Vegas, baby!

Not to bore you (I do that enough already) and not to rub it in (you still want me to try Peter Luger's?) but my go-round for bowling the USBC Open Championships (aka Nationals) is about a week away, and is it my fault that the tournament is in Las Vegas this year?  And Reno in each of the next two years?

Unfortunately for those travelling with me, I am a planner... once I get going, I can't stop.  I started researching airfare before Christmas.  I bet that I had most of our itinerary set before the Super Bowl.  And now with T-7 days, I am improving just about everything I touch.  (Side note; Come to think of it, I don't know what I will do on May 2 when I am home.)  Adding to the challenge of overplanning is the fact that (Sponsor's Name Here)'s Official Parents along with Jendy Wo, Revvy Al, my sister (whom I believe I've named, but I don't remember it and I don't feel like looking for it) and her friend the Slot Jockey are all coming along.

My-Sugar-Na's children's father lives in Central Iowa, so we are driving them there, then driving to Des Moines for the flight to Las Vegas.  The perfect flight for us leaves at 3:00 PM and gets to Las Vegas around 7:00 PM (conveniently about 5 minutes after my parent's flight arrives from Milwaukee).  But American Airlines had that particular flight about double the price of one that leaves (and arrives) 90 minutes later.  So I set up YAPTA.COM (short for "Your Amazing Personal Trave Assistant") to trigger an E-mail alert when that price dropped.  It worked to perfection, and for one day only, my fare was $228 RT for the flights that I wanted.  Cool beans.  Now that D-Day is approaching, I see that the 3:00 flight is already sold out.  Methinks (or maybe more appropriately Mehopes) they will be looking for volunteers to be bumped.  If the offer is right (a travel voucher to cover next year's trip to Reno and guaranteed seats on the next flight), I'd take that bump.  That's like a Vegas win before I ever get there!  Besides, the car is in my dad's name... he and my mom can sight see for a few minutes before going back to the airport to pick us up.

Now let's talk hotel.  I don't know how this happened, but a concensus was reached to stay at the Excalibur.  In February, we found a "early bird" deal, in which rooms were $36.  Then I called a casino host, and based on my play in Reno two years ago, we were offered a limo ride from the airport, and some buffet comps.  A couple of weeks ago, Jendy Wo found a new promotion, one that keeps the room rates about the same, but throws in a 2-for-1 ticket to the Tournament of Kings show for each room.  Considering that show was on our to-do list, we all jumped on it and adjusted our reservation accordingly.  Then last week, I get a letter from the Tropicana, which is right across the street from the Excalibur. (Long side note; On the way back from Reno two years ago, when I was changing planes in Las Vegas, I was bumped from my Frontier flight.  In addition to the voucher for free air travel, they booked me on a Midwest flight direct to Milwaukee that left six hours later.  One short cab ride later I was at the Tropicana - the closest low-roller casino to the airport - rollin' them bones.  I played craps and a little blackjack for four hours and went back to the airport for my flight.)  This letter from the Tropicana bemoans the fact that I haven't been there for awhile, and they are offering two nights at no charge.  Luckily for me, the available nights are while I am already in Vegas, so I contacted both hotels and made the arrangements.  So now for My-Sugar-Na and I to lodge for five days will cost about $120... total.  In other words, flight and hotel for five days is $288 each. 

Car rental was admittedly a little tough.  My parents and My-Sugar-Na and I are splitting the cost of a mini-van, and that is about $225 tax included.  We get E-mail all the time from Hotwire and Travelocity and the like with $15 a day deals in Vegas.  but somehow our dates were never included.  $225 is not bad, but usually car rentals don't match airfare.

Three of the eight of us are Vegas Virgins - my parents and Revvy Al.  So we tried to come up with an itinerary that would cover those of us who long for; Old Vegas (the Rat Pack Tribute Show at The Plaza and the Neon Museum), Themed Vegas (Tournament of Kings show at the Excalibur), Free Vegas (the Fremont St. Experience, the Bellagio Fountains, the Mirage Volcano, the Siren Show at TI), Not What You'd Think of Vegas (Atomic Testing Museum), Fad Vegas (various poker tournaments) and Dammit, This Looks Cool Vegas (the Vegas Mob tour and Haunted Vegas tour).  The average age of our group is about 45-50, so one thing that is NOT on our to-do list is to wait in line for 90 mintues at a club on a Tuesday evening to buy $400 bottles of wine.

