I love the outdoor balconies in the low-rise Mardi Gras tower rooms at the Colorado Belle Hotel-Casino. Although they’ve seen better days (about a 15 years ago), the fresh morning air of the Colorado River and a fresh cup of coffee in your hand, betrays the fact that in just a few hours, today’s daytime temperature will soar well above 130-degrees.
So started my second day in Laughlin, Nevada.
I held off calling Mel’s room because I knew the Vegas Ghost required extended rest after hooking up with a particularly attractive waitress at the end of her slinging-beer-to-non-tipping-locals shift. I figured that he was a big boy and could find his own way down to the buffet. Besides, there was no need to rush love or lust, and the tequila-soaked recovery thereafter.
It also meant that I could get in a solo session on the mini-tub over at:
The Edgewater Hotel & Casino
This property is part of the Mandalay Resort Group. That means its rooms are modest, sparse and sometimes more than a little bit worn out, but if you just want a place to sleep, shower, and fart in peace, then this is as good a place as any. It also means that you’ll likely find the food choice and quality is limited, unless of course you’ve served more than your fair share of time in the care of a state institution, in which case, you will feel quite at home at The Edgewater.
For a detailed look at this casino and the rest of the Laughlin resorts, I would kindly invite you to see my Laughlin Table Report Part I and Laughlin Table Report Part II.
Their Mini-Tub Table
In addition to their normal-sized layouts, they have one 10-player tub that sees quite a bit of action. On this particular day, it was set at a 50¢ minimum bet, and capped with a $250 limit. At other times you can expect either a $1 to $500 range, or a $2 to $1000 limit.
Based on my own records, you should find those limits at the following times:
| Sunday to Friday | 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. | 50¢ to $250 |
| Monday to Friday | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | $1 to $500 |
| Monday to Friday | 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. | $2 to $1000 |
| Saturday & Sunday | 10 a.m. to 2 a.m | $2 to $1000 |
| Most other times | $1 to $500 |
In other words, you have close to 50 hours each week when the table is usually set at a lowly 50¢ minimum. That is plenty of time to get properly acclimated to the small dimensions of this sort of table, without exposing much of your bankroll. I’ll also tell you that it is a perfect opportunity to try out any low-cost Short-Leash progressions on choppy tables like we discussed in my Dodging Bullets As A Darksider article.
The Edgewater’s Odds are set at a full 5x. Not only can you back up your 50¢ Pass-Line bet with $2.50 in Odds, but also it means that they’ll never short-change you on a $3 Place-bet for the 6 & 8, since the table is always fully supplied with 50¢ chips.
The dealers are competent, but can occasionally be a bit surly when it is overcrowded. They get very few tokes from the regular players, so any piggybacked bets that you get them in on are always appreciated. Don’t be surprised if they actually ask you to confirm that it really is a piggybacked bet for them since they see so few tokes at this place.
The actual table is the BEST mini-tub that I’ve ever shot dice on. It rivals the one that was formerly at the Royal Palms Hotel here in town. Unfortunately that sweet-payer has been replaced with a 16-foot nogoodnik of questionable parentage (along with another 16-footer of much sweeter disposition).
Adapting and Re-Adjusting To Tables
If you are used to playing on regular-length tables, you will have to re-target your toss, and re-calibrate your throwing-energy on the mini-tables. Then when you return to the regular-length ones, you once again have to reset and readjust both of those Precision-Shooting characteristics.
For more details on HOW to contend with various table conditions, you could read Adapting to Tables Part I and Adapting to Tables Part II .
Face Time & Wearing Out Your Welcome
Just so that we are clear, “Face Time” and “Wearing Out Your Welcome” are NOT two inner-city rap groups from Hartford. Rather, it is the amount of time that you spend winning in any low-budget casino. The Edgewater Hotel-Casino is definitely low-budget. Although this place is amongst the most tolerant of the 30 or so, “$3 and under” casinos, it still makes sense not to ding them for more than they are comfortable in losing to any one player at a time.
We have talked about the whole concept of wearing out your welcome as a Precision-Shooter, and I want to briefly touch on it…AGAIN.
As you become increasingly skilled, it is VERY, VERY important to spread the pain around. Hey listen, I like using certain casinos as my personal bank-vault too, but I am also careful not to make major withdrawals too often, or with the same crew, too often. “Skimming” also becomes VERY important in your game-plan (see Profit Skimming – 101).
Face time is something that we have to CAREFULLY track and control. You don’t want the casino, any casino, to associate your face with the constant disappearance of THEIR money. No, you do not need a fake or multiple ID’s, and you don’t have to discontinue the use of your Player’s Card, (however you MAY want to consider doing that at places that are giving you considerable and sustainable heat, aggravation and hassle for your dice-setting skills).
Wearing Out Your Welcome means that it isn’t a good idea to make the casino that you are playing at, uncomfortable with your betting levels. You have to size your bets to the LOSS-TOLERANCE of each casino.
Even if you have a bankroll that could float the debt of several third-world countries, you have to restrain your bets to the comfort-level of the casino that you are in. When you overstep that limit, you are opening yourself up to all sorts of heat and aggravation.
