While at the Red Rock yesterday, I picked up a sheet detailing the 2015 Baseball Futures bets. Here are some odds to win the World Series
Nationals 5-1
Dodgers 7-1
Red Sox & Cubs 9-1
Cardinals, Angels, Padres 12-1
Mariners 14-1
TIGERS, Mets and White Sox 15-1.
Detroit is 7-1 to win the A.L. pennant, while the Nats are the N.L. favorite at 5-2.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Red Rock & More Red Rock
Tuesday we spent much of the day with Bruce and Sandi.
It was their last day in LV before they drive south to Kingman, AZ, then over to the Grand Canyon. They drove their jeep out to our apartment about 11 a.m. and we gave them a quick tour of our two-bedroom place.
Then we all got into our Terrain and drove out to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. It was a beautiful sunny day in the 70s. Using Helen's lifetime pass we had free admission to the area, otherwise it's still only $7 per car to tour the area. Our first stop was at the visitor center where we looked at some exhibits and checked out the gift shop.
Then we spent about an hour driving the 13-mile scenic tour, making a few stops along the way. The mountains are always impressive and Bruce and Sandi enjoyed seeing the majestic peaks. At one point there are some centuries-old handprints left by the ancient tribes who lived in this area. Pretty cool to see remnants of an old civilization who dwelt in this harsh region.
After the tour, we went to the nearby Red Rock casino for some lunch. We settled into Yard House, an eatery that claims to have the World's Largest assortment of beers on tap. We'll never know, since we opted for lemonade, ice tea and water. Helen had a southwest chicken salad, Sandi chose a turkey sandwich with a Caesar salad, Bruce went for a personal pizza and clam chowder, while I opted for a BBQ personal pizza and Caesar Salad. Lunch for the 4 of us was only $50.
Then we strolled into the casino for a bit, settling at the sports book where I bought a $25 ticket on the MSU-UM game to go over the total of 116 points. It was an easy winner, paying $22.70. Then we headed back to the apartment and Bruce and Sandi drove back to their motor home parked in an RV park near Sam's Town casino east of the Strip.
I've been battling a cold for the past couple of days, but feel better this morning after downing some Advil Cold and Sinus meds. I did some writing this morning, a biography of a TC artist. Then I made a run to the nearby Walmart, mailed off some bills and put some money in the bank. No more gaming today, but our LV adventure continues...
It was their last day in LV before they drive south to Kingman, AZ, then over to the Grand Canyon. They drove their jeep out to our apartment about 11 a.m. and we gave them a quick tour of our two-bedroom place.
Then we all got into our Terrain and drove out to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. It was a beautiful sunny day in the 70s. Using Helen's lifetime pass we had free admission to the area, otherwise it's still only $7 per car to tour the area. Our first stop was at the visitor center where we looked at some exhibits and checked out the gift shop.
Then we spent about an hour driving the 13-mile scenic tour, making a few stops along the way. The mountains are always impressive and Bruce and Sandi enjoyed seeing the majestic peaks. At one point there are some centuries-old handprints left by the ancient tribes who lived in this area. Pretty cool to see remnants of an old civilization who dwelt in this harsh region.
After the tour, we went to the nearby Red Rock casino for some lunch. We settled into Yard House, an eatery that claims to have the World's Largest assortment of beers on tap. We'll never know, since we opted for lemonade, ice tea and water. Helen had a southwest chicken salad, Sandi chose a turkey sandwich with a Caesar salad, Bruce went for a personal pizza and clam chowder, while I opted for a BBQ personal pizza and Caesar Salad. Lunch for the 4 of us was only $50.
Then we strolled into the casino for a bit, settling at the sports book where I bought a $25 ticket on the MSU-UM game to go over the total of 116 points. It was an easy winner, paying $22.70. Then we headed back to the apartment and Bruce and Sandi drove back to their motor home parked in an RV park near Sam's Town casino east of the Strip.