And the food!  Restaurant.com was selling $25 gift certificates for only $4, so we snagged one for the Hash House a Go-Go (as seen on Rachel Ray's Vacation show) and one for Pampas Churrascaria (think Sabor, but Vegasier).  Throw in an unadvertiesed steak special at the Ellis Island Casino, the unadvertised steak and shrimp at the Hard Rock Casino's cafe and the Burger Bar at the Mandalay Bay, and I've got a vacation fit for a king.

Now, to find time for the actual bowling...

I am not going to Opening Day for the first time since 2004, been to 16 overall since 1985... Predictions are impossible this year.  Gallardo = 2008 Sheets, Parra = 2007 Gallardo.  The key is if there is the opportunity to get an ace before July... I had a 300 game at Riviera Lanes a few weeks ago, it was my 16th... Leaving for Vegas in two weeks to bowl the USBC Open Championships, aka Nationals... The bar has been set, and it won't be topped this year... Wisconsin bowlers tend to do well at Nationals... Not gonna eat my way through Las Vegas... Don't think I can eat steak for three meals a day for six days?  Try me... Copper prices are going up, is the recession almost over?  Oil is going up, so it just may be... Maybe not for the captain, but the first thing I thought of when I read this was "Cool"... Still looking for bloggers in West Allis to write about issues... But don't look at me, I've got more important things to write about... Metallica is in the middle of a month-long marathon on XM42, it goes through Monday... (Sponsor's Name Here)'s Offical Son, Mitten, was the starting pitcher for his Rufus King High School JV team on April 8th.  He and another pitcher combined to no-hit Bay View High School 17-4 (side note; 17-4 and a no-hitter?  Yeah, it was JV)... Mitten's fastball was clocked as Thursday... It can't be that hard is it to make sure your van is empty first... Or to put your baby in a crib... Or keep your beer truck on its tires... Way cool... So is this... And this... My-Sugar-Na thinks I have too many blog links... Blame Mark the Editor, he showed me how... My-Sugar-Na's new shoes give her blisters... Hey, bbear, quarter craps (but only 10x odds kinda stink)... The Milwaukee Wave managed a 10-10 record with a bunch of guys you've never heard of.  Next year should be much better if they can retain their stars... In one of the other indoor soccer leagues, the PASL-Pro, the Stockton Cougars won the championship, were sold, then fired their head coach... In the third indoor soccer league, the Baltimore Blast will face the Rockford Rampage in Baltimore this weekend for the NISL title... Happy Easter, y'alls!

A record setting day in the mobile child delivery system industry.  22 cars parked beat the record (of 21 cars set yesterday).  However to be fair, My-Sugar-Na and I made more money yesterday, as the "Demand is more than supply" theory set the pricing.  And to prove the free market works, today "Supply was more than demand", so pricing needed to be adjusted accordingly.  However as of tonight, we are 60% of what we made last year, with a full week to go.  My theory that more folks are taking local vacations seems to be bearing out. 

However, I did park two cars with Illinois plates today.  They were both good sports, however, none agreed to pay the "The Cubs can *** my *** tax.  They also wouldn't pay the $20 exit fee to leave my driveway.  Typical Cubs fans.

So my lovely bride and I park 22 cars (with a yard capacity of 12) from 11:00 AM through 6:00 PM, and I fire up the ol' grill for dinner.  We eat, I shower, then flop exhaustedly onto the couch with the intent of flipping mindlessly through the channels, while thinking of how I can get to a craps game with my parking take (before My-Sugar-Na blows it all on bills and school supplies).  The plan was to fall asleep on the couch around 8:00 PM, wake up when the missus goes to bed, then get on-line and make this blog entry. 

I start flipping the channels at 4.  Then 5.  Then 6.  Then I drop my remote control.  There is a camera pointed at some clouds in Green Bay, and within seconds, a private plane lands at Apple Struedel airport.  Brett Favre has made it to terra firma in Wisconsin.  But why in the hell are we now watching his car drive to his house?  Why is the camera in the helicopter (why is there a helicopter?) following Favre's SUV OJ-style until he pulls into his garage.  Did Favre kill his former wife and her current lover?  Does he have a gun to his head?  Does this mean the Houston Rockets are about to win the NBA title this week?

