Not everyone’s Luck has been awful this week... :) - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

MNBoxster · 11-30-2006, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

I NEVER gamble I once had a job where I had to attend a 10 DAY LOOONG convention with a bunch of Chinese business dudes (HUGE gamblers). These guys would drop six figures a night. Well we had to take these guys out and the company gave me money to gamble with so we wouldn't look like wimps. But I had to use it on the casino floor, I was so tempted to drop it into my Etrade account. The strip is easily my least favorite 'vacation' spot in America, 2nd only to Bourbon Street. The food in vegas always tastes weird to me, like its been stored too long. Oh and I ended up having dinner with the Chinese dudes at Emerill Lugasis Steak place and in walks O.J. Simpson and he's walking right towards me, eyes locked right on me. I go for my steak knife (just in case). He say
"Whats going on?"
and sits directly behind me at the next table. I could clearly hear his entire conversation which wasn't too hard because everyone in this room clamed up in two seconds when they realized who was dining with them. He was having dinner with a couple of Japanese chicks while everyone working in that eatery was kissing his ass. The maitre'd guy even came over to his table to prepare his salad with some sort of mushroom oatmeal goop topping. My co worker from the west coast office told me he saw him the week before on a golf course he lives near and his friends from UCLA heckled him from the other hole with taunts of "OJ you F'ing killer get off the course". He says he gets that everywhere he goes.
I also got a pound from Rodman who I was told had a yellow 996 Turbo in the parking lot of the HardRock.

Hi,

Cool! I'd have a knife handy around O.J. too...lol That's cool though seeing celebraties. I have never seen any in all my trips here, except once saw Rodney Dangerfield crossing the street as I went by in a cab.

As a vacation spot, I like Vegas, but truly, Montreal is my favorite with Charleston, SC as my next choice. In fact at last year's convention (Ponte Vedre, FL) we rented a car and drove up to Charleston to spend a week and flew home from there - I'm a Food & Wine guy and these cities have incredible food...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

z12358 · 11-30-2006, 01:23 PM

Never been to Vegas and I don't think I'll ever want to. Once while at a conference in Atlantic City I stepped into a casino and had to just get out after 5 minutes. All the colors, the lights, the sounds, the people crunched up over machines for hours pulling levers...

I define gambling as: placing bets in a statistical process that is inherently rigged against the player. Why anyone in their right mind would want to participate and support it, is beyond me. As if there's not enough chance and uncertainty in my life already, so I'd have this urge to turbo charge them by embracing a losing proposition.

Z.

Perfectlap · 11-30-2006, 01:42 PM

I agree, but some people (like MN) just have a knack for bloody winning! My pal and I went to the Borgata one night and in the five minutes we waited for his girlfriend to come down from the room (actually more like 15) my buddy hit the slot maching THREE TIMES. It was like literally every fourth pull of lever came up with $300+.... A thousand bucks in less time than it took the cocktail waitress to bring our 1st round drinks! This really pissed off all the people playing next to him. His girlfriend came down and he says "babe I just won 1,000 dollars"
and she's like "that's nice honey what you think of my dress?" LOL

11-30-2006, 03:25 PM

I didnt mis-interperet it, Its made in africa, so what. I also saw on top gear he test drove it and said it was unsafe. Nothing to knock the car, its a cool car, just saying it has to be sold "incomplete" in the US, hence the regulations.

pecivil · 11-30-2006, 03:33 PM

Jim, congrats on the winnings. 18k is staggering!

I tried gambling on my 2 trips to vegas and just cant do it. money is to hard to come by to blow it like that, for essentially nothing except the excitment? of the moment. I can bet a 20 spot on football or basketball game, but thats it.

I would rather save it or buy something to go on one of my cars.

The stress of having that much $ on the line I can't imagine.

18 GRAND! Yikes!

MNBoxster · 11-30-2006, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pecivil

Jim, congrats on the winnings. 18k is staggering!

I tried gambling on my 2 trips to vegas and just cant do it. money is to hard to come by to blow it like that, for essentially nothing except the excitment? of the moment. I can bet a 20 spot on football or basketball game, but thats it.

I would rather save it or buy something to go on one of my cars.

The stress of having that much $ on the line I can't imagine.

