SAT DAY 2
As we woke up on Saturday morning, we both knew we were looking forward to one thing...and that was....STEAK AND EGGS!!! Those that were thinking something else...get your minds out of the gutter. Even though we were both awake at 5:45 am and watching the news, we didn't get downstairs until 11:30.
We picked out the waiter we wanted that morning, Alphonso, and while we were walking to our table, we were already giving him our order "on the run" since we were both starving. He was trying to seat us at a booth,but he was out of booths in his section, so he "borrowed" one from another of our favorite servers, Lucy, since she had one left in her section. I ordered my large tomato juice and a cup of Starbucks. We almost always share the coffee, but I said to Faye, why are we sharing coffee when they're paying for it? So I ordered another coffee for her. She dosen't drink much anyway, but she likes to use sugar in hers, while I use Splenda. So from then on, we would order two cups at breakfast. He quickly took our order, and almost immediately came back with our sauces, A-1, Heinz 57, and L+P Worstershire Sauce and a dish to mix my concoction up. Heinz must have heard about my special "mix" as they've just come out with a new Heinz 57 WITH L+P Worstershire Sauce.
No breakfast would be complete without playing some KENO. When we were walking in we passed the Keno station and I told the Keno writer to come by and see us in a few minutes. As I started to take all my pills and vitamins with my tomato juice, I was marking my Keno ticket and I wondered if I EVER was going to hit one of these cards for more than $20. One card I play is the same 7 numbers I always play, 2-8-10-12-13-14-45. The other card I usually play 2-12-22-13-23-33. Faye also filled out a ticket with 6 numbers. I paid the Keno runner, Jean, the $15 bucks and she left to enter out the cards.
The steak and eggs arrived quickly and the Keno runner arrived at the same time. I might mention that they now have a new menu at the Sundance Coffee shop. They've deleted some items and added new ones. One thing they've deleted for breakfast was the Country Potatoes. I used to order them instead of hash browns, but I started not liking them as I once did so it was no great loss. But we devoured the steak and eggs and it was great as usual.
As we were eating, I looked over the weekend edition of the USA TODAY, to read the write ups on the Super Bowl. For some reason, I really had limited interest in this Bowl which is unusual for me being an NFL handicapper. First I liked the Steelers.....then I switched to GB.....then back to the Steelers then back to the Pack. The only thing I was certain of was UNDER the total points. Right now the game is GB -3 Total 45. I wondered out loud if I should make a bank run in case we lost heavily today, since the banks close at 2 pm on Saturdays. She told me not to worry since she had taken thousands out of the safety deposit box to loan her son so she could loan it to me and I would repay it on Monday when the banks were open. It really wouldn't matter since I had plenty in offshore accounts, and I didn't think I would be betting much anyway. So that was a problem out of the way.
Off we headed to the center bar to try and hit that elusive BP Royal which was now headsed north of $5400. The progressive on 4 Aces was up to over $490, and the 4 2-3-4's was near $260. Neither had been hit in a while, and there didn't seem to be too many $1 players to change that. I was sure going to try and change that. Turns out this was going to be a trip of "4 Aces" as well as many othe $OAK"S.
As I mentioned, I was switching between BP and DDB, and I had just switched back to BP and I got dealt 3 Aces. Hitting the draw button produced the 4th Ace. These BP machines are really funny. When you hit one of the progressive bonuses, the machine "freezes", and you sit there wondering what the heck was going on. You'll be wondering what was happening and if you really hit the jackpot. I was accustomed to this feature and just waited for it to kick in and pay off. And pay off it did to the tune of $496. That recovered a lot of the money we were already stuck. One thing about playing dollars, you live by the sword...you die by the sword. Even though I hit those four aces, and many other 4OAK's, the early session turned out to be a loss if $510 including $50 in tips. We decided to head upstairs for a break and we bumped into our host. Pardon me Mare if I don't write "executive host".
Anyway he offered Faye some hand painted wine glasses. So we headed over to the gift shop, which really is only a section of the front desk, where they sell cigs, papers, drinks, lighters, and different types of gifts that you can take back to loved ones. They used to have a "real" gift shop, but somehow it got lost in the remodeling although there's rumors that a new one will be built at a future date. Faye picked out the glasses she like, and he insisted she take more than two. Wound up with 4 which will pile up with all the other things with no place to put them. I think we need a bigger house.
