here's a short (well it was going to be short, but it's actually pretty long) summary of last weekend's escapade to the Beau. i'm headed to Vegas this weekend and i hate to back up my gambling trips because if you have a bad trip one weekend, it makes the next weekend start off on the wrong foot, but they were giving me 13k promo chips and 2k shopping vouchers so i couldn't turn it down.

well i checked in and it started off bad. they didn't have me in an ocean view suite. i call down and they say they don't have anything else available, the place is packed for the shopping weekend. so i call the Sr Exec host and he gives me some story about how it's really busy and there's a bunch of big players in town. now i'm not trying to be snooty or anything, but this is the Beau and there are very few players at my level around there. i know because i look around and most people are betting blacks with a little bit of purple action maybe. so they've got 40 of these ocean view suites, there's no way in hell there's 40 bigger players than me. what they did was gave away my suite because i didn't arrive until late Friday night. so they gave people who checked in Thursday or early Friday ocean view and had none left when i got there. not the way you're supposed to do your bigger players and i told them that. he said next time he'll block my suite out, so it can't be given to anyone else, but i'm like why didn't you do that already?

so we had reservations at BR Prime for 7pm, but there's a drawing at 7pm, so i go over to the restaurant to let them know i'll be there at 7:15. they don't have my reservation. ok, whatever, show them my Noir card tell them i need a center booth at 7:15. they say, sorry but we don't have anything available until 9pm. WTF are you kidding me? i talk to the manager and tell her to bump somebody out of there, i was supposed to already have the reservation anyway and i want my table. she says the entire restaurant is already booked by Noir guests who are in town for the shopping weekend.

now i'm really pissed. i've mentioned how i don't think it's right how easy they've made it to get Noir now, but in the past it hasn't really affected me. now there's an entire restaurant full of these "Noir" guests and i can't get my table. that's total BS. all i can say is if you have enough Noir players in town in one weekend to fill up the entire restaurant, it's way to easy to get there. now you just piss off the people the Noir level was originally designed for because they can't get a table.

so i immediately walk over and talk to my host. she says she made the reservation a few days ago (which i know she did because she never forgets stuff) and she'll go in there and talk to them personally. after talking to them they still won't give me the center booth i wanted, but they can squeeze 3 of us on a 2-topper right next to the entry - the worst table in the house. i tell my host in no uncertain terms that's completely unacceptable and i'm really pissed that they're handing out these Noir cards like candy now to everybody and their donkey. she was apologetic, but said there was nothing she could do about it right now. i didn't bust her balls about it too much because i know it isn't her fault, but especially after the ocean view issue, it was really a bad start to the trip.

after dinner the first night the gambling started bad and i was really never up. but i was plodding along OK at first staying close to even, but then this guy sits down at the table. he never bets first, just waits until you bet and immediately bets against whatever you bet. if you change your bet, he changes his. if you take your bet down, he takes his down. and while you're betting 3-5k, he's betting $100. not only that, he's loud and annoying about it. the ultimate cooler and the absolute worst person i could ever think of to play with. so once he sat down things just went straight bad. he completely killed all the mojo at the table. i wonder if the casino pays him to do that ...

the bad part is there's only so many tables of Bacc at the Beau. it's not like in Vegas where there's many open and you can jump around and have them raise the limits to avoid people you don't like. they have redone the Bacc tables and at least now there's 2 Midi tables (where you touch the cards) and 4 mini tables, which is a nice improvement over the 1 and 3 that there used to be, but since i like to touch the cards, there's still only 2 tables. so i changed tables once and started to get a little mojo going, but then he moves over there. again, annoying as can be and i can't do anything about it because since there's only 2 tables they won't raise the limit to $1k or something to keep him off of it.

so it wasn't too long before i was in a big hole. i ran through my CL and my TTO. i took a little break and got some cash from my room. i came back and see that at one table player has won 6 in a row with a couple of ties thrown in. i say to myself this is the best looking shoe i've seen all night, let's do it. but i guess i was the only one with that idea because everyone else at the table proceeded to bet on bank the next hand. i'm thinking what the hell are they doing? i throw $5k on player. win. ok, that's a good start. so $2500 on player and again the table bets on bank. i win again. press to $5k and this time the table decides not to bet against me and just sit out a hand. i win again.

i straight up said to the table, what are you guys doing? does nobody want to win? they didn't really say anything. so i press to $7500 and finally one guy puts a small bet on player. i win again. now i'm really back in good shape and don't want to give it all away. so instead of pressing to $10k i chicken out and back down to $5k. but again only the one guy bets with me and very small, but i win again. now i'm $5k from getting even. bet the $5k and win again.

it was after 4am and i had a 7am limo, so i color up and get the hell out of there just thankful to be even for the night and be able to head to bed. i never looked back to see if player kept winning. for all i know player won another 10 in a row and i could have won really big. but the worst is knowing that, so it's better just not to look back and figure that the streak ended right when you left and it was a good move to leave. anytime you sit down at a table, win 6 big hands in a row and don't lose a single one, you can't complain.

saturday i played golf in the morning. i went off at 8am by myself with my caddie. we were the second on the course, only behind another single. i blew through the round and we were off the course by 10:15. i played the tips, which at Fallen Oak is about 7600 yards and has a rating of 76.5. it's a real beast of a course, but i played pretty well. unfortunately i had no luck whatsoever. i hit 2 shots that looked good but just sneaked into bunkers. the bunkers at Fallen are so deep with steep faces that you basically just have to chip out. one of them i was 80 yards from the green and still couldn't reach it as high as i had to hit it. so that was basically 2 penalty shots. then i hit one drive just off the fairway and it ended up right behind a tree and i had no shot and had to pitch out. and i had 2 birdie putts around 15 feet that burned the edge. so i ended up shooting 82, which from the tips is a solid round only 5 shots over the rating, but it was the worst possible score that i could have had that day. with some decent luck and making a few putts, it really could have been a great round.

my best hole of the day was the 9th, which is a 460 yard par 4. i bombed a drive out there and had 170 left. normally i'd hit a hard 7, but short of the green is dead, so i hit the most beautiful little cut 6-iron that tracked right towards it and landed about 8 feet behind the flag and just stopped dead. it was a slick downhiller, but i drained it right in the center. always a great feeling to birdie a tough hole with 3 solid shots.

after golf i hit the steamroom and jacuzzi and had a massage. felt feeling really relaxed and then took my wife shopping with the vouchers. the only disadvantage with the shopping vouchers is there isn't much to shop for at the Beau. but she was able to find a new purse and diamond necklace, which isn't a bad score for $2k.

the have this "Cirque-style" show in town for this month and next called Fata Morgana, so we saw that on Saturday night. it was actually really good for a little low-budget Biloxi production. you could definitely tell it wasn