odiousgambit's Blog
Posted by odiousgambit
Sep 27, 2012
Sep 27, 2012
Another Gracie Allen Moment?
Buzzpaff recently related such a moment by his wife, but she is not the only one.Maybe I should have titled this "a glimpse into the modern young mind" , I wonder if it isn't fair to say it is just the ditzy female mind that gets silly when it comes to cell phones and I-phones and social networks.
My wife and I both recently have been reading various articles about how the up and coming generation is so into their I-phones and such, that they spend so much money on it that [the articles have it] this must be cutting into their disposable income to the degree that it is a choice to do that at the expense of something else. One article said that the housing industry and the car industry both are seeing huge changes with the younger bunch, the latter trending away from fancy cars and houses [but don't think of taking away constant access to the internet!]
Anyway, while we were discussing this, I mentioned that on my irritatingly high but comparatively inexpensive cell phone plan that goes along with buying a phone [for years I was issued a phone by my employer, a thing of the past it seems]. I am shocked to the core when I hear what the typical person is paying.
Anyway, I mention to my wife that I could be paying even another $10 to get unlimited texting. That I go long periods without texting, and that an enormous amount for me would be 20 texts per month, at 20 cents a text. My wife, a pretty sharp girl really, has a Gracie Allen moment and instantly suggested I pay the $10 and get unlimited! It really is her instinct to go for the hokie-doke on these things. I call this interchange a glimpse into the female mind when I talk to other guys.
I just changed my cell phone plan, which took away an hour of my life on the phone I can never get back. But I own the phone now and can pick my plan. Verizon didn't make it easy to change, and I hate using the phone to set stuff like this up [required!] But they actually have some pay-per-use plans that are really about as cheap as anyone's, and they probably have the best service. I signed up for paying for each minute and each text!
I predict this will cut my cost to 1/3 of what it was for 10 out of 12 months; a few months might be 2/3 instead. This for the simple reason I don't use the phone that much. I might go a week without using it at all! I told my wife I signed up for a cheaper plan without giving her the details, she probably would shake her head to think I have no set number of free minutes or "unlimited" anything. One Gracie Allen moment was enough! [g]
Posted by odiousgambit
Sep 13, 2012
Sep 13, 2012
M-Live Sept. 12
Without much warning, I got a nice offer for free play withing a very narrow window of time, on one day too. I had thought I'd have no problem showing up at the right time [luckily]. Later events have shown that I was showing up for something big, to my surprise. The email said it was to be a "sneak peek", so although I realized it might be busier than usual, turns out it was nightmare overcrowded. Word has it a lot of people were miffed, not getting in, or giving up trying. I almost turned around myself, but the incentive was pretty good and by the time I realized the problem, I could see I was only going to be a little late, within what was likely to be a normal grace period. I parked in a lot nearby and walked a quarter mile, assuming the garage was going to be hellish.Inside, packed, but I usually deal with that OK. It's the bumper to bumper traffic situation I can't stand. Nonetheless, long lines everywhere, and hard to find a machine I wanted. Finally someone gets up from a seat that has e-craps. I sit down, see it is $10 min. Perhaps that was everywhere, and no way can I be picky. I decided to make a few bets and get out of there, knowing there would be long lines at the cashier. Bear in mind too, as far as I knew, information hard to come by, things were only going to get worse, and I wanted to get the hell out before rush hour.
I wanted to do the buffet again [see previous post], but with the line and my anxiety, forget it!
After thinking about it for a while, I have decided that what was going on was purely a situation where Cordish, the big tuna here, was going to speak, and his handlers have learned in order to schmooze him, there must be a big crowd. So they send out this generous free play offer to thousands of people all to come in this narrow little window of time! They really ought to be ashamed of themselves, such BS is un-neighborly and even unsafe due to the traffic mess. Truth be told, if all they did was have some big drawings, that probably would have brought plenty of people in. This was unnecessary and apparently caused more hard feelings than it was worth. Are they going to make it up to their patrons who got pissed?
But the money was there, and I did take it.
Comments
100xOdds
Sep 14, 2012
how did you do w/the free $?
all on a single dont pass (max odds) then leave?
odiousgambit
Sep 15, 2012
>how did you do w/the free $?