Upstairs we headed to take a break. In a couple of hours we were back downstairs and playing again. I again started hitting 4OAKS's including back to back 4 Kings followed by 4 eights. But the greatest one was when Faye got dealt a flush....or so she thought. "Hey! I got a heart flush!" But as I glance over to her machine, it was w il past the 25 coins a flush paid. From my seat, I couldn't see her 5th card, but when I leaned over further, I saw she got DEALT a 8-Q heart straight flush. What a nice hit!! It was here first hit of anything major as she couldn't hit 4OAK's if her life depended on it. Myself on the other hand continued to hit my 4OAK's. I totaled 11 on the day, including taking out the 4 2-3-4's bonus of over $260. Unfortunatley, many dollars were put back, but a profit of $357 for that session bringing us back to +$87 for the trip. Guess I wouldn't be borrowing any dollars to bet the SB.
DAY 3 SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!
As I mentioned, I just wasn't into this years SB. This hadn't been a good year for me betting the NFL overall. Didn't do well in my Vegas contests, and for the first time since I've been entering these contests, I fell to under .500 with my picks. Totally unacceptable. It seems like I was zigging when I should have been zagging, and the other way around. Today was going to be no different.
I said that I liked the Steelers to start with...then GB...then the Steelers again. This morning I'm listening to one of the pre game shows, and I'm hearing everyone likes the Packers and the over. Since I'm a contrarian bettor for the most part, I should like the Steelers and Under. But I start to reason this thing out. This is GB first trip for all the players on the team. This is the Steelers 3rd trip in 6 years, so they have many players...25 I believe...that have been there and done that. Edge Steelers. Packers are a 6th seeded team...Steelers a 2nd seed. Edge Steelers. Packers are playing their 4th game in a row on the road. Edge Steelers. Packers have no running game that makes them one dimensional....Steelers have a good running game plus a QB that is hard to sack plus can make game winning throws...edge Steelers. Defensively BOTH teams are very good...no edge to anyone.
So if you add this all up, you have a definate edge to the Steelers. But wait a minute!!! Packers are favored by 2.5 to 3 points in the game!! This just doesn't make sense, and when it doesn't make sense, I usually go the other way, which would mean a pick of the Packers for the game. BUT...the public is mostly on the Packers by a few % points. So are all those now it all sportscasters. At this point NOTHING makes sense, which isn't a good way to go in to selecting a winner. At least at this point I was firmly commited to taking the under in the game.
But there was still many hours to go until kickoff so maybe I could sort things out better. I decided to go online and start checking out the lines and what was being talked about on the sports gambling websites. We had ordered room service, and I was checking things out when a knock came on the door. I had ordered their delicious French Toast with bacon. Boy was it good. I'm usually not the one to order room service, as I prefer eating in the coffee shop. But today I just wasn't ready to leave the room. I made my online bets going heavy on the under. I wasn't even going to take a side...yet. I decide to jump in the shower and head downstair.
We didn't get downstairs until after 1 pm, but the game was still 2.5 hours away. The Silverton was going to have a BIG GAME party that went something like this. If you were a Packers fan, you got to sit in the Shady Groove Lounge for the game. Steelers fans went to the Mermaid Lounge, although that was about to change. If you were an "invited" guest, yoou signed up where they have their usual Tuesday slot tournaments, and they gave you a wrist band to wear so you got your free food.They also filled out a card with your players card number and you placed it in a drum for either the Steelers or Packers.Uninvited guests there could also order food except they had to pay for it.It could have gotten pretty dicey with all those people ordering at once, but I never heard any complaints even though the bartenders were overloaded.
Another nice thing they did for invited guest was giving $50 in FSP for those that had selected the winning team, and $25 for the losing team. You also received $1 0in FSP for every time your team scored a TD, and $5 for every time your team scored a field goal. They were also giving out some prizes, but I never got one, but I heard someone at the bar had won a very nice thermal cooler that was like double decked.
Before we went to register, we passed by the center bar and was shocked it was already full. I wanted to play VP while I watched the game, and the center bar was where I wanted to play. I called the bartender over and told him to save us two seats if any became available together. We then registered and walked over to the Mi Casa Mexican restaurant to see if that could be a second option available to us should the center bar not be open. In all our times at the Silverton, we had NEVER played at that bar. When a bartender we like took over that bar, we figured we would put some playing time there at some point to throw him some tips. But then he wound up getting fired so we never played there. When we got back to the center bar, we kept our fingers crossed that seats would be open. I spotted two machines that were covered with napkins to hold them, but I didn't know if they were ours. One of the regular local players who we know said she thought they were saved for us, and the bartender verified they were ours! YAHOO!!! The bartender was duly compensated for saving our seats. We were now about 1.5 hours from gametime.