While some people need the ego-boost of being singled-out and having their low self-esteem pumped up by the extra attention; the fact remains that you will become unwelcome at not only this place, but every other gaming-house in their stable. In the case of MRG, that would include being given extra heat at Gold Strike in Mississippi, Grand Victoria in Illinois, Motor City in Michigan, Silver Legacy in Reno, plus the usual LV haunts like Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, Monte Carlo, and Circus Circus. You have to ask yourself if your ego needs THAT MUCH boosting or whether your wallet could use a little more fattening without the added hassle.
By understanding that one of the keys to flying under the radar is to size your bets in accordance with each casino’s risk-tolerance, you should be able to play for years on end without any undue heat from any of the houses in this stable. Doing your Precision-Shooting thing in moderation, will keep the good times…and the good profits, rolling right along.
Session One
The mini-table was busy when I got to it, but few players had any meaningful amount of money on the layout. As soon as I walked up, a couple of players turned and shook their head to warn of the cold conditions that they were suffering through. I asked if anyone was stringing together anything resembling a decent roll, but they all replied that it had been cold for more than four hours.
It’s at times like that when you have to decide if you are going to buck the tide and hope that it turns around, or whether you should go with the trend, pass on trying to shoot and just ride the wave of Darkside coldness. I took a third alternative by waiting for the dice to cycle around to me since they were only two shooters away. Yes, I did shoot, and NO, I didn’t single-handedly turn the table into a flaming heap of shooting greatness, but I did manage to make a few shekels before the dice moved on to the next shooter.
I bet somewhat lightly against the next five players who all 7’d-Out in quick succession. I was surprised that in all that time, I was the only one with DP or DC bets. As soon as I had a fair chunk of profit locked up, I increased the sperm-count on my base DP and DC-bets along with the corresponding 5x-Odds.
By the time the dice circled back around to the player next to me, I had $20 DP-Line and similar value “traveled” DC-bets, all with maxed-out inversed Odds. In and of itself, a $20 bet is not a big bet even with full-Odds, however at a low-rent table, it’s important that you don’t cause undue anxiety with the Pit Supervisor. As far as I could tell from my casual monitoring, my action wasn’t causing any stomach cramps or dry sweats with the pit folks, so I maintained that new $20 base-level when I wasn’t the shooter.
My next roll was a bit better than the first one. A nice profit was made, but I didn’t get past my third PL-Point before having the dice unceremoniously moved onto the next guy in line. I immediately moved my principal action back to the DP and DC, and wasn’t disappointed when the dice immediately returned to their cold ways. Before long, there were only three intrepid players left at the mini-tub. Throughout all of that, I was still the only avowed Darksider. I watched as player after player had their bets knocked off the Pass-Line, I pursed my lips in a sympathetically grimaced pain as their bets were cleared away while mine were paid off.
It took another twenty minutes of “hmmmph…not ANOTHER 7-Out” shooting until I was the only player left. The dealer, who had been essentially silent up until now, save for a few words of thanks every time that he dropped my tokes into the jukebox, finally became a little more relaxed and talkative. He said that he didn’t like to speak too much when everyone was losing their shirts. I told him that I agreed, and then said that I was surprised at how fervently most players hung onto their usual betting-methods no matter how badly they were being beaten up at the tables. He agreed, but said that he had learned long ago to let people lose their money the way that they wanted instead of trying to convince them to lose it some other way. I chuckled in agreement as I started my next hand.
With the dice coming right back to me after each throw, the game was moving rapidly. I had to remind myself to slow down and pace my shooting, otherwise I could be throwing up to eight or even nine times a MINUTE. At that speed, your heart rate and breathing increases to the point where it can affect your smooth toss. I intentionally slowed everything down and took my sweet time. In just fifteen short minutes of solo-shooting, I had more than tripled the amount of profit that the preceding ninety minutes of play had afforded.
A cellphone call from the recently resurrected Mel came at an opportune time. No one else had joined the table after being chased away by the hellish brutality of the bankroll-slaughtering 7-Out demon. I caught the eye of a cocktail waitress so she could bring a gallon or so of her highest caffeine jet-fuel for Mel. He ambled in a while later, with eyes that were darker than David Blaine’s after 44 days of plexi-caged deprivation.
I asked him if he wanted to shoot, but he was only able to manage a slight “I-can’t-even-talk-let-alone-shoot” shake of the head. I waited until he bought-in for a couple of hundred before I resumed my rolling. The short break didn’t seem have any negative effect on my shooting. Although I never did toss any singular mega-hand, each one spun off its own sufficiently acceptable profit. What pleased me most was that even the shortest ones still generated a profit, albeit a small one.
By using $88 Inside followed by a steep regression after one paying hit, I was able to wring out a profit on every hand that I threw. It’s not magic, it’s not voodoo, and it’s not cow excrement; it’s simply the effectiveness of Precision-Shooting combined with the power of Early Regression.
Remember this: Regression avoids DEPRESSION.
Admittedly some of that nearly-every-hand profit will be as low as a couple of bucks on the ultra-short two and three roll hands, but your bankroll will be preserved close to the status quo. In doing so, longer hands will generate much greater overall profit simply because you’ll rarely have to dig yourself out of a bankroll-hole.