No.  It means three things.  It means that (1) it is raining in Green Bay and they are delaying the start of the Packers Family Night exhibition (which in it self is a reason to be upset... we are missing a Simpsons rerun); (2) that some TV station in Green Bay is justifying the use of their station helicopter, and (3) Brett Favre is God... actually bigger than God, as I don't ever recall a helicopter following God around as he puts the Virgin Mary's face on a tortilla in Mexico.

On Steve's blog, I joked that lots of people are currently better QBs that Favre.  In reality, I contend that CURRENTLY, he barely cracks the Top 10.  Whatever the case may be, I got sick of this drama a month ago while I first saw it while in a hotel room in Albuquerque watching My-Sugar-Na sleep.  Favre is a legend, check.  The Packers believe that Aaron Rodgers in 2008 is a better option than Favre, check.  Favre (whether coerced or not) retired, check.  Favre didn't make it through one off-season before unretiring, check.  Favre will be reinstated into the NFL tomorrow (Monday) morning, check.  Favre either will play the 2008 season for the Packers or not-the-Packers, check.

Everything else is garbage and speculation.

Yesterday, the NFL Network announced that Favre would accept the Packers $20,000,000 bribe personal services contract.  At the same time, ESPN's Ed Werder said that Favre would play again this season.

When the NFL's own mouthpiece can't get it right, you know that nobody knows what the F-bomb is going on.  Now its time to watch Law & Order: Criminal Intent.  Too bad its not a Mike Logan one.

This one didn't star the Griswold family, instead we follow the exploits of me and my step-family for the past weekend.  (Side note, this may only be interesting to me and My-Sugar-Na, but if you read this far, my blog hit-o-meter has already registered your visit, and I thank you.)  The actual points I want to make are in bold, the rest is just filler... er, I mean backstory so you understand the context of my comment.

Both My-Sugar-Na and I turned 40 in March.  However, instead of buying gifts for each other, we wanted to do something different.  We had talked about a trip to Las Vegas or Reno, but between the short time frame after thinking of the idea and the concerns about child care for (Sponsor's Name Here)'s Official Stepchildren, Grizzly and Sloppy, we weren't able to pull it off.  That's when My-Sugar-Na had a brilliant idea... drive to central-Iowa (home of her ex-husband), and have him babysit his own kids while we blow the April mortgage at the two casinos in the area.  (Side note, that's exactly what happened, too.  Both My-Sugar-Na and I made four trips into a casino, and not once did either of us walk out and say "Well, at least I won something".  That is the last I plan on speaking of gambling losses, however, I've also only typed two paragraphs so far.)

I should have known we were in trouble on Friday afternoon.  My-Sugar-Na and I were going to leave work around 11 or 11:30, pick up a rental car (one that gets better gas mileage than the SUV) drop off the dogs at the boarding kennel, and leave by 12:30.  We would get to Marshalltown, IA around 6:00 PM, in time to get to a bar and watch the Badgers NCAA tournament game.

Great plan.  Lousy execution.

I didn't get free until 11:45, and by the time I got home, the car rental place that promises to pick you up was a half hour late anyway.  My-Sugar-Na decided to take care of the car while I drove to the kennel.  I dropped the dogs off without a hitch, but I didn't get home until about 1:30.  While I am am out, my wife called and said there was a complication with the car because she reserved it with a debit card, and now they needed a note from her mother to let the car go.  By the time we had the rental car loaded with bags and kids, it was about 2:00 (Oops #1).  Suddenly, we were 90 minutes late.  We actually made outstanding time, and got the kids dropped off right around 7:10. 

Marshalltown, is an old, old, old city.  The south side of the city has some new development and homes, but the northern part of the city is in sad shape.  Houses are falling apart.  They haven't been painted since the advent of paint, porches are crumbling, and it just looks like the owners don't care.  When My-Sugar-Na lived in Marshalltown, her house had been built in 1857, but there was only so much that could be done to make it look decent.  She did her best with planting flowers in front, and she did a lot to the inside, but in the end, it was among a sea of sad looking houses.

We had wanted to find a sports bar that served food, but The Stadium Lounge in Marshalltown (where we stopped) only had frozen pizza.  No go.  You would think a sports bar would sell munchies, especially in this huge room with tables and chairs and this huge TV.  I was told "what do you expect in Marshalltown?"  Touche.

