls out $500 from his marker to place all the numbers -- $30 for 6, 8, 5 and 9 with a $60 buy bet for 4 and 10.

I’m camped out on the don’t pass and I’m winning while he’s losing. He had to go to his marker two more times during this stretch and started making comments to the other shooters like, “Let’s make that 10 to get this guy” referring to me camped out on the don’ts.

When the dice came around to me I stayed on the don’t, and he gave me a funny look. I told him, “My superstition is that I roll a lot of sevens”. I proceed to roll a couple 7’s to lose my don’t on the come-out then I get a point of 8 which I had a 7-out on about 5 rolls later. He failed to make his point when the dice passed to him. Poor fellow. I came out ahead and he's lost more than $1500.

The next day I'm playing again, and I try the pass line to start, but two shooters failed to make a point. I switched to don’t pass and it was a couple 7-outs for every point made.

The 7-outs chased everyone else away from the table, but then I started to make points while on the don’t so I started switching back and forth. Whatever I tried for the next four points was the wrong way to go.

Meanwhile the fellow from the previous day came by and was watching me zig and zag to no avail. He yells across the table in his Southern drawl, “You can’t win for losing boy!”

It happened that I was on the pass line at the time and I replied, “Hey I’m on your side this time!” pointing to my pass line bet. He comes down to my end of the table and is extolling me on how craps players should play together against the house on the pass line. I pointed out that there is a house edge in either case – pass or don’t pass. The fellow then says to me jokingly in his Southern drawl, “Yesterday boy I woulda killed you if it was legal”.

--helpmespock

This story is from my March 2013 trip: My first time (sort of)

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After dinner we decided to stick close to the hotel so we played a $0.25 8/5 Super Times Pay Jacks or better 3-play game at the Wynn. I know I shouldn't have played it, and it quickly ate $100 from my wife.

I worked my $100 down to about $50. My wife was complaining that the machines weren't giving hardly any winning hands or multipliers and then it happened. Our first royal flush. The draw came up 10, jack, queen of clubs and I quickly held my three to a royal and hit the deal button expecting to come up empty as per usual, but the second line drew the ace and king of clubs.

4000 units at $0.25 for $1000.

I paused and thought maybe I should ask a casino host to take our picture as we didn't have a camera on us. However none were close by and eventually we just printed the ticket, put another $100 through the machine just to see where lady luck would take us, and then took the ticket to the cashier. They didn't bat an eyelash cashing the ticket and the only thing that happened was the cashier had to get an override from the supervisor to process the ticket. We were very pleased and called it a night.
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This is our one and only Royal Flush to date. I discount it a little because it was a 3-play machine. We're still waiting for our first true Royal Flush on a single line machine. Maybe next trip whenever that turns out to be.

I think I calculated how many trips on average before seeing a Royal Flush for my wife and I. We probably play about 8000 hands of Jacks or Better on a trip and for a 90% chance to have at least on Royal I think that works out to about 12 trips.

--helpmespock

I was in Vegas a year ago. After 5 days I'm even give or take a few bucks. Start shooting Craps at MGM around 11 am. It was not good. After an hour I'm down about $500 and I'm shooting next. I've decided to roll but was going to leave after I rolled. Figured I could come back any time and donate to the MGM. I have about $150 left in chips. I'm a pass line and come better with odds. I think about my bets and decided I'd put $10 each on the All, tall, and Small. It's a sucker bet I never played but figured I had $30 to spare so I did it.

Well I went on a hell of a roll. Got all the small (2-6) and then all the tall (8-12). I nailed it. I was payed $300 each for small and tall and $1500 for the All!! I won $2100 on the sucker bet and about $800 on my roll! Life was good!

The 2nd best thing that happened was there were 4 other players on the table with $5 each on the AT&S. They got $1050 each!! Everyone was happy!!!

Next shooter 7's out. Everyone colors up, I tip the dealers and we all leave. Just did some site seeing and enjoyed my win. Didn't gamble the rest of the day.

i once had a guy throw the "dice at me"

i was watching the table talking to the dealers because it seems like a game that might interest me in the future

and the guy is throwing the dice erratically to the point where the dice are always thrown out and almost hit me sometimes

the guy throwing the dice leaves and the guys at the tables dealing or whatever its called to manage the tables say to me

" wow that was the oddest thing ive ever seen from that guy"
"hes the most consistent guy i know who comes here and hes never ever done that before i have no clue why he just did that"

This story comes from my March 2016 trip. The heater (and it's rare that I'm part of it)

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My wife wanted to go to Sephora beside Casino Royale. My wife warned me that she'd be at least an hour or maybe two. I took the opportunity to play a little craps at Casino Royale.

The table was at a very comfortable $5 minimum when I got there and given my horrible luck during the trip I thought I'd start out on the don't pass. It was very choppy with point made then a 7-out and I was bleeding chips slowly.

There was a set of moms and dads and their two kids who looked like they'd just turned 21 at the other end of the table from me. I started betting pass line when the ladies shot and it came to no good. I was in for $200 and had to roll out another $100 as well to keep going. Then the young son who was the other side of the stick from me then stepped up and started rolling. He made a couple of points while I held out on the don't pass so I gave up and switched to pass line. He continued to make points and even hit a 4 in his roll. I jumped on place 6 and 8 and managed to make a little from those too alternating between taking the money and moving up a unit. I never got past $18 though. Finally the kid had a 7-out after 20 minutes of rolling and I'd managed to recover to even at this point.

