What's Rarer in LV - Winners or Snow?

Once again we challenged the expert blackjack dealers at the Suncoast Casino and once again we squeeked out a modest victory.

I had to go to the nearby post office to get some stamps and it happened to be en route to the Suncoast, so I stopped in for a couple of hours. Actually, Helen encouraged me to go so she could get caught up on some Lifetime Channel shows that she's been watching.

Anyway, I sat down at a double-deck pitch table with one other player and immediately lost about half of my $100 buy-in. Then things turned around and I won 3-4 hands in a row to get back near even. It was up and down for a while. At one point I was up about $75, but things turned sour. That's when I took a break and counted my profit of $31.

That wasn't too bad, but I was kicking myself for not stopping when I was up $60 or $70. So I took a break for lunch and considered grabbing a quick hot dog at a cart near the sports book. The dogs are only 75 cents. I walked over to the nearby buffet and checked the lunch price - $8.99. That seemed pretty good.

"Would you like to pay with your club points," asked the cashier.

"I'm not sure I have enough," I answered.

She quickly scanned my card and told me I could put $5 toward the price. So for $4.25 (tax included) I had the whole buffet at my lunchtime mercy!

I started with a plate of cold peeled shrimp, two bbq ribs, and a piece of fried chicken. I followed that up with my fruit & salad selections - a small green salad and two pieces of chilled watermelon. Then came dessert, a tasty slice of carrot cake. I always think of my Mom when I have carrot cake - it was her favorite.

After waddling out of the buffet, I thought about playing some more blackjack, but opted to sit at a 25-cent video poker game. I put in $10 and went up and down until I connected on four 7s. A few spins later, I cashed out $21, a cool profit of $11 for about 10 minutes work. That equates to an hourly wage of $66, after taxes.

With a profit of $42 in my pocket, I took a walk around the casino, checking out the Suncoast's second story bowling alley area. Then I decided to give blackjack another try. I started out on a lucky streak and ran my $50 buy-in up to almost $100 in about 30 minutes before things went bad. I walked from this session with a profit of $21.

So the total gambling take for the day was $63 - not great, but better than losing. I've been on a nice roll lately - no huge wins, but steady profits over the past few sessions.

While I was bringing the Suncoast to its knees, the weather outside was turning frightful (at least by Las Vegas standards). Snow is falling and both TV and radio are predicting many inches of snow, with some mountains getting up to 10 inches of white stuff. There's even a chance the Strip will get 3-6 inches tonight!

One TV weather guy noted that LV schools have not had a snow day since 1979, but tomorrow it could happen for the first time in 29 years! The same guy noted that McCarran Airport has NO SNOW REMOVAL EQUIPMENT - yikes!

I feel for any people from the Midwest or Northeast who thought they were escaping snow when they planned their Vegas Vacation, only to find the weather nasty here too.

Tonight I whipped up some hefty salads for Helen and me - baby spinach, romaine lettuce, roma tomatoes, kalamata olives, and mushrooms, all topped by shredded cheddar. Tasty, but light, especially after my buffet lunch.

Tune in tomorrow for details on LV's battle against Mother Nature...