29. With Mike Stefanidis - The Four Queens, May 30-31, 1992

• We played craps almost exclusively, 'cause, you know, we did so well last trip. Well, neither one of us did well this time; in fact, Mike got hammered, losing upwards of $2,000.00.

• One bright moment for Mike: We ate lunch at The Four Queens coffee shop, and he played a 20-spot keno ticket for $5.00. Eleven of his numbers came up, so he won $200.00.

• Clayton and Ron were in Vegas for an art convention, so we met them for dinner at the Las Vegas Hilton on Saturday night.

• Mike and I were playing at Caesars Palace, and I turned to him and mentioned that the guy throwing the dice looked like Burl Ives. A couple of people around us heard what I said and started to laugh. Well, the guy got on a really hot roll, and eventually we all started cheering, "Come on, Burl! Roll numbers, Burl!" Finally after he hit a point of ten, I turned to everybody and sang, "Silver and gold, silver and gold!"

28. With Mike Stefanidis - Primadonna, May 2-3, 1992

• On Saturday afternoon (May 2) Mike and I decided we wanted to drive to Vegas that night. However, we had already been given some free field-level tickets to the Padre game, so we wouldn't be able to leave until the game was over. We figured we'd leave for Vegas at about 11:00 p.m., get there at about 4:00 a.m., play all day, and then leave for home at about 6:00 p.m., although we weren't sure what we were going to do about sleep.

  The Padre game ended fairly early; I drove home to change and then met Mike at his house. We did in fact leave right at 11:00, and I suggested that we each try to sleep some in the car. Well, of course that didn't work. Then by about the time we got to Barstow, Mike suggested that we stop and sleep at Whiskey Pete's for about five hours, then head on to Vegas. So, that's what we did, although we actually stayed at the hotel across from Whiskey Pete's, Primadonna (now Primm Valley). We checked in at about 3:00 a.m. and slept till 8:30 a.m. Good thing, too, because otherwise we would have been exhausted by Sunday night.

• Actually, we didn't sleep all the way through, because at 6:30 a.m., the hotel fire alarm went off. It was a terrible piercing noise that actually hurt our ears. We started to get dressed, but after about five minutes it stopped. We never did find out why it went off.

• We played craps almost exclusively the whole time we were there (until about 7:00 p.m.). Mike and I won over $1,000.00 between us, thanks in a large part to buying the ten; it was incredible how many times it hit.

27. With Mike Stefanidis, Paul Huyser, and Stan Wong - The Four Queens, April 10-12, 1992

• We all took advantage of a Four Queens junket. We each paid $189.00 in San Diego, which got us round-trip plane flights and hotel rooms for two nights. Then after we'd played eight hours at The Four Queens, they gave us each $100.00 cash and $100.00 in goofy chips.^* We were all really happy with the conditions of the junket.

• By Saturday night, Mike, was down quite a bit: close to $1,200.00. On Sunday morning he had an incredible craps hand at The Four Queens which won him back about $600.00, and later that afternoon he bet like a maniac on blackjack at Silver City and won the rest back. He ended up ahead for the trip about $35.00.

• Getting back to Mike's great craps hand. He made a total of six points, which is, although not extraordinary, pretty impressive. But the thing that did make it extraordinary was that five of those six points were fours or tens. Anyone pressing his line bet and taking full odds was making good money.

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^*They’re really called match-play chips, and they can be wagered on an even money bet (like in blackjack). For every real chip you bet, you can bet one match play chip of the same value. If you win, the dealer takes your match play chip and replaces it with a real one (and of course pays off your real chip). If you lose, he just takes both your real chip and match play chip. So, assuming you win half of your bets, your $100.00 in match play chips should translate to $50.00 in real money.

26. With Mike Stefanidis - The Sahara, January 17-19, 1992

• Mike and I left Friday night on a whim, and what a roller-coaster ride of a trip. By Sunday morning we were each up over $1,000.00, and by Sunday afternoon we had lost it all back. Kind of pathetic, really.

25. With Mike Stefanidis, Mary Whelan, and Mary Thrasher - The Maxim, September 20-22, 1991 (+$9.50)

• Mike had done some free dental work for a friend's relatives who lived in Las Vegas, and they set us up with a free room and free rental car. The car was a Cadillac, and we had a blast with it.

• We saw the show at Excalibur (the first Vegas show Mike and Mary Whelan had ever been to), and I thought it was terrific.

• Mary Whelan really took to craps. At the beginning of the trip, she would just stand behind Mike and me and say, "Um, could you put this chip on the pass line for me?" and by the end of the trip she was shooting the dice herself and saying, "Gimme a C&E and hard 8."

• I had a particularly good craps roll at The Mirage, and afterwards we noticed that Dan Lauria, the guy who played the father on The Wonder Years, had been betting on me.

• We played craps more than anything else this trip, and we got in on some very good rolls. Strangely enough, however, I was the only one who got in on the best roll. Mike and I were both down for the trip on Sunday, so we decided to go to the Fremont to try to recoup. We both quickly lost $100.00 on the crap table, so Mike walked away to play blackjack. I was the only player left on the table. I got the dice and proceeded to win back the lost $100.00 plus an additional $329.00. It was one of the most exciting craps hands I've ever had -- not just because I won, but because the pace was so quick. Being the only player on the table, I didn't have to wait long between rolls.

• Mary Thrasher was miserable most of the trip. She never did tell us why she was in such a bad mood, but her attitude came close to ruining the trip for the rest of us.

24. With Boppa - Excalibur, August 14-16, 1991 (-$296.25)

• I had an incredible roll at a crap table at Excalibur the first night we were there; I bought in for $90.00 and cashed out for $650.00. I rolled a ton of sixes and eights and just kept pressing them up.

• We ate prime rib at Sir Galahad's, and it was even better than when I had gone last time.

23. With Mike James, Murray Lott, and Guy Sandstrom - Circus Circus, July 21-23, 1991 (+$86.75)

• Mike had just returned from his first year in Japan with his Australian friend Murray. We flew to Vegas and met Murray's friend Guy; Guy had started in India and through a series of connecting flights arrived in Vegas about five minutes before we did.

• Mike and I got on an incredible roll at the 25-cent crap table at Silver City and ended up winning about $330.00 each. We started betting pass line and come for $1.00 with full double odds, and by the end of the roll those bets had been pressed up to $10.00. The guy with the dice rolled for about a half hour, but Mike and I were the only ones at the table that made any real money. No one else was pressing, and in fact we were the only ones using five dollar chips at the end; everyone else was using dollars and quarters^*.

• Saturday night we had an insane cut of prime rib at Sir Galahad's at Excalibur.

• I played 9's Up for the first and last time in a casino and found out the hard way that the player can never win with a zero in one of his hands. (For example, a dealer's 8-2 beats a player's K-Q.)

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^*As in 25 cents.