I've been battling a cold for the past couple of days, but feel better this morning after downing some Advil Cold and Sinus meds. I did some writing this morning, a biography of a TC artist. Then I made a run to the nearby Walmart, mailed off some bills and put some money in the bank. No more gaming today, but our LV adventure continues...
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Suncoast Visit on Monday
Made a trip over to the Suncoast on Monday to play a bit of blackjack. Got there about 11 a.m. and played for about two hours, winning $90. No big hands, no drama, just a nice steady game where I won a lot of $10-15 hands.
Then it was home for lunch. Helen had a turkey sandwich and I enjoyed half of a chicken Caesar wrap.
Today we're hoping to get together with Bruce and Sandi. They will be leaving tomorrow and we wanted to see them one more time. We may go out to the Red Rock Nature area and then have lunch somewhere as our LV adventure continues...
Then it was home for lunch. Helen had a turkey sandwich and I enjoyed half of a chicken Caesar wrap.
Today we're hoping to get together with Bruce and Sandi. They will be leaving tomorrow and we wanted to see them one more time. We may go out to the Red Rock Nature area and then have lunch somewhere as our LV adventure continues...
Monday, February 16, 2015
Lunch with Bruce & Sandi
Sunday morning I made a quick trip to the Suncoast to check out the basketball point spreads and play a little blackjack. The BJ started off pretty well and I was up $30-$40 when I ran into one of the worst stretches of cards I've ever experienced.
For background, it was a $5 minimum bet game of two-deck pitch where the dealer tosses the cards to the player who holds them in one hand only. If you want another card, you scrape the table with your two cards. If you stay, you slide your cards under your bet.
With only two decks, it doesn't take too many hands before the dealer has to shuffle. At this time, I was alone at the table. During one two-deck session, the dealer had FIVE blackjacks!! Consider that there are only 8 aces in the two decks - possibly even fewer since there is a cut card that eliminates about 1/4 of the decks. So the dealer got 5 aces and paired EACH of them with a face card! Naturally, I got no blackjacks during this terrible run. And my profit disappeared... I ended up losing $27 for the trip.
I headed home about noon and after a bit, Helen and I drove down to the Strip where we met my brother Bruce and his wife Sandi, who are on a long motor-home tour of the Southwest. They drove up from Phoenix on Friday and are staying in LV until Wednesday. We met them at Planet Hollywood and had lunch at the Cheeseburger restaurant in the PH Miracle Mile shopping mall. Helen and I had chicken Caesar wraps, Sandi had a cheeseburger wrap and Bruce had an order of three fish tacos. It was great to catch up with them. After they leave LV they're driving to the Grand Canyon, then heading back toward Michigan. They need to be back there by March 5, according to Bruce, because they have plans.
Already this morning, I have made a tasty quinoa salad from a recipe given to me by Lois Edson. It's packed with protein and a nice light meal in itself or as a side dish. Helen is doing a load of laundry. It's not easy with her healing ankle, but she refuses to just sit around. I have a few errands to take care of this morning - trip to the bank, stop by the apartment office, etc. But may have time to visit the Suncoast later.
Tomorrow we're supposed to have lunch with Bruce and Sandi. We're thinking of taking them to the Red Rock Nature Area for a nice trip, then having lunch at the nearby Red Rock Casino. I don't think they've been to either of those spots, so it would give them a break from The Strip. And so, our LV adventure continues...
For background, it was a $5 minimum bet game of two-deck pitch where the dealer tosses the cards to the player who holds them in one hand only. If you want another card, you scrape the table with your two cards. If you stay, you slide your cards under your bet.
With only two decks, it doesn't take too many hands before the dealer has to shuffle. At this time, I was alone at the table. During one two-deck session, the dealer had FIVE blackjacks!! Consider that there are only 8 aces in the two decks - possibly even fewer since there is a cut card that eliminates about 1/4 of the decks. So the dealer got 5 aces and paired EACH of them with a face card! Naturally, I got no blackjacks during this terrible run. And my profit disappeared... I ended up losing $27 for the trip.