One thing about playing during the game. You can either win or lose a lot of money...and usually it's the latter rather than the former. We started to play and after a few minutes, Faye's son, his girlfriend and her ex husband showed up. Naturally there was no seats at the bar, but our host happened to come by and said they were now seated invited players in the Mi Casa Lounge and restaurant. We apologized for not joining them, but I wasn't going to give up these seats for nothing. Besides, they weren't gamblers, but they wanted to EAT!! Our host hooked them up with wristbands, and I gave her son money to tip with since I knew his financial condition.
The sports book had a line that I didn't want to stand in, so I figured, screw it, I had enough going offshore so whether I made a bet there or not didn't matter. I just wasn't into this particular SB. But with one hour to go, there was basically no line so I got up ready to make a bet. I wound up betting $330 on the under, and a $40 parlay Steelers to the under. I then returned to my seat to continue playing.
I got off to a good startrnd although I wasn't cashing out any TITO's, it seemed for the first half hour, I didn't go lower than $100....or higher than $150. At least I was putting on plenty of points. All I really needed points for was the Bass Pro Shop as everything else was fully comped. Finally Faye hit her first 4 OAK. Four 8's to be exact. Hopefully this would be a start of somethingo she could hold her own on this trip.
Halftime, and it was time to see if I should throw something down on one team or the other, or on the over/under. My under was looking very sickly as both teams had already scored 31 points. I went to bet $125 to win $100 on the under 24.5 points, but caught a break when the under fell to 110 to win 100 just as I made my bet. I also bet anothjer parlay on the Steelers -2.5 and under 24.5. I bet that for $40 more.
After all was said and done for the day, and this included playing after the game was finished, the day cost -$683, but that included $520 in losing sports bets and money to the bartender and her son. If the Packers hadn't kicked that last FG to go up by 6 points, I would have won my second half undr bet and the $40 parlay. But that's gambling folks. Coulda, shoulda woulda.
Be back later or most likely in the morning as it's now 4:30 in the afternoon and I haven't even showered or gone downstairs yet. I'll cover days 4-5-6 tomorrow and we'll be up to date.
As we woke up on Saturday morning, we both knew we were looking forward to one thing...and that was....STEAK AND EGGS!!! Those that were thinking something else...get your minds out of the gutter. Even though we were both awake at 5:45 am and watching the news, we didn't get downstairs until 11:30.
We picked out the waiter we wanted that morning, Alphonso, and while we were walking to our table, we were already giving him our order "on the run" since we were both starving. He was trying to seat us at a booth,but he was out of booths in his section, so he "borrowed" one from another of our favorite servers, Lucy, since she had one left in her section. I ordered my large tomato juice and a cup of Starbucks. We almost always share the coffee, but I said to Faye, why are we sharing coffee when they're paying for it? So I ordered another coffee for her. She dosen't drink much anyway, but she likes to use sugar in hers, while I use Splenda. So from then on, we would order two cups at breakfast. He quickly took our order, and almost immediately came back with our sauces, A-1, Heinz 57, and L+P Worstershire Sauce and a dish to mix my concoction up. Heinz must have heard about my special "mix" as they've just come out with a new Heinz 57 WITH L+P Worstershire Sauce.
No breakfast would be complete without playing some KENO. When we were walking in we passed the Keno station and I told the Keno writer to come by and see us in a few minutes. As I started to take all my pills and vitamins with my tomato juice, I was marking my Keno ticket and I wondered if I EVER was going to hit one of these cards for more than $20. One card I play is the same 7 numbers I always play, 2-8-10-12-13-14-45. The other card I usually play 2-12-22-13-23-33. Faye also filled out a ticket with 6 numbers. I paid the Keno runner, Jean, the $15 bucks and she left to enter out the cards.
The steak and eggs arrived quickly and the Keno runner arrived at the same time. I might mention that they now have a new menu at the Sundance Coffee shop. They've deleted some items and added new ones. One thing they've deleted for breakfast was the Country Potatoes. I used to order them instead of hash browns, but I started not liking them as I once did so it was no great loss. But we devoured the steak and eggs and it was great as usual.
