oops, gotta finish an old story first before i finish a newer story.
Second night we got up higher than the first night, but I guess we got too greedy and the electronic roulette gods made us pay for that. (Yes, even the electronic games have gods that rule over them with an iron fist.)
Third night, we decided to double up our buy-in, basically 200 each, USD. (So far we were each down 200, but we were still having fun Martingaling because 200 is basically pennies.)
This night we actually used the rule of 3s for any high bets, meaning we would take a high bet only when we had 3 in a row: same colors, same low highs, or same odd or evens. Also, we would allow a minimum table bet on a # if we both agreed on it. We hit numbers twice lol. We were having quite a bit of success with that strategy.
Side note: Dear_John had asked me about the awfulness of Martingales, which are in fact awful. We tried Anti-Martingales at electronic roulette with 0 and 00, and we found we could make no headway, so we switched to Martingale, which is where you double plus some extra-to yield better profits than the table min-after a loss. We actually waited til something got hot after a loss, and of course, playing team ball, neither of us could make a bet unless both approved. And finally, yes it was a Martingale but not a big money Martingale. Those are bad news.
Third night, we were really on point, and as our bankroll grew, I kept adjusting our betting to make it more aggressive, with Rory's approval of course.
Late in the night, we finally hit a dry spell, and what do you know, we had our entire bankroll at risk.
We are studying the table like it had all answers to some impossible final exam, like in nuclear physics or brain surgery. Suddenly, after about 5 or 6 more spins, a pattern emerged. Before I explain that, back to the convo: "Rory, how bout after our next bet, win lose or draw, we're done." He was like, "Fuck ya."
3 reds in a row. It was beckoning us like the Sirens were beckoning poor Odyssey's crew. (He used wax, but he only had enough for one person. Everyone else got tied to the boat or mast.)
I said, "Rory, lets go all in. We're gonna kill this shit."
He did not repeat the mistake from the first night, waiting for a pattern of 4 in a row. He was like, "Oh hell ya." We put every penny on red. The roulette gods were pleased with us not making the perfect the enemy of the good. 27 Red baby. And that was that. Never another minute at the electronic roulette table in Costa Rica for the rest of the trip, because we both knew that the electronic dice gods would frown at our obvious and patent greed, and take everything back. The manager was shocked because i don't think anyone has ever played roulette for 5 hours straight and walked out with their money. And we had no chance without the electronic record that had been before us, guiding us like the yellow brick road or the North Star. Just for the fun of it, we watched the next spin. came up 00. yup we definitely dodged a bullet. timing is everything in the land of the coulda woulda shoulda, and scared money never wins..
We had finally beaten an unwinnable game. hmm, i wonder if that would work for the field bet? who knows. maybe..
So back to the other story which started out in the "when we were clowns" thread at GN Lake Charles last weekend. So after having a pretty crappy time at Laberge and going to the Golden Nugget to see if they would even let me play, i crawled back from the dead three times only to completely blow it like a spineless coward when the bets got close to my bankroll limit on my superfast Hopping the Big Red progression, the last one of which cost me about half of my freaking chips, i decided to regroup.
Every time the dice came to me, i said nope, i dont want to shoot. but i grinded on, playing the Donts on bad shooters, the Do's on the good shooters, and avoiding choppy shooters. No one at the table lastest as this sorry grinder did.
I don't remember what happened-I think it was when they dropped the table limits from 15 to 10. When other shooters were doing well, I bet on others shot from the Do's, and when other shooters were doing badly, I bet and shot from the Donts. And believe it or not, I was actually shooting pretty well from both sides, but a little bit better from the donts.
I was avoiding Martingales and strictly relying on Anti-Martingales, which is that when you win, you increase your bet by an additive amount, say 50, and when you lose, you decrease your bet by a geometric amount, say 1/2 of your last bet.
Let me say something for my dice players. If i looked at my average experience at Laberge since I've been playing versus my single experience at the Golden Nugget LC, there's no comparison. GN is head and shoulders above Laberge. I've seen serious dealer and pit boss fuckery at Laberge that I never saw at GN, like closing down a full table just because I got hot shooting. i was like, wtf? So it's ok for us to lose, but it is not ok for us to win. That's fuckery. There's other stuff too, but that's just one example.
Anyway, i started to get on the Donts to the point where I would tell Do betters that i'm shooting from the dont just fyi, and i'm not saying i'm going to hit the 7, but i'm going to try. and then mostly i'd sink the Do bettors with a 7.
So I'm doing serious crawlback from the dead-from 1500 to as low as 500-and start feeling some pretty good rhythm. The dealers and pit bosses were super cool and didn't complain about my overhand throw style when pursuing the 7, which, by the way is perfectly legal, but many times at Laberge, the dealers or pit bosses got on my case just for that.
As the game progressed, I just shot from the Donts, and over time, most of the bettors moved to the Donts on my roll. I actually began to enter the zone, which is being totally in the moment, totally relaxed and having fun, and hitting my numbers (aces or ace deuce on the Come Out, and the 7 after the point.)
Here is where things really got interesting. Some shooters from the dont are good at avoiding the 7 on the Come Out roll. Me? Not so much. Basically, I suck.