I headed home about noon and after a bit, Helen and I drove down to the Strip where we met my brother Bruce and his wife Sandi, who are on a long motor-home tour of the Southwest. They drove up from Phoenix on Friday and are staying in LV until Wednesday. We met them at Planet Hollywood and had lunch at the Cheeseburger restaurant in the PH Miracle Mile shopping mall. Helen and I had chicken Caesar wraps, Sandi had a cheeseburger wrap and Bruce had an order of three fish tacos. It was great to catch up with them. After they leave LV they're driving to the Grand Canyon, then heading back toward Michigan. They need to be back there by March 5, according to Bruce, because they have plans.
Already this morning, I have made a tasty quinoa salad from a recipe given to me by Lois Edson. It's packed with protein and a nice light meal in itself or as a side dish. Helen is doing a load of laundry. It's not easy with her healing ankle, but she refuses to just sit around. I have a few errands to take care of this morning - trip to the bank, stop by the apartment office, etc. But may have time to visit the Suncoast later.
Tomorrow we're supposed to have lunch with Bruce and Sandi. We're thinking of taking them to the Red Rock Nature Area for a nice trip, then having lunch at the nearby Red Rock Casino. I don't think they've been to either of those spots, so it would give them a break from The Strip. And so, our LV adventure continues...
Monday, February 9, 2015
Blackjack, Dinner out and a Concert
Sunday was a busy day for Helen and me.
I started the day with a trip to the nearby Suncoast where I made a basketball moneyline parlay bet. Indiana, U of D and Ohio State. It went down when U-D lost. I also played some 2-4 LIMIT poker with a table full of Geezers. I usually don't play limit, but thought I'd give it a try. And I was reminded why I don't like the game. After about an hour of playing, I lost $24 and here's an example.
I hold 3-6 of clubs and decide to see the flop for $2. Flop comes 3-3-6. Flopped a full house. But because of the game, I could only bet $2 and four players call. Turn is a 10 and I bet $4, again the maximum bet. Three guys fold, but an elderly woman calls. River is another 10 and I bet $4, she raised to $8 and I call. She shows a K-10, a bigger full house!
In a NO LIMIT game, I would have bet $20 or 25 when I got the full house and either took down the pot or driven her out of it. Frustrating to lose like that...
So between losing the $30 hoops bet and the $24 at poker, I was down 54 when I headed home about 1 pm to make lunch. After a turkey sandwich for Helen and some bean soup for me, we relaxed a bit before heading down to the Strip. We parked at MGM and walked over to New York, New York. It's not one of my favorite casinos, but I wanted to show Helen the Hershey store where they have literally TONS of candy! She likes Jolly Ranchers and they a wall of dispensers that allow you to pick out your favorite flavors. She chose grape and cherry, so we bought 1.3 pounds of them, plus some Hershey's chocolates.
Then we drove north on the Strip, letting her enjoy the sights. When we got north of Wynn, we headed back south, then turned west on Tropicana to get to The Orleans where we had tickets to see Kenny Wayne Shepherd, a blues guitarist from Louisiana. Before the show I played some BJ, winning $30, some video BJ winning $22 and we had dinner, spaghetti & metballs special for me ($6.99) and a chicken quesadilla for Helen. Bill came to $15, but I had enough comps on my players card to get it FREE!
The concert began at 8 p.m. and it was great! Two solid hours of blues classics and some new tunes. Man, that boy can play the guitar!! It's our third time to see him at The Orleans and I hope we'll do it again next winter. Tickets were only $30, a real bargain for a Vegas concert.
Today, I'm heading down to Bally's to play poker and log some time toward their Thursday freeroll tourney that I scored $300 in last week. Hopefully I can cash again this Thursday. And so, our LV adventure continues...
