Ongoing VP TR, PART 2!

Turbo Tilt might be your new MO

Rest of Day 3

We're eating dinner at Mizumi. I step up to 10 line UX and give back a couple of thousand before I cash out and run over to dinner. THANK GOD for that 40k save. At this point, there's no way I'm booking a loser this trip. Asked all trip, and finally got dealt the nuts!

When I get to Mizumi I try to figure out the best way to tell D. He, OF COURSE, was no longer partnered with me due mostly to his getting killed on craps. At some point during my Sat run bad he had to pull out, no way he could continue to play craps AND VP while getting crushed at both. So now I'm looking at a massive save and I know it would soul crush him to find out. I decide I'll give him 5%, or 2k just bc. Yes I know he just free-rolled me (and it's not the first time I've done this, see the June trip where I had a 100k upswing in 2hrs, he wasn't technically part of it but I had to throw him something) but the 2k is meaningless in the long run vs our friendship. He'd be fine if he got nothing, I know he'd understand but in that case I have to say absolutely nothing to him at all. And then, I'd have to lie when he asks how I wound up, etc. It's just easier to be honest and help a brother out.

So I decide on the following-
"dude, sorry I'm late, have I got a story for you".
D- " oh man, you played VP and you got crushed..."
"no, just wait, let me tell the story. So after craps I went to VP and"
D- " oh man, you got crushed then went back to craps and had a monster roll without me"
"dude, will you just let me tell the story?! So anyways, rage tilt yadda yadda and it dealt me the nuts" (shows picture)
D- "I KNEW IT. Of course when I'm not with you. Obv I'm happy for you, but man I'm running bad this trip"
"You've got 5% man. You're welcome".

So now we're ALL in a much better mood, ready to eat some sushi!

Random pic of the Wynn was when I stepped out for a smoke. All food 8/10, company 10/10. We lit 1500$ of comp on fire this dinner.

After dinner, we FINALLY get everyone on the same page- we're gonna play craps! So we find a roll to win table which SEEMS like it should be great for people to learn on, however each person has to have their own station and make their own bets, and we're talking about people who won't even shove a hundred dollar bill in. Plus, at the Wynn you can't shoot from the middle of the table, so some people by definition won't get to shoot. Lastly, there's a timer, a mandatory 30 sec between rolls HAS to occur. For them, that might not be enough time, but for me and D I know that's going to tilt us. So we walk over to a regular craps table and squeeze everyone in.

The session is just boring. No other way to describe it. We lost, slowly but surely. No rolls that even had a glimmer of hope, and many rolls that were just so SLOW. I ended up losing maybe? a grand and had to leave, I was falling asleep. I say goodnight to everyone and head to the machines intending on a MAX loss of 5k.

Played multiline for a while, ended up losing 4k. Decided like an idiot to head to spin.

Look at all the minor jackpots I hit!

Clearly, I didn't lose only 5k. I lost that 1k pretty fast, decided to go in for another 1k, and then spin just... did its frustrating thing. Picked up TONS of premium draws. Missed them all, obv. Hit enough minor things or picked up good draws JUST often enough to give the illusion of hope. Feed in more money. Repeat.

I finished the night down 10k from post dinner, after 1am. SO SO SO dumb. Spin has been ICE COLD this trip.

Day 3 result- +6k
Overall- +22.5k
Dealt quads- 3, 2 premium
5 digit hits- 2

Final Day

I wake up around 6am exhausted. I know I should sleep more, and probably could if I really just fought that urge to play, but of course I get up. I have one goal- don't give back more than 10k today, lock in a 5 digit win. So I play ultra slowly, but the machines are ultra cold. In fact, I donk off ALMOST 10k before breakfast with ZERO jackpot. SHT.

D is up. We're planning on grabbing an early lunch at Red 8, no breakfast today. After, he's going to roll to the handegg game, at which point I'll have another few hrs to kill before heading home. We hit craps and it sucks, we both lose several k. He's now officially done with gambling for the trip. I should cash him out anyways now, makes it easier for later. Once I pay D his share, I realize I have even less than anticipated. In fact, I'm not even up 10k anymore (close to it). Shoot.

Play more VP and lose, slowly.