10 DPs/DCs with full odds, lost right off the bat but got on a winning streak and wound up over $100. Naturally, I wanted to continue, but not real happy with a $10 table and my anxiety about traffic when leaving [unfounded] I got up from my seat.
I have to assume they would know you took X amount from them and just tried to cash it, without gambling through it, BTW. At least that would be the rule if it was up to me! [g]
100xOdds
Sep 15, 2012
but you did gamble thru it if u put it all on a single dp/full odds
ie: $70 free $
$10 dp/$60 odds
win or lose, you just gambled thru the free $ they gave you
odiousgambit
Sep 15, 2012
yeah, I know, but I considered just taking the money... doubt if that works. That's why I mentioned it. I wagered enough in just a couple of minutes if you count free odds, and surely they do.
wrxrob
Dec 04, 2012
The garage is not a nightmare if you park in the upper floors, especially 6 and 7.
As far as the craps are concerned, I'm sure you noticed you can no longer make 50 cent line and place bets. Now, they have gone to truly $5/10 minimums (except for the prop bets of course). The only unusual craps bets I notice still allowed, is the $1 horn (as opposed to the usual $4 at most tables) and the $5 buy bet on 4 and 10.
The bar is still $5 minimum, but most other rows, and the "island" is now $10.
I still like that you can use the free play on the tables, as opposed to being forced to drop those dollars in slot machines.
I am enjoying your blog, as you seem to hit the same casinos I most frequently visit (M-Live, Harrington)
Posted by odiousgambit
Sep 13, 2012
Sep 13, 2012
M-Live Buffet
I returned to M-Live the last week of August to find only the weekly offer of $5 on the account. Going by fortunately wasn't that inconvenient for me. I staked the $5 on the banker in Baccarat and watched it go bye-bye in one hand. I had told myself I wasn't going to stake more unless more was on the card, not really wanting to get sucked into a routine of going to this place unless it continued to pay to do so, at least theoretically. And I played no more, wanting to check out the buffet for some time, and this was my chance.IMO the buffet was outstanding. Judging by a dearth of positive reviews I could find, It has to be true that another person would not have been impressed, and it is certainly true that there were some things you could pick at, mostly relating to spotty service. And none of it was too good to be true. For example even though New York Strip was served, it was in such a manner it might as well have been a cheaper cut; it was not steaks laid out but thin cuts lying in a sauce. Perhaps one's taste in buffets can be like taste in pizza, where what one person likes is completely contrary to what another does. But I thought it was the best buffet for the price that I had been to in a long, long time.
The $18 cost was reduced to $16 with player's card, not bad, not spectacular. But once with plate in hand, the Diner finds he has a choice of Seafood, Southern food [the section perhaps un-named], BBQ, Italian, and Asian. The Seafood section had shrimp and various fish, including portions of Mahi Mahi that would be a $25 entree at many restaurants, and more [my notes fail me now as to what].
A carving station had roast pork, and there was also an omelette station. Service was spotty, though, at either place. You find yourself waiting for someone to show up. I was too impatient for that, lots of goodies beckoned.
The Southern section [whatever it was called] had Collard greens cooked absolutely as authentic as you would want, with homestyle mac and cheese and chicken. I loaded up here first, loving that stuff.
The BBQ section had NY Strip, as mentioned, a good cut no matter how served, and also BBQ brisket and BBQ chicken.
The Italian section, un-named I think, was a little spotty, it probably varies. No pasta, which was odd, but surely they usually have it. Outstanding meatballs though.
Something big with me is to have a lot of good interesting vegetable dishes. I can really almost get desperate when traveling to try to keep to a balanced diet, and a buffet with lots of vegetables is a goldmine, allowing me to "catch up" [I really can nearly get ill if a bad diet follows me all vacation]. So even though it wasn't my problem this time, they had it, and I was glad to see it. The salad bar had spinach and 'spring mix', and also chick peas and kidney beans, the latter two items a real life saver sometimes when traveling. They had the classic mistake of not using dark red variety for the kidney beans; like I say, there are some things to pick at.
As for dessert, certainly there is a section for that, but believe it or not I have little interest in that at a buffet, I get too stuffed on what I really want, and I just don't check it out. But they have soft-serve Yogurt, and I had some of that. It was like soft-serve ice cream, and I wondered if that's what it was without a sign saying so. But my wife says the soft serve yogurt is like ice cream, so probably I just couldnt tell the difference.
