RSSBlog Vegas VII Part I: What’s It Worth to You?
Jul 16
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My latest trip to Vegas was the first stop of a three-stop vacation. Being the only city where I wasn’t scheduled to see family, the purpose of my stop in Vegas was wholly single-minded and selfish: I went to gamble.
And gamble I did for almost three days straight, with little enough time to sleep, eat and shit, I wandered the southern end of the Strip looking for the hot table, the sharpest dealers and the richest companions with which to spend my time. It’s indulgent (an overused, if otherwise totally appropriate term) to decide to that you’re going to gamble, and then gamble some more and never let up to visit a night club, take in a lounge act, or even shop. I was having none of it. If the thought makes you sick to your stomach, turn away now.
I had one ulterior motive to the trip. I wanted to test out my philosophy of blackjack.
Blackjack is my game. Always has been. I even wrote a book about it (the sales page is here: http://philosophyofbj.com/). After having scribed a book how to think like a winner; I wanted to test it out. Could I put the system into practice and fly out of Las Vegas with winnings in my pocket?
The short answer is yes. Here are the facts:
I primarily started with a base bet of $50.
I tried to play at tables with $25 or $50 minimums.
I logged in about 30 hours of game play over three days, about 1/10 of that was on slot machines or at the bar playing machine-keno.
My stake was a maximum of $3000, some of which never left the bank account.
My hotel room was free. My flight was partially paid for with a voucher.
By Vegas standards, a 3000-dollar vacation isn’t extravagant nor particularly bothersome to the casinos (even though I won) which make the bulk of their money from ancillary services (food, shows, drinks) anyway. But for some people, it’s a fortune, and more the point, I (truthfully) wasn’t interested in losing all of it. Some of it inevitably went to pay for the vacation itself -- the food and booze and cab rides -- but the bulk was set aside for the sole purpose of proving that my philosophy of gambling works.
So I claimed it does, and over Blog Vegas VII, I’ll detail how it played out, pitfalls, successes and all. Tomorrow, part II, is all about how to pick the right casino.
If you like what you read over the next few days, I suggest you check out the full title. You can order On 21: The Philosophy of Blackjack from amazon.com and other retailers.
Want to talk to me directly? Contact me via facebook or twitter.