I started the day with a trip to the nearby Suncoast where I made a basketball moneyline parlay bet. Indiana, U of D and Ohio State. It went down when U-D lost. I also played some 2-4 LIMIT poker with a table full of Geezers. I usually don't play limit, but thought I'd give it a try. And I was reminded why I don't like the game. After about an hour of playing, I lost $24 and here's an example.
I hold 3-6 of clubs and decide to see the flop for $2. Flop comes 3-3-6. Flopped a full house. But because of the game, I could only bet $2 and four players call. Turn is a 10 and I bet $4, again the maximum bet. Three guys fold, but an elderly woman calls. River is another 10 and I bet $4, she raised to $8 and I call. She shows a K-10, a bigger full house!
In a NO LIMIT game, I would have bet $20 or 25 when I got the full house and either took down the pot or driven her out of it. Frustrating to lose like that...
So between losing the $30 hoops bet and the $24 at poker, I was down 54 when I headed home about 1 pm to make lunch. After a turkey sandwich for Helen and some bean soup for me, we relaxed a bit before heading down to the Strip. We parked at MGM and walked over to New York, New York. It's not one of my favorite casinos, but I wanted to show Helen the Hershey store where they have literally TONS of candy! She likes Jolly Ranchers and they a wall of dispensers that allow you to pick out your favorite flavors. She chose grape and cherry, so we bought 1.3 pounds of them, plus some Hershey's chocolates.
Then we drove north on the Strip, letting her enjoy the sights. When we got north of Wynn, we headed back south, then turned west on Tropicana to get to The Orleans where we had tickets to see Kenny Wayne Shepherd, a blues guitarist from Louisiana. Before the show I played some BJ, winning $30, some video BJ winning $22 and we had dinner, spaghetti & metballs special for me ($6.99) and a chicken quesadilla for Helen. Bill came to $15, but I had enough comps on my players card to get it FREE!
The concert began at 8 p.m. and it was great! Two solid hours of blues classics and some new tunes. Man, that boy can play the guitar!! It's our third time to see him at The Orleans and I hope we'll do it again next winter. Tickets were only $30, a real bargain for a Vegas concert.
Today, I'm heading down to Bally's to play poker and log some time toward their Thursday freeroll tourney that I scored $300 in last week. Hopefully I can cash again this Thursday. And so, our LV adventure continues...
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Hey, We're Still Here!
After three weeks of blog silence, folks might wonder if Al and Helen vanished into the Nevada air. Well, no. I just got super-lazy and distracted from posting our adventure updates.
The last three weeks have been filled with gaming adventures, the Super Bowl and some dining out highlights. Helen's been healing her broken ankle and is looking forward to visiting the orthopedic doctor on Tuesday morning. We're hoping that she's declared officially healed and can resume walking with her walker. She's been restricted to a wheelchair for the past two months.
Super Bowl was super fun for me. I had two winning bets on the Pats -1 and over 49 points. What we typically do is that I find someplace to watch the game for the first half, then at halftime I drive home and watch the 2nd half with Helen. So I headed over to the nearby Suncoast where they were having a FREE SB party. Down on the Strip they were charging from $40 to $200 for parties. The game started here at 3:30 and the Suncoast opened the doors to their showroom, where the party was held, at 2:30.
I got there a few minutes before 3 and took a seat at the rear of the room in a nice padded booth that seated 3 comfortably. While the party entrance was free, they charged for food and drinks. A bucket of 5 Miller,Miller lite, Coors or Coors lite was $12. I couldn't drink 5, but ordered two Coor lite at $3 each to wash down my order of Wings ($4.50) and popcorn ($1). As I sat there sipping my beer and munching popcorn, the room started to fill up as game time approached.
A 30-ish couple came in looking for a place to sit, but wasn't having any luck. They asked if they could join me and I was glad for the company. Turns out Jack and Claudine both work for The Venetian and are not a couple, but just co-workers who ran a 10 mile race, then played 9 holes of golf before coming over to watch the game. Jack is in the Venetian's accounting department, while Claudine is the hotel's public relations manager. Both are from Canada, Jack from Mississauga near Toronto and Claudine from Vancouver. Jack's a BIG hockey fan and former player. We talked about the Wings and he gave me some tips on who will win the Cup. Claudine and I talked about PR issues and her former life as a TV reporter.
