A Little Motown and a Poker Update

Helen and I scored tickets to our first show of the winter and will be going to see "Solid Gold Soul" Thursday night at Ballys.

 

It's a Motown show with impersonators paying tribute to The Four Tops, Jackie Wilson, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Sam Cooke and Ray Charles. We saw the show last year and really enjoyed it, so decided to go again. And the tickets are COMPLEMENTARY, thanks to my Diamond player status with provides us with two free show tickets every month.

Poker has been a roller coaster ride over the past few days. On Sunday, I played at Caesars Palace and did really well, winning $402 in about two hours.  I was making hand after hand and the chips just kept piling up. I was seated between a loudmouth Australian from Perth and a woman from Chicago. She was quiet and friendly, but the Aussie was a pain. His only redeeming  quality was his ability to call every bet I made. I took several pots from him.

To celebrate, I stopped by the Ghiradelli chocolate store and bought a bag of 80 little squares that Helen and I enjoy. They've raised the price from $27 to $30, but it's still a treat when enjoy when poker is going our way.

But things changed and the poker gods frowned on me on both Monday and Tuesday. I played both days at Ballys. While on Sunday I got plenty of good starting cards, it was just the opposite on Monday. In two hours of play, I never had more than two pair- no trips, no straights, no flushes and certainly no full houses. It was pretty impressive that I ended up losing only $30 or so.

On Tuesday I was back at Ballys, hoping to change my poker fortunes. But all I did was drop another $100 over four hours. I had several good hands, but they didn't hold up. My pocket AA lost to a straight, and twice my KK lost. On one of those hands I was up against a player who had only $40 left and went all in. I called and we showed our hands. He had Q-J against my K-K and I was feeling pretty good until the flop came J-J-4. As if that wasn't bad enough, the turns was another J! It was that kind of day.

Tuesday was a bit of reunion as I played against an old nemesis, Leo. He's an irascible regular at Ballys and is usually grumpy, even demeaning, when you take his chips. We didn't clash yesterday, but he had a great story to share. Last weekend he played in a Senior Event of the World Series of Poker. It was a $250 buy-in and darned if he didn't win the tourney which had more than 200 entries. He won $13,000 and a ring. He admitted being very nervous when it got to the final four players. His winning hand of A-9 beat out A-J when a 9 hit the flop and the other guy never improved his hand.

Leo never says hello to me, even when I nod in his direction. I wasn't sure if he remembered me or not, but learned differently when I saw him nod toward me and tell another player,"That guys been beating me for the last two years."

Walking from the poker room to the parking deck, I stopped by a blackjack table and squeezed out an $80 win in about 20 minutes. So for the day I only dropped $20.

Sometimes when the poker gods are not in your corner, the bj deities have your back, I guess. And so our adventure continues...

Caesars Palace Super Bowl Odds

Caesars Palace is offering the following current odds for 2018 Super Bowl. Here are a few of the highlights...and lowlights.

Patriots & Eagles 3-1
Steelers 9-2
Vikings & Saints 9-1
Rams 14-1
Chiefs & Seahawks 18-1
LIONS 25-1
Cardinals & Dolphins 500-1
Bears & Broncos 800-1
Colts 2500-1
Giants 5000-1
Browns, 49ers Off The Board

A No-Fuss, No-Muss Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day was one of the smoothest, nicest, most relaxing in recent years.

Being in Las Vegas for a major holiday is a bit different for us than for other folks. While others may have family and friends gathering for the day, Helen and I spend it together. We don't have family and very few friends here to share the day with. So we always go out for a nice meal, this year at the Red Rock casino where we opted for the buffet. Tons to choose from and - in the tradition of Thanksgiving - all you can eat and more!

We decided on an early meal and got there about 11:30 a.m. The buffet began serving a traditional Turkey-mashed potatoes-stuffing-cranberry sauce and tons more at 8 .m. and continued until 9 p.m. When we arrived there was already a long line, but thanks to my President player card, we got into a line with only 3 people ahead of us.

The buffet was $21.95 per person, but I was able to use $21 in comp points that I had racked up by playing at Red Rock, so with tax included I had to only pay $24 for our two dinners. It's pretty hard to get two Thanksgiving Day meals for that price anywhere.

In a few minutes we were seated at a cozy table for two and I was off to fill our plates. Helen wanted to start with salad, so I got her a green salad and a pasta salad, both were good choices, she said. I opted for a healthy plate of about 20 peel-and-eat chilled shrimp with sauce. After peeling-and-eating the shrimp, I got in line for our entrees.

As a buffet veteran, I know that you need to walk and check out the whole selection before making any food choices. There was a line of about 20 people for the turkey carving station and that was annoying, but I spotted a second carving station that was slicing turkey and prime rib. I was feeling pretty clever as I got us each a healthy slab of turkey breast, then looked for the other Thanksgiving side dishes. But there were none at this station. Aaaargh.

