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| A view from a walkway during Vegas dusk, 6-5-11 |
No shock here...I lost in Vegas. My friend Tom says he is never coming back after some pretty big losses, notably the French Open and NASCAR. Sometimes I wish I could say the same thing - that I'm not coming back here. Rarely do I even come up on a trip here. In fact, most of my trips have had a similar feel. Very awful first day, moderate 2nd day, and then a comeback on the last day.
This trip was no different. I had won my first 2 bets of the trip but then fell into a hole with my Thursday night/Friday morning bets of Miami ($330 lost in 2 bets) and Djokovic ($300). A moderate comeback started with some horse bets, increase $ in my wallet from $13 at one point to over $200. I left the sportsbook with $103 that day and was about to call it a night when my friend reminded me that I was in Vegas so I went to plop down $100 at our casino's roulette table. I decided to play the #28 and #22, and not even 2 spins in, the 28 came in. 3 spins later, #28 again. Another couple spins later, another 28. At the end of the night, up about $360. I had to thank Tom for getting me out of the room.
Saturday seemed promising after I won my first bet (five inning under of Red Sox/A's) to get up to nearly $600, but then a string of three bets flushed nearly all of that away. I tried another horse race comeback to no avail - this failed attempt occuring as the annoying Canucks fans took over the Bellagio sportsbook. As the night closed, I decided I was gonna cave on my ATM avoidance and take money out so that I could bet on Nadal the next day. However, 7-8 failed attempts at getting money out of 4 different ATMs (first trying to take out $300, then $280, then $200, then $100 several times to no avail) made this a problem. I finally tried taking out just $80, which I was able to do twice before a third time said I exceeded my daily limit. I was able to bet Nadal $120 to win $50 profit (-240, which was a shock considering Djokovic was -270 and not the player on clay that Nadal is).
Sunday, we wake up around 7 to see the end of the first set, which went to Nadal, who then took the second set. Federer took the third set around 9:35 local time, tying up my Nadal money and preventing me from betting the early games. I guess that wasn't such a bad thing, seeing as though I had no good feels on the games. After Federoff hurried back to the Flamingo to get that money, I wagered $120 of the $170 I got back from Nadal on a first 5-inning over for the Red Sox/A's - came in the 3rd or 4th inning. Unfortunately, everything after that up until the Heat game went to crap. I was throwing hay into the wind with some of the bets I was making (five inning bet on Astros against the Padres, Carl Edwards in NASCAR finished 5th). I had to make another ATM trip and took out $80 this time. I distributed it between first half under of 94.5 ($30 to win $30), Miami to win the first quarter ($30 to win $33), and then two separate first basket of the game props in Jason Kidd (10/1 odds) and Mike Bibby (12/1). In reverse order, Bibby got the first basket (+$120-10 for Kidd = $110); Miami pulled away at the end of the quarter (+$33) and a slow down of offense in the 2nd quarter allowed the first half under to clear no problem (+$30). The $60 I got back from the first half under went completely into the Heat/Mavs 2nd half under, which was juiced heavily in favor of the over ($60 to win $72 profit). That came in no problem, but unfortunately my $100 on the Heat covering a reverse line of -3.5 didn't come in.
Monday - the horse racing tradition continued. I won my first horse racing bet and then soon another one after that. But unlike previous last day trips, profits were not in order for this adventure. Tom and I grinded out a few hours of no betting before catching a cab back to the airport, and then eventually getting back to Chicago around midnight.
Tom kept saying he didn't want to go back to Vegas, that this was gonna be his last trip. As recently as a few days ago, he's already talking about going back.
Such is the power of a gambler's life in Vegas. You may lose your cash there, but the Vegas allure remains.