18 GRAND! Yikes!

Hi,

I hear what both you and z12358 are saying. But, I never had $18k on the Line. Craps is a good game because the House adds are at their lowest of any Game there, meaning that you have the better chance to win.

Remember, in Vegas, they actually payout 98.5% of all the money taken in as winnings. They need to do this to induce people to play - if no one ever won, they wouldn't bother to play. All Gambling is like that, but many of the Tribal Casino payouts are lower, something like 97%, which is really quite a difference once you total it all up.

The interesting thing about it is that in the case of your friend at the Slots, assuming it was a $0.25 machine, 4,060 people (or plays) lost (given a 98.5% payout rate) so that the machine could payout $1,000 to your friend.

The other interesting thing to think about is with a 98.5% payout, the entire City of Las Vegas, with all it's spectacle and finery, was built from 1.5%! Amazing!

As I said, I never had $18k on the Line. In Craps, there are bets which give you favorable odds (of course these are the harder ones to win at), so if you're winning, your gain can multiply pretty quickly.

Add to this my personal rule that I start in a Casino with a certain amount of money which I can afford to lose. In this case, it was $500 on Monday (for the entire week). Fortunately, we came away up $700 (+ $500 seed money =$1,200 total) which was good.

Then, I never make a bet larger than my last win, so essentially, I'm playing with free money. Yesterday, I won my 1st bet of $100, which payed me $133 because of odds. Then, I took back my initial seed money leaving me with $33. I bet $30 (didn't want to look like a Hayseed betting $33) on the next roll and won $40 with that bet, then I bet the $40, and so on. So, from my 1st winning bet, I was walking out of there with the original $700 I started with no matter what. I limited my top bet to $1000. Of course after a while, I was betting $1k on every roll because I was so far ahead.

I actually won over $24k, but the TaxMan took about $6k from me. Also, I won and lost money (their money) all the way through, it wasn't a run of straight wins. But, in the end, I had a pretty good day. I well exceeded my expectation which was $1k or so, and decided that if I stayed any longer I'd probably just start giving it back which I'm very averse to doing. That's also why I decided not to gamble anymore this trip.

Heading home tomorrow mid-day, can't wait, Vegas can be a little tiring. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is that I saw on CNN that it's in the teens in Mpls. right now - YIPEE!...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

pecivil · 11-30-2006, 04:21 PM

all I can say is well done Jim. But those MN temps are payback!!

MNBoxster · 11-30-2006, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pecivil

all I can say is well done Jim. But those MN temps are payback!!

Hi,

True - thanks for reminding me... But, I do have the cash for a trip to Hawaii if it gets too cold up there...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

Perfectlap · 11-30-2006, 04:23 PM

interesting strategy, only bet your gains... I've always wanted to learn how to play that game, seems like the only one where the house is the underdog (of sorts). Do you have any suggested reading?

MNBoxster · 11-30-2006, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

interesting strategy, only bet your gains... I've always wanted to learn how to play that game, seems like the only one where the house is the underdog (of sorts). Do you have any suggested reading?

Hi,

No sorry, I've never read a book on it - school of hard knocks was my Teacher as well as a professional gambler I knew when I lived in Chicago when I managed the Inter-Continental in the mid-'80s. There was a High Stakes Poker Game ($50k to get in) which rotated monthly between several of the Large Hotels. They'd rent a big suite, order lots of catering and such. Illegal, but everyone looked the other way because they weren't afraid to pay and they always paid in Cash. I heard they even had the cops paid off.

Anyway, there are lots of good books on shooting Craps. I might have cut my learning curve had I read one of them...

BTW, right now, down in the Wynn's Casino, there is a High Roller playing Craps by himself at a roped-off table. He's betting $100k per roll and after 2 Hrs., he's up a little more than $2M. I saw him an hour ago and he was up $1M, my wife just got back and said she just saw him still in the Casino, but he's up another million. Incredible to think that people have that kind of money to bet with...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

PS My wife also said that Celine Dion came into the Lobby with a bunch of out-of-town family members and checked them all in, while she was picking up a pkg. at the Front Desk. Seems maybe she's not that sick afterall...

jeffsquire · 12-01-2006, 07:36 AM

Congrats, Jim. Now you can get the 3.4 S engine you always wanted and not feel guilty about it