As I wrote last week, Bonnie and I recently returned from a comped cruise on the Norwegian Dawn. Laundry service was included in the package, and on one particular night both of my long pants had been sent to the laundry. I had expected the laundry to be returned prior to dinner, but such was not the case. I had some clean Bermuda shorts, but no long pants.

There are two main dining rooms on the Dawn — the Venetian and the Aqua. The Venetian is larger and has windows overlooking the bow of the ship, but the restaurants themselves share the same galley and have identical menus. As far as most of the passengers are concerned, the two dining rooms are equivalent. Continue reading How Do You Interpret?

I’ve been playing $1 Ten Play 9/6 Double Double Bonus Ultimate X (DDB UX) for about two years at the Palms. It’s supposed to be a 99.87% game when played perfectly. The perfect strategy is very complicated. The simplified strategy I use is worth a bit less. With the 0.25% slot club, mailer, drawings, etc., it’s a decent enough play.

In 2013, I lost more than $100,000 on this “decent enough” play. In 2014 I’m ahead. But still, how I can run so bad on such a good play? Continue reading What Makes Ultimate X So Volatile?

I periodically attend a dinner hosted by Tommy and Debby Hyland. Tommy has run a large blackjack team for decades and is a member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame. A number of gamblers of various stripes are invited to these dinners and the conversation is often stimulating. Tommy is also a very good golfer and plays several times a week.

The dinner was winding down when Tommy and a few others excused themselves from the table to catch the end of a Sunday night football game. Tommy likes to bet on football and I suspect he had a wager down on this particular game as well. I was lingering at the dinner table, enjoying the conversation and finishing my coffee. Continue reading The Principles are the Same

In last week’s article, available here, I explained how I happened to be playing for large stakes at the newly-opened SLS Casino on its opening weekend. I was down $34,000 after four hours of play. The story continues:

Shortly thereafter I hit $20,000 aces. While I was “in for” $56,000 at this point ($40,000 in markers plus $16,000 of cash I had fed into the machines), I had about $20,000 worth of tickets in my pocket and credits on both machines, so I “bought back” one of the markers. Continue reading My Adventure at the SLS — Part 2 of 2

The SLS Casino opened up at midnight on a Friday the week before Labor Day, 2014. Half a day later, Saturday afternoon, I visited to check it out. I wanted to see if there were any games worth playing.

In the High Limit room I ran into Scott McDermott. Scott had been some sort of slot department manager or shift boss at the Palms for perhaps 10 years. He knew me well. He had seen me hammer $5 Five Play or $25 single line games for hours and he knew I was “Bob Dancer.” I went up to him, shook his hand, and found out that he was in charge of slots at the SLS. Continue reading My Adventure at the SLS — Part 1 of 2