After a couple of hours of talking, drinking and rooting for the Pats (they both liked NE to win), I left at halftime, promising to keep in touch with them. So on Monday, I emailed them and told how much I enjoyed talking with them. In return, Claudine offered to hook us up with some show tickets. So on Wednesday night, Feb. 11, Helen and I are going to see Human Nature, an Australian act that does classic Motown sounds. I remember this group when they were at the Imperial Palace for $30 a ticket. Now at the Venetian the tickets are $100 and up. So I thanked Claudine profusely in a follow-up email and promised to give her my opinion of the show later.
Over the past week I've been played poker at Bally's and posted enough hours to play in their weekly free roll tourney on Thursday. If you log 12 hours of play from Thursday thru Thursday, you get to play in the free event. Bally's pays $300 to the final 20 players. Everyone who finishes in the top 20 wins the cash and the tourney end there. So on Thursday there were 58 players who qualified to play.
They seat 10 players at each table, so there were 6 tables in action.
My plan was to win a few hands early, build a stack, then sit back and let the other stacks be melted down by the rising blinds. We started with 5,000 in chips with blinds of 50 and 100. Every 15 minutes the blinds increased to 100 and 200, then 200 and 400, 400 and 800, 500 and 1000, 1000 and 2000. I hit a couple of good hands early, a flush and a full house to build my stack to about 16,000 chips at one point. After about an hour we took a 10 minute break and I had the 2nd biggest stack at our table. At that point the field had been trimmed down to 30 players!
I was feeling pretty good, but as the blinds grew, my stack shrunk. Meanwhile the field dwindled to 25, 23, 22, then 21. At that point my stack was down to 3 $1000 chips and the blinds were 2000/4000. I got dealt 5-5 and decided to go All In with my 3 chips. If I lost, I would be out of tourney as the last non-winner. But I won the hand and doubled my stack to 6 chips. Meanwhile at another table, the last woman in the tourney went all in and lost. Cheering erupted as the rest of us received $300. We were shaking hands and high fiving each other for our victory. The whole tourney took about 2 hours to complete and I look forward to playing in it a few more times before we return home. I had won $88 in a cash game before the tourney started, so for the day I won 388. It went into the bank the next morning to pay down a charge card. Not sexy, but still a nice win!
My luck turned bad yesterday as I visited the Suncoast in the morning and dropped $65 in blackjack. Then I came home and made us lunch - a turkey sandwich for Helen and leftover spaghetti for me. Then I rolled over to Red Rock, determined to get back some of my $$$ that I left at Suncoast. Well, it didn't go well. I dropped another $40 in BJ for a daily loss of $105.
Today I'll be getting a hockey parlay for my friend Terry and probably making a hoops bet. Tomorrow night Helen and I have tickets to a concert at The Orleans. We'll be seeing Kenny Wayne Shepherd, a blues guitarist. We've seen him there a couple of other times and it's always a great show.
And so our LV Adventure continues...
The last three weeks have been filled with gaming adventures, the Super Bowl and some dining out highlights. Helen's been healing her broken ankle and is looking forward to visiting the orthopedic doctor on Tuesday morning. We're hoping that she's declared officially healed and can resume walking with her walker. She's been restricted to a wheelchair for the past two months.
Super Bowl was super fun for me. I had two winning bets on the Pats -1 and over 49 points. What we typically do is that I find someplace to watch the game for the first half, then at halftime I drive home and watch the 2nd half with Helen. So I headed over to the nearby Suncoast where they were having a FREE SB party. Down on the Strip they were charging from $40 to $200 for parties. The game started here at 3:30 and the Suncoast opened the doors to their showroom, where the party was held, at 2:30.