I had to take our plates and hike to the back of the now-even-longer line at the other turkey station, which also offered prime rib, ham, lamb and baked salmon. The woman ahead of me had all those meat choices and nothing else piled on her plate. Apparently not a vegetarian, but rockin' her all-protein diet

Things moved along quickly and I was able to fill Helen's plate with mashed potatoes, dressing, cranberry sauce and sautéed brussel sprouts. I had the same. For dessert, we each enjoyed a slab of chocolate cream pie.

After eating, we went to the sports book to check on the Lions game. I had made a parlay bet of Vikings -3, Chargers -1 and Redskins -7. My $15 ticket was a winner and I'll go back today to collect $90. Helen watched me play a little 25-cent video blackjack and I won another $3.50 and racked up a few comp points too.

Then we returned to the apartment and spent the day relaxing. I watched football while Helen was on the phone with relatives and friends. In the evening we watched TV and enjoyed a slab of the free pumpkin pie that I had picked up on Wednesday. A fun, relaxing day as our adventure continues...

Poker & FREE Pie!!

Any day you can score a free pie is a good day.

And that's exactly what I did on Wednesday at the Red Rock casino.

The morning started with me working on an article I'm writing for the Northern Express. Then I took off to run a couple of errands and make my first visit of the winter to the Rampart casino. I played blackjack there for about 90 minutes and dropped $40.

Then I headed home to make our lunch - vegetable rotini soup for Helen and bean soup for me. We've been eating soup for lunch for a few weeks now in an effort to drop a few pounds.

After lunch I rolled over to the Red Rock to play poker and get some football action on tomorrow's games. Since the first game - Lions vs. Vikings - kicks off at 9:30 a.m. I wanted to get the bets in early. Settling into the poker room, I quickly got a seat at a 1-2 no-limit game.

On my first hand I got dealt K-Q and the flop came K-Q-4. I took down that pot and 3 of the first four. I was on a nice roll, raising bets and taking down pots. On the fourth hand I was dealt 5-7 both hearts and the flop came 3-4-6, giving me a straight. I took down a $25 pot with that one. Anyway, I built up a profit of over $100 and just coasted along after that. When things cooled off, after a couple of hours, I left with a profit of $115.

I had seen people walking around the casino toting pumpkin pies, so I stopped by the players club to ask about how one might receive one of these Chef Pierre beauties. I was told I needed to earn 300 points on my players card. The lady ran my card through their computer and said, "Oh, you earned 2,000 points in the poker room! You get a pie!"

As a point of reference, in the poker room you earn $1 (1,000 points) per hour. So I played a bit over 2 hours and logged 2,000+plus points.

I bought a 3-team parlay ticket on tomorrow's games. My $15 wager is for the Vikings -3, Chargers -1 and Redskins -7. When it hits, it will pay $90.

After snagging my FREE pie, I headed home where Helen was on the phone with Anna. They talk daily, just touching base about Anna's life in Texas.  I prepared us scrambled egg wraps for dinner, sort of a breakfast dinner, but tasty and easy to fix. Now we'll watch some TV and relax.

Tomorrow we'll have Thanksgiving Dinner at the Red Rock buffet as our adventure continues...

Al vs The Bulldog

Tuesday was a busy poker day.

I headed to Ballys, arriving about 11:45 and got a seat at the 1-2 no limit hold-em game. Things started off well enough, but after two hours or so my $100 buy-in had slowly melted down to about $50.

But things looked better when I looked down and found A-J of clubs staring back at me. I raised the $2 blind up to $7 and got 3 callers. The pot was about $30 when the flop came 2-5-7 of different suits. I bet $10 and got only 1 caller. The turn card was another 7 and both of us checked. The river card was a 4. Even though I just had Ace I, I decided to make a play for the pot and shoved my remaining $40 in the pot, expecting my opponent to fold.

Nope.

The guy called and showed a K-2, giving him a pair of deuces and taking the pot. How can he call a $40 bet with a pair of 2s? AAAARGH.

So I left Ballys and came back to the apartment by 3 p.m. Helen was designing some Christmas cards, so I decided to head over to Red Rock for a couple of hours to try to recover my loss at Ballys.

Got seated right away in a 1-2 game. I was seated in the 1 seat, right to the left of the dealer and did OK early, winning a couple of pots and getting up about $30. Then a few of the players left and a lanky guy in his 50s took the #4 seat, directly across the table from me. He looked familiar and I identified him quickly when I saw the huge World Series Ring on his right hand.