OK sweet. That helps.

I head to lunch still down 10k for the day. I decide I'll play on to 7k profit at worst. Forgot to take pics at Red 8, let's just say it was better than normal. Zero food left on the table when we were done.

I head back to UX for one last hurrah.

OK man, that second hit is nice!

I switch to 10 line and give back 2k really fast. At least I wasn't dumb enough to try spin, YET AGAIN. Instead, I decide I'm going to play big craps- buy in for 5k, get 550$ all the even numbers and hopefully not lose too much more than normal, but maybe position myself for a big final win. Instead, I walk right into the COLDEST table of the whole trip. 5 point/seven outs, I never hit one number and I'm stuck almost 3k instantaneously. SHT that was a bad idea. Head back to UX... and give back the rest of that 8k hit really quickly. At least I cashed out when I said I would. Semi- proud of myself of the control I had this trip... semi disappointed that I'm really not leaving with much of a win given what I hit... but still cognizant of the fact I DID win at negative expectation games at all.

It'll have to do. Actually, other than the two monsters at UX I didn't hit any other 5 digit hits (historically I need 3 to at least break even), and spin was SO COLD... It's a testament to the fact that for the most part, I stayed on the rails.

Day 4 result- -11k (plus 4.5k payout to D)
Overall- +7k

Thoughts- not much new to say. Pretty happy with how my daily, increasing budgeting worked out and I'll definitely do that next time as well. Gotta stick with 5 line UX and regular ol' TDB for the most part- 10 line UX and spin is just too swingy. I'll take my shots, of course.

Thanks for reading!

boom - a very swingy, but ultimately profitable trip. Congrats and thank you as ever for the write ups

Admirable of you to pay D his share even when he wasn't partnering.

Thanks again for the great TR, leon!

Agreed, very generous. I have no doubt this is good karma for future trips

Full disclosure, I gave him 5%. He usually partners with me for 10%. I figured it was a good compromise given technically I got free-rolled. Last time I did this, same thing.

i had the opposite opinion of it

if d is both well off enough where it's not enough money to be a factor in his life + you're a great long term friend then i think it's ok

but if he's mostly a gambling friend who is materially effected by a big win or loss ten i wouldn't do it

you said this isn't the first time he's cut out early and you still paid him out when you made a comeback - so it definitely feels like a freeroll and where he is impacted by the amounts enough that he will often eject to avoid big losses and knows that he'll still catch the upside

i would definitely tell him that in the future you won't be cutting him in after he gets out - this way you won't feel bad next time he bails and then you hit a big one

This is a tough one for me and I partly agree with you. He's well-off enough to have a gambling roll, let's start there. That said, that roll is on life support. He draws from his discretionary funds to fund Vegas trips so his roll is definitely not "clean" per se. He's a life friend, not just a gambling one.

However, I realize that I have opened the door to being free-rolled in the future. Best case scenario he literally wouldn't be upset if he bailed and I hit huge, or he wouldn't even have a shred of jealousy if I hit big "just for me". But I know that wouldn't be 100% the case. We've had trips before where if we didn't explicitly partner for that session (eg, I wake up super early), I'd play without him, and when he woke up it was always the same thing- "just assume I'm with you for 10%".

So if I assume he's partnered with me for all action, and THEN he explicitly tells me he's out, obv I need to let him out. But then there's the vague butthurtness that would result if I hit huge. Our friendship is important enough to me that I'd rather cut him back in. However, he's also man enough, and an honorable gambler, that I know ultimately it would be ok.

SO- I think the next time we go, I'm going to be upfront with him. No more cutting him in after the fact simply bc it could lead to hurt feelings in the future. He'll completely understand. Then we just have to hope we both hit huge together so this all becomes a moot point.

yeah it's tricky and fully agree it's also super awkward for him to eat a loss when you're up overall because of a killer session once he got out

Yeah I see that all the time too. I see so many people paying 1 to 3 credits per hand. About a month ago I heard a machine going crazy I turned and looked and the old lady hit a royal flush on $1 but was only betting 1 credit so she got only $250. Ouch.

Yeah, could have had $1000 if playing 5 quarters for $1.25/spin in stead of $250 at $1/spin. Just insanely foolish.

