Hi Gang:
Hedy and I closed out our worst year ever this past weekend with a
profitable four-night stay over New Year's at Harrah's. The reason it turned out to be
a positive trip was because Hedy was able to break her year-long drought in
AC by hitting a $2,000 royal on 50-cent 9/6 JOB.
The big hit came during our first 10 minutes of play Friday. Playing the far
left machine on the one bank of machines with quarter, half and dollar 9/6,
Hedy held the A-K-10 of clubs and drew the J-Q for the schneid-buster.
When the machine locked up and the bells started ringing I heard a loud gasp
from her and then a resounding, "Well, it's about time!!"
Really!
When you think about how many hands we play a year in AC (we go almost every
weekend and play a lot of multi-line games) it's almost mind-boggling to
think that Hedy had not hit a royal there in 12 months!! She did hit a number of
them in Vegas, but AC was a complete washout for her.
We also have been following some new rules our past three trips and it's
been helping our bottom line. We are trying to concentrate on games that return
at least 99%, but the main rule that seems to be helping is we are now
sticking to a daily loss limit. We start with a $1,000 bankroll ... $500 each ...
and when that's gone, we STOP playing. We also have decided to keep our
cashback separate, not folding it into our daily bankroll, as we had done in the
past. This way, we always have something to take home with us. This weekend,
our cashback total was just over $500, so combined with our $500 win, we came
home with a profit of just over $1,000.
We're also going to cut down our trips in 2008 since the good VP
opportunities (both in AC and elsewhere) are dwindling as casinos slash cashback rates,
take out games or reduce favorable pay tables and cut back on good
promotions and gifts.
Our first five years of VP play all resulted in positive bottom lines, but
the last five have gotten progressively worse, culminated by a disastrous
2007. So, changes were necessary and we've begun to put them into play. The
steady decline is not really surprising, though, when you consider that 10 years
ago when we started we were playing FPDW in Vegas at the Orleans, Suncoast and
Palms, and full-pay Pick Em or 9/5 double joker at various casinos in AC
with cashback rates as high as .6.
We also were taking advantage of 5X cashback weekends at places like
Resorts, so it was a lot easier to have an edge. Now, 9/6 JOB with .15 cashback is
considered a big-time advantage play!!! My, my, how times have changed!
Anyway, Hedy and I will be boarding a plane tomorrow night and flying to
Vegas for an 11-night stay. We will be at Caesars Palace Jan. 3-5 and Jan.
11-13, sandwiching a five night stay at South Point Jan. 6-10. I've been invited
to take part in two freeroll Texas Hold Em tourneys at CP and Harrah's, which
is why we will be staying at CP twice. Of course, given the depleted VP
situation at CP, we will be playing very little there, doing the bulk of our play
during our stay at South Point.
Regards,
CoachVee (Tom V) & Hedy
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