By the time we got to the nearest bar to watch the game, Wisconsin was already down about 12 points.  By the time I had my first sip of beer, it was now about a 17 point Davidson lead (Oops #2).  I was also in an NCAA pool in which you draw a name out of a hat, and in order for your team to advance, your team has to cover the point spread.  I picked two teams, and they both played Friday night... needing only a point-spread cover for me to cash  Unfortunatly, they were Stanford (Oops #3) and Villanova (Oops #4).  Needless to say, as soon as My-Sugar-Na and I were done with one drink, it was time to leave.

So we leave after one drink and go to Field's Steakhouse (across the street) for dinner.  My-Sugar-Na orders the Chicken Parmesan.  What she received was a small piece of chicken with very little red sauce, glued to angel hair pasta with more cheese than should be allowed for a non-Italian.  The more she tried to pick around the mass of cheese, the more she was actually gluing the noodles together.  It was, I assure you, hilarous for somebody that had a perfectly prepared sirloin.  I ended up eating much of it so it wouldn't go to waste.  When the waitress came around to check on the meal, My-Sugar-Na told her everything was fine, because she didn't want to make a big deal of it.

Have you noticed that the day hasn't gone particularly well, and we haven't even gotten to the casino, yet?

We finally get to Meskwaki Hotel & Casino in Tama, IA (about 15 miles east of Marshalltown) around 9:30 PM.  This isn't a casino planted in an area where an indian once farted (a la Potowatomi in Milwaukee).  This is a resort on reservation land that the Meskwaki tribe has held since the 1850s.  There were more displays and artifacts in the hotel lobby than at all of Potowatomi.  After a little bit of gaming, we went up to our room and it was quite lovely.  The entire set-up at Meskwaki was very nice, it reminded me of a decent (not the mega-opulant) Vegas resort, like the Stardust.

Saturday morning, we hit the casino by 9:00 AM.  The craps table didn't open until 10:00 (which made me wonder why they bothered opening the casino, but I digress).  So I sit down at the Pai Gow Poker table and I hear a PA announcement "The shuttle bus to Marshalltown leaves at 9:30".  There is something wrong when a city as worn down as Marshalltown has a shuttle RETURNING before breakfast.  Seeing how rundown Marshalltown is, and hearing that shuttle announcement has really gotten me to think about what casinos every 50 miles are actually doing to this country.  My-Sugar-Na and I chose to take our discretionary income to a casino (and we didn't really lose the mortgage).  But I am positive that most of the people on that Marshalltown shuttle bus that left the casino at 9:30 AM really couldn't have that much money available to take to a casino.

Among the perks given to us when we signed up for the player's club card was a free buffet during our birthday month.  Since we were both there during our birthday month, it worked out swellfully.  After lunch (and already concerned about how much I had lost) decided to stretch my money by going into the Off-Track-Betting area.  I bought a horse program and a dog program, and sat down with about fifty old men, all smoking cigars and complaining about "that damn #4 in the 7th race at Aqueduct".  It was wonderful.  I was in there about three hours, and although I lost a few bucks, it was fun because it is something you can't do (yet) at Potowatomi.

Leg two of our adventure was the 60-mile ride to Des Moines.  The Prairie Meadows horse track added a casino, and we decided to spread our losses throughout the state.  After checking into our hotel (more on that in the next paragraph) and going to dinner, we drove to Prairie Meadows for some gaming.  After going through the fastest $150 in recorded history at the craps table, I settled into a Pai Gow Poker table and made a little comeback.  After a few hours, we decided to leave.  Losing was getting boring, and there was something about that casino... It was so lifeless.  The place was packed... and quiet.  The room was very partitioned so that all areas seemed small.  The volume on the slot machines was low, and the room was dead.  Hard to explain, but I didn't like it.

We stayed at a Rodeway Inn, which - let me tell you - is no Meskwaki.  It was a bed with a TV and toilet in the room.  Not much more.  Oh, yeah, and the bed was caved in the middle, so whenever one of us rolled over, we ended up rolling back down the slope to the middle of the bed and bumping awake the other.

