My fraternity brother, Brendan Bacchus, happens to live in Las Vegas with his new wife and her kids. Brendan is two years younger than me and we used to hang out all the time at Alfred, but more or less lost touch after graduating. When I heard he was in Vegas I gave him a call and we planned to meet up Thursday evening.
Kappa Sigma Epsilon in Las Vegas
After our day trip to the Hoover Dam (see previous post), Bob, Jim, and I drove up to Bacchus homestead for dinner. We had a great home-cooked steak and baked potato dinner. Brendan even busted out a $300 bottle of Crown Royal for Jim and Bob to enjoy. I took a tiny sip - probably worth $8 - made a terrible face and promptly asked for another beer please.
After dinner we headed out to the Strip. First stop: The Rio (home of the world series of poker). On the ride to the casino Brendan told me all about his system for the roulette table. He called it “Negative Progression.” Basically the premise is to find a table with the lowest buy-in and highest max-bet. You start betting at the table minimum (we put $5 on red) and if red pops up you win, followed by betting $5 again on the next spin. If the ball lands on black, then you lose and the next round you bet $10 (doubling your bet). You double your bet every time you lose until you either 1.Get your money back (which then you return to betting $5 again), 2. Lose all your money, or 3. Lose enough times in a row to hit the table's max-bet (in which case you can no longer double your money). In theory, you should only win money. In practice…
I agreed to give the system a try and kicked in $50 to match Brendan’s $50. We found a table that had a $5 minimum and was hot on red. We placed our bet - $5 on red – and here’s what the roulette wheel did:
Bet #1: $5 – results: BLACK (loser) – total loss: $5
Bet #2: $10 – results: BLACK (Loser) – total loss: $15
Bet #3: $20 – results: BLACK (Loser!) – total loss: $35
Bet #4: $40 – results: BLACK (LOSER!) – total loss: $75
Bet #5: $25 (we had run out of money to double our bet, so we put the remaining $25 on the table – I mean, what are the odds that black will show up 5 times in a row??) – results: BLACK (LOSER!!!!!) – total loss: $100
It was unbelievable – my $50 (and Brendan’s $50) down the drain in 3 minutes! We didn’t even win a single time, not once! I was distraught and immediately went into ‘pout mode’... This was by far the low point of MAN WEEK.
Brendan obviously has a much higher risk tolerance than I because he marched over the nearest ATM, withdrew $200 on placed it on red. At this point I couldn’t even watch as the roulette wheel was spun. With $200 on the line….it landed on…. RED!!! Unbelievable – He just doubled his money!
True to character, he tried to give me $100 (1/4 of his winning bet). I steadfastly refused, but he kept insisting. Finally, we compromised that he would give me the $100 and I would bet it on red. And I did just that. The dealer spins the wheel and I have 10 fingers crossed, two arms crossed, and my eyes closed…. After bouncing around for what seemed like an eternity, the ball landed on…. RED!!! I’m pretty sure I almost wet my pants haha
Following orders from Brendan, Jim, and Bob I re-bet half my winnings ($50) on red. I turned myself into a human good luck charm again (fingers crossed/arms crossed/eyes closed), but this time to no avail. The demon ball landed on black. After this spin, I called it quits – up $100 due more to Brendan’s generosity rather than my gambling prowess.
Drive by picture of the Rio Casino & Hotel
Roulette is a terrible game. There is no skill, only luck – of which I have plenty of the bad variety. Yet there is a valuable life lesson to be learned here. Don’t play Negative Progressive roulette at the Rio unless you are willing to lose 5 spins in a row without feeling like you’re going to throw up…
Kappa Sigma Epsilon in Las Vegas
After our day trip to the Hoover Dam (see previous post), Bob, Jim, and I drove up to Bacchus homestead for dinner. We had a great home-cooked steak and baked potato dinner. Brendan even busted out a $300 bottle of Crown Royal for Jim and Bob to enjoy. I took a tiny sip - probably worth $8 - made a terrible face and promptly asked for another beer please.After dinner we headed out to the Strip. First stop: The Rio (home of the world series of poker). On the ride to the casino Brendan told me all about his system for the roulette table. He called it “Negative Progression.” Basically the premise is to find a table with the lowest buy-in and highest max-bet. You start betting at the table minimum (we put $5 on red) and if red pops up you win, followed by betting $5 again on the next spin. If the ball lands on black, then you lose and the next round you bet $10 (doubling your bet). You double your bet every time you lose until you either 1.Get your money back (which then you return to betting $5 again), 2. Lose all your money, or 3. Lose enough times in a row to hit the table's max-bet (in which case you can no longer double your money). In theory, you should only win money. In practice…
I agreed to give the system a try and kicked in $50 to match Brendan’s $50. We found a table that had a $5 minimum and was hot on red. We placed our bet - $5 on red – and here’s what the roulette wheel did:
Bet #1: $5 – results: BLACK (loser) – total loss: $5
Bet #2: $10 – results: BLACK (Loser) – total loss: $15
Bet #3: $20 – results: BLACK (Loser!) – total loss: $35
Bet #4: $40 – results: BLACK (LOSER!) – total loss: $75
Bet #5: $25 (we had run out of money to double our bet, so we put the remaining $25 on the table – I mean, what are the odds that black will show up 5 times in a row??) – results: BLACK (LOSER!!!!!) – total loss: $100
It was unbelievable – my $50 (and Brendan’s $50) down the drain in 3 minutes! We didn’t even win a single time, not once! I was distraught and immediately went into ‘pout mode’... This was by far the low point of MAN WEEK.
Brendan obviously has a much higher risk tolerance than I because he marched over the nearest ATM, withdrew $200 on placed it on red. At this point I couldn’t even watch as the roulette wheel was spun. With $200 on the line….it landed on…. RED!!! Unbelievable – He just doubled his money!
True to character, he tried to give me $100 (1/4 of his winning bet). I steadfastly refused, but he kept insisting. Finally, we compromised that he would give me the $100 and I would bet it on red. And I did just that. The dealer spins the wheel and I have 10 fingers crossed, two arms crossed, and my eyes closed…. After bouncing around for what seemed like an eternity, the ball landed on…. RED!!! I’m pretty sure I almost wet my pants haha
Following orders from Brendan, Jim, and Bob I re-bet half my winnings ($50) on red. I turned myself into a human good luck charm again (fingers crossed/arms crossed/eyes closed), but this time to no avail. The demon ball landed on black. After this spin, I called it quits – up $100 due more to Brendan’s generosity rather than my gambling prowess.
Drive by picture of the Rio Casino & Hotel
Roulette is a terrible game. There is no skill, only luck – of which I have plenty of the bad variety. Yet there is a valuable life lesson to be learned here. Don’t play Negative Progressive roulette at the Rio unless you are willing to lose 5 spins in a row without feeling like you’re going to throw up… 
1 comment:
lol!!
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