I was squaring off against Orel Hershiser, the Dodgers ace who was nicknamed "The Bulldog" by Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda. Since retiring in 2000 Hershiser has played a lot of poker and is announcing Dodgers games following the retirement of Vin Scully. Orel and his wife Dana have a home here in Sumerlin and another place is Pasadena where they live during the MLB season. But now they are here and play quite often at the Red Rock.

Orel usually plays $2-5 no limit, but there was no seat at the table, so he was in the $1-2 game. So for about an hour, we talked Dodgers and poker, while not really squaring off against each other. He's an aggressive player and, frankly, I'm glad I didn't get very strong hands that I would have to play against him. He did go all in for $200 on one hand and lost it, but was very polite and simply bought another $200 worth of chips.

He is very popular figure in the poker room and treats people with respect. He tips, actually over tips, the dealer when he wins and is really a pleasure to play poker with. Nice guy, win or lose.

After an hour or so, a seat opened at the 2-5 table and Orel moved over there. His seat was taken by his wife, Dana, a strong player in  her own right. I played against her for about 30 minutes before I left with a profit of only $12.

Went home and made us turkey, cheese and lettuce wraps for dinner. Then it was a little TV and relaxing.

And so our adventure continues...

First Strip Trip

After running a few morning errands, I made my first trip to the Strip for a poker session.

Arriving at Bally's about 11 a.m., I had my first encounter with their new "paid parking" system. I drove into the parking deck and stopped at the new kiosk where a digital message directed me to insert my Total Rewards players card. I'm at Diamond status, qualifying me for FREE parking, but when I shoved the card into the slot the message read "INVALID." AAAAARGH.

So I took a ticket and parked on my usual level five. I call it the "Hank Greenberg Level." To help me remember where I parked the trusty GMC Terrain, I always keep track by using the uniform numbers of famous ballplayers. Three is Babe Ruth, four is Lou Gehrig, Six is Al Kaline, seven is Rocky Colavito, eight is Yogi Berra. So at Bally's it's always Greenberg.

After parking, I went to the Total Rewards counter to straighten out the "free parking" situation. The lady there confirmed my diamond status and told me that when I left, to put the ticket in the kiosk, insert my player card. That's what I did and my parking was both free and trouble-free.

Then I strolled to the Bally's poker room, my favorite card room on the Strip. Walking up, I was greeted by Gene, one of the best dealer's at Bally's. But there's no game going on and I waited about 30 minutes until one got started. As the first player at the table, I took the #4 seat, Soon we had players in the 1,3,5,6 and 9 seats.

Adding a little international flavor to the table were two Lebanese brothers, Frank and Waseem, as in "Waseeem to be the matter?" His joke,not mine. Next to me in the 5 seat was Marcia, a sassy New York woman in her 70s. She was seated in a wheelchair, but earned little sympathy due to her tendency to mouth off about every hand.

I bought in for $100 and had good luck early on, building my stack to about $140, then $180, then $220.  I always keep track of how large my stack is at the table and my plan was to not let it go under $160. A streak of bad cards melted my stack down to about $170 and I was thinking about ending my session after two hours when I was dealt A-K , both clubs.

I raised the $2 blind to $12 and got three callers, which built the pot to about $50. Flop came 3-7-K of mixed suits. I flopped kings with an ace kicker! I bet $15, hoping to narrow the action down to one other player, and was surprised when a woman at the other end of the table shoved "All In" with her last $31. Did she hit trips or two pair?  The other player still in the pot was seated in the 3 seat to my right and I was again surprised when he called her all in bet, tossing $31 into the pot.

At this point, I decided I could beat one, but maybe not two of them, so I decided to see if I could muscle #3 out of the pot. I bet $100 and really didn't expect him to call - but he did!

The turn and river cards didn't help my hand at all and we showed our cards. The woman who went all in had pocket queens. The #3 seat had K-J for kings with the jack kicker. I took down this sweet pot with my kings, Ace kicker! After stacking my chips, I was up almost $300!!

I played a few more minutes and walking after 2 1/2 hours with a profit of $280.

Since we were here in April, Ballys has made several rules changes, including changing their bonus payouts for quads,straight flushes and royal flushes. Those used to build up, but now are paid on a straight basis -$50 for quads, $100 for straight flushes and $500 for the royals.

But the biggest change, I feel, is in their free roll tournament. They used to have a free roll tourney on the first Thursday of the month. To qualify you had to play 30 hours during the previous month. It paid $500 to the final 20 players and last winter I played 5 times and cashed all 5 times - taking down $2,500.

But now it's a weekly tourney, instead of monthly. To qualify for a free entry, you need to log 20 hours of play from 7 p.m. Saturday to 7 p.m. the following Saturday. But if you don't log the hours, you can buy your way in for $130. The tourney is held each Saturday night at 8 p.m. and typically draws 40+ players, according to a couple of dealers I spoke with. But instead of paying the final 20 players 500 each, they play it like a regular tourney with the top 15 finishers getting paid and a top prize of $2,500. The remaining spots vary in payouts depending on how many pay $130 to enter.

