Alive and unharmed...mostly

I've made it back from Vegas in one piece. I'd write all about it, but I already did on my Myspace blog. Feel free to check it all there.

The right mindset to go into any gambling session is that you're leaving without any money you've brought for that purpose. Not that you're going to win big. Now, for the days I was there I only lost $160 at the tables. Not bad all things considered, although $100 of that was in 15 mintues at the roulette table.

However, here's why I suck at gambling. It's not about what I lose, it's about what I don't win. At the conference, there was a vendor section. Lot's of vendors hawking their Help Desk related softwares, and giving away all sorts of free stuff. At one booth, I won a $25 chip for Mandalay Bay, the hotel where we were staying. They had a little faux-roulette game there, and I won on black 33. So, despite my assertation at this point (I had already dropped the $100) that roulette was evil, I figured it was only right that I use my chip at roulette table. Keep the karma going. So I put the chip in my back pocket with the plan of dropping it on a table at some point during the week. The last night I'm there, I finally get around to it. I stop at a table with some free spots, intending to drop the chip on black 33 (the number I won it on.) The odds are extremely long, but I figure why not, it's not my money. Now, once the dealer starts the ball rolling, you can still bet, until they lock the table. (By passing their hand over it.) This dealer had already started the ball, but the table was still open. Howevver, I decided to wait for the next spin anyway. What comes up? You guessed it: black 33. I believe the payout odds on a single number are 35 to 1. On my $25 chip, that's $875. Figuring that black 33 is not coming up twice in a row on the same table, I walk over to the next one, and immediately drop my chip. I got squat. Winning big is sometimes not about the hands you play, but the ones you don't.

Whoops.