Sunday, instead of going back to Prairie Meadows as had been the plan, we decided to drive back to Meskwaki before picking up the kids.  I only had a little money in my pocket (as did My-Sugar-Na), however we hadn't reached our weekend bankroll limit, so every intent was that if we needed more money, we would hit the ATM.  We got to Meskwaki with four hours before needing to get her kids, and after a slow start, I was ahead for the session.  Unfortunately, there were two hours to go, so I ended up losing that aheadedness - and the money I had started with.  So I make my way to the ATM, and there is an "out of order" sign on it (the entire ATM network was down).  How in the world can a casino have an ATM that is out of order?  Think of all the potential money that Meskwaki didn't make because those machines couldn't dispense cash to degenerate gamblers like me?  I was going to pull out $300, and based on how my weekend went, I would have lost a chunk of it.  Now multiply that by every withdrawl that didn't happen, and you have a massive potential loss.  You would think that it would almost pay to have an ATM techhie on staff to make sure that any breakdown in the system would be handled immediately.

So I between My-Sugar-Na and I, we had about $40 left with a couple of hours, so I took half and headed back to the OTB.  I lost $4 in those last two hours, and clearly it was to our benefit that the ATMs were down.

Picking up the kids and most of the drive home was uneventful, until I made a tragic mistake in judgement.  I suggested Cracker Barrel for dinner.  Their Sunday special is the best buttermilk breaded fried chicken breasts in the history of buttermilk breaded fried chicken breasts.  We were getting to Dubuque around 6:30 and decided that it was almost dinner time.  I had assumed that there would be a Cracker Barrel along the highway, and by the time we had gotten downtown, I knew there wouldn't be.  When I suggested a Plan B, My-Sugar-Na demanded Cracker Barrel, as I had got her mouth a-waterin'.  I placed a call to (Sponsor's Name Here)'s Official Mother, and asked her to find the nearest location, which is on the northeast side of Madison. We all put our hungers on hold for 90 minutes until we get there.

When we arrive at Cracker Barrel, the parking lot is empty... we thought they were closed, and it was only a little past 8:00 PM.  They were open, but My-Sugar-Na made the comment that maybe everybody heard they were out of the buttermilk chicken so everybody went somewhere else.  We walked in and we were the only ones there.  We both ordered the buttermilk chicken without reading the menu, when the waitress said (and you can see this coming, can't you?) "We're out of the chicken.  We were very busy today and we ran out of it hours ago".

I maintain my standard calm, cool, demeanor, and stated that we will need a few minutes to review the menu.  When the waitress walked away, I laughed like a 8-year old that just heard of a titmouse for the first time.  My-Sugar-Na was not happy, as the dinners at both the front and back ends of the trip were ruined.  She told me that she wanted a meatloaf sandwich, and that she was going to the bathroom and I should order it, and if they were out of meatloaf, we were going home (you can see where this is going too, ai'na?)

No meatloaf.  So me and her kids ordered, and told the waitress to start the order immediately, so that it would be too late to actually leave.  We tried to keep a straight face, but as she was walking back to the table, the kids couldn't contain themselves.  It was funnier than the time watching the first American Pie movie, when Alyson Hannigan said "This one time, in band camp, I stuck..." well, watch the movie.

The meals are now ordered and delivered, and I am about halfway through my country fried steak when I notice that it was white in the middle.  It is very unusual for steak to be white, when it occured to me... they snuck a piece of chicken past me!  By this point, we had been there way too long so I just ate it.  I did tell the manager about all of the problems and he did credit my dinner, but for some reason, My-Sugar-Na couldn't stop laughing at me.  I don't get it... why would she be so unsympathetic?

Getting home Sunday night was as uneventful as we had hoped... which is a good thing while travelling.  For the record, my M/$ on the rental car was 8.3 (The SUV barely gets 5 M/$.)  Now that I've blown through one weekend, I have to wait six weeks until my first trip to New York City in early-May.

Last week Friday (January 11th), I had surgery on my right elbow.  The first time I had a twinge in my elbow was in Januray 2005.  At that time, I had bowled three nights a week for a few years, but I was only bowling one night a week for the beginning of that seaon.  I was asked to bowl in a new league for the second half of that season, and on the very first night on this new team I felt a twinge in my elbow.  Not that it really hurt, because that same week I bowled a career-high 847 series at Bluemound Bowl (which included two 300 games).

The elbow got a little worse in the early part of 2005, but not painful enough to get anything done about it... it was more of a nagging ache that bothered me worse on some days than other days.  As a matter of fact, in April of that year I bowled an 804 series (the only time in my career that I had bowled two 800+ series in the same season).