I got there a few minutes before 3 and took a seat at the rear of the room in a nice padded booth that seated 3 comfortably. While the party entrance was free, they charged for food and drinks. A bucket of 5 Miller,Miller lite, Coors or Coors lite was $12. I couldn't drink 5, but ordered two Coor lite at $3 each to wash down my order of Wings ($4.50) and popcorn ($1). As I sat there sipping my beer and munching popcorn, the room started to fill up as game time approached.
A 30-ish couple came in looking for a place to sit, but wasn't having any luck. They asked if they could join me and I was glad for the company. Turns out Jack and Claudine both work for The Venetian and are not a couple, but just co-workers who ran a 10 mile race, then played 9 holes of golf before coming over to watch the game. Jack is in the Venetian's accounting department, while Claudine is the hotel's public relations manager. Both are from Canada, Jack from Mississauga near Toronto and Claudine from Vancouver. Jack's a BIG hockey fan and former player. We talked about the Wings and he gave me some tips on who will win the Cup. Claudine and I talked about PR issues and her former life as a TV reporter.
After a couple of hours of talking, drinking and rooting for the Pats (they both liked NE to win), I left at halftime, promising to keep in touch with them. So on Monday, I emailed them and told how much I enjoyed talking with them. In return, Claudine offered to hook us up with some show tickets. So on Wednesday night, Feb. 11, Helen and I are going to see Human Nature, an Australian act that does classic Motown sounds. I remember this group when they were at the Imperial Palace for $30 a ticket. Now at the Venetian the tickets are $100 and up. So I thanked Claudine profusely in a follow-up email and promised to give her my opinion of the show later.
Over the past week I've been played poker at Bally's and posted enough hours to play in their weekly free roll tourney on Thursday. If you log 12 hours of play from Thursday thru Thursday, you get to play in the free event. Bally's pays $300 to the final 20 players. Everyone who finishes in the top 20 wins the cash and the tourney end there. So on Thursday there were 58 players who qualified to play.
They seat 10 players at each table, so there were 6 tables in action.
My plan was to win a few hands early, build a stack, then sit back and let the other stacks be melted down by the rising blinds. We started with 5,000 in chips with blinds of 50 and 100. Every 15 minutes the blinds increased to 100 and 200, then 200 and 400, 400 and 800, 500 and 1000, 1000 and 2000. I hit a couple of good hands early, a flush and a full house to build my stack to about 16,000 chips at one point. After about an hour we took a 10 minute break and I had the 2nd biggest stack at our table. At that point the field had been trimmed down to 30 players!
I was feeling pretty good, but as the blinds grew, my stack shrunk. Meanwhile the field dwindled to 25, 23, 22, then 21. At that point my stack was down to 3 $1000 chips and the blinds were 2000/4000. I got dealt 5-5 and decided to go All In with my 3 chips. If I lost, I would be out of tourney as the last non-winner. But I won the hand and doubled my stack to 6 chips. Meanwhile at another table, the last woman in the tourney went all in and lost. Cheering erupted as the rest of us received $300. We were shaking hands and high fiving each other for our victory. The whole tourney took about 2 hours to complete and I look forward to playing in it a few more times before we return home. I had won $88 in a cash game before the tourney started, so for the day I won 388. It went into the bank the next morning to pay down a charge card. Not sexy, but still a nice win!
My luck turned bad yesterday as I visited the Suncoast in the morning and dropped $65 in blackjack. Then I came home and made us lunch - a turkey sandwich for Helen and leftover spaghetti for me. Then I rolled over to Red Rock, determined to get back some of my $$$ that I left at Suncoast. Well, it didn't go well. I dropped another $40 in BJ for a daily loss of $105.
Today I'll be getting a hockey parlay for my friend Terry and probably making a hoops bet. Tomorrow night Helen and I have tickets to a concert at The Orleans. We'll be seeing Kenny Wayne Shepherd, a blues guitarist. We've seen him there a couple of other times and it's always a great show.
And so our LV Adventure continues...
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