August 1, 2007
Spur Of The Moment
At the moment, I’m kicking back with some coffee and brandy (one of my favorite combinations these days) and listening to some “oldies” ie The Zombies, The Guess Who and The Doors, and contemplating the next couple of days’ activities.
My birthday is coming up (yeah, I’m a Leo, who would’ve guessed?) very shortly, and I want to do something different. The problem, lately, has been that too many people seem to object to my self-imposed semi-retirement, and as a result I’m constantly being drawn into time consuming, mostly pro-bono projects and so forth that dominate hours and days I’d otherwise spend partaking of leisure activities that range from vegetating or bicycling for hours to working on my novel, researching political issues, blogging and visiting the sites of fellow bloggers.
So I have decided to make good my escape for a couple of days to celebrate my birthday a tad in advance, on the spur-of-the-moment — and I do mean spur!
I was just sitting here listening to music when I abruptly (impromptu, whatever) picked up the phone and made reservations for two days/nights at Harrah’s in Joliet, starting this coming afternoon. I haven’t enjoyed the casino atmosphere and played craps for some time, so it should be a lot of fun and nostalgic to boot. I’ll stop at my bank before I leave and pick up some cash for gaming, then head to Joliet.
Joliet is a drab, ugly town that once hosted a prison (remember The Blues Brothers?), but their Harrah’s seems to be an oasis of sorts — though to read the casino hotel’s hype, the droll municipality is “picturesque”, but at least the interior of Harrah’s will prove to be the bastion of perceived resort luxury one finds in all of their establishments, and I see little reason to exfiltrate its perimeters except to return to Chicago on Friday, anyway.
The reservations lady assured me that a) I will have dependable wireless Internet in my room, b) there is good room service, and c) their dice tables pay the same percentages as Nevada casinos do (in some places, payouts on certain games are less).
I’m pretty excited about it all, and though I’m not a habitual gambler, I do love to gamble in a casino on rare occasions. Unless you’ve spent some time at a dice table, you have no idea how adrenalized and fun it can be. Having worked in a casino, I’m also well schooled, having witnessed too many idiots in action and learned from their “mistakes”, in the area of responsible gambling — phase one on that score is not to let the cocktail waitresses get you drunk. Order coffee or soft drinks when you’re at the table, if you plan to play for a few hours. Trust me on this one.
At any rate, I may or may not be online over the next couple of days, time will tell.
Cheers!
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August 1st, 2007 at 8:55 am
Happy birthday and enjoy your mini-vacation. Hey spur of the moment trips are sometimes the best type since the anticipation and build up is less which gives less time to possibly get disappointed when things don’t go as planned. Enjoy my friend!
August 1st, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Ken –
Thanks!
I was kind of feeling the same way; Spontaneous is sometimes the best way to go.
I’m heading out in a little while.
August 1st, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Happy Birthday, Seth!!!
LOL, did you know that “gambling” and “speculation” are supposed to be Leo characteristics?
Anyway, have a great time and see you later!
August 1st, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Happy Upcoming Birthday, Seth!
You’re going to be a little over an hour and a half away from here…
August 1st, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Happy almost birthday Lion dude!..too
bad ya didnt come to NYC..I woulda
shown ya the sites!..heh..dont
lose all yer money eh!
August 1st, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Happy B-Day!
Interesting blog here. Visit mine someday and I’ll link to you if you link to me.
August 1st, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Seth,
Happy birthday! You deserve to kick back and enjoy!
Oh, and those spur of the moment decisions are often the best kind–especially when it comes to r&r.
August 1st, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Enjoy your birthday.
August 2nd, 2007 at 12:05 am
Wow, thanks, all!
Atheling2 — my gambling and speculation for the evening, after toking casino employees, has me up about $1,700.00 so far. Yay!
T1G — I already am, since about 4:30pm. If ya feel a casino and/or bar hankering, come on down! I’ll be here ’til Friday late mawnin’, then back to Chicago.
Angel — I make it to New York every now and again, I’ll let you know prior to my next visit.
Bar Kochba — You’ve been in my blogroll for some time. Great site!
AOW — So far it’s been great, especially the winning part. There was some problem hooking my computer up to Harrah’s wireless network, and it was finally determined that the reason was that someone had me tagged as a meeting room instead of a guest room (go figure — I told them that I really didn’t want to have a crowd of suits and briefcases showing up here for a conference), but now that’s been straightened out and I’m on line.
Shoprat — You bet I will!
August 2nd, 2007 at 7:31 am
Happy birthday, Seth! My hubby is a Leo too, but he doesn’t like to gamble. I do, uppon occasion, enjoy it, but not dice. Blackjack, and I set a limit on what I can lose. If I win and manage to keep my money I put it away and gamble on theirs. If I continue to win, I pocket half and play on their half. If I lose half of my winnings I quit. It’s always worked for me. And you’re right in saying you shouldn’t take the free alcoholic drinks the waitresses try to ply you with. Good luck! I hope you come home a winner.
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:26 pm
“…and c) their dice tables pay the same percentages as Nevada casinos do …”
I’m a bit confused… Isn’t craps a game of ‘Chance’?
HA! I actually visited a casino in Laughlin, Nevada back in April when me and some buds rode the Harleys out there for the annual River Run. I played a little 21 at a single deck $3.00 buy in. OK, go ahead and say it: ‘Mr. Big Stakes’ here… I know. But hey, I did get up with just about double what I started with.
August 3rd, 2007 at 10:44 am
Gayle –
I’ll be checking our shortly and heading back to Chicago, up $2,000.00 and change.
Gawfer –
Of all the table games, craps offers the most chances for the player to win (or lose) in the form of bets on every conceivable outcome of a roll of the dice. If a table is “hot” (don’t ask me the science of that, it just happens, people are making their points, hard ways are coming up when bet upon, etc).
By percentages, I mean payouts (house returns on bets such as 10-for-one, 17-for-one, etc) for different numbers coming up.
Even if you break even, you are coming away a winner.
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:10 pm
ahh, gotta like that. Do the payouts change from casino to casino then? because the dice are still 6 sided, right? I mean, do the casinos change the payout numbers on the tables? I have zero experience when it comes to craps… obviously.
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:07 pm
Gawfer –
While house rules, etc, determine the payouts, all games are the same from casino to casino in a gambling town (competition), but when you go to another state where gambling is legal or to an indian reservation, this might change.
In other words, if you owned a casino and you wanted to pay less, you could {such as a normally 10-for-1 hard 8 (double 4s) paying 9-for-1 or a “yo” (11) paying 16-for-1 instead of 17-for-1}. This is true of all games — for example, on a video poker machine, a royal flush that pays 4000-to-1 in Nevada pays considerably less in New Orleans.
Then there are gaming control boards in different states that, depending upon how much they micromanage the casino industry, might have a say, as they do in determining which games ar permissible in their jurisdictions.