The dice then passed to me.

I hesitated. All my instincts were to bet don't pass on myself and see the dice move to someone else who I would then join on the pass line. However inspired by the young gentleman who'd done so well, I decided to bet pass line for my roll.

I then went on the longest roll on the pass line I've ever had. It ran 40 minutes. I didn't make as many points as the young gentleman as I only hit four with both a 4 and a 10 mixed in. I jumped on place 6 and 8 and hit three 6's during the roll, but multiple 5's, 8's and 9's during the run. I had a good mix of 2's, 3's and 12's on the roll as well and the fellow to my left had made a ton of money on the Field bet throughout my time at the table. The end of the table with the moms and dads and kids placed all the numbers including 4 and 10 and I made them a ton of money.

Now Casino Royale is old school. Before the young man had started his roll a floor person was splitting time between several games, but when the young man started hitting his numbers the floor person stayed full time at our table. When I was over 30 minutes through my roll a more senior floor person came by to start monitoring the game.

The senior supervisor was insisting that the stickman turn the dice several times before passing the dice to me in an attempt to break the streak. Superstitious nonsense in my opinion, but I knew they were a sweat-the-money kind of joint before this. I found it kind of charming. I had my 7-out a few minutes later and the senior floor person came by to say to the other floor person, "See turning the dice like that always works."

The moms, dads, and kids all cashed out each up between $400-500 and one of the moms came by to thank me for the roll. I didn't want to burst her bubble and tell her it's all random so I merely said, "Your welcome". The stickman asked if they gave me a tip and I replied, "No". My wife came by shortly after my roll so I coloured up for $490 when it was looking like I was going to wash out.

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That's still my longest roll on the pass line before a 7-out.

I believe Casino Royale no longer offers any table games which saddens me. I played there during the 100x odds era, and loved the $3 minimum.

Next time my anti-heater.

--helpmespock

Quote: helpmespock

Well my annual March Break Las Vegas trip looks highly unlikely at this point...... I didn't get to Las Vegas at all in 2020, but I will be back as soon as things calm down.

Our annual-ish March Spring Break trip is ON, woot woot.

Ditto for us for 2020.

This story comes from my 2017 March Break trip.

The anti-heater
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We headed back to the Wynn as my wife wanted to rest in the room for a bit and download some Netflix shows to watch on the plane ride home.

I left her around 2PM to get in a little more cheap craps at Casino Royale. She warned me not to be too late as we wanted to use up our free buffet at the Wynn for supper. We were hoping to go between 4-5PM to avoid the rush. I gave her the line from the movie “The Hangover” and said, “You never walk away from the table when you’re on a heater”.

The heater didn’t happen, but something equally bizarre did.

Casino Royale had the $5 minimum on, and the table was packed when I got there. I had to wait for 10 minutes for a spot to open up because it was obvious that the table was on a heater prior to me getting there. The shooter was to the left of the stickman and he had a 7-out to clean the felt of all those chips that had built up from the good run. That gentleman left and I stepped up and bought in for $200 during a lull in the point of the next shooter. The gentleman to my left made his point and I felt the contrarian in me kick in.

Too many times, I’ve walked up to a hot table and joined everyone on the pass line only to be killed. So after the point was made, I parked myself on the don’t pass line.

We then had what I would call an anti-heater. The table was full – twelve people – and no one made a point until the dice passed to the gentleman to the right of the stickman. He made a single point and then a 7-out . I failed to make my point when I was shooting.

A gentleman bought in beside me about three quarters of the way through the carnage and asks me “How’s the table going?” and I told him, “Ice cold. There hasn’t been a point made since the guy who’s spot you just took.”

The players at my end all started talking about how ice cold the table was. All the points were represented during the run including a few points of 4 and 10 so I rolled out a few don’t come bets as well and hit of 3 out of 4 of those.

After my roll, I told my end of the table that I would take my curse with me so they could play the pass line in peace.

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--helpmespock

This story comes from my March 2014 trip.

This is my best luck at blackjack, but sorry it's light on the details of the hands played.

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We headed over to the MGM Grand as we had 7PM tickets for David Copperfield. We got there about 6PM and had an hour to kill so we sat down at a $10 blackjack table just across from the theatre.

I bought in for $100 and over 45 minutes turned that into $235. It was quite a run winning 3 out of every 4 hands, but only 1 blackjack and no splits or doubles. A ton of dealer busts.

Our dealer was a long-time Las Vegas resident and said she saw the funniest thing she'd seen in her 30 years of dealing a couple weeks back.

It wasn't busy at the tables so she was watching a gentleman across the aisle play a slot machine. He'd put in $20 then get a beer and promptly lose his $20. This repeated 6 times over an hour and the man was thoroughly drunk by this time.

In frustration, he yells at the machine and goes over to the garbage can to throw out his last beer bottle and hurls it at the garbage can. The bottle just catches the edge of the garbage can to bounce back and brain the guy right between the eyes. Stunned the guy picks up the bottle and is yelling as he attempts to break the offending bottle against the garbage can. He gets in 3 or 4 whacks and the bottle just won't break and then security jumps him and hauls him off.

Great story from the dealer. Great variance for me at the table.
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--helpmespock