9/7/2007
In past years, I’ve discussed –- well, to be really truthful, I’ve complained –- about the problem of switching around several denominations in our video poker play. It does make for a very bumpy ride when you hit more royals on the lower denominations and fewer on the higher. All this year, so far, has seen us on that kind of ride. While picking up bounce-back money, Brad plays only an hour or two on a quarter full-pay Deuces Wild machine and hits a $1,000 royal. We play $1 SpinPoker for a short time and hit a royal on one line for $4,000. At a couple of places the best play is on $2 machines – and we’ve hit several $8,000 royals. We love playing Multi-Strike, but rarely find a good play. But we played a quarter one a few months ago –- again, for about an hour — and hit a royal on the second line for $2,000.
We mostly play $5 machines, quite a bit of single line, but mostly Triple Play and some Five Play. Even with the majority of our VP sessions in this area, we’d hit only two $20,000 royals by the end of August. One was on single line and one was on Triple Play. Needless to say, although we’d hit about the “right” number of royals (what the math dictates) for the number of hours we play, the fact that most of them have been on lower-denomination machines is the reason we’re in the red for the year.
It isn’t as much fun to lose as it is to win and a long losing stretch isn’t easy to endure, even when you’re doing all the right things: choosing the best VP plays, playing accurately, chasing promotions. But we kept the faith and plodded onward, thankful we had a big enough gambling bankroll that we weren’t ever even close to tapping our expense account or retirement reserve. I kept repeating, “You just can’t play $5 VP forever and never get a royal again.”
Finally, the tide turned over Labor Day weekend, quickly and in a very unexpected manner. I held an AK on a $5 Five Play machine and the other royal cards filled in nicely. Then the very next day Brad was playing a $5 Triple Play game and muttering to himself because he had only a lone king in the first position to hold. He turned to me to complain about his poor starting hands and then we both looked at his machine. Although it wasn’t making any noise or playing any music, it was flashing “Call Attendant.” Two $20,000 royals in two days after only two in the previous 8 months! Needless to say, it’s good to be back in the black!
And now, a not-so-happy update about Steve, our Army Ranger son-in-law. The last few months he’s been in a mostly administrative position in Iraq, albeit a very uncomfortable one in a makeshift primitive outpost in the “sandbox,” the heart of the Iraqi desert. But it was relatively “safe,” although that’s hardly a precise word to describe any place in that country. He’s now been promoted to First Sergeant (a diamond in the middle of the 3 up and 3 down for you military types) and is taking command of an infantry unit whose duty will be supporting tank units on combat missions. (Angela says they knew this was coming, that they wouldn’t “waste” an experienced Ranger in an administrative position for very long.)
I don’t have words to describe the fear in my heart. Angela is taking it as well as can be expected and stays busy to try to keep her mind occupied with the normal routine of her job and two busy teenagers who have to be taxied to their many activities.
Thanks to all of you who have written letters of encouragement and sent boxes to Steve. These do help his morale –- and keeps him from going crazy from a constant diet of Army rations! Since he’s moving to a different outpost, his old address is no longer useable. Just as soon as we get his new one, I’ll post it here.
Thanks again for all the expressions of concern and prayers.
9/13/2007
There are people in every area of life who become obsessed with one activity, whether it’s their job or a leisure-time hobby. A workaholic in any career may find that his family takes second place to his job. A woman may neglect her children because she spends too much time in computer chat rooms. Even a person who reads or watches TV all the time may find that close relationships suffer.
Someone who gambles faces the same dangers. A professional gambler who needs to make a living usually finds that it requires much more than a 40-hour-a-week schedule and the hours are not necessarily 9-to-5. If he’s a family man, this often puts a big strain on his wife and children. I’ve noticed the fact that a large percentage of professional gamblers are single or divorced.
Even if gambling is a leisure activity, some of these same factors can negatively impact home life and relationships, especially if family or friends don’t share this interest.