I had studied this problem and came up with a solution that works for me. Here's an example. Lets say you bet 200 on the Dont. Of course, on the Come Out roll, if the shooter rolls a 7, then you lose 200. So that means as a hedge, you need to bet a 7. The best odds for this is Lay behind the 6 or 8. So now with my 200 dont bet, i also bet 120 lay behind the 6 and 120 behind the 8. That bet costs 5% of what you would win. If you roll a 7, your Lays behind pay 100 each. So you break even except the 5% vig, which would be 10$ total. Not too bad, so I just repeat the bet and try again.
Once the point is established, with the best #s being the 4 or 10, then 5 or 9, and the worst scenario being the 6 or 8-(cause you just lost 120 plus they are the hardest to avoid)-you pull your lays behind the 8 because they did their job protecting you from the Come Out 7. So that's how I play it.
Lets go back to Come Out roll from the Don't. If you roll a 7 or 11 on the Come Out, you lose your dont bet. If you roll aces (snakeyes) or ace deuce (a 1 and a 2), you win your dont bet.
So I'm in the zone shooting from the donts, and i bet 300 on the donts, 180 on the lay behind the 8, 180 lay behind the 6, and i get ready to shoot. I look over the board, and i do something very uncharacteristic for me, because most hedges are a waste of money on bad bets. I'm thinking to myself, i really really dont want a yo 11 because if i roll that, i lose my 300 bet, plain and simple. So I put the dice and dig out 4 reds (5$ each) and tell the stickman, "Give me a 20$ yo 11," which, by the way, pays 15 to 1. The stickman books the bet. I do my usual Come Out set of aces on top and 2s behind. I take a lot of time and finally I roll. Stickman barks out to the near-side dealer: "Call it!" And the dealer barks back, "Yo eleven. Pay the, take the Donts."
So here's what happens. They take my 300 don't bet but my 20$ bet on the yo pays 300. I was thinking to myself, "Good call px. very good call" and I am busting out laughing at this point because it's ridiculous.
Same bet on the yo? "Nope make my yo look like 25, keep everything else the same," and I throw him nickel (5$ red chip).
I reset my dice same way hoping for aces or ace deuce and try again. Another freaking yo comes up. This time I end up winning 75 all total including the yo. So I'm thinking to myself, "This is the weirdest Come Out roll on the Don't that I've seen."
Stickman asks me again, 'Same bet on the yo?" I said, "Make my yo like 30' and throw him another nickel. And then i took another 15 and put it on the field. Here we good, third time's the charm. "Come on aces" I plead to the dice gods and shoot again. Weirdest freaking bets all over the table, none of it makes any sense whatever. we're in the twilight zone. I roll again, and what do you know? Another freaking yo. So i lose my don't bet of 300, i win my yo bet at 450, and i win my field bet at 15. Plus 165 for that roll.
I press my yo to 35, my field to 20, and keep everything else the same. change my set 2s over 1s and roll again. Finally, on my 4th try, i get a point of 9. i lose my 35 yo, win 20 on my field, pull off my 7 hedges on the lay behinds the 6 and 8 and get my 5% vig back.
So now I'm rolling for a 7, and even with that bizarre Come Out, I'm still pretty much in the zone. For a no-nine, the set i use is ace three on top and 3 ace behind, and i use my special overhand dont roll with a bit of a nolan ryan likeness. And the numbers start coming all over the table, pure chaos and mayhem, and people are watching to see the numbers i'm hitting and their putting place bets on those, while me and my fellow dont bettors only care about 2 numbers, the 9 and the 7. It produced one of the weirdest combination of bets that I've seen. So a whole bunch of numbers came up all over the dice board except at least so far, the 9 or the 7. I don't think there was a single bettor on the Do, but plenty of place bets on ever number except the 9.
I was loving the amount of chaos and mayhem that I was creating, and so i did something that i never do because i think it's a dumb bet: I laid 75 odds behind the 9 to my flat bet of 300. (Bet 75 to win 50 and weaken the strength of your flat don't bet? Sure, why not.)
Since the numbers I was getting were scrambling all over the board,I actually hit a bet called the all smalls, which means that before a 7 arrives, the shooter has rolled a 2,3,4,5, and 6, which I didn't even pay attention to. But i feeling a high degree of chaos, so i pressed my odds behind the 9 to 150. And then I said, "Let me get the 7s hopping for 12 (you win if you roll any type of 7) and give me 5$ on the Big Red." (The Big Red is the worst bet on the table and i should have added 6 to my hop, but i made that bet because everyone knows what the Big Red is: it's a bet on the devil's number! (People who play dice are very superstitous: you shouldn't say 7 because it's bad luck. So instead of saying, "I want to bet a 7, you say that you want to bet the Big Red." And I kept adding to both bets until 3 rolls later, the Stickman yelled to the dealer, "Call it!"
And the dealer growled back, "7 out, line, pay the Don'ts!" So I start high fiving about 2/3 of the table who were on the Don'ts, and I just hope for that they made more than they lost. My nephew Rory and I have this kind of joke about winning big bets on either hopping the 7s or winning on the Big Red: "Let me see if i want to stay up on those bets. Well, maybe not this time, but thanks.."
First they pay out the Dont bet of 300 even money, then they pay out for the 150 odds behind the 9, they pay 100, then for the 20$ Big Red and for the 36 hopping the 7s pays 180. "Thank you. All bets down. Color coming in." Ended up +200 for the trip, and that was that..