As we were eating, I looked over the weekend edition of the USA TODAY, to read the write ups on the Super Bowl. For some reason, I really had limited interest in this Bowl which is unusual for me being an NFL handicapper. First I liked the Steelers.....then I switched to GB.....then back to the Steelers then back to the Pack. The only thing I was certain of was UNDER the total points. Right now the game is GB -3 Total 45. I wondered out loud if I should make a bank run in case we lost heavily today, since the banks close at 2 pm on Saturdays. She told me not to worry since she had taken thousands out of the safety deposit box to loan her son so she could loan it to me and I would repay it on Monday when the banks were open. It really wouldn't matter since I had plenty in offshore accounts, and I didn't think I would be betting much anyway. So that was a problem out of the way.
Off we headed to the center bar to try and hit that elusive BP Royal which was now headsed north of $5400. The progressive on 4 Aces was up to over $490, and the 4 2-3-4's was near $260. Neither had been hit in a while, and there didn't seem to be too many $1 players to change that. I was sure going to try and change that. Turns out this was going to be a trip of "4 Aces" as well as many othe $OAK"S.
As I mentioned, I was switching between BP and DDB, and I had just switched back to BP and I got dealt 3 Aces. Hitting the draw button produced the 4th Ace. These BP machines are really funny. When you hit one of the progressive bonuses, the machine "freezes", and you sit there wondering what the heck was going on. You'll be wondering what was happening and if you really hit the jackpot. I was accustomed to this feature and just waited for it to kick in and pay off. And pay off it did to the tune of $496. That recovered a lot of the money we were already stuck. One thing about playing dollars, you live by the sword...you die by the sword. Even though I hit those four aces, and many other 4OAK's, the early session turned out to be a loss if $510 including $50 in tips. We decided to head upstairs for a break and we bumped into our host. Pardon me Mare if I don't write "executive host".
Anyway he offered Faye some hand painted wine glasses. So we headed over to the gift shop, which really is only a section of the front desk, where they sell cigs, papers, drinks, lighters, and different types of gifts that you can take back to loved ones. They used to have a "real" gift shop, but somehow it got lost in the remodeling although there's rumors that a new one will be built at a future date. Faye picked out the glasses she like, and he insisted she take more than two. Wound up with 4 which will pile up with all the other things with no place to put them. I think we need a bigger house.
Upstairs we headed to take a break. In a couple of hours we were back downstairs and playing again. I again started hitting 4OAKS's including back to back 4 Kings followed by 4 eights. But the greatest one was when Faye got dealt a flush....or so she thought. "Hey! I got a heart flush!" But as I glance over to her machine, it was w il past the 25 coins a flush paid. From my seat, I couldn't see her 5th card, but when I leaned over further, I saw she got DEALT a 8-Q heart straight flush. What a nice hit!! It was here first hit of anything major as she couldn't hit 4OAK's if her life depended on it. Myself on the other hand continued to hit my 4OAK's. I totaled 11 on the day, including taking out the 4 2-3-4's bonus of over $260. Unfortunatley, many dollars were put back, but a profit of $357 for that session bringing us back to +$87 for the trip. Guess I wouldn't be borrowing any dollars to bet the SB.
DAY 3 SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!
As I mentioned, I just wasn't into this years SB. This hadn't been a good year for me betting the NFL overall. Didn't do well in my Vegas contests, and for the first time since I've been entering these contests, I fell to under .500 with my picks. Totally unacceptable. It seems like I was zigging when I should have been zagging, and the other way around. Today was going to be no different.
I said that I liked the Steelers to start with...then GB...then the Steelers again. This morning I'm listening to one of the pre game shows, and I'm hearing everyone likes the Packers and the over. Since I'm a contrarian bettor for the most part, I should like the Steelers and Under. But I start to reason this thing out. This is GB first trip for all the players on the team. This is the Steelers 3rd trip in 6 years, so they have many players...25 I believe...that have been there and done that. Edge Steelers. Packers are a 6th seeded team...Steelers a 2nd seed. Edge Steelers. Packers are playing their 4th game in a row on the road. Edge Steelers. Packers have no running game that makes them one dimensional....Steelers have a good running game plus a QB that is hard to sack plus can make game winning throws...edge Steelers. Defensively BOTH teams are very good...no edge to anyone.
So if you add this all up, you have a definate edge to the Steelers. But wait a minute!!! Packers are favored by 2.5 to 3 points in the game!! This just doesn't make sense, and when it doesn't make sense, I usually go the other way, which would mean a pick of the Packers for the game. BUT...the public is mostly on the Packers by a few % points. So are all those now it all sportscasters. At this point NOTHING makes sense, which isn't a good way to go in to selecting a winner. At least at this point I was firmly commited to taking the under in the game.
