The one which I chose to play at was the MGM Grand though, because it's like the most famous and all.
I really wanted to play Poker (Texas Hold'Em) but the poker section was kinda cordoned off into a very exclusive-looking area, and the youngest person there was probably 60 or something. Yes, I think everyone besides the dealers had white hair!
Thus I ended up circling the Blackjack tables and the first thing I thought was - WHY ARE THE STAKES SO HIGH. Ok fine they are actually very low, but to a noob like me it's very high. The lowest minimum bet was $10 -_- So that's $10 for every hand you play. Mad right! Ok sorry la poor boy here.
I began to have second thoughts about gambling, but then I thought if I came all the way here and I didn't try it would be such a waste. So after a long time of circling and standing around, I saw someone leave a table to leave it empty, and I quickly sat down and exchanged $50 worth of chips (my budget) and asked the dealer some questions to learn the casino style of playing.
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Photos were not allowed at the casino so I have to use stock images[/caption]The Actions
The first thing I learned was the actions in Blackjack. I never knew they existed! But basically there's a standard way of signalling whether you wanted to hit or stay: tapping the table meant you wanted another card, and doing a hand swipe parallel to the table meant you wanted to stay.
Beginner's Luck
I stayed at that table for a while, getting quite lucky on many of the rounds but went through some losing streaks. Some other people joined the table and being the super noob I am, I apparently made some stupid moves!
Like there was one hand where the dealer's open card was a low card (4) and I had a 12, and I made the signal for another card. Then this Asian woman next to me burst out: "BUT THAT'S A FOUUUR?!!!!" (When dealer has a low card, it's a high chance he will bust, so you're supposed to stand if your cards are decent) (HOWEVER, after further research, I found that it's not always a bad move to hit in this situation when I had a 12)
She immediately apologized for her uncontrolled outburst and I just gave a sheepish look that said 'sorry i'm a noob'. She lost like $50 before renewing her chips anyway so ... GUESS WHO'S NOOBER. hahahaha nah I'm kidding. I was lucky.
Strategy
I quickly left the table at one point when I was $15 up, deciding it was enough. I cashed in my chips, looked at my watch, and decided I had way too much time left. Time for another round.
This time round I tried to employ more strategy. There were two types of tables - single deck tables and shoe game tables (4-5 decks). I avoided the single deck tables because those seemed less likely for multiple winners - if someone else has a picture card you're A LOT less likely to have one.
I lingered at multiple tables to check out how the hands were going. There are actually complex systems of monitoring tables like the Hi-Lo Strategy which was popularized by the (awesome) movie 21 (WATCH IT if you haven't!), but I just used a very basic primitive system - if I saw several pictures/blackjacks/high cards being played on that table over a few rounds, I would just skip it immediately (since that means less of those in the deck) and move on to the next table. If the dealer was winning many and the previous red flag was not met, I would hop in shortly, because the players' cards can't continue to be that bad!
Using this, I rotated around 3 tables, and I pulled out after I won another ... $45!! Woohoo!
Ok fine this seems very small to you regular casino-ers I know, but it's a lot for me! And I ALWAYS played minimum bid, too scared to play more haha. If I was at the single card table I may dare to play more if I was card counting. (e.g. increase bid if the deck was hot)
Overall
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my winnings :DPoker chips included in illustration for fun[/caption]
I won a total of $60 :) Happy happy. And I had the thrill of playing/gambling too, which was what I wanted to try out. After doing some Googling, I realized there was a wealth of information out there that I had yet to learn about Blackjack. It's actually a very complex game and not the simple 2 card game I learnt when I was a little kid! Strategy charts, card counting etc. So interesting :D
If I had a chance to play again, I would probably do it. But smaller odds please? I don't mind not winning that much, I just like the whole strategy bit ^^
Bison (also known as (American) Buffalo) crossing the road while we were on the bus! Damn cool cos we actually saw it at the other side of the river of the bus so we stopped to take pictures, then it began crossing and then came out of the water then crossed the road.
Beautiful scenery which photos will never do justice to.[/caption]
sup[/caption]
Wax Museum![/caption]
Ripley's Believe it or Not![/caption]
Chinatown![/caption]
The hotel lobby. See the previous link for the facebook album for some room photos[/caption]
West Yellowstone Airport ! I found it weird because there was no customs or anything once you landed you have arrived. I guess it's because this is kinda like a town and there's nothing of great value here that they need to prevent people from bringing stuff in[/caption]
2 medium (12") pizzas for the 4 of us... and we couldn't finish it because the girls couldn't eat their share lol[/caption]