Ongoing VP TR, PART 2!

Loved hearing about those rolls, nothing will ever beat that feeling of hitting so many points with a good table. Hopefully many more to come!!

I definitely do, but as Muck mentioned, I have such FOMO when I'm in Vegas that it doesn't matter. Anything I could otherwise do at home (emails, games on my phone, relaxing etc) seems like such a waste of time when I'm in Vegas. Best I've come up with over the decades is-
- always eat good meals
- always (where possible) bring a friend/wife to hang out with. Solo me can REALLY get hurt.
- always (where possible) have a good offer, slot tournament etc so it's not pure -EV
- always see a show or have some non-gambling activity built in (eg, walk the strip, WALK to Bellagio even if it's to donk money off there, etc).

Rest of Day 3

J and I head to Delilah for dinner.

At this point I've been here enough that the newness has worn off. I know what I like (eg, the crab endive salad) and which entrees are decent. This place is fine but it's not amazing. Company was good, though.

After dinner, J and I head back to craps. Alas, we can recreate none of the earlier magic, and I give back 2k. I'm now up 1k total for the day. I know the right "coasting" move is to play dice, so we find another table and I lose another 2k! STUCK 1k for the day. Every time we lose at dice, J gets a little more gunshy bc he's on a limited bankroll. We head back to VP. I suspect J isn't going to be up much longer- he's not partnered with me, and it must be boring watching another person just push buttons.

I lose 3k very fast and we switch machines. Put in another 2k... J heads to bed. I'm now stuck 6k for the day and technically have reached my stopping point... but I'm frustrated and want to see where this will go. It's not even 10pm on Sat night for god's sake. Fortunately, the machine picks up!

Not the greatest of runs, but very fast and all up. I kept setting new stop wins and managed to erase the VP deficit.

SO- day 3, after all that... stuck 1k for the day. Definitely not the worst result. Man, if I could hit just one more monster I'd be killing it. I always say, I need 3 5 digits hits to have a real shot at a winner. Well, I've only had 1 this trip and I'm still in the fight. Two 5 digits at this point I'd be well up.

Day 3 result- -1k
Overall- -2k
Dealt quads- 3, 1 premium
5 digit hits- 1

Final Day

As is now standard, I sleep like a baby. I wake up with the first hint of sunlight peeking through the window. I feel quite rested AND I could sleep more. I know the smart move is sleep more. I check the time- 6:30am. I've got about 2 hrs before I have to come back up, pack/shower/eat/head to airport. OK, let's play- it's like I just got here.

Last chance to do your thing Sphere...

I donk off 5k so fast I didn't even notice it. That was my stop point for the AM! Well, that's not going to fly. I reason a 10k trip loss isn't the worst, let's keep going.

Never fails. When running (slightly) bad, of course all the minor hits come flooding in. How about I convert on trip aces 4/15 times??!

Stuff like this makes you think MAYBE, just MAYBE there's a comeback around the corner.

I slowly but surely give that money back... stuck 3k for the day, 4... 5... OK screw it. Time to throw in the towel. I'm exactly where I was about 10 min after initially getting down here. Stuck 5k, 7k overall. At least I got to play and didn't make it worse. Cash out all my tickets and chips, head upstairs and pack, grab a decent room service breakfast with J and then it's off to the airport!

Until next time Wynn.

Final result- -7k

Postscript-

Well, obv dice didn't work out like I hoped it would. At least I determined that I can't play as big as I thought I could. I don't have the stomach to bet 800-1000 consistently, and I should continue to focus on longevity and having fun. Longevity increases the chance I'll be in action when a good roll comes around, and I'll have fun on those rolls almost irrespective of my starting bet. Sure, the dream is 1000$ to start and walk right into a good roll, but that's not very likely to happen and if I'm scared money at a starting bet of 1000 then zero chance I keep making those bets and am surviving when the good roll comes along.