I went from not knowing ANYTHING about VP to reading Leon’s TRs and starting to play single line TDB (incorrectly) during the first trip many years ago to be completely hooked on 10-line UX and basically not playing anything else.

Thanks Leon for introducing me to one of the most fun games out there with an absolute **** ton of variance [emoji23]

Posting just because UX is such a sick sick game, land in the only spot where I have the 10x:

sick hit muck

Sick hit. Congrats.

I just live UX. Is it December 1 yet?

10/17-20 TR

As the title explains, I've been back about a week, but this was the first real chance I had to write up an installment. I got an invite to a 10k buy in slot tournament from the Wynn in early Sept. My host really seems to be trying to repair/restore our relationship to previous levels. Not necessarily with increased comp, mind you, but the invites have picked up again and the comp isn't going down. He's been very responsive (case in point for this one, I was told I had a spot, 50 runners only, tried to sign up the next day and was told I was waitlisted. They got me off the waitlist in 2 days).

As far as the tournament goes, this is the big one every year. Same structure as last time which I think is fantastic- two separate tourneys, one for free credit (top prize 150k) and one for cash (250k top, ended up going to 310k at the end). I get a 4th rd in the free credit one simply for signing up early, and I'll earn a 4th rd in the cash arm either by paying 2.5k or earning 25k points (which is LOL easy for me). Min payout is 3.5k free credit, 2k cash so I'll get half my buy in back right way, they always give a gift of ~ 1k free credit... 1/25 shot of taking first in either arm and binking 6 figures... this is such a good tournament structure. I just have to bink...

D and I are going together. He's in with me 50/50. My mom has "found money" recently and was feeling very generous, and D has been helping her out here and there in the last year, so my mom offered to put us both in (we only got 1 entry). Only stipulation is if we specifically take 1st we need to give her 20%. Seems more than fair to me. So this is a total freeroll for both of us- thanks mom!

Agenda-
Thurs- get in, try new pop up steak place 6666. Eat 999$ steak?
Fri- free credit tourney, host tourney to determine gift, D and I will walk strip in PM
Sat- cash tourney, dinner at Safta 1964 (pop up Mediterranean place)
Sun- leave early (late AM)

Bankroll- 45k. I'm still playing short and have pulled out all the stops of bankroll management which worked 3 weeks ago. I've got a strict daily budget, and we're going to grab whatever food they offer at the tourney for dinner Fri (always decent and paid for). Walking the strip is a way to conserve funds too, although we're potentially going to stop at every casino and place 100$ field bet. I figure, 30 casinos x 100$ x -EV of 2%... we should lose 60 bucks in theory. That's also partly why we're leaving earlier than normal- I figure, either we'll have binked the tourney by then and by glad to get back home with our loot, or we'll be trying to preserve everything and will be happy to get out. D is actually super short, he's only given himself 5k total bc he's got 2 more trips to Vegas lined up in the next month (for different shows, but he knows he's going to play).

We need to bink this thing. Here we go!

Day 1

The flight is smooth and on time, and D and I are on our way to the Wynn in no time. D's room is separate from mine (two separate reservations), and when we realize that not only are we not on the same floor but that his room isn't ready, we ask for anything ready where his room is connected to mine. Best they can do is the 6th floor- the check in person warns me "it's not much of a view". That's fine, I actually don't care. In reality, looking back on it I actually liked it- never a wait for the elevator, I avoided crowds of people, etc. I might actually request that for future trips. On the way up to the room, I see the bartender and he offers to get my bourbon ready for me. I remark to D, this is one of the reasons I can't leave the Wynn. I know everyone here, and the service is just unbeatable. Sure enough, after I drop my stuff off, grab my money and head down, the bartender has a double of Stagg ready for me.

I'm a bit hungry and we're not eating until 8pm... I'm about to drink a double of some high octane stuff, better get some food in me first.

Food from the lounge. Free is free.

I head to UX... and it's occupied. Shoot. It's a Thursday and the floor is unusually crowded... I really hope it's not like this all weekend. I didn't want to start with hi limit but looks like I have to.

We get on the board in 4 min.