By the time Mel and I had burned up another forty minutes at this table, we were approaching a casino personnel shift-change. I didn’t want them to carry-over my rating card to the next shift, so we headed over to the 24/7 Garden Room for lunch. Well, it was lunch for me, and breakfast for Mel.
Comps at The Edgewater
Their Players Card is part of the “One Card” system of MRG, so even if you do most of your play at Gold Strike in Tunica, Mississippi, you’ll still get the comps that your action deserves when you get to Laughlin, Las Vegas or Reno.
In addition to that, you will find the play-threshold is quite a bit lower here than at their sister properties (except Reno). That means equivalent play equals substantially more comps when you play here in Laughlin.
A Mini-Table Pro?
When I was once again able to count Mel amongst the human race, our conversation turned towards his newest favorite subject; the idea of becoming a Mini-Table Specialist. He and I delved into this in Part XII of this tour, but he wanted to explore it even further. We agreed on the following:
- Since most mini-table casinos have low table-limits, you can start with ultra-cheap bets while you dial-in your shooting; then, once you’ve figured out the sweet-spot for each table, you can get more aggressive in Pressing-up your action.
- Although this method isn’t any different than what you should do at conventional-length tables; it usually takes much less time to get in the groove on the smaller layouts. Therefore, you should be able to get into a steadier profit-zone much more quickly.
- Once you perfect a solid throw at one mini-tub or Crapshooter table, the skill is transportable. While you’ll have to make slight adjustments as you go from mini-tub to mini-tub, or go from one Crapshooter table to another sit-down table; the adaptation is much more subtle and much easier than it is when adjusting to their larger and longer counterparts.
- Once you dial in the mini-tables at medium-sized, medium-tolerance casinos like CircusCircus and Imperial Palace; you can ratchet up your bets substantially with ostensibly no concern from the pit.
- While your bets can’t be on par with ones you could comfortably make at Bellagio, Beau Rivage, Venetian or any Atlantic City joint; they can be higher than you could get away with at the smaller mini-tub houses like Nevada Palace, Wild West, Speedway or Barley’s. In following the “spread the pain around” philosophy of using multiple mini-tub casinos to achieve your daily or weekly win-objective; you are guaranteeing your profit-longevity.
- On a related subject, even grind-joints like the Edgewater and Colorado Belle have no problem parting with their money, but you can’t get greedy about it. Remember that the pig who stays at the trough and gets fattened the fastest, is also the first one to be led off to the slaughter-house.
Session Two
I wish I could say that Session Two was as financially productive as Session One, but it was not to be. When we returned, its once vacant spots were mostly filled in with new players. I was surprised that it was still a 50¢ game. Usually by this time of day, when all the out-of-town busses have disgorged their “fresh meat” for the casino-grinder, the table-minimum has crept up to the still very affordable $1 level.
In any event, the table was trending cool, but it definitely wasn’t cold. A shooter would get what looked like a decent roll going, then 7-Out while trying to repeat his second or third PL-Point. Thereafter, one or two players would fail to make their Point, but would throw a good amount of Place-Numbers, or there would be a couple of quick 7-Outs followed by a semi-respectable hand of 10 or 15 rolls.
When I see choppiness…I see profit potential.
I stepped up with my Choppy-Table Short-Leash Method (as set out in Dodging Bullets As A Darksider). This time around, my darkside ventures were never higher than $75, yet were rewarded with low-risk profits of $5 to $20 on EVERY SHOOTER at that table. At the same time, I also Place-bet $88 Inside and immediately regressed to $22 Inside after one hit. With a locked-in $6 profit from the get-go, I let my already-paid-for Place-bets collect another five times before I’d start doing alternating presses on every other hit. A conservative method like this will lock-in early profit, yet keep some of your money in action in the event that the good rolling continues.
My own shooting was still acceptable, but nothing to write home about. The crowded conditions, mixed with the fact that the dice were taking an inordinate amount of time to come back around to my spot, was beginning to bore me. I continued to use the Choppy-Table Short-Leash combined with my Inside-Bet Steep Regression, and it unceasingly performed flawlessly. I even used this “For and Against” method when Mel shot. Even though he still couldn’t properly focus his eyes, let alone shoot the dice with any level of predictable skill, his somewhat random, yet surprisingly long roll paid off handsomely with that “For and Against” method as well.
Any time that I feel impatience coming on, I know that it is a strong signal to take a break from the action. I told Mel that I was going back to check-out of the Colorado Belle, and was then heading over to check-in at the Royal Palms Hotel-Casino for some R and R at poolside. The Royal Palms has those self-sprinkling chairs (similar to the ones at The Frontier) out by the pool. You can adjust the amount of mist on these reclining chairs to keep you in a cool, foggy cloud even when it feels like Laughlin is about two miles away from the sun. It was the perfect place to reflect upon the pleasing amounts of sustainable profit that the dozen or so mini-tables had produced so far on this Mini-Tub Tour.
Until next time,
Good Luck & Good Skill at those mini-tables.
The Mad Professor
