Friday - or - the warm up day for gambling

Here is the tip of the day - if you have ever lost your phone it's panic time right?  Want to get it back?  It's easy.  Put this (or some other message) on your lock screen.

On an iPhone take a background photo - then EDIT that photo.  Click the circle with 3 dots / then MARK UP / then the circle + sign  / click TEXT but do not change the size as it will get bigger and then put this on your lock screen.

CBS tested this with ten phones. Five had the above and five were normal.  Then they placed them all around the NY.  All five of the above phones got called and were found.  The five others?  unknown.

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Meanwhile - back in Las Vegas the day starts "cool" upper 50s and sunny.  We go to the breakfast buffet at Harrahs. An "OK" buffet, nothing outstanding but it's $20 and a normal breakfast will cost $20 anyway so . . . . The weird thing it does not open until 8AM.

After Mr. Electric, Balderdash and I take a walk north towards the Stratosphere.  It's a ways and as we walk it's gets a little warm.  The day ended up to be about 80 degrees.

We pass all the local dive casinos like The Winn and The Venetian and soon are in the waste land.

Large chunks of nothing as it seems "The Strip" is moving south towards the airport and the City Center complex.   Blocks and blocks of boarded up vacant land.  In the distance we can see the Strat but it's far far away yet. MUCH farther then you think.

 The big blue building on the right is vacant and was never completed as money ran out and if you look closely you can see windows have fallen out.  Construction stopped about 6 years ago.

This photo does not convey the massive size of this building, it's HUGE! We walk and walk and I see MY first stop. Essence a legal cannabis store.

OK - if you have never been to one here is what to expect. Typically nothing fancy.  Think of The Club LeMark, or remember Lake Street Station in Madison?  An old house, a square building. Never anything SUPER fancy . . . YET. . .  I have heard Las Vegas has plans to open a 50,000 square foot cannabis super store.

Anyway - you walk in and there is a security guard and you hand your drivers license to a guy behind the window and they do something with it.  After a few minutes you are let into another room that unlike Denver is a little more fancy - almost like a bright sports book with prices and so forth and a budtender waits on you.  If you are new they explain everything and ask what you like and it's really helpful.  In LV it's all cash unlike Denver where you can use cards.

I was told I needed to get some gummy bears and I also picked up a small disposable cartridge of concentrate for a vape thingy of sativa. Cannabis has two main strains - Sativa is grown outdoors and is invigorating, mood lifting, everything seems more colorful and happy and is a good daytime strain.  Indica (Id Da Couch) is grown indoors and is a night time strain where you get STONED and is very calming and relaxing and you can watch all 12 season of Golden Girls in a row before falling asleep.  Both have their uses.

Think of Sativa and Indica in beer terms as an IPA and a Stout and then inside those two are many many different kinds and flavors that all give you different feelings.

SO - I get what I'm looking for and go to the Strat where the other two are already playing Black Jack.

We play for a while and then start our way back south walking past the vacant land.  The below photo there is maybe a quarter mile of nothing.

The only real event I remember is stopping at Treasure Island for more black jack and the three of us played for an hour and walk away with a combined $700.  I think that was the last time I won at black jack.  NO - I KNOW it was the last time I won at black jack.

Thankfully I have played over 100,000 hands of BJ when I was an online black jack bonus whore in the early 2000s.  When online casinos were just emerging they would pay you to play.  Give them $100, they will GIVE you $100 and all you have to do is play 4000 ( or some big number) hands.

Crunching the numbers playing perfect BJ after the number of hands you would lose about $30 out of the free $100.  They would ASSUME you would keep playing.  But Elweed and I would cash out and not play ONE hand extra.  We kept track of every penny and we did this about 20 times casinos.

Elweed had about the same results. 12 times we actually made MORE then what they gave us. 7 times we cashed out with about $150, a $50 profit.  Once I lost and cashed out with about $50 a once I was down to about $20 and was pissed off so I played a video poker and got a Royal Flush - BAM $2000.

ANYWAY - I know that black jack is BASICALLY a slightly worse break even game . . .in the long run.

We get back to Harrahs (or wherever, it was all becoming a blur and I had no clue where I was AND I was sober).

We walked past this break in buildings and saw this image. I think this is farther south actually but it's a cool shot.

Big ass Ferris wheel 

That afternoon more and more of the gang of 10 or 12 are flying in and we meet up at a bar where you do not pay for drinks. All you do is play video poker. I ask a few questions on how this works without ACTUALLY ASKING how it works and figure out that if you play one hand every 10 seconds, on average, you can continue to drink and ask for drinks for free.

I have two big jack and cokes and walk away with an EXTRA $1.50.