I am sure there are some Casino buffets that are better, I'm not the expert, but at what price? This one does blow Harrington's [DE] buffet away, that much I can say.
Comments
wrxrob
Dec 04, 2012
Thanks for the buffet review. I've been to MD Live several times, but have yet to try the buffet, due to the high number of bad reviews I've heard. Have you tried their snow crab night (Fri-Sat). I'm curious of the quality of snow crab before ponying up the high price they are asking for that buffet.
Posted by odiousgambit
Aug 22, 2012
Aug 22, 2012
Maryland Live trip 3
Tuesday returned to Maryland Live! and will continue to do so weekly if they continue to put money in my account.This time I wanted to get the facts and took better notes.
I started with 308 points plus $15 from the house in cash. I ended with 975 points, finally remembering to check that.
This time around had a good long session. I marked as accurately as I could how many $5 line bets I made, all on the Don't or the DC, on a little notepad. 65 line bets. Sixty five over a 2 hour period! And, yes, I sometimes had as many as 3 going simultaneously. I guess I have been way over-estimating how much betting I was doing there, considering the pace. I also tried to mark how many times I put up free odds, although I had the feeling I might have failed to make a note on that a few times. In any case, counted 41 such; since it was 3x4x5x and the max, that was $30 each time. So my betting was $325 against the house edge, EV approx minus $3.70!! Four $1 bets on 'any craps' just for grins tips the EV to a bit over minus $4. My coin-in $1555 adding the free odds [and possibly more as I might have missed some free odds I bet]; at 1 for 2, the max rate they claim to offer, that would be 777.5 points. Instead I saw 667 added. I can't figure out any formula they might be
using from that. Would have earned only about 162 from non-free odds bets. On the face of it these points are nearly worthless, mind you, if you are just going by what they will promise officially.
They had an odd thing going on with those points that I couldnt figure out. A statement on a little screen that gives you info on your player's card kept saying "200 countdown for next point". Then it would change to "100 countdown for next point" after a while, and then go back again. Made no sense to me as the running total for the points I was earning had nothing to do with that.
When I got the seat I wanted, I was watching the 7s per 100 stats again. It stayed low again; I watched it go from 11 to 13, digging me out of a hole - not that a couple of 7s didnt hit my darkside line bets. I think this means the 7s have been MIA pretty much every time I have gone there, although on my first visit it was just my impression with no facts. Could this conceivably mean dice under a dome might have such a bias? I'm already convinced it is nay, for various reasons, and won't check it out. I think if there was a flaw for dome dice, it would be in the nature of the dice remembering the last roll from how they lay, and developing a pattern. I doubt that too but it least I can picture it. I can see no reason why 7s would be unfavored by any such flaw.
A guy sat next to me and stared gasping, I thought he was losing. Then I hear him say "the field is hot!". I swear he wasn't there 5 minutes and he says "I'm cashing out, I just won $1000"; I saw his ticket and indeed he had. My guess is he was parlaying his bets on the field.
As far as my own luck, Maryland has refused to allow me a session win so far, although my losses have been no biggie. So I guess they are getting the last laugh, loading money onto the player's card but then seeing me lose it and more. But if they will keep doing it, I will keep going back, yessir.
Comments
teddys
Aug 23, 2012
May you have the cold streak to end all cold streaks :)
odiousgambit
Aug 23, 2012
If that is what it takes, but I'll go for a hot streak to end all cold streaks too! [g]
100xOdds
Aug 23, 2012
last week when i was there, it was a COLD streak. the longest streak w/o a 7 was only 6 numbers according to the game display sscreeen.
7's were rolling left and right. luckily i was playing Dark. unlucky in that when i decided to press my bet from $35 to $100 (plus 6x odds), the point hit :(
went back to break even. oh well, another day...
FleaStiff
Aug 25, 2012
could that countdown to next point mean that "any points that are in our computer will be posted to your account in 100 seconds"?
odiousgambit
Aug 25, 2012
Quote:7's were rolling left and right. luckily i was playing Dark. unlucky in that when i decided to press my bet from $35 to $100 (plus 6x odds), the point hit :(
More 7s favors the darkside, but it is kind of funny how slowly that benefit can kick in. I think it is even possible in the short term to be no benefit at all, due to bad luck having them kick in on the line bet and not the darksides odds bet.