Although the majority of people who gamble are not obsessed with it, there’s no doubt that gambling is an intense activity.
Brad and I were brought together 22 years ago by our common interest in gambling – we met in an Indiana Moose Lodge tonk game – and ever since, casino gambling has been a major activity that we both enjoy, usually in the company of each other. For the first years, while we were still living and working in Indiana and had to journey to Vegas and other casino destinations, we balanced intense gambling while we were away with a more leisurely lifestyle when we were in Indiana, with time to do volunteer work that we enjoyed. We visited seniors and provided transportation with the Visiting Nurse Service and did many projects with the Salvation Army.
After several years, I “accidentally” – I never planned for this – fell into a gaming writing career that took more and more of my time and left less time for other activities. And when we finally moved to Las Vegas permanently, we found the town a gambling pressure cooker – so many lucrative opportunities – to do and to write about. So for many years now, we have lived a very intense life, fun but extremely busy.
Brad never seems to lose interest in gambling, even though he’s been doing it since he was five years old. But he does limit his time in a casino these days, because of the smoke and the lack of endurance that heart disease and medication cause. However, for the last couple of years I’ve found my interest in gambling to be waning. I’ve begun to wake up to the fact that I’m weary of too many hours every week taken up with the subject of casinos. If I haven’t been planning when and where to gamble or been actually in a casino gambling or picking up bounce-back, I’ve been reading or writing about gambling and casinos.
Recently, I came to the realization that I needed – and wanted – more balance in my life. I wanted an activity that had to do with “real” life, something far away from “artificial life” in the casino. And I wanted to do something that was beneficial to others.
Therefore, I’ve gone back to the classroom. Not in a high school where I spent so many of my early working years teaching English to teenagers, but as a volunteer in an elementary school down the street from where we live. Several times a week I spend a couple of hours helping small groups of 2nd graders improve their reading skills. And I’m loving it!
No, I’m not giving up our casino life. But this new activity is giving me some balance that I sorely need. And even though I’m gambling fewer hours, I find I’m now back to enjoying it more.
9/21/2007
I just finished reading a fascinating book by “Hollywood” Dave Stann, known as the “Bad Boy of Blackjack.” The title is Hollywood Blackjack, but the subtitle describes the book best, An Uncensored Guide to Doing it Like a Pro.
“Uncensored” is the key word here. The book is as startling as Dave’s spiked hair. “Irreverent” is the term almost all reviewers want to use. I won’t give a whole list of words that Dave uses that you usually don’t find in a book telling you how to play smart blackjack, but I will mention that among them are “bitches,” “hot chicks,” even “smoking hot chicks.” This doesn’t bother me, because I know Dave personally and he always treats me with respect; in fact, he autographed his book for me, “My favorite Queen of Comps!” But he may think of me as a former hot chick –- I hope so.
But I digress. This blackjack book is full of information, but it’s the first one where I laughed from beginning to end when I read it. And you’ll be entertained if you never played or expect to play a hand of blackjack. Because Dave isn’t just an expert blackjack player. He’s a fine writer, an actor, and a “character” wherever he shows up. And he shows up on TV a lot. You might have seen him matching wits and dealing cards on “Celebrity Blackjack” or baiting the other contestants on “King of Vegas.” I first met him when we were both in the first season of the “World Series of Blackjack” on the Game Channel and he already was perfecting his non-stop chatter to rattle his opponents.
You can catch his always-entertaining act this coming Saturday, September 22nd, when he appears in the second show of the second season of the “Ultimate Blackjack Tour.” It airs on CBS, 2 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m. Pacific time (check your local listings to make sure; some local CBS affiliates might not carry it).
Dave’s book, Hollywood Blackjack, can be ordered here at www.shoplva.com or at http://rge21.safeshopper.com.