I did have a realization with 4 and 10 that I'm going to put into play next time- starting with 100 on either, all I need are 6 hits to get to table max if I double up each hit. So, 100 goes to 2, to 4, to 8, to 16, to 32, to max. I'm picking up at least my bet each time. I don't know why I've never realized that before. I was always trying to pump 4 and 10 together, smaller increases, etc. Obv a 6 hit roll is rare, but it's not THAT rare. I see a 4 or 5 hit roll every weekend I play- yet my record is still a 2000$ 10. So next time I'm going to go for it a little more, knowing that I'm still picking up a decent amount of chips.

Also, I decided I'd keep track of all out of pocket expenses so I have a truer picture of how much I'm actually spending/losing. I'm lucky that the plane tickets, tips etc are a non-issue, but if I'm going to be completely honest with myself I should at least know how much I'm actually spending. SO- the breakdown is-

Flight- 335
Uber- 43
Tips- 186

This is pretty accurate. I'm sure I missed 5$ here and there for tips but it's good enough. So, looks like I spent about 550$ for the privilege of losing 7k.

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for the TR. I'm not sure why, but now I can't stop thinking of Elaine Benes father driving you to the airport.

thanks as ever Leon for a fun journey!

can I ask re comps and tipping....can you use your comp budget for the tips on your restaurant meals or do you need to comp separately with cash or your own card?

I don’t know how Wynn works, but MGM doesn’t let you tip out of comps + for some weird reason stuff you buy in the store won’t be comped either. It’s a major headache to keep track of, I always tip everything cash as I like to keep my balance at zero. But that’s just me, doubt Leon cares too much.

Yeah, same for me. MGM doesn't let you tip with comps/resort credit.
I thought resort credit(from offers) could be used in their convenience/lobby stores and such, but maybe not.
You can for sure use rewards points though in the MGM stores.

if only he were wearing a tan coat

Master of the house, doling out the charm.

This. Can't comp tip or stuff from the sundry store. The tip thing I understand, some person might decide to eat a 50$ meal but use up 500 in comp tipping. Plus I'm sure there's some tax/wage implications if the casino is ultimately paying out a tip. The store I don't understand- so I can spend comp on a 5 star meal, but not a bag of chips?

Here's my thinking, after decades of craps and having previously played the line/come with 10x odds many times-
- 3 4 5x odds offer essentially no advantage, and possibly a disadvantage depending on the number (bc the line will only ever pay even money). Example- point of 10, I can have 25 on the line and 75 odds, total payout is 175 if it hits. Contrast that with a buy bet on 10, 100 action yields 200 - 5 dollar vig = 195 payout. Obv this doesn't take into account that the line bet is +EV when you make it on the come out.
- It's much harder to press line and come bets. If I take a line bet at a table min of 25 and take full odds behind, what's my next move if I want to press? Go to 50 and essentially double? Take some weird amount like 35 on the line?
- there's no additional protection against a 7 out. It just comes at different stages. So example 1- I'm doing line/come bets. I bet the line, establish a point, take odds and make a come bet. Now it's PSO- I lose the minimum, and less than if I did place bets. But contrast this with a roll where you hit 1-2 numbers and no repeat (which also happens ridiculously frequently)- betting line/come I've now established 3 numbers and have not picked up a dime. Placing bets I've already gotten two hits. Now if a 7 comes I lose less placing.

Ultimately the line/come is too dependent on repeats. I just don't like it- it's great when it works out, but so is any strategy. To me there is almost no worse feeling in dice than playing line/come and the roll goes 6, 8, 9, 5, 10... no repeats and your ass is just hanging out in the breeze and then... wait for it... yep, 7 out. You can make fewer come bets but how is that any different than placing less numbers or betting smaller? Then there's the whole "get your odds back when a 7 rolls on the come out"- sure, it may feel like you're saving money, but you still lost your line bets. Now you've got to reestablish numbers. Place bets would have been off and nothing has changed. Now, a PSO it feels like you saved money vs placing, but any number rolls and you're right back in the same spot as before, making more bets while you'd be picking up chips if you were placing.

