Smart Baccarat

I picked up this today, from a thread on FlyerTalk.

You juggle three balls in life: a rubber ball, a lead ball and a crystal ball. The rubber ball is your job. If you drop that, it'll bounce back quickly. The lead ball is your health. If you drop that, you'll have to stop, pick it up, then restart. The crystal ball is your family. Whatever you do: don't drop the crystal ball.

Something to think about.

Woke up Saturday morning around 10AM and my uncle and some of his friends picked me up around 11:30AM. We hung out at the mall for a while and then went back to RIO. I got a chance to check out their suite in the Ipenema Tower at RIO. They had a very nice suite connecting to a room. This was a great setup for a bunch of guys out for a Vegas weekend. I played more video poker, mostly 9/5 Spin Poker and $1 5 Hand 9/5 JoB; was doing OK, and accumulating points rapidly for my DIAD challenge. Left the RIO to get my hair cut and pedicure at the Palms. Kristie was awesome, as always, and I promised the girls that on my next trip, we would all go play dice together. Most memorable moment was the chick sitting next to me getting her pedicure and doing shots of tequila; only in The Vegas ! Left the Palms and went to Venetian to pickup 6 VIP tickets to Blue Man Group for my uncle and his friends. Boy, that place sure smells nice, though, I don’t really enjoy gambling in such a posh environment. Went back to the ‘dust and relaxed for a while before meeting my uncle at around 9:30PM to give him the tickets to the late Blue Man show. I headed over to Harrah’s, with only 2 hours to complete DIAD and around 1,300 points to go. I dug in, and found a $1 5 hand multi 9/5 Job machine. When I go to around 1,300 points, I had someone go check with RIO regarding my exact RIO point balance (can’t believe I forgot how many points I had earned at RIO); anyway, this really nice guys says it will be a few minutes, but he is going to find it out for me. Around 10 minutes later he returns with 2 Diamond Cards --- I DID IT… and around 15 minutes earlier I hit 4 Kings for a 5 way 4 of a Kind paying a sweet $625. So, I made Diamond in a Day, in under 3 hours of play and winning just under $200 --- That was one of the highlights of my trip. Went back over to the dust and played Baccarat, Dice and BJ, but couldn’t win at any of these sessions… so, went to Coco Palms, along with someone I met, and had my late night “fried chicken” before heading off to bed at around 6AM.

On Sunday morning, my Uncle Michael was arriving around 11AM and I was going to meet him over at Harrah’s Diamond Check-in as soon as he was on his way from the airport. He was in a free room and i-pod shuffle offer from Harrah’s; you can’t beat that. He checked in and my other Uncle Jerry also met us over at Harrah’s. We hung out talking to Glenn at Diamond check-in who is from Fort Lee, NJ; the town where Jerry and I (and Michael’s wife) grew up. It was great fun talking about Fort Lee. Then, we went up to the Diamond Lounge to relax, and I had my required 2 glasses of sparkling wine. I know they call it Champagne, but the stuff they serve in the Diamond Lounge at Harrah’s (while very good) is really domestic sparkling, NOT real Champers. Now, does anyone out there know if they serve real Champers in the Caesar’s Diamond Lounge ?

I went to Neiman Marcus to make some returns, including my Tumi rolling suitcase which fell apart in DTW airport. They were awesome and replaced it with a new one, no questions asked, even though, it was over a year old. Rested a bit at the ‘dust and took another Jacuzzi and a long shower. Got ready for dinner at William B’s with Michael, Jerry, and Jerry’s friend Eric. Susan the hostess was there as always, she is such a sweetheart. We had a nice big booth, and I enjoyed my seafood platter and oysters Rockefeller for dinner. The other guys had steaks and prime rib, which they all said were great. Jerry and Eric left to meet up with the other guys for Headlights and Tailpipes at the ‘dust. I was able to get 9 comp’ed tickets from my great host Linda. She even made sure they had the front row table. The are just so good to us at the Stardust.

Michael and I relaxed over coffee and a wonderful fruit platter at William B’s. We then left the ‘dust in search of Tony P. at Caesar’s, but he was nowhere to be found. We walked around Caesars a bit; and checked out the locations of the Diamond and Seven Star lounges. Then, we went back to Harrah’s for a bit more Video poker play. I left Michael around 11PM, since he had a very early flight out on Monday morning to LAX. I went over to the Frontier and checked out the Sigma Derby Machine. Tim @ Five Hundy has talked about this machine, and it is really funny. I then bought in for a few hundred at a $5 dice table – but, basically couldn’t make anything happen. Finished the night playing more Baccarat, Dice and BJ at the ‘dust, but couldn’t walk away with any money. This was the worst table game luck I have had in quite a while. The only thing memorable about it was how shitty it was… I guess that is why they call it gambling. I should have just played Video Poker on this trip ! Finished up with a drink in the Starlight lounge and a late night snack at Coco Palms and went to bed around 4AM.

I woke up around 9AM for my 12 noon flight home to Dayton via MSP. Had a nice conversation with my host, and we talked about which Boyd property I would be moving too. She mentioned she was going to the Orleans, so, I guess I’ll give it a try. Of course, Boyd has NOT announced where they are moving the ‘dust Baccarat room. None of the other properties have one. Thought it might be the South Coast, but it is looking like it might be the Orleans. I think all the anxiety and unknown was what caused Tony P. to leave the ‘dust after 30 + years. Stewart had the Limo all ready, and I left for the airport a little over an hour before my flight. I already had my First Class boarding pass, and breezed through security in under 10 minutes. Waited till the end of boarding, and met my MEM-LAS seat mate at the terminal; she was waiting to return to MEM. Had another great flight to MEM; and sat next to Stephanie in row #2. We chatted it up a bunch, and I started with a screwdriver before lunch. Lunch was a cold chicken platter, which was below average, but the white wine was nice. The flight attendants were absolutely fabulous, and they were all 30+ year NW employees. We talked about how things were so horrible lately regarding NWA and all of their concessions and pay cuts. I have to say, these woman had such a great attitude. Upon arrival in MSP I had over an hour to my DAY connection, so I invited Stephanie to join me in the C concourse WorldClub, and she convinced me that I had to have at least a glass or two of wine with her. Flight back to DAY was on a small jet, but I had 2 seats, and relaxed in a Yoga position and just tried to chill and reflect upon the busy and crazy weekend in The Vegas.

Camp has begun. Ryan and Adina left for sleepaway camp yesterday morning. It's Ryan's first year, but he didn't seem nervous at all. This is a picture of his group from the first day of camp. The camp has a blog so we can keep up with the day to day activities...