ONLINE GAMBLING AND CASINO GUIDE

Saturday night in Las Vegas is a time when I usually leave the car at home.

People who drive on The Strip between 5pm on Friday and 9am on Sunday are generally the same people who pay good money to get tied up and whipped.

There is a very real masochistic quality about it.

Every now and then, however, you simply have no choice.  Last night was one of these times.

I had to take care of things on two polar opposite ends of the Vegas gambling corridor.  Namely, the Excalibur and the Gold Spike.  While I eagerly await the Monorail stop that will eventually link Downtown with the South Strip (yeah, I amuse myself), alternative transit options just don’t exist right now.  The Deuce bus is fine during weekdays, but on weekend nights, it’s rough.  You can actually save money on a hotel room by getting on the northbound Deuce at Mandalay Bay.  If you hop on at 11pm, you should get Downtown right around 9am, and the driver will be more than happy to give you a courtesy wakeup call.

Obviously, I am exaggerating, but not by much.

Anyway, the first stop of the night was the gigantic castle itself.

I stopped by the X Poker Room to check out the “Strip Poker” action, and I liked what I saw.  Mainly, an attractive woman.  Since I elaborated on these creatures in the last post, I probably do not need to do so again. I will only say that attractive, scantily-clad women make everything better.

I watched for awhile, spoke with the room manager, and learned that it’s a $40 freeze-out tourney.  $10 goes to the house, and $30 to the pot.  The first four places are payed at 50%+$100,  25%, 15%, and 10% respectively.   The dancer starts with ten articles of clothing, and as customers bust out, a piece of clothing comes off.  When all is said and done, the winner gets a photo taken with the disrobed dancer (burlesque, not nude).

It’s quite an interesting concept.

I had places to go and money to blow, so I didn’t play in the tournament (although I have played in tourneys here before), but I do plan to play Strip Poker in the near future.

I headed to the Excalibur party pit afterward, and put a few dollars down on the BJ felt.  I had a god-awful, short lived session.  I won my first three hands, and proceeded to lose the next twelve.  I knew I should have rubbed the dancer’s lucky orbs for good luck.

After this pathetic start to the evening, we headed Downtown, and the first thing I noticed as we approached Ogden was a sign in the parking lot indicating that the Gold Spike had a new sportsbook.

I have been writing about the Spike for the last several months, and I am happy to watch them continue their march to becoming a full-service casino.  If they could see to it to add a poker room at some point, then I just might live in this place.

The book is part of the “Leroy’s” franchise.  Like most things in the Spike, it is very small (two cashier stands), but it will suit the market.  They do have some desks on the perimeter if you need a place to pencil in your bets, but I imagine most people will utilize the bar.  The sports book is more or less in the bar.

The Spike has also added a snack bar and a remodeled registration area since the last time I was here.

The Gold Spike has graduated from a punchline, into somewhat of a boutique hotel.  It’s still a niche property, but for those who can appreciate what’s happening … such as $3 3:2 Blackjack and fine service … it’s a great niche’ to be in.

I’m not going to front like I was down with the property all along.  I was skeptical when I heard of the Spike’s remodeling plans.  I didn’t think they could pull it off.  I was wrong.

After the Spike, I headed up to Fremont to see what was happening.  There was a good crowd going.  I put a couple of bills into a VP machine at the Golden Gate, and lost it all within 15 minutes.  I had no gambling mojo going last night.  Fortunately, I have lived here long enough to recognize when it’s just not going to happen.  Also fortunately, since I live here … I don’t have to force it.

I can try again tomorrow.  Or the next day.  Or the next week.  Or the next month.

Casinos dislike people who aren’t loss-chasers and are patient gamblers, but were I anything else … I simply could not exist in this town.  If I start out running bad, I simply stop.  This is not because I believe in “luck”, and think it will somehow change on another day.  Anyone who believes this is superstitious.

The reason I stop when things don’t look good is because gambling in a bad frame of mind leads to errors, bad judgement, and is just plain not fun.  I don’t wait out bad luck, I wait out bad moods.

Even Blackjack and Video Poker can go on tilt, assuring themselves that they can make it back if only they play a little more.  Sometimes they do, and sometimes the don’t, but I steer clear of that mindset.

Fortunately, there were plenty of other things on Fremont to hold my attention.  A band was playing on the Summer of 69 bus, the Fremont Street Experience show was going off, and … let’s face it … “people watching” in Downtown is 100x better than at Mon Ami Gabi.  You’ve all been to both, and I am confident that I need not explain why.

Anyway, another night in the real city of lights came and went.

I arrived home early Sunday morning with a lighter wallet, but a few tasks completed.

One out of two isn’t bad.

It isn’t good … but sometimes you simply have to take what you can get.

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