I've been meaning to reply / comment on this for a few months. One of the endearing qualities of this thread over the years is the fact that it is NOT a video series and just text and pictures. It leaves some things open to the imagination which each reader will fill in themselves. It's basically a gamblers versions of "the book was better" scenario because these slot / gaming influencers leave nothing to the imagination. (And in certain cases that's fine, but you can only watch so many of those videos in your feed before it becomes annoying and obnoxious.)

This also makes me sound like I'm in 70s but I'm sure this resonates with a bunch of you here.

Over a month and no posts in this thread? Leon you need a Vegas trip so we can read the report!

That was the most disappointing update to this thread ever, lol.

Yeah, I saw the thread was bumped, and was excited. Then I clicked on it, saw the size of the drag down bar on the right of the browser and quickly realized there were no pics....false alarm. Bummer indeed.

I saw the posts asking about a TR... while in Vegas.

Since there's no TR coming, you all know exactly what happened. A brief recap- I entered the 6500$ (w/rebuy) slot tournament. I also convinced my mom to sign up, and my wife to come. So obv I was really looking forward to this trip, and we had two shots in the tournament.

Bankroll-wise, I've been on life support. After my score at Barona in Jan it's just been a straight bleed. I put a decent amount into gold, but otherwise bled it back at the local. I REALLY needed this trip to come through- hell, just run decent as opposed to ice cold. Obv we got the exact opposite. Despite trying my best to stay disciplined, by end of Fri I was down 30k. They basically felted me by Sat night. I hit precisely ONE jackpot Fri, Sat and Sun (one each day). Any reader of my TRs knows this is utterly unsustainable, hell I need to hit them once every 30 min or so to stay afloat. Obv no 5 digit hits, no dealt premium quads (it did deal me quad 8s when I was stuck 35k, that was worth 3,750 and gone in 20 min). I should have been dealt trip aces 14 times and was under-aced by 2x. Stuck 50k.

There was one laughable stretch where I was dealt trip 2,3,4 at least three times, trip aces twice and 4 to a royal in an hr and blanked THEM ALL. In retrospect that stretch crushed me- I just kept playing, figuring, KNOWING I'm overdue to hit something, but of course the machine doesn't care. Clearly, mom and I min-cashed the tourney as well.

So- current state of liquid bankroll is zero. I've got about 200k locked up in the market which I plan on accessing, but of course the markets are down right now. I'm planning on mostly playing at the local as soon as I free up some cash. At the end of the day, 9/7 TDB at the local is a 2x better game than 9/6 TDB at the Wynn. I need to restrict my Vegas trips for really meaningful times (eg, family trip, somehow D gets to go again). I've been going to Vegas about 10x a year for about a decade- that was bound to catch up to me sooner or later. When I left today, I really hated the whole experience. On a trip like this one, with nothing "new" to report, if I don't catch a winner I'm just going to get upset. Vegas has basically lost its luster and I have no bankroll in any case.

So, down but not out. I'll update this thread with any reasonable hits at the local, and of course Vegas TRs, but those will be less frequent. I had really committed to this one, I took a bunch of pics but ultimately there was nothing new (OR GOOD) to show in them.

So, so sorry. That just sucks. Let's go LOCAL!

god I thought I was upset with the no-content bump and then get that. sorry Leon!!

Sorry about the downturn, leon. Thank you for the continued honesty in your reporting. Turns out, it's not all unicorns and rainbows.

Looking forward to hearing more whenever you're up to it.

oof. sorry mate

Yep, not the update we were all hoping for.

Run it back up at the local.

Variance is a two-way street...looking forward to the six figure hit!

Sorry for the ice-cold results. Rooting foor you to thaw out and then go on a heater.

I’m sorry Leon, I know exactly how it feels although my wins AND losses are probably a tenth of yours. I’m having a trip coming up in just one week and honestly I already dread and expect the inevitable outcome. Hope you can at least keep it alive at the local and ship a 6 figure hand pay!

This makes sad reason. Hoping for the upswing real soon