Better to be Lucky...
Well, sent off MK on his way to blissful matrimony with twenty friends in Vegas. Per the First Rule of Vegas, I shall not discuss any details of the event except to give my usual gambling report.
First of all, I have decided to stop playing blackjack at the MGM Mirage properties. They used to stand on soft 17 for all their tables, and even though a lot of them used the CSM, it was still a good house edge with a low minimum bet (usually $10, a few times even a couple of tables at $5!). The thing about the CSM is that it's no good for card counting, but if you're not counting then it's actually one of the lowest house edges in town. Not anymore, with the rules change. Now, if you're willing to play at least $25-50 per hand (depending on the time of day) you can still get good rules, but out of principle I've decided to boycott the blackjack at the MGM Mirage hotels even though I do play at those levels.
The thing about this rules change is that the effect seems to have been infectious. That is, even though other casinos had worse rules before, they're now even worse, with 8 deck games rampant, and single deck blackjack pays 6:5 even more. Ridiculous. And of course people just bend over and take it because they don't know any better, or worse, think they're getting a better game out of idiocy.
Now the irony of all this is that the only times that I walked away from a blackjack table up this weekend was at games with bad rules, when I was betting small and just hanging out with friends.
Poker was good to me, and I've put some of the fundamentals to good use. I ended up about $300 in mostly 3-6 limit games. Made most of it with judicious play, but there was one play that I made out with a $120 pot that was pretty much luck. I was holding QQ in position 6 (9 person table), and re-raised position 3 pre-flop. Position 3 re-raised and I called. I think 3 or 4 players paid to see the flop, which came down AQT (I think). Guy in position 3 bets and I call. One other person might have called. The turn comes down, low card no help. Position 3 bets, I call, and we're heads up at this point. The river is the 4th Q, the guy bets, and of course I raise. After 4 re-raises (unlimited re-raises when heads up at the Mirage) he's all in on his stack, so that's it. He had rockets. Poor guy, getting rockets cracked by ladies with aces full of queens. Now, the best part about this is how I used the power and mystique of those four queens to bluff and buy my way into a few good pots later on...
There were no legends this time around in craps, except maybe what we'll call the anti-Legend. Vince hit one point the whole weekend. It was brutal. So on the last day, I was down $275 on a $300 bankroll at a certain craps table, and I said to hell with it, I'm done with this shit. So I walked over to a roulette wheel and put my quarter down on 17 black. A minute later, I was walking back to the craps table with $900.
Which just goes to show... when it comes to gambling, it's better to be lucky than good.