Day 6 Sunday March 30, 2003

When I got up this afternoon I had a good feeling about going out to Boulder Station. I don’t usually do too much playing here but decided today would be a good day to try them out. I of course started with craps on their $2 and 10X odds table. Things here were up and down and after 3 hours I had dropped $275. I decided after this ass kicking I took, I’d try out some of the new multi strike video poker. I started off with nickels and then moved up to quarters. Even though I had made it up to the 8X line a quite a few times I just couldn’t hit any hands up there. This along with no quads on any lines wiped me out of another $300.

Since I had given up blackjack I kind of missed it and had a feeling that today would be the day to have a nice win. I’m not one to usually go with these types of feelings but I decided that today I would. I bought in for $500 and played green chips. About 20 minutes later I was getting up from the table with my whole buy-in totally gone. I couldn’t believe it and realized this was why I gave the game up last year. Losing with 20’s and pushing with 20 and 21 really pisses me off, as does the dealer pulling 6 card 21’s.

After walking around a bit and cooling off I went over to Boulder Café so I could enjoy an $1100 dinner. My drink order was taken right away but I sat there for a good 10 minutes before my server showed up to take my order. I ordered a bowl of chicken noodle soup and a hot open roast beef sandwich. After about 15 minutes my waitress came by and said it would be out in about 2 minutes. I couldn’t understand why it was taking so long for a bowl of soup though. Then I realized, this genius didn’t write down my order when I gave it to her. At this point I assumed she totally forgot. My assumption was correct because a few minutes later she brought my sandwich and never brought the soup. The sandwich was good but not worth the $1100 it cost me to have it though. After I was done eating I sat there for another 15 minutes while she was no where to be found. She finally came walking by and asked if I was waiting on her. I told her I was in a not so happy voice. She gave me the check and I was finally on my way. She was tipped accordingly for the great service I got.

When I got back to the Frontier I took a short break and then made my way back down to the casino. I started off with 8/5 bonus and in a few minutes I hit 4 aces for 400 coins. Unfortunately it was about the only thing I hit and lost all of that and my buy in. From here I just moved from machine to machine getting very little play for my money. I even tried my luck on a few slot machines and couldn’t hit a friggen thing. I though it would be best to stop playing today and as I was on my way back up here I saw the Price Is Right machines. I like this game for entertainment reasons, not to win money. I was doing ok and had hit the bonus round a few times. Things were doing ok and I bumped up from 1 coin per line to 3 coins per line. I hit a bonus round and ended up winning 1800 credits. I hit a few more and after this and one was good for over 700 coins. I eventually cashed out with 2000 credits for $100 taking an $80 win from this machine.

I took that $80 to a few video poker machines and promptly lost it in pretty quick order. I had $20 left and tried the Regis slots machines. I had never played these before and thought I’d take a shot. I got quite a bit of action from this machine hitting the bonus round a few times but eventually lost it all.

I wanted to play craps here tonight but they only had 1 table and it was packed. By looking at the racks in front of everyone this was the place to be. Everyone had a lot of chips in front of them and there was a lot of yelling going on. Instead I made the dumb move of going to a double deck blackjack game as if I hadn’t been beaten up enough today.

I bought in for $200 and in less than 10 minutes had dropped $150 betting just $10-15 per hand. I had thought at this point of the movie Vegas Vacation where the dealer says to Chevy Chase “Why don’t you give me ½ your money, we’ll go out back and I’ll kick you in the nuts”. The dealer was on fire and I was again losing with 20 and pushing with 21. The dealer went 3 decks in a row without busting a hand. Then just you think it’s all over things turned around. I was back to even in a few minutes and before I knew it I was winning my doubles and splits and getting plenty of blackjacks. I started getting paid in green chips and those were going into my pocket so I wouldn't make the mistake a blowing them. The good run continues for a while and I thought about how this was the way blackjack used to be when it was my game of choice.

After playing for about 3 hours I was getting ready to pack it in. A new player came to the table and wasn’t the brightest player out there holding on 14’s and 15’s against dealers 9 and 10’s. Then he made the brilliant move of splitting 2 queens against a dealer 5. He of course pulls 2 more 10’s for 2 20’s. The dealer proceeds to cap his 15 with a 4 and wipe out everyone else at the table except this asshole. In this 3 hours I had gotten in the area of 20 blackjacks that helped me have my first real winning blackjack session in a long time. I’d have to look up my records but I’d say probably close to a year. I colored up $425 worth of green and reds. Of course this didn’t count all the chips I had in my pocket. I really had no idea what I had but estimated that I had bout $200-300 worth. When I got to the cage to cash in I was amazed that I actually had over $600 worth. My total cash out was $1085 with just a $200 buy in. That was blackjack the way I remembered it. It made this tough day a little easier to take even though overall I still had a bad day. Just not as bad as it almost was! It’s now near 4am and I am beat. Time to call it a day and get to bed.

Total win/loss for the day -$400
Total comps for the day $66
Total out of pocket expenses $3