Saturday, December 24, 1994

61. With Mike Stefanidis - December 23-24, 1994

  • We flew to Vegas just for the night. We got there at about 9:00 Friday night and played straight through till 5:30 the next morning. We started out good, but it went sour fast.
  • Our return flight left Vegas at 6:30 Christmas Eve morning. When we tried to land in San Diego, we couldn't because of fog. The captain said that he would try once more, and if we couldn't land, we'd have to fly to Los Angeles. I'm thinking, "Oh, God. A losing trip, we're exhausted, and now we're going to have to fly up to L.A. and take a bus back home on Christmas Eve." Well, everything worked out fine. We landed on the second try.

Wednesday, November 30, 1994

60. With Mom and Dana - Treasure Island, November 29-30, 1994

  • Mom and Dana and I decided on the spur of the moment to go to Vegas for two days, seeing as Sue was going to be there with Chris and some of her other friends. It turned out to be a good trip: all three of us made enough money to pay for everything except the plane flight.

Sunday, November 6, 1994

59. With Mike Stefanidis and Helen Blount - November 6, 1994

  • Mike, Helen, and I decided to fly to Vegas for the day thanks to our big win the previous week. Well, it was a mistake. It was the exact opposite of the week before. We'd never seen so many immediate sevens out in our lives. It turned out to be Mike's worst trip ever.

Sunday, October 30, 1994

58. With Mike Stefanidis - Harrah's, October 29-30, 1994

  • This trip was very similar to the previous trip, at least from a mechanical point of view. Mike and I left his house at 12:00 PDT on Saturday night (October 29). We got to Vegas at 3:30 a.m. PST (note the change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time) and played at Rio and Harrah's until about 10:00 a.m. Then we got a room and slept till about 1:00 p.m.
  • Before we went to sleep, the dice were hot and cold. At one point Mike was down to his last $50.00 out of $3,600.00, but he had a nice comeback.
  • After we woke up, it was a different story. We were on fire. Every table we went to we won. Our biggest hit came at the Flamingo. We cashed in for about $1,600.00 and cashed out for about $3,700.00. We had a lot of place and buy bets that kept hitting, especially the fours and tens. By the end of the trip we were each up $3,000.00.

Sunday, October 2, 1994

57. With Mike Stefanidis - Harrah's, October 1-2, 1994

  • Mike and I left his house at 11:15 on Saturday night (October 1). We got to Vegas at 3:30 a.m. and played at Imperial Palace and Harrah's until about 8:00. Then we slept until 11:15 a.m.
  • At Harrah's, Mike had a $5.00 hard four. It hit, and Mike told them to parlay (so the bet became $40.00 on the hard four.) A little while later, it hit again. He was paid $280.00, and he tossed an additional $60.00 onto the hard four so now his bet was $100.00. The very next roll was another hard four; payoff: $700.00.
  • It was up and down like crazy until, on our way home, Mike lost a ton at Stateline. He was down about $3,000.00 and ready to leave. I convinced him to come with me to the McDonald's next door and have a burger. He sat there in the restaurant fuming, but it gave him a chance to consider going back to the casino to try to win his money back. He decided to take $300.00 and make two $150.00 place bets, one on the six, one on the eight. Well, Mike parlayed those bets into the $3000.00 he was down. When we left Stateline it was 10:30 Sunday night.
  • The table limit on the crap tables in Stateline was only $500.00, and at one point Mike had a $600.00 place bet on the six.

Saturday, September 24, 1994

56. With Sherry - September 24, 1994

  • This was actually part of Sherry's and my cross-country trip. We stopped in Vegas for a few hours and I lost a couple hundred dollars at Caesars Palace.

Monday, August 1, 1994

54. With Sherry, Paul Huyser, Mike Stefanidis, and Helen Blount - The Four Queens

  • The first night we were there, every one of us lost all the money he or she came with.
  • It was a losing trip overall. However, on the way home, Mike got four-of-a-kind while playing Caribbean Stud Poker in the car.

Wednesday, June 1, 1994

53. With Sherry, Julie Braginton, and Mike Stefanidis - The Four Queens

  • Sherry and Julie ended up winning for the weekend by playing pass line and two come bets. Mike and I ended up losing 'cause we're stupid.
  • We were playing at the Golden Nugget and Sherry was rolling. A high roller had a bet on eleven. Sherry rolled an eleven, and the high roller said, "Can you do that again?" Sherry nodded yes, and sure enough, she rolled another eleven. The high roller tossed her a $100.00 chip.

Sunday, May 1, 1994

52. With Sherry - Imperial Palace, April 29-May 1, 1994

  • I was able to get reservations at Imperial Palace, but the woman over the phone told me it would be $175.00 for two nights. That didn't seem right, especially since I supposedly had a rating there. Sherry and I decided that instead we would try to get a room at one of the casinos south of Vegas on I 15… but when we got there they were all sold out. Good thing too, because when we finally acquiesced and went to Imperial Palace, the rate was $45.00 a night.
  • Waking up Sunday morning I was ahead about $20.00 for the trip. What I was hoping to do was win enough to pay Sherry the $100.00 I owed her as well as pay for the hotel room. So I played some craps, and just lost, lost, lost. Finally, I lost all the money I had (about $600.00). At about 5:00 p.m., I went to the ATM and got out another $80.00, the most I could. I went back to the crap table at Imperial Palace and got on a monster hand (in fact I was the one rolling). I won back everything, as well as $100.00 for Sherry and $100.00 for the room.
  • Sherry picked up on blackjack very quickly, to the point where she could go to a table and play by herself (she had never played the game before). She also caught on to the basics of craps very fast.

Sunday, March 13, 1994

51. With Mike Stefanidis - March 13, 1994

  • Not much to say about this trip except that it was a big loser. Mike saw the new MGM for the first time.

Sunday, February 6, 1994

50. With Phil and Judy LaBarbera - The Golden Nugget, February 4-6, 1994

  • Phil's wife Judy had a convention to attend in Las Vegas, so I tagged along to show them the town.
  • I went to the new MGM Grand for the first time.