When the bowling season started that next September, the arm was hurting even more.  I finally saw a doctor and got a steriod shot.  The shot worked wonders and I completed the 2005-06 season without any more pain.  My family doctor figured that it was probably an inflamed tendon (tendonitis) and the steroid shot had done its job (reduced the inflammation and promoted healing).  Unfortunatly, when bowling started in September 2006, the pain had returned.  My doctor gave me a second shot and said that if it comes back, he would refer me to a sports medicine doctor.  That shot lasted about five months before the pain returned in February 2007.

My sports medicine doctor wanted a "less invasive" course of treatment, so I went to an occupational therapist for massage, ultrasound, iontopheresis and some strengthening and stretching exercises.  All of that therapy worked for that day (meaning when I walked out of the office it felt great, then when I woke up the next morning it hurt again).  I bowled the National tournament in Reno in May, and by about the second game of the nine-game tournament, I had wished I had gotten another shot.  It hurt.  A lot.  And I spent more time whining to my team and to my wife that I was wasting my vacation.  In hindsight, it was still a great vacation, but a true waste of the yearly shot at bowling well at the National tournament.

My sports medicine doctor told me to take a month off but to continue the exercises.  I did so, and after a month of not bowling, I joined a summer league for the first time in about ten years.  On the first night of the summer league, my elbow hurt as bad as it ever had.  My sports medicine doctor then gave me a third steroid shot, and the warning that if this doesn't take care of it, further intervention would be required.

Sure enough, that shot didn't completely take away my soreness (though it did feel a lot better).  But around Halloween - only four short months later - the severe pain came back with a vengence.  I took a few weeks off of bowling (and threw my last ball of the season on the Friday after Thanksgiving), made an appointment for an MRI, and learned of the diognosis of "tendonosis, resulting from chronic medial epicondylitis - AKA Golfer's Elbow".  In other words, the previous tendonitis had left scar tissue, and now that scar tissue was causing problems of its own.  The flexor muscle had some minute tearing, and the scar tissue was preventing my body from repairing itself.  The longer it went on, the more the muscle was getting "tangled" in the scar tissue. 

The week before the surgery, the muscle damage was so bad that I couldn't straighten my right arm, I couldn't rotate my forearm, and it hurt to do everything that a right handed person would do with his/her right hand.  Considering the surgeon said that the "procedure" lasted only 30 minutes, he had the time to make a four-inch incision, remove the scar tissue, "release" the muscle, remove the damaged muscle, then reattach part of that muscle to the bone. 

I did learn a lot about how the body can compensate.  For example, before the surgery, I tried to shave left handed and it was a disaster.  Since the surgery, I managed to successfully shave twice.  Eating left handed with a fork wasn't a major issue, but try eating a messy hamburger one-handed (with either hand!)  With My-Sugar-Na's help, I was quickly able to figure out ways to tie my shoes and get my jacket on, and (confession time, here), I was VERY successful playing craps and Pai Gow Poker at Potowatomi with only my left hand.

It has now been a full week.  Although the stitches are still there (and they itch like hell), I have almost no pain.  I am not supposed to lift anything, but I have more use of my elbow now than I did before the surgery.  About the only time it hurts right now is when I stretch the arm to put on a jacket or sweatshirt, when I bump the incision, or when I am on the computer too long (this post is the most typing that I have done in about two weeks, and I am now starting to get a little sore.)

As I mentioned above, I am done bowling for this season, and I will miss my scheduled Nationals date of May 7 in Albuquerque.  The tournament runs through early-July, and my goal is to spend Independance Day in New Mexico. 

Now about that right knee, which my family doctor thinks is either bursitis or patellar tendonitis...

As much as I would hate to turn away readers, if you don't know much about craps, this entry might be hard to understand.  But please, try to follow along.

For years, I've wanted to learn how to play craps at a casino.  Pre-Potowatomi, one of my best friends, I'll call him Pete, would drive to the Chicago riverboats every week for a game.  Pete was pretty cool about it, too.  He would crow about his wins, but he would also tell about his sometimes huge losses.  When I asked him how to play, he would always say that he would show me "the next time we were at a casino".  Invariably, the next time we would be in a casino together, he would start throwing $5 cheques all over the place and I couldn't keep up with him.  I would try to interrupt with a "why did you do that?", but before he could answer, the dice were rolled and he was either collecting or making another bet that I didn't understand.

