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Mad Professor's Mini-Table Craps Tour with the Vegas Ghost- Part V (Read Part I , Part II, Part III or Part IV) As we
were leaving the Wild Wild West Gambling Hall parking lot, there was one car in front of
us. The bumper-sticker read:
How do
you get an 82-year old Grandma to say, F#%k?
Have
somebody else yell BINGO! As we
I wheeled onto Tropicana Boulevard, I momentarily looked back at the Orleans Hotel-Casino,
and immediately thought about Jerry Lewis who had signed a ten-year performance-deal to
appear at the Orleans Showroom. I asked Mel
the Vegas Ghost, if he had any Jerry Lewis stories that were
publishable.
He gave out a slight hrrumph and scrunched his face
up with the reluctance of someone who doesnt want to talk about unpleasantries.
He started, First let me say that I really love Jerry. That being said; let me also add that he can be
a huge pain in the ass. Jerry is a great
entertainer, but he is also sometimes very difficult to handle. I
asked Mel to explain, because I had a different view of the man due of his charitable work
with Muscular Dystrophy through his long-famous Labor Day Telethons. I had had the pleasure of being in
a Telethon
audience when they were originally held in Vegas at The Sahara, so I had a bit of a
soft-spot for him.
Mel continued, The problems that I am talking about is that
once in a while, he would take a shot at getting behind the table to deal 21 (blackjack),
and things would usually start out well. It was great cause the players loved that a
celebrity was dealing to them. He would get
going, settle down and be doing okay, although he would be doing more
"entertaining" than actual dealing. Of
course, he would draw a huge crowd every time. Along
the way there was always some little incident that would make a shift in him,
and that ALWAYS started trouble.
As we
made our way to the next destination on our Mini-Tub Craps Tour, I asked Mel to carry on
with the story.
Mel
continued, Hed be dealin to a full table and some guy would correct him
on a total. There would be 4 or 5 cards in the hand, and Jerry would have the total wrong.
This could happen to anyone, but with Jerry, it would always start something. The guy
would say "No, I beat you, I have 18 or whatever. Then Jerry would go into a routine and act like he
was hurt or confused and just kidding around, BUT THEN he would still take the guys chips.
From
there on he would be totally out of control. He'd just start taking anyone's chips. Maybe
just pay someone no matter what he had. All
the time laughing and being funny. It was interesting to watch. I started out as sort of
slap-stick comedy, but at times it bordered on being mean and spiteful. If it were anyone
but Jerry Lewis there would be people asking for their money back. But no one ever did. It
was an amazing display of crowd control.
Jerry
would be insulting one person, one second and then making the next person feel like a
million dollars. He'd come to the guy's hand that corrected him and just take his money
THEN give it to a nice lady who was learning how to play. He would look right at the guy
he took the money from and say to the whole crowd. "What a nice man - He wants the
lady to win too." The guy would be steaming, but too embarrassed to say anything. Or he would say, You want to help out
Jerrys kids dont you, and hed pocket the guys chips, and say,
Thank-you very much for your generous donation to the Muscular Dystrophy campaign
sir
you are a true gentleman.
Mel went
on to say, So when Jerry dealt, it was "showtime". There were times I
would have to take the Green ($25) and Black ($100) chips off the table or we would lose
everything.
No
matter what he was doing, the crowd would be with him. But all in all, I look back at
those times and realize why we at The Sands, were the talk of the town
and the
country. Can you imagine the stories the people who witnessed these things told?
I chuckled a little when he added, Working at The Sands in
its heyday with guys like Jerry Lewis and all the guys from the extended Rat Pack,
was always crazy and unpredictable
and youd just go with the flow of whatever
was happening
regardless of how crazy it was. Like
they say over at the Clarke County Medical Center Psychiatric ward, Some mornings it
just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps."
By the time Mel had finished a couple more stories about Jerry
Lewis and a few other Vegas luminaries, we were pulling into our next Mini-Tub Tour
objective: Nevada Palace
How
To Find It
Nevada Palace is on Boulder Highway at the corner of Harmon
Avenue. This is a sort of
mini-Strip where youll find Sams Town, Boulder Station, Castaways
(formerly The Showboat), and Arizona Charlies-Boulder casino/hotels.
The OTHER Palace
Nevada Palace is not a big gaming house. In fact, it is about on par with Barbary Coast. With a
20,000 square foot casino, there is
limited space and limited need for multiple craps tables.
With that in mind, you will find one mini-tub (8 to 10 players) craps table
that sports a $1 minimum bet, and offers 2x Odds.
