Now I Remember Why I Love Craps

Had a decent weekend. Condowarming BBQ on Friday night with some good friends, Saturday was spent mostly in the kitchen, followed by some bad beats online knocking me out of the 50-50, $4k PLO, and Midnight Madness (but cashed in a some $22 turbos), and Sunday was a trip to Niagara.

My friends and I were looking for $5 tables, a rarity in these parts. Calls were made - Fallsview? Nope. Niagara? Maybe. Rama? Yup. We opted to go for the maybe, since there was also Seneca across the border (more on that later). Niagara was running $5 at their only open table and we joined in.

2 hours later they upped it to $10 despite our protests and we left, having all more than doubled or rolls. Myself - up $600. All of the winnings came from my 4 buddies (who are all joining me in Vegas in December) going on a solid series of rolls. Fire bets were almost hit twice (enough points, just not enough individual ones), and I was double-betting their rolls because that's what friends do. The crew was tipped generously and they even tried to talk the floor into keeping the $5 to no avail. So the 5 of us left, taking the majority of the chips off the table, all the talk and fun, the tips, and half the players. We wandered by 20 minutes later and the crew was excited until we just waved and walked on.

Naturally, I hit my blazing 7's. After hitting the 777 for $300, I walked away from that, now up $780 on the day.

One friend decided to visit some family in the area and the rest of us opted to visit Seneca on the US side. We found it, coughed our way through the dense smoke and terrible ventilation, and found the craps tables. $10. But that's not the worst of it.

$10, heavy smoke, and only DOUBLE ODDS? Plus, no firebet, which is a sucker bet, but one I love playing when my friends are rolling or the table is hot. Pathetic. Seneca for craps? Not gonna happen. Actually, despite the aggressive expansion and promotion of the Seneca casino, it offers absolutely nothing of value as far as I'm concerned. It's mostly slots, it's confusingly laid out, doesn't cycle air well, and just feels... dirty. Methinks I'll stay on the good side unless maybe VinNay (have fun in Ireland) or Iakaris (have fun in India) refuse to cross to my side for a game.

I played some slots and lost $140 ($20 of which to demonstrate why I don't play video slots). Up $640 on the day. We did take a look at the poker room, which was running a deepstack tourney, decided it was alright, but not spectacular, and continued on our way.

We then ended up in the Tonawandas on our search for a gas station and cheap US gas. Man, does the Buffalo area still suck.

Back across the border and off to Copacabana for Brazilian BBQ. By now, people should be familiar with the endless stream of meat that come with this dining option. Stuffed, bloated, and done, we decided it was time to head out.

A call was made to the absent friend, who was "almost done". So we went to Fallsview (where we were parked) to play slots for the free parking and wait for him to show up so rides home could be better arranged.

Slots - up $60 (so now up $700 on the day) after a bad burger-girl machine, a good burger-girl machine, and a generous Monte Carlo machine. No friend call, so we leave. He finally calls us once we're in St. Catherines, hitting a traffic jam. He's waaaay behind, so we say goodnight.

The jam isn't too long and we get through... and hit another in Oakville that looks brutal. A pulloff, sideroads taken, and we're back on a clear highway and on our way. People dropped off and I'm home 2 hours later than planned. Sigh.

But the trek was good, and the first winning craps session I've seen in a while, and should have primed the one wavering gambler in the group for Vegas (winning craps sessions can do that).