For our honeymoon in 2005, My-Sugar-Na and I went to Las Vegas and stayed at the Sahara.  One of their perks for joining their player's club was $50 in free table game play.  I found a completely empty craps table (like, at 8:00 in the morning) and asked the croupier to explain the game.  I played for awhile, got a basic idea of the comeout roll and rolling until the point was made or a seven was thrown, but since I was alone, we never got into the prop bets (the hardways, the "Any Seven", etc).  Nor was the "Field", the "Don't Pass" or laying odds discussed.

For reasons I cannot explain, one nondescript day in March of this year I decided to search the internet for a free on-line game (and for rules), so I could learn how to play.  My searching led me to the Wizard of Odds page for craps strategy, and that site had a link to Bodog Online Casino which had a free version of the game for practice.  While playing, something clicked.  I felt comfortable enough to find a slow time to go down to Potowatomi and give it a whirl.  I figured if I could figure out the Pass Line (with free odds), the Come (with free odds) and how to place a 6 and 8, I could play at the table and pick up rest on the fly.

On the next Sunday morning, My-Sugar-Na and I made the trek to Potowatomi.  Needless to say, I was very nervous and a lot intimidated.  There were only 8-10 people on the table, but one guy had a long row of black ($100) cheques in front of him, and about a grand in play on each roll.  I meekly put a $5 cheque on the Pass Line, and craps was rolled.  On my first ever craps bet, I lost.  The next couple of rolls, once a point was established, a seven was rolled before the point, and I lost my money.  Making only the very basic bets at the table minimum, I was out $40 in about 5 minutes.

I walked away and found My-Sugar-Na, and she said that if I had more money and wanted to keep trying, I could.  I went back to the table, and got on a little roll.  In about an hour, I had made back my previous loss (as well as her losses) and we left about $30 ahead.  That got us breakfast at Miss Katie's Diner.

All that little escapade did was pique my interest.  I practiced more on Bodog and others, and made a few more trips to the casino.  In May, I lived at the craps table in both Las Vegas and Reno, and I make (probably too many) visits to Potowatomi each month.  I have made some pretty large wins, and only twice that I can remember did I exceed my bankroll (then kicked myself pretty hard on the drive home).

Since each roll of the dice is an independant event (in other words, dice have no memory.  There is the exact same likelyhood that a seven will be rolled ten consecutive times as there is that a seven will not be rolled ten consecutive times) hot streaks and cold streaks are a matter of luck and timing.  There is no system in craps, just money management.

My money management is that I play the table minimum on the Pass line, and then back up the bet with 3x/4x/5x free odds (regardless of the table limit).  If I am in a bad streak or if my bankroll is declining, I will change to 2x/2.5x/3x odds.  With a house edge of 1.41%, the Pass line bet is one of the very best bets in a casino.  The best bet in a casino are the free odds bet, as they carry 0% house edge.  Once a point is established, I place a Come bet (with the same free odds technique once that point is established) and if one of my points is not a 6 or 8, I will place a bet there at a 1.5% house advantage.  This strategy of playing the odds that least favor the casino is just fine by me. 

I usually do make one high house edge bet, as on a comeout roll I will make a "Any Craps" at an 11% house edge.  Lemme explain...  On a comeout roll, if a 7 or 11 is rolled, there is an immediate pay off.  However, if a 2, 3 or 12 (called "Craps") is rolled, it is an immediate loss.  The "Any Craps" bet is an insurance policy.  In other words, if I bet $5 on the Pass line and $1 on "Any Craps", if a 7 or 11 is rolled, I win the $5 but lose the $1 (a net win of $4).  But with those same bets, if a 12 is rolled, I lose the $5 on the Pass line but win $7 for the "Any Craps" (a net win of $2).  With this, I only actually lose money when I have bets out there when a point is established and a seven is rolled.

When money is really tight, I will play the table backwards by playing the Don't Pass/Bar and the Don't Come.  The difference is that when playing the "Don'ts", you WANT a seven before the point.  In other words, you will win when everybody else is losing.  This can backfire, as if you are playing backwards, if the table gets really hot and you are sticking to the "Don'ts" the other players WILL harass you as they rake in the money while yours gets taken away.

So to the other craps players, what is your favorite strategy?