Monday, May 29, 2006

Pacing Yourself



In Las Vegas you need to pace yourself. It’s easy to lose discipline and increase the stakes, either because you’re winning and “playing with the house’s money” or are losing and trying to get back to even. Tearing away from the tables and going for a walk is the best way I’ve found to let the fever pass, slow the rate of loss, and gain perspective.

Last weekend the Classic Car Show exhibit was downtown, away from the glitz and glamour of the Strip. Owners proudly posed by their immaculately maintained vehicles while they regaled onlookers with the history of their painstakingly restored beauties. Touching was allowed, though it meant that they would have to polish away the fingermarks on Monday.

I joined the boys for a round of blackjack. We hunted for a $2 or $3-minimum table, but the cheapest we could find on a weekend, even downtown, was $5. No matter---if one employs the basic strategy and, yes, is disciplined about it, one would have to be very unlucky to lose a $200 stake.

The dealer was friendly and didn’t mind frequent pauses to discuss strategy, since it was just me and three twenty-somethings at the table. My seatmates were all asked for their ID (in Nevada one has to be at least 21 to gamble), and the pit boss playfully asked for mine. Everyone laughed, and I feigned a hurt look that it was so obvious to everyone that she was joking.

The newbie, whose 21st birthday we were celebrating, didn’t know what to do when holding, say, a 15, and facing the dealer’s picture card. I advised him that the books said to hit another card but that the odds were against him whatever he decided to do. More often than not, he drew a good card (or the dealer busted when the novice stood on 12), and after an hour he was up $50. This looked too easy, not the lesson I was hoping he would draw from his first trip as an adult to Las Vegas. (Not to worry, though, later that evening he dropped $20 in five minutes and quit before the damage got worse.)


Before dinner we stopped by M & M World and the Coca Cola museum, across from the New York, New York Hotel and Casino. We picked up a dispenser for the office and sampled M&M’s and soft drinks. Thank goodness none of us is diabetic (yet).

We tried the Aqua Massage on the ground floor; at $15 for 15 minutes it was hard to resist. The rhythmic vibration and the New Age music piped in over the headphones put us to sleep. Meanwhile, an adventurous member of our party tried the Oxygen Bar next door; Vegas is a place to do things you wouldn’t do at home.



After dinner we called it a night. In my salad days I would have played till dawn and regretted it later. The beginning of wisdom or the enfeeblement of age? At least I still had money in my pocket. I really must come back more often… © 2006 Stephen Yuen

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