June 20, 2023: Day One

posted in: Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox | 0

Day One in Vegas does not usually go well… I think it’s just the excitement, being overanxious, to gamble and eventually lose my money. So many rough stories about the first day/night in Vegas… I can’t even recall them all. This time would be different, well, sort of. I wouldn’t necessarily win any money, but the amount that I would lose pales in comparison to past excursions. My bankroll nowadays isn’t close to the levels it was before, so… yeah, only dropping $100 isn’t bad. Thankfully, my partner (my wife) would do a bit better…

We were just talking about how we never hit it big on slot machines. You hear stories about people winning 1000s of dollars; really?!?! Well, we were not part of that group. My biggest slot win, funny enough, was on the $50 my mom gave me to gamble in Vegas years and years ago; I hit like $550 on a Wheel of Fortune slot in Barbary Coast, which would eventually become Wild Bill’s, which is now the Cromwell. But never, never on my own dime have I won more than like $100; same with my wife. Her biggest win may have been in that same casino, on a different trip, when she won about $150… I thought I had that picture in my phone, but I do not. Well, she would set a new record for both of us on this first day in Vegas 2023. Yes, she would hit over $500 on a slot which would essentially bankroll our trip from a cash/gambling perspective; woo hoo!!! When she hit it, my son and I were in the pool, so as the slot total kept climbing, she couldn’t get a hold of us; she would surprise us in the room later. What a nice surprise! $400 of those winnings stood in the safe until the final evening…

But yeah, back to me and my gambling… Caesar’s hold-em tournament at midnight is just my speed; actually, I thought it was only $60. $100 entry fee was the price; I paid up, and was ready to roll. I was there a bit early, so had an hour to kill. Instead of gambling it away, chose to get a cigar and stop at the cigar bar in the casino; that was cool. As the tourney started up, there was only like 6 of us; I found out this is pretty standard for the midnight tourney. People would roll in throughout the next hour, pushing that total up to about 25. Unfortunately, I would exit early… honestly, there wasn’t even a lot of memorable hands either way… just kind of withered away. I did make my opponent lay down his pair of Kings to my pair of 9s based on my betting; there was my one nice moment.

Good thing about losing early, was that I was in bed early; day one is usually a very long day, based on what time we have to get up in Chicago to catch that early flight… this was no exception. In the room before 2am, I was happy to get some extra Zzzz’s. Two more nights to go…

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