But there was still many hours to go until kickoff so maybe I could sort things out better. I decided to go online and start checking out the lines and what was being talked about on the sports gambling websites. We had ordered room service, and I was checking things out when a knock came on the door. I had ordered their delicious French Toast with bacon. Boy was it good. I'm usually not the one to order room service, as I prefer eating in the coffee shop. But today I just wasn't ready to leave the room. I made my online bets going heavy on the under. I wasn't even going to take a side...yet. I decide to jump in the shower and head downstair.
We didn't get downstairs until after 1 pm, but the game was still 2.5 hours away. The Silverton was going to have a BIG GAME party that went something like this. If you were a Packers fan, you got to sit in the Shady Groove Lounge for the game. Steelers fans went to the Mermaid Lounge, although that was about to change. If you were an "invited" guest, yoou signed up where they have their usual Tuesday slot tournaments, and they gave you a wrist band to wear so you got your free food.They also filled out a card with your players card number and you placed it in a drum for either the Steelers or Packers.Uninvited guests there could also order food except they had to pay for it.It could have gotten pretty dicey with all those people ordering at once, but I never heard any complaints even though the bartenders were overloaded.
Another nice thing they did for invited guest was giving $50 in FSP for those that had selected the winning team, and $25 for the losing team. You also received $1 0in FSP for every time your team scored a TD, and $5 for every time your team scored a field goal. They were also giving out some prizes, but I never got one, but I heard someone at the bar had won a very nice thermal cooler that was like double decked.
Before we went to register, we passed by the center bar and was shocked it was already full. I wanted to play VP while I watched the game, and the center bar was where I wanted to play. I called the bartender over and told him to save us two seats if any became available together. We then registered and walked over to the Mi Casa Mexican restaurant to see if that could be a second option available to us should the center bar not be open. In all our times at the Silverton, we had NEVER played at that bar. When a bartender we like took over that bar, we figured we would put some playing time there at some point to throw him some tips. But then he wound up getting fired so we never played there. When we got back to the center bar, we kept our fingers crossed that seats would be open. I spotted two machines that were covered with napkins to hold them, but I didn't know if they were ours. One of the regular local players who we know said she thought they were saved for us, and the bartender verified they were ours! YAHOO!!! The bartender was duly compensated for saving our seats. We were now about 1.5 hours from gametime.
One thing about playing during the game. You can either win or lose a lot of money...and usually it's the latter rather than the former. We started to play and after a few minutes, Faye's son, his girlfriend and her ex husband showed up. Naturally there was no seats at the bar, but our host happened to come by and said they were now seated invited players in the Mi Casa Lounge and restaurant. We apologized for not joining them, but I wasn't going to give up these seats for nothing. Besides, they weren't gamblers, but they wanted to EAT!! Our host hooked them up with wristbands, and I gave her son money to tip with since I knew his financial condition.
The sports book had a line that I didn't want to stand in, so I figured, screw it, I had enough going offshore so whether I made a bet there or not didn't matter. I just wasn't into this particular SB. But with one hour to go, there was basically no line so I got up ready to make a bet. I wound up betting $330 on the under, and a $40 parlay Steelers to the under. I then returned to my seat to continue playing.
I got off to a good startrnd although I wasn't cashing out any TITO's, it seemed for the first half hour, I didn't go lower than $100....or higher than $150. At least I was putting on plenty of points. All I really needed points for was the Bass Pro Shop as everything else was fully comped. Finally Faye hit her first 4 OAK. Four 8's to be exact. Hopefully this would be a start of somethingo she could hold her own on this trip.
Halftime, and it was time to see if I should throw something down on one team or the other, or on the over/under. My under was looking very sickly as both teams had already scored 31 points. I went to bet $125 to win $100 on the under 24.5 points, but caught a break when the under fell to 110 to win 100 just as I made my bet. I also bet anothjer parlay on the Steelers -2.5 and under 24.5. I bet that for $40 more.
After all was said and done for the day, and this included playing after the game was finished, the day cost -$683, but that included $520 in losing sports bets and money to the bartender and her son. If the Packers hadn't kicked that last FG to go up by 6 points, I would have won my second half undr bet and the $40 parlay. But that's gambling folks. Coulda, shoulda woulda.
Be back later or most likely in the morning as it's now 4:30 in the afternoon and I haven't even showered or gone downstairs yet. I'll cover days 4-5-6 tomorrow and we'll be up to date.