The normal customers here are locals and down-on-their-luck, or
extremely low-budget travelers. The sea of
low-limit slots (25-cent, 10-cent, 5-cent, and yes, even 1-cent minimums) and nickel
video-poker machines dwarfs the table-games area by a 95/5 ratio.
Again, dont expect Caesars Palace type of mega-resort
niceties or amenities. Nevada Palace is where
youll find uncomplicated, low-maintenance, no-frills gamblers who are looking for a
reasonable shot at winning, and they are willing to forego Hungarian-crystal chandeliers,
hand-woven Persian carpets, and state-of-the-art air purifications systems.
Instead youll find plenty of incandescent pot-lights,
slightly worn and stained carpeting, plus a smoky thickness in the air that is actually
chewable, but not completely digestible.
We are at the other Palace. Believe me when I tell you that it could NEVER to
be confused with either Caesars Palace or even Imperial Palace. We are here to do some Precision-Shooting on their
mini-tub table. That means that we are
willing to sacrifice ambiance in exchange for mini-tub
profit. Like most of the other small casinos that we have visited so far
on this trip, The Nevada Palace only has 200 rooms. Ive never actually stayed in one of them, so
I cant pass judgment. So lets look at some ways to
make the most out of any craps session that you might have at a mini-table. Low-Profile Bankroll ManagementThe
Nevada Palace is one of those places where you want to keep your initial buy-in as low as
possible. A max buy-in of $100 should
suffice for your betting-action. If you need
more to fully augment your Come-bet Odds; then do it when the need arises, and dont
do it all at once. Yes, I know that low
buy-in method is how dealer-detested fleas play at the bigger LV palaces, but
at the Nevada Palace, you want to be a STEALTH Precision-Shooter, and not one that invites
the constant attention of the Pit.
Dont
raise any flags that will mark you as anything else than just another player. One other
little maneuver that I use, is to buy gaming chips right from the cashiers-cage, or from
another gaming table like BJ, LiR, or Caribbean Stud.
That gives me a cache of chips that I can use at the craps table without
having to buy-in there at all. If you
walk up to the table and start playing, it is a lot less noticeable to the Pit Critters
than if you throw down a wad of cash that needs to be changed into chips. Again, if you play in a low-profile mode, you
increase your chances of profitable-longevity. Nevada Palaces Players Card and
Its Uses
I do have a
Players Circle card from NP, but Ive got to tell you that I rarely
use it. I used to use it all the time, and
Ive also eaten well (profit wise) from this particular trough in the past. However, their Players
Card actually has extremely limited uses, and I have been terribly
unhappy about the results of eating in their two food outlets, so I now generally forego
all available comps. If the Floor Supervisor
asks if I want to be rated, Ill usually shake my head and say that, Im
just trying my luck here, cause its been so bad everywhere else. That response usually sends them away without
raising undue attention. If they persist, I
hand in my card, but I wont take any of their salmonella/botulism comps
I
mean
food comps EVER AGAIN! Normally I am the first to
recommend the use of your Players Card to maximize comps, but in this particular
house the childbirth-pain after-effects just arent worth it. Win-Goals and Loss-Limits for THIS Casino
I play at this table about once every week when I am in Vegas, and I limit my take to about $150 to $200 in VISIBLE net-profit per visit. Visible profit is the amount of money that a Floor-Supervisor can clearly see that you are ahead. This is also referred to as rail or rack profit. Any more than $150 to $200 in VISIBLE profit would seem to be above their comfort level. If you are unsure about what I am talking about, we cover that subject quite nicely in my Keeping A Good Thing Going article, as well as my Profit Skimming - 101 article. Winning-Sessions vs Losing-Sessions
I will repeat this for you
again. Maybe you cant
hear me over the loudness of your shirt. I DO NOT win every time
that I pick up the dice. However, strict and LOW
loss-limits keep the pain and cost of my infrequent failures to an absolute minimum. THAT is how I maximize profitability. I couldnt imagine playing any other way if I
want consistent profit while maintaining low, low risk. How Do
I Win So Often? I really want you to keep
something in mind. If your
Loss-Limit for any given session is $500, and your Win-Goal is $100; then your best-case
scenario means that you have to have five winning sessions just to break-even
because your loss-limit is so high! To break-even under that
scenario, you need to win 83% of the time. Thats right. If your Loss-Limit is $500, and your
Win-Goal is $100, then you need to win 83% of the time just to break-even! So let me ask you this. If your loss-limits and win-goals are similar to the ones that I just outlined, and you are not winning at least 83% of the time; then just what the hell are you doing? If your bankroll is set up in ratio with those same win-goals and loss-limits, and you arent winning at least 83% of the time; then your losses have NOTHING to do with Precision-Shooting, and EVERYTHING to do with money-management. I can help you change your losing ways. If your
Precision-Shooting is improving, but you are still losing money; then I would kindly
direct you to my four-part series entitled,
Can't Win For Losing. If you are tired of losing; then your bankroll
will thank you for taking the time to re-read it. If you are not prepared to
change your game to ensure more frequent and greater profit, and lower-losses; then
dont bitch about the seeming impossibility of consistent winning, and dont
take pot-shots at those who do!
