The Suncoast Gets Burned

This morning, like most of my mornings, began with a ritual of several cups of steamy coffee while reading the Freep, News, Review-Journal, Mlive and Record-Eagle online. We had the Today Show on TV, until 9 a.m. when we got our daily dose of "The Sopranos."

At noon I did a telephone interview with Cheryl and Bob Icard, who are launching Bob's West Bay Pate', a new company that makes salmon and whitefish pate. I'll be writing the article this week for the April issue of the TC Business News. It's the first writing assignment I've in about 3 weeks, since I did my last monthly casino entertainment column for the Booth papers. It was great talking with the Icards and finished the interview in about 30 minutes. The article only needs to be about 600 words long, so a longer interview was not really needed.

By 12:30 it was time for lunch, so I made us some roasted turkey & cheddar sandwiches in pita bread. By this time, Helen had already begun watching "Desperate Housewives" and was on the phone with her friend Gail when I decided to head over to the Suncoast Casino for a blackjack session.

While I was gone, Helen also spoke with her brother Norman and Anna.

I got to the Suncoast at 1 p.m. and didn't immediately see an open seat at a $5 table. The $25 tables were empty and the $5 tables were jammed. Why not turn one of the four vacant $25 tables into a $5 and get some players going? Sometimes it seems like casinos just don't make good economic sense...

While waiting for an open seat, I sat at a 25-cent video blackjack machine and quickly turned $20 into $30.50 - a $10.50 profit.

Then I checked the bj situation and found a table with only 3 other players. I grabbed a seat and immediately started winning. In about 20 minutes, I had $110 profit in front of me and decided to take the money and walk. After cashing in, I checked the sports book, but there were very few hoops games today. I did consider two NBA bets - the Pistons and New Orleans - but didn't pull the trigger.

On the way out, I tried a 10-cent poker machine and slipped in $10. On the first hand, I hit a full house and won $2.50. Even though it was the first hand, I decided to cash out and take the profit. So in less than an hour, I walked out of the Suncoast with $10.50 + $110 + $2.50 - a profit of $123. I don't know how they stay in business...

For dinner tonight, I prepared a fresh sauteed mushrooms in alfredo sauce over penne pasta. Hearty and filling! Now we're just relaxing and reading. A quiet night in Las Vegas, but tomorrow out adventure continues...