My plan is to try to get the 20 hours in through 4 or 5 sessions this week and play Saturday. We'll see how it goes.

While I was matching poker wits, Helen received a FedEx delivery of her MS medicine. Glad that arrived without a hitch. When I got home, I whipped up one of Helen's favorite dinners - a big baked potato topped with melted cheese, broccoli and greek yogurt. Then it was time to watch TV and root for my fantasy football teams, both locked in tight games. I ended up winning both games, one by a single point, the other by 3 points! Alas, I am still in last place in both leagues!

And so our adventure continues...

2018 World Series Odds

Real baseball fans know it's not too early to look ahead to next season. The Red Rock casino sports book is posting odds for the 2018 World Series, only 11 months or so away.

Tigers fans, no need to read further.

Dodgers 9-2
Indians 5-1
Astros 11-2
Yankees 7-1
Nationals 8-1
Red Sox & Cubs 9-1
Diamondbacks 12-1
Cardinals 18-1
Angels & Brewers 25-1
Mets, Rays & Blue Jays 30-1
Mariners, Rockies, Twins & Giants 35-1
Rangers 40-1
Braves 45-1
Orioles 50-1
White Sox 60-1
Royals 70-1
Marlins, Reds & Pirates 80-1
Athletics, Phillies & Padres 100-1
TIGERS 125-1

NCAA Hoops Odds

Red Rock sports book has posted odds for the upcoming college basketball season. Here are some of the highlights to win the title game on April 2, 2018

MICHIGAN STATE 7-2
Duke 7-2
Arizona 5-1
Kentucky 10-1
Kansas 14-1
Villanova 15-1
Florida 20-1
Purdue 30-1
North Carolina 30-1
Louisville 35-1
Xavier 50-1
UCLA 60-1
MICHIGAN 75-1
Gonzaga 75-1

The 2017-18 Adventure Begins!

Our winter in Las Vegas is off to a smooth start.

After leaving Traverse City last Saturday morning, we drove 12 hours and spent our first night in Lebanon, Missouri. On Sunday we rolled for 9+hours before stopping for the night in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Then on Monday, we arrived at the Red Rock Hotel/Casino about 4:30p.m. and got checked into our comped room on the 8th floor.

We spent Monday night and Tuesday at the Red Rock, watching sports and playing a little blackjack. In my only BJ session I dropped $60. It was frustrating because in the course of roughly 30 minutes I had only two blackjacks and on both of them the dealer also had a blackjack, so I won zip, zero, nada!

Wednesday was move-in day, so we were at the Shadow Hills apartment complex at 9 a.m. when the office opened. Got all the paperwork finalized, picked up the keys and met the movers at 11 a.m. Two hours later the guys had us all moved into our apartment - 1105. This is the same building that we were in last year, right next door to our former unit, 1106.

We had arranged for the Cox cable guy to come on Thursday to hook up our TV and computers, so Wednesday afternoon we decided to see a movie at Red Rock's theater. We chose "Murder on the Orient Express" and we both enjoyed it, especially since the tickets were only $4 each on Senior Citizen Day. Cha-Ching!  Regular ticket prices for seniors are $9.99, so we saved $12 with the senior discount.

Thursday and Friday were spent unpacking and getting the place organized. There's a lot that goes into setting up a household every few months. I was busy grocery shopping, running errands, cleaning the car and other little chores. I made a stop at Red Rock sports book to buy a couple of football tickets. One teaser with the Steelers -2 (Winner), Saints -3 and Patriots -2 that will pay $62.50. The other is a parlay with the Steelers -7 (Winner), Patriots -7 and Eagles -3. That $10 wager will pay $60 when it hits.

Thursday's dinner was a middle eastern feast with fresh pita bread, hummus, Kalamata olives and lebne. Really nice to have tasty fresh pita again! For dinner on Friday, I whipped us up a couple of nice salads, topping them with rotisserie chicken from the local Albertson's grocery store. At $5.99 a bird, it's hard to beat those tasty chickens. With crunchy romaine lettuce, sliced cucumbers, sweet mini-peppers and cherry tomatoes, it was delicious and healthy.

Helen has pitched in getting the place organized too. She's feeling pretty strong after the road trip and that's always a good thing. Yesterday I did some more grocery shopping and other errands. Then we settled in to watch the U-M and MSU games at home. For dinner I made us some wraps, using the rest of the rotisserie chicken and a few baby carrots on the side. We often eat casually on game days!
Helen's been keeping in touch with Anna, Scott and friends, letting them know we've arrived safe and sound.

Today we'll probably watch some of the football games at home, relaxing and rooting for the Pats, Eagles and Saints. And so our adventure continues...