Coincidentally, I’ve also just read another BJ book I’d like to recommend: How to Win More Blackjack Tournaments: Tips, Tricks, and Strategies to Supercharge Your Game, by Ken Smith. No references to hot chicks in this book –- Ken is more button-downed than Hollywood Dave, not to mention happily married –- but it’s written by probably the best BJ tournament player alive today. Henry Tamburin, a BJ expert himself, writes: “”My worst nightmare is to find Ken Smith on my table in a blackjack tournament. He has the uncanny ability to keep track of every player’s chip count and then make a near-perfect bet and playing decision. He’s one hell of a tournament player.””
The book consists of a collection of Ken’s articles that have appeared in past issues of the Blackjack Insider Newsletter, plus several new tournament strategies by Ken that have never appeared in print before. For more information about the book, go to http://store.eSellerate.net/deepnet/kensmithebook.
The book is 98 pages and retails for $14.95. It’s available as an e-book that’s downloaded to your computer immediately after purchase.
9/28/2007
Two weeks ago I talked about keeping a healthy balance in your life if you live in an area where casinos were all around you, like we do in Vegas. I got a lot of mail about that column. One reader expressed his disappointment in my choice of tutoring at an elementary school as my non-gambling activity: “Frankly, it seems Her Frugalness is losing the touch… If she was on top of her game she would realize she could sign up as a sub teacher and get paid for her work.”
However, most of the writers understood that frugalness doesn’t mean never doing something free for others if you can get paid for it. Many applauded my decision and some said it was making them think of things they could do to bring a little more balance in their lives in Vegas and keep from getting “gambling burnout.” (And one teacher and I, both of us having substitute-taught in our younger years, agreed that this option would be like sending senior citizens for duty in Iraq!)
Although that column talked about our life after we moved to Vegas, the need for balance was soon noticed when we were out-of-town tourists. At first, when we traveled from Indianapolis to Vegas for a visit, we wanted to gamble all the time, like we had to make up for the time when we were home and, at that time, no casinos were within easy driving distance. But after a few visits we found such an intense gambling schedule was exhausting –- and playing blackjack or video poker for the 10th hour of one day wasn’t as fun as those first couple of hours. So we started taking naps to refresh our bodies and brains. We saw more shows to give ourselves a break.
We also started deliberately planning non-casino activities for part of each day of our visit. We took every factory tour we could find and visited every museum in town. We went on side trips out of town, like free bus tours to Laughlin. We took a daily walk in different areas of town, getting our exercise and seeing new and interesting things along the way. We even sat in on interesting court cases at the Federal Building.
Even though couponing was a form of gambling, it was a welcome active change from sitting at a blackjack table or a video poker machine in one place for hours at a time. We couponed up and down the Strip and all over downtown, making money and getting good exercise at the same time. It got us into a lot of casinos where we didn’t ordinarily play.
There are many resources for the tourist to turn to if they want ideas for non-gambling activities in Las Vegas. There is the Neon section in Friday’s newspaper, which is also online at http://www.lvrj.com/neon/. But one of the best is the Web site http://www.vegas4locals.com/. Although it’s an invaluable resource for locals, it has great ideas visitors could use, including up-to-date information about local Las Vegas community and cultural events and activities and a list of over 100 of the best totally free things to do and see in Las Vegas! You can subscribe to a newsletter there that will also keep you up on Vegas happenings.
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In my September 7th column, I gave an update on my son-in-law’s new duties in Iraq, now out in the middle of the action, much to the dismay of all of his family. He’s big on trying to keep us from worrying and here is an excerpt from one of his recent e-mails to Brad and me:
“Hey, I just thought I’d drop you guys a few lines to say hello. I’m starting to get settled in at my new location. I’m once again First Sergeant of a company. It’s not so bad in combat. I have a lot less paperwork to do at least, and time is passing much faster now.”
All I can say is that’s making lemonade out of lemons, but I’m still worrying! He and Angela and the kids are really looking forward to his visit back home in Columbus, Georgia, in November for two weeks of R&R. They plan to celebrate an early Christmas while