A man brought a very limp dog into the veterinary clinic. As he laid the dog on the table, the doctor pulled out his stethoscope, placing it on the dog’s chest. After a moment or two, the vet shook his head sadly and said, “I’m sorry, but your dog has passed away.” “What?” screamed the dogs owner, “How can you tell? You haven’t done any testing on him or anything. I want another opinion!” With that, the vet turned and left the room.
In a few moments, he returned with a Labrador Retriever. The Retriever went right to work, checking the poor dead dog out thoroughly. After a considerable amount of sniffing, the Retriever sadly shook his head and said, “Bark”. The veterinarian then took the Labrador out and returned in a few moments with a cat, who also checked out the poor dog on the table. As had his predecessor, the cat sadly shook his head and said, “Meow.” He then jumped off the table and ran out of the room. The veterinarian handed the man a bill for $600. The dog’s owner went postal. “$600! Just to tell me my dog is dead? This is Outrageous!” The vet shook his head sadly and explained. “If you had taken my word for it, the bill would have been $50, but with the Lab work and the cat scan…”
The cyber-questions keep on coming in, and I appreciate all of your kind thoughts and “ ‘atta boys”. The biggest thanks and kudos really have to go to Irishsetter for hosting this fine website, and for keeping it fresh, timely, focused and with so many great new articles that are listed on the “What’s New” page every couple of days; this site is truly the ultimate source for Precision-Shooters. We all appreciate Irishsetters dedication and commitment.
Here’s another excellent batch of e-mail inquiries from a wide variety of readers again this week.
| Q: | Stashing techniques 101 – Okay, Mad Professor, how do you stash so many gaming-chips without the box-man knowing that you are coloring-up for much less than you actually won? |
| A: | It depends on how busy the table is, and how long it has taken to build up that profit. Usually, I begin stashing $25 chips into my pocket as soon as I buy-in. If the floor-supervisor starts rating me within three minutes of my $1000 buy-in, he sees that I have already apparently “lost” about $50 or $75. That’s a good start. |
As my time at the table progresses, I will continue to bleed off those green chips. If my betting-payoffs deliver any black $100 chips to my rail, I will check all of the other players rail-space to see the total number of black chips in the player-rails and on the felt betting-layout. That will tell me how closely they are watching the C-Note chips. If I am the only one with those chips; then they stay in my rack, and I concern myself solely with squirreling-away the green chips. Conversely, if there is a lot of “black” action on the betting; then the $100 chips (cheques) are not tracked as carefully. Table action and color of the action pretty much determine how much I skim and what “color” I skim.
| Q: | How long have you owned a real craps table? I’m surprised that it pays dividends to you at this point in your professional career. If Ms. Mad P. had not purchased it, would you have bought it for yourself? |
| A: | Good question. I got the craps table as an early Christmas present in late November, 2001. I have been able to refine my game quite a bit with it. I wish I hadn’t waited for so long to ask Mrs. Claus for it. Yes, a craps table was a small treat that I had planned for myself last year, and Ms. MP very thoughtfully beat me to it. |
| Q: | The last time that I was in Vegas, we tried out the tables at Sunset Station. They were great just like you said they would be. I was wondering what the rooms are like, and if the comps are fairly easy. We usually stay downtown at The Freemont or Lady Luck and get full comps. How does the Sunset Station compare? |
| A: | I can tell you that the rooms and suites at Sunset Station are in much better shape that either The Freemont or Lady Luck. I find the mini-suites at the Lady Luck are too crowded with too much furniture for the space. SS has good quality rooms, and the comps are fairly easy to get, but their comp-level is a bit higher than Lady Luck, and more on par with The Freemont. |
In the Sunset Station rooms, they have several free premium movie channels including HBO and Showtime. There is a room-service card where you can place an order for jumbo popcorn, two soft drinks, Twizzlers, and two Kit Kats for $7.50. This is a nice feature if you have bored children with you, or you want a quiet, relaxed in-suite evening.
Sunset also has an outdoor-amphitheater that has frequent big-name concerts. It sounds as though your level of play would also qualify for free concert tickets for the likes of Alice Cooper, Little River Band, Eric Burdon, Patty Loveless, Blue Oyster Cult, Ronnie Milsap, and The Doobie Brothers, etc.
| Q: | I was in Vegas for the “September to Remember” with Irishsetter, Heavy and Frank Scoblete. A couple of us tried out the California Hotel. It was a profitable, but crowded session. I didn’t see that Precision-Shooters plaque that you mentioned quite a long time ago. Is it still there? |
| A: | The Golden Arm Award plaque is still there, and is located on the large brick column as soon as you go down the two small steps into the dice pit. It’s not strictly a “Precision-Shooters” plaque so much as it is a “long-roll” plaque. To qualify, your roll has to be at least one hour long. The longest documented roll at The California is three hours and eight minutes. I wasn’t there for that mega-roll, but a friend of mine, Hawaii Joe was in on it, and he tells me that the shooter was definitely a Precision-Shooter from the islands. Oh by the way, if you are playing there again, check out their Pasta Pirate restaurants “Chocolate Heart-Attack” cake. It has a pudding-cake bottom, cheesecake middle, and thick chocolate-ganoche top. |
| Q: | MP, this isn’t really a craps question, but I’ve been surfing Heavy’s Roulette Message Board, and I was wondering if you could tell me if you know of any single-zero roulette wheels in Vegas. |
| A: | With single-zero roulette, the House-edge is about 2.7%, which is roughly equivalent to Place betting the 5 or 9 in craps. Vegas single-zero wheel houses are: |
| v Nevada Palace- home of the ultimate 10-cent minimum game v Stratosphere-all wheels v Monte Carlo-all wheels v MGM Grand-usually $25 tables v Venetian-usually $10 tables v Tropicana-almost all wheels v LV-Hilton v Frontier v Luxor-one single-zero wheel, open some of the time v Rampart Casino-scheduled for replacement with double-zero wheel v Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas/Casino Baraka v Mandalay Bay-$25 minimum v Fiesta-Henderson-may have been replaced with a double-zero during their Congo-theme to Mexi-Carib-theme conversion. v Caesars Palace-$25 minimum, $100 on weekends v Paris-$25 minimum, $100 on weekends. v Bellagio has European rules (en prison), which lowers the House-edge to 1.35%. That is cheaper than a Place bet on the 6 or 8 in craps, but these are $25 and $100 minimum-bet wheels. v Mirage-same as Bellagio |
Thanks again for all the great questions. Until next time.
Good Luck & Good Skill at the Tables…and in Life.
The Mad Professor