It's meet and greet time and I'm talking to a guy that fly's in from KC every week. He places bets and fly's back to KC. It's what he does for a living and he is my hero.  We start talking about systems and all things sports betting and Balderdash calls over to me calling me "Grinder" a nick name I was given by Stanford Wong and friends (not his real name) on his forum in the late 90s. ( I was actually on a card counting team at one point). 

The other guy goes "WHAT?  THIS IS THE GRINDER?" and shakes my hand again and he says "I" am HIS hero. And we talk more.

There is a story that goes back a decade and it seems they were playing my picks and winning every thing. I THINK I was 9-1 that week and there were chants at Harrahs GRINDER GRINDER GRINDER as thousands of dollars were being won.  I believe that was the last year for that Linebreaker system.

The rest of the night is rather a blur.  All I really remember was about 8PM people were starting to crash.  YEA - Las Vegas, 8PM and we are getting sleepy!  Now remember - Up at 6AM, start drinking and gambling by 10AM and it's constant for 10 hours.

As we are parting ways Balderdash says - everybody meet up at 6:50PM for the limo to Big Dogs Brew House for the Badger game that starts at 9AM. 

YEA - then things get real on Saturday - Friday was just a warm up.

OH - The Limo! 

 

Las Vegas Day One Half

For new readers I was invited to take a trip to Las Vegas with a gang of dudes celebrating their 30th year of celebrating everything Las Vegas.  Think of the movie Hangover and this is literally those guys 20 years later - no REALLY (I'm not kidding) . . . . . from the stories I have heard THESE guys are the Hangover guys BUT, on steroids and 20 years older.

******* 

The days are all blurring together already and names have been changed to protect the guilty so here we go.

Balderdash and I are on the same plane to Las Vegas an airbus 20 that takes off about 7:30 Thursday night and we will be flying into Las Vegas at night which is GREAT!

He is about 5 rows behind me. I have a window seat as I LOVE looking out at the landscape.  In high school I wanted to be a geographer or map maker or whatever but . . what the heck can you do with that (GIS was not invented yet). So looking at the terrain of America is the best I can do and it is AMAZING!

As luck would have it I have a very nice couple next to me eating garlic beef sticks like there is no tomorrow and a loud talker right behind me.  Balderdash has his own situation with crying babies so I think that is a push.

Pretty much a smooth flight but the loud talker who is wearing a camouflage John Deere jacket to Las Vegas (he will fit in well?) seems REALLY strange as he talks about his eating habits and the difference between a white head and a zit and any other weirdo topic you can think of for 3 hours.

As we are landing he asks the girl next to him "what is that anyway" and she says it's an MP3 player and he asks what that is (really?) and how do you get things on it. . . . . . hmmmmmm!  "I gotta get me one of those" he exclaims loudly.

We land early but there are no gates available so we sit for a while.  Once unboarded we take a tram to the baggage area (it's a freaking large airport) get our bags, get a taxi and are at the hotel by 10:30PM. 

The goal is to meet up with Mr. Electric at Harrah's. Balderdash has no room on night #1 as that first night the room rate is not the normal $65 but $240 because of Halloween and a convention. 


We meet up, Balderdash stores his bags in my cubby hole some call a room and the three of us walk look for something to eat so look for a bite of food and find Guy Fieri's Vegas Kitchen & Bar, sit down and get the menu that weighs a pound but only has like 5 things on it.

All $18 hamburgers. For us it's midnight so I'm eating a  huge $20 burger at midnight!  mmmmmmm.

After that it is decided to take a walk to The Winn for reasons unknown (remember I'm just a passenger on this funny farm bus).

As we walk I'm rubber necking like a tourists and the two guys who have been to LV literally 100 times are head down walking.  The entire weekend I'm taking up the rear guard on our walks and taking photos and then running to find the guys DON'T LEAVE ME!!   You will notice that I get more selective as the weekend moves on.

Yea - you don't even see these after a while but there are some sites you just cannot just unsee!

We get to The Winn and the guys sit down at a truly horrible payout Video Poker and I'm wondering "why did we come here for bad video poker?"

I go off looking for a better machine as they sit down at a Pai Gow Poker

"The game is known for a slow rate of play and lots of pushes, resulting in low risk game. While a game of skill, most hands are obvious how to play, and it is not difficult to learn proper strategy for the rest of them. Every player plays against the same dealer hand, which causes the table to often win and lose together, resulting in a fun and social game."

WELL - I guess not as when I stop back (after getting lost for a little while) and both players are slumping over looking like they were just robbed. 

Of course all this time we have started to drink the $1 drinks and after a while we head a back to Harrahs. Mr. Electric and I head off to bed and Balderdash who has no room does . . . something.  ANYWAY - I get to bed about 3AM Madison time 1AM my time and immediately fall asleep.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK  ARE YOU UP? I hear in a dream and then realize it's not a dream. Balderdash is outside my room a 5AM and needs his charger for his dead phone.  "Let's go to breakfast".  Seems he "slept" for a couple hours at Mr. Electrics place and is now ready to rock and roll at 6 in the morning.