There
are players out there making consistent profit from
Precision-Shooting
but if you are too entrenched in your current
losing methods
then you will never be one of them! Craps Playing Conditions
Late
afternoon and early evening is a good time to play craps at Nevada Palace. The crowds are thinner, and that means the
cigarette smoke is also a bit thinner. Its
kind of like being exposed to still-deadly, but
less-than-Chernobyl-levels-of-smoky-radiation.
It also
means that the mini-tub table is near empty from 4 pm to 6:30 pm. After that, expect a full house of six
or eight, and sometimes even ten players for the balance of the evening. Mel and I
bought in for $100 each. Playing at a $1
table is a pretty relaxing situation. With
tiny amounts of money on the layout, I am more likely to cover lower-echelon
Signature Place Numbers earlier in my hand.
In addition, my pressing-up of a bet after it has been paid for is more aggressive,
up to a reasonable point. Remember
that your own Signature Numbers may be different than normal on these short
tables. If you are at the first stick-right
position beside the dealer, the back wall is less 40-inches from your dice-release point. The
actual table surface is hard and unpadded. Dice
reaction is neutral (not bouncy or dead), and the 5/4 wood under-surface
doesnt seem to have any obvious or latent imperfections that unduly affect the
smooth rollout of the dice. Comfort-Levels With Your Bets
The
comfort level limit where a Pit Boss or Floor Supervisor will take more than a
passing interest in the game at the Nevada Palace is the time when green ($25) chips come
into play. The pit
critters dont seem to mind if $25 chips go out for a payoff, but as
soon as they see them in action as actual bets of the layout, then they hover over the
game with a sharper eye and keener interest. That is
where you have to use your common-sense. For
me, prudence and common-sense dictates that my Place bets on the 6 & 8 do not exceed
$24 each, while my 4, 5, 9, & 10 Place bets dont go over $20 each. While hot
hands are tempting opportunities where most players would devour as many chips as
possible, they have never hassled my dice-setting here.
While another player who feels the need to press it up beyond
the Nevada Palaces pain threshold will be unceremoniously told that
dice-setting is not permitted, and the dice have to be shot immediately
upon delivery from the stickman
or well pass the dice on you buddy. Thats
a big difference
the ability to Precision-Shoot relatively unimpeded, or being told
to just chuck em. The
difference is in respecting their bet comfort-level and also being toke
friendly with the crew. Listen, you may
not like limiting your betting-levels, but its the cost of doing business and making
consistent profit at small joints like this. At Nevada Palace, you make
your choice and you take your chances. You
have to be prepared to live with the results of those decisions. Me, I like the fresh green cash to keep
flowin my way, and Im not going to piss them off to the point where they
heavily police a no dice-setting policy.
If you are of another
mindset where your greed overrides reasonable and sound judgment; then you might not enjoy
your shorter-than-expected Precision-Shooting stay at The Nevada Palace. Our Session
Here is a picture of a similar-sized
table. It is not the actual one at the NP,
but it should give you a better idea of the throw-friendly dimensions. Our session itself went quite
smoothly. The dice circulated the table with a
steady, but not torrid pace. No one was
repeating their points to create any Pass-Line winners, but all of the random-rollers
tossed between four to ten Box-Numbers before 7-ing Out.
If each
player is throwing between four and ten Place-bet numbers before 7-ing Out; then there is
NO REASON why you shouldnt be making money, especially on a cheap $1 table. Mel and I were using a well-oiled
betting method to take advantage of this kind of trend.