D at some point goes to play dice. I end up losing at the multiline machine, head to UX... STILL OCCUPIED! So annoying. Donk off 2k at an old school machine, then 2k at spin. God this is frustrating. I'm down 6k out of an 11k daily budget. Now UX is open... I'll fire 1k and then join D at craps if it's bad.

Well, that's not bad!

I immediately set a stop win and go to 10 lines.

Check in with D, play a bit, lose a bit. Back to the machines.

At this point, I think I'm up 6k for the trip. I head upstairs to change for dinner and take a break.

I head back downstairs and D is still playing (and losing). I join him, and we find a decent roll. Can't remember anything specifics but I know we drilled a bunch of 4s and 10s. I got 10 up to 750$ (never hit it) and I book a rather large craps win. D didn't do nearly as well bc he was playing small, and he usually doesn't get on 4 and 10 until later in the roll.

In for 3, out for 7.5k.

Perfect timing for dinner at 6666!

It's interesting to see the familiar confines of Tableau made to look different. Obv still the same space, just different decor. It felt weird in a way.

Oysters Rockefeller.

Wedge.

A Texas Twinkie, stuffed pepper.

Campfire potatoes- baked? Twice baked? Hard to tell.

D and I split the ribeye and NY strip. We thought about getting the 999$ steak... I should have enough food comp, but ultimately we decided against it. By the time we get our sides etc, that's way too much food. And, it's going to drive up the tip. Plus, if I don't spend the comp here, I can bring home bourbon. Meh F it it's not worth it. Part of me wants to do it to say I did, part of me knows that's dumb...

So- the food. Meh. Honestly. No different than any other steakhouse. The biscuits were actually one of the highlights- I'd give those 9/10. Apps were standard, potatoes vaguely disappointing. They weren't bad but I couldn't figure them out. Were they baked? Sliced and then sort of cooked? Meh. Obv flavor wasn't outstanding either. Twinkie was downright disappointing- sickeningly sweet. Steak was just ok- 6/10 for being slightly overcooked YET served lukewarm. WTF. By the time the steak came if I wasn't already kind of full and wanting to play again I'd have sent them back. Kind of a disappointing experience for a place that has been rented out/packed with celebrities since it opened. I'll be back, but only to give it another try. I definitely wouldn't go here if I was paying out of pocket.

After dinner, back to UX.

Does this count as "dealt" quad aces?

OK, here's a good one!

I step up to 10 lines.

Another good one.

I played until almost 1am. Ended up giving back too much, but still a solid opening day. Was prepared to lose up to 10k, and instead came out of the gates with a win!

Day 1 result- +11k
5 digit hits- 1

Day 2 coming soon...

Fantastic start. Too bad about the steakhouse. It's so easy to make a good steak at home, I don't bother, but if I had your comps, maybe 😉

Always nice to see a new TR. Great start

Nice start, hope it keeps rolling!

gogogo!

Bink! Bink! Bink!

boom! feels like only a few days since you were last there

+$11k is a great start.

Congrats on your new undertitle! 😉

Thank you for eating at "my" restaurant though sad it was so disappointing.

I understand that many will disagree, but I often feel that the quality and value of a high end steakhouse can be found away from the very expensive proteins.

The onion soup, duck fat fries, shrimp cocktail, ceviche, steak tartar, and porcini pasta would be a great return order for sharing imo. Even can mean room for dessert. To each his own of course. And...maybe this place isn't good? (Thanks for the excellent menu shots, which I did review closely.)

GL in the past for the rest of trip and tourney.

Never saw it until you pointed it out, thanks to whoever made that happen!

I'm definitely going back bc unless things are abysmal I believe in giving restaurants more than one try.

Also going to try to get the next installment up today (I've been insanely busy since I've been back and since I don't have another trip lined up yet I'm trying to stretch the memories of this trip as long as possible).

Spoiler alert...?!

Seriously though, sincerest thanks for sharing your TR's. The incredible highs, the sucky lows and your Vegas experiences away from the casino floor. I'm sure I speak for many when I say that the excitement felt when logging in here & seeing you've made an update is palpable.

Long may your journey continue - not just for your bankroll, but for all of us who have an emotional investment too!