Quote:could that countdown to next point mean that "any points that are in our computer will be posted to your account in 100 seconds"?
Maybe, but it seemed a lot longer than that many seconds. And I would see points accumulate in the meantime.
There seem to be many mysteries to solve at M-Live. Thanks for the comments.
Posted by odiousgambit
Aug 10, 2012
Aug 10, 2012
Maryland Live! Relived
Went to Maryland Live Thursday 8/9/12; no big deal this can be a short one.I had pretty much figured I wasn't going back so soon, having been there in June to check out their version of my favorite game, Craps. It's e-craps, and I was glad I checked it out, but this is not "doing it for me" enough to replace the real table game.
I did sign up for the player's card though. So a few weeks ago I get an email saying there was a total of $20 loaded on it somehow. This definitely was not earned from my play, so I figure, let's see how this goes. They keep loading the money on, I will keep going.
As I hoped, no problems with traffic or being crowded by going early [10 AM] during the week. Wound up going through the $20 and a bit into my bankroll as no doubt they were sure I would.
I have completely failed to keep track of my comp points, so I have no way of knowing if any of that $20 came from my points, or if all of it was as an introductory offer coming after I got my card, instead of before I got my card. For sure none of it should really have come from my play, the EV of which for my entire experience including this last one [about $5] not amounting to more than $12 in losses, and no, I am not kidding, since my action is almost entirely line bets with the free odds. So a very generous rebate from the prior trip would have been only about 1/3 of the approx. minus $7 EV of that first trip. I started with 143 points on the card and failed again to see what points I had when I left there this time. I am just not used to giving a damn, knowing they should be amounting to zilch. I am sure some day I will go back, so maybe I'll be more used to the contraption you place your bets on [horsing around with that has been a distraction] and get a better handle on the points.
Changes I noticed: the bet increment now in Craps is $1, not 50 cents. The minimum bet is now always $5 [or $10 with unpredictable location for where will be what min.], meaning you can no longer bet the lowest increment on your next bet just because you already bet $5 somewhere. The middle table bets though always can be placed for the lowest increment [$1].
Something else that may have just eluded me last time was, if you play at the bar, there are some constant statistics being shown on the big screen for Craps and Sic Bo, along with the current action. I have decided to always play the dark side exclusively when I go there, as it is so easy to be discreet. They displayed the frequencies of the last 100 rolls, carefully explaining it was by percent, which since it was 100 rolls was the same as the actual number, which I thought was funny. I watched as the number of 7s rolled dropped from 13 to 10 for the last 100, so clearly it was not a good day for the dark side before I got there and certainly not after I started betting. I am thinking '10' is about as low as the number of 7s get, which is not to say I didn't get burned on the come-out at least once with a 7.
Well, that is about it and may be about it for much more action there in MD, assuming they don't just keep throwing money at me. Just have to have that real Craps table to get motivated to go more. A planned trip to Harrington in Sept is looking good now.
Comments
odiousgambit
Aug 12, 2012
Ran Wincraps for about 1000, 100 roll games to get an idea how rare 10 7s per 100 rolls was.
Roughly half a dozen times was it less than ten, out of the 1000 games. So, not outrageously unheard of, the low being 5. The mean should be trending towards 16.67 as I run more games, of course.
Still, it was fairly rare to see.
100xOdds
Aug 12, 2012
The first time i got a bonus at MAryland Live (end of June/beginning of July), they converted my ~4500 points to $85 which is $0.02/point. Normally it's 600points = $1 or $0.0017/point. I had no problem w/this. :)
I now have 17500 points. For Aug, they have a promo where on Sun, I get a free mystery bonus. ie: no points converted.
last sun, it was only $15. today is was $50! :)
i dont know if it's targeted or not.
check it out. You might have one...
Goto the players club and ask.
Comments
Track Phone for me. All I want all I need.
I am always amazed at women who rush in to buy a pair of shoes because the second pair is half off. But turn their nose in the air
at a mere 3)5 off on one pair.
Plus where is the second one in a pair of panties ?
LOL, I'm an IT director...and people look at me crazy because I don't own a SmartPhone (I have a phone from StraightTalk for Talk and Txt a little)
When I need computer access I have my Acer Netbook...