Mr.Craps and I had an interesting weekend. On Friday Mr.Craps started
playing in a slot tournament at the Aladdin while I started playing in one at the
Venetian. First I hit 4 Aces with a Kicker, then started to lose a bit of
money, so switched to a "Pinball" slot machine, my favorite type of slot
machine. I couldn't seem to hit anything, so money started draining, when
suddenly up popped 3 Double Diamond Symbols for the Top Jackpot of $12,000.
That night we went to the Blackjack Ball at the Hampton Inn with 2 other
VPFree members. I'd heard a lot about this over the years - a special
invitational Halloween event for BJ players, including some of the best around. This
year all "advantage" players were invited, which meant Video Poker players
too.
It was a "costumes needed" affair, so Mr.Craps and I were Blue and Yellow
M&Ms and our friends B. & E. were "The Not So Alone Ranger" the "Mrs. Not So
Alone Ranger." It turned out to be much smaller than we had thought it
would be, only about 40 people. Also I expected to see people I would recognize
like Anthony Curtis (publishes "The Las Vegas Advisor") and Max Rubin (noted
Comp expert), but they weren't there. And we didn't see any VP players
either. We were told some BJ people were at a special tournament in St. Kitts.
Jean and Brad Scott also were unable to make it, since they'd won a cruise
for that weekend.
They had some unusual party contests. First came a multiple choice
questionnaire with things like: Which one makes for the highest paying game: a) all
blackjacks pay 2 to 1; b) 9/6 Jacks or Better Video Poker with a 7000 Royal
Flush. (answer A). And which Vegas Nightclubs were in which casinos. And
so on.
Then came a contest to cut off a certain number of cards from a double deck.
You spun around 3 times and cut quickly. The spinning made people dizzy,
and unable to cut the decks correctly. Most people were 5-10 cards off, but
somehow our friend B. was only 1 card off - so she won the chance to go to the
next level (and contest).
The next contest involved Counting Cards, but B. had never done that (I
don't think she has played much BJ because at one point she asked "how many cards
are there in a BJ deck?") So she was allowed a substitute player. Since
many years ago I learned a bit about card counting, I was the substitute. I
haven't counted a deck in about 5 years since switching to VP. (And actually I
never found card counting very useful against Atlantic City's 8-deck shoes.)
One by one, 20 or more BJ experts tried to count the cards. But they had a
couple of problems: most of them had been drinking, and after counting down
half of a double-deck, the dealers used distraction techniques of blowing
whistles and making you do arithmetic calculations of arithmetic on flash cards.
Surprisingly, most of the BJ people were disqualified with wrong answers.
One of the contestants was a guy from the MIT BJ team, and he was able to do
it right. Then a reporter from the Review Journal did it. And a couple of
others. Then, surprisingly, I counted the deck correctly. Now there were 5
contestants for the next contest: looking at a sequence of cards and
memorizing it. They kept doing this until, one by one, people were eliminated. To
confuse the issue, some cards were of semi-naked women or men, and sometimes
you had to memorize the color of the bikini, sometimes the Playmate's month,
sometimes the card number. I think the bikini's must have confused the MIT
Blackjack Pro - he got eliminated.
Finally it got down to 2 contestants: strangely, the reporter and the VP
player (me). We beat all the Blackjack players! We received a bunch of books.
B. wanted the one Jean Scott "Frugal" book, but it went to the woman
wearing the best costume. So B. and I split the BJ books, and I also took home a
small skull "tournament award" for coming in 2nd at the Blackjack Ball.
Interesting that a reporter and a VPFree Video Poker player beat the Blackjack
Players!
Then Mr.Craps great finger-punching of the slot machine brought us in at 5th
place at the Aladdin slot tournament for $1000.
I kept playing at the Venetian and lost some money (I'd now switched to 9/6
JB and DDB instead of the "reels" -- maybe that was a mistake), but I was
still well ahead for the weekend. Despite sending "fast-fingered" Mr. Craps into
the Venetian tournament for the final round (where he finally got a good
score), we didn't win anything.
But we did go to the Venetian masquerade ball/award ceremony. Mr. Craps
dressed as a blue M&M, but I dressed up as "a room at the Venetian" - with a
lampshade on my head, various Do Not Disturb and other signs and menus and such
attached to me, wearing a Venetian robe, and a bedspread over my shoulders
like a cape (so long and heavy that the M&M had to carry my train at times!).
Under the lampshade was a Venetian-type feather mask.
What do you know, I came in 2nd place and won $500! (We couldn't figure out
why everyone screamed so much and voted a toilet-paper wrapped "mummy" as
1st place.)
All in all an exciting and interesting weekend! And even profitable.
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