DJ and I in 10 years 

I'm a horrible vacation photo guy as I always go for the artsy image for resale - so this time my plan was to take tourists photos just to get the flavor of LV.   

I asked about City Center.  remember during the recession when an entire huge multi billion dollar project was put on hold?  It's now been completed and it's HUGE.  It seems The Strip has slowly moved south towards the airport, away from Fremont Street and the Stratosphere.

Tomorrow is Friday (oh it really is LOL) and more and more of the gang of 10 start to arrive. 

The morning plan is to walk down to the Strat and play some black jack while I go across the street to Essence, a legal cannabis shop where I have been told to pick up some gummies for SportsGuy and I'll get a disposable concentrate vape thingy. 

Join me as Friday becomes a blur, I get recognized as the Grinder, SportsGuy takes too many gummies and I now begin to understand what I am in for in the next 4 days, pray for me.

Balderdash still smiling

     The good photos are coming.

I'm BACK. From LV

SO - I'm back from Las Vegas and basically intact.  Before I get into a glancing blow of the Las Vegas adventure there was some sort of election last night.

Weird thing - if you voted for Trump you basically voted Scott Walker out of office.  It Clinton was President ,Walker would still be governor. But with Trump? Walker and his cronies are finally gone.

Ever's NEVER would have won without Trump. 

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New Your New Your Las Vegas

Las Vegas year 30.  That was what I had to deal with when I was invited to Las Vegas with a group that was celebrating their 30th year of a Las Vegas adventure.

I will apologize right now to balderdash who takes great glee in fact checking me as some of the stories in the coming week about this trip and past trips might be a little of in actual facts (it's the jack and cokes remembering) but the flavor will be there.

These guys were LITERALLY a combination of Animal House and the Hangover movies.  I'm glad I did not know them in the late 80s and 90.s I mean when you have to make a group rule where you MUST take at least ONE shower before boarding the plane home (it seems this was an issue) sort of tells you. 

Now this group has some pretty interesting personalities.  In no particular order, we have a guy that was on a mission to put $150,000 through a slot machine so he could get his GOLD rating . . this might sound like a lot but this is the same guy that when the concierge for a casino got married he was invited . . AND they sent a private jet for him. Another guy is pretty high up in a major utility company so that is all hush hush LOL .  One guy is a professional sports gambler that fly's in from KC every weekend. 

One guy, The Geek aka The Black Cloud plays a lot of poker, sometimes straight and sometimes VERY loud and very drunk . . .which hides a lot of tells as he knows what he is doing.  This was his Saturday night early morning profits.  He also has been seen sitting next to Front Row Amy at Brewer games and his job seems to give him free tickets to go to The Masters

The Geeks Saturday night haul.

I knew maybe 4? 5? of the partiers from various golf leagues.  It has progressed up from 8 guys in one room to each guy now having his own room OR sweet OR condo in a different place. 

They seem to know their way around every casino blindfolded and I just made sure I was attached to one guy so I would not get lost.  I mean after the 20th casino (and that is a conservative count) they all sort of look the same. 

The great thing was I saw SO MUCH that I normally would not have seen.  When DJ and I go on a vacation we sort make a home base and slowly enlarge your territory.  WELL, go with these guys that have been to LV over 100 times. . . . I just followed blindly which means seeing 20+ casinos in 4 days. 

I have not put all of my photos into one file yet so that is a project for today.  I won't bore (?) you today about the tiny details but a few tidbits . . . hmmmmmmm 

One guy gets booted from a BJ table but there is a controversy on whether he called the dealer a bastard before or after the kicking. He WAS standing up after all . . . ..  We almost got ran by an ambulance sprinting across 6 lanes.   The 1 cent Willy Wonka machine which turned into a cash cow all 3 times it was played (we're talking big bucks in the over $1000 area).

SO - all these stories are percolating in my brain.  It's like what happens when an ambulance goes by and all the cars are trying to get back on the road, that is how my memory is at the moment.  Or it's the constant $1 Jack and Coke that seem to flow like water . . . so so much Jack and Coke . . .so so much.

OK OK - first drink of the day was normally about 9AM and it would go until maybe 8PM. No break unless you are walking to another place. Here I am in Las Vegas and everybody crashes about 8 or 9 in the evening . . .however - up and adam by 7AM (at the very latest).  LETS GO!!  Start the Mimosa's flowing.

It was a GREAT time and I was honored to be invited.  I have a lot of photos that I'm going to print out and maybe balderdash can forward them to the others . . .or maybe I'll print out a few sets.  I know I'm printing some 8x12s. 

Lots of photos coming. 

             
Have a great day.