We Place-bet $66 Inside for one hit ($18 each on the 6 & 8, and $15 on
the 5 & 9); then regress down to $22 Inside for one additional hit before turning the
bets completely off. When successfully executed, that
locks in a $28 profit on each shooter. This is a
lukewarm-table-without-PL-winners betting method that I understand many savvy
players including John Patrick employ. Its
certainly not a bad method to use on warm-trending tables that arent throwing off
too many Point-then-7-Out hands. This and a
number of similar methods have long been in my
The Mad Professor's Playbook, and I continue to use them in appropriate situations. The dice slowly made their way
around to me. My ShootingQuick and unobtrusive
dice-setting is generally permitted at Nevada Palace, and Ive always been pleased
with my skills on this particular mini-tub table.
I
established the PL-Point of 6, and repeated it two rolls later. My new PL-Point was again the 6, which came back
nine rolls later. Mel and I both were
raking-in profit on virtually each roll. The
Inside Numbers were rockin and rollin with amazing ferocity. I slowly pressed my Inside Numbers
and added the 4 and 10 which were the only other outcomes that were showing their faces. I didnt see any Craps numbers appear at all.
I had
gradually pressed-up all of the box-numbers to the $20 and $24 mark long before I
7d-Out some 26 rolls later. I wont get into the total
profit, but I will tell you again that it is VERY important to skim off a healthy amount
of the green ($25) chips to reduce undue attention from the Pit Pirates. My article
Profit Skimming - 101
is an absolute must-read on that subject. More about Bet-Level Tolerance at Nevada PalaceThe temptation and greed
factor were sitting squarely on both of my shoulders. Their fat asses didnt leave too much room
for common-sense and restraint to find any place to roost other than
placing their guilt-inducing weight directly on the top of my head. Ill tell you, its a
precarious balancing act, and YES, I do battle with it every single day that I am at the
tables. In this case, as with most low
bet-threshold casinos that Ive played at in the last year or so, I let common-sense
and restraint prevail and kept temptation and greed in check. I figure that if I let greed run
amok, Ill wear out my Precision-Shooting welcome VERY quickly. No need to do that.
I love the tasty pots of sweet money that the casinos have, and I have NO
wish or intent to see them cut me off because of immaturity, self-indulgence, avarice,
temptation, or plain old greed. How Much Time to Set The Dice?Mel passed the dice without
shooting. The next player went into a
protracted routine before every throw, where he cupped the dice in his hand, then let them
gently dribble out as though he was panning for gold.
If they didnt turn up to numbers that he liked, hed start the
process again. Needless to say, the
dealer/stickman tried to hurry him along. Now just because they let you set
the dice on such a short table, that doesnt give you license to school
the dice for three or four minutes as you train them to be good little acetate
boys and girls and not turn up the devil-dog 7. Rather, you should be able to
receive the dice, set the dice, grip the dice and launch the dice in about THREE SECONDS. If you cant do all of that in three seconds
or LESS, then you will likely draw heat from the pit because you are taking too long to do
it. Listen, this is a CHEAP table. They need a lot of rolls to grind out a modest
profit from all of the random-rollers. If you
are slowing down the game, it means that you are taking money out of their income stream. Dont burn your
Precision-Shooting bridge. Learn and practice how to set the
dice accurately and quickly. Otherwise you
are bringing undue attention to yourself and others who want to profit from this game
through Precision-Shooting. Dont screw
it up for yourself and all others who follow behind you in the future. Get good with your dice-setting at home, and then
get your Precision-Shooting profit in the casino. My Last HandThe dice took their time returning
to my shooting-position, and that is a good thing in my books, especially when nearly
everyone at the table is having modest, but not outstanding success. On the other hand, modest success
even at a mini-tub table breeds more players who are interested in squeezing into a
warm-trending game. If you are interested in
profiting from streaks and trends, I would kindly invite you to take a look at my
Streaks, Trends and Opportunities series of articles. I mentioned to Mel, that as soon as I got
to shoot again, that I would be outta here. My second go-round with the cubes
was pretty much a replay of my first one, but I found an interesting sweet-spot right at
the base of the far wall gator-back rubber. I
discovered that if I hit it squarely with a ~35-degree landing angle, the dice just
stopped and died there. However, if I added
any discernable level of backspin, then the dice would hop, pop and scatter upon impact. My last fifteen throws were all perfect
base-of-the-wall dead-cat bounces. You can
read about that kind of throwing in my
Shooting Bible Part II and the upcoming part IV articles. With every one of those tosses, Mel
would let out a low-volume, disbelieving jeez.
I found myself inadvertently chewing my bottom-lip in contemplative, if slightly
bemused thought. I reminded myself to
concentrate on maintaining my current success instead of analyzing it right then and
there. However, I WAS impressed with the
way the dice were reacting so perfectly every time that I hit that same spot. I wanted to mentally lock-in all of
the throwing-mechanics and targeting into my mind for later use and examination. It was a balancing-act between staying in
the zone and trying to mentally memorize everything about my toss that was
making it so perfect. In fact, a thought occurred to me
during all of this. I wondered if I could
replicate the same throw at home on my regulation-table if I stood at the same distance
from the back-wall as I was standing now at Nevada Palace on their mini-tub. I promised myself that it was definitely worth
investigating much, much further. It was also
obvious to me that I was more out-of-the-zone than in it, yet I continued to throw with
near-perfection. Once again, I didnt let greed
control my bets. I didnt push them to
the quarter level, and I was content to continue collecting steady $28 payoffs
from the Inside Numbers and $40 minus $1 vig payoffs, for the 4 and 10 (bought) Outside
hits. Decent Bounty Without GreedBy the time my second hand ended,
both of my pockets were bulging but not over-flowing with $25 chips. The rest of the players were still having a ball
when I quietly slipped away without coloring-out. Mel suggested that we stagger our
cash-outs at the casino-cage window to draw less attention to our fresh cache of booty. I broke my chip-heap into three equal stacks, and
immediately cashed-out one of them. We made our way over to the NP Deli. I figured the coffee should be safe enough to
drink, so Mel and I got a table at the edge of the nearby video-poker action. As soon as we sat down a couple of mid-20s
working-girls walked by. Their posture
immediately improved, and they thrust their chests out like man-activated
air-bags, in hopes of attracting new customers.
There were definitely no takers at our table, although Mels drool was
starting to pool around his ankles. Since we had more than a few minutes
to kill, I asked Mel about the Nevada Palaces history. A Look BackAs we worked on our coffees, the
Vegas Ghost talked about the current owners of the NP (Renata Schiff and Bill Wortman). He said, They got involved with this project
in the early 80s when Sams Town was little more than a couple hundred
slot machines and a dusty trailer-lot. Wortman
sensed that the Boulder Strip had a lot of potential based on the ever-increasing traffic
volume on Boulder Highway.
Wortman
correctly figured that the burgeoning locals market held enough promise to
warrant a large investment from his very small personal bankroll, so it was quite a gamble
for him at the time. The motel-style building
that houses their rooms were much cheaper to build than a full-service hotel, and as you
can see it remains pretty much in its original state today.
The investment obviously paid off for him especially considering what he has
done with the money hes made from this house.
A Current Look
Mel and I subsequently discussed the
fact that Bill Wortman, along with Las Vegas Paving owner Bob Mendenhall and casino-legend
Bill Paulos are partners in Millennium Management, the company that was operating the
Greektown Casino in Detroit at the time. This is the same team that unceremoniously banned thirty video-poker players because they were too successful playing in their Detroit casino. This subject is explored in excruciatingly painful detail in my Banning Players Cant Happen Wont Happen Ooops! article. The same management team also has a 10-year deal to run the JW
Marriott - Rampart Casino (former Regent Las Vegas casino) in Summerlin.
A
Look Forward
Nevada
Palace also owns the new Cannery Casino project in North Las Vegas (Craig Road at Losee
Road). Opened in January, 2002 with Bill Paulos at the helm, The
Cannery is a neo-industrial themed casino in a blue-collar area that abuts Nellis Air
Force Base. The
new 50,000 square-foot casino sports a couple of low-limit craps table. Afterthoughts
After we finished our coffee, Mel
and I made our way to the cashiers-cage again. We
each stood in different lines than we did the first time.
Even on our subsequent second and third cash-outs we didnt face any
unusual scrutiny, but its always better to be safe than sorry. As we were leaving, I asked Mel how
small locals places like Nevada Palace managed to continue to draw patrons in
spite of the competition posed by the likes of multi-location operators like Station
Casinos, Coast Casinos, and the plethora of other off-strip gaming houses. Mel said that despite its age and
state of repair, the NP catered to locals who felt comfortable there, and to tourists who
eschewed and generally avoided the mega-starkness and coldanonymity of the huge
Strip resorts. Mel added that,
places
like this provide a level of comfort and enjoyment where people feel in their
element instead of trying to rise to an artificial level of hipness, or exclusivity,
or smugness that doesnt fit them quite as comfortably as the Nevada Palace
does. In Part VI well be
trying out the mini-tables at a well-known Las Vegas Strip haunt. Until then, Good Luck & Good Skill at the
tables
and in Life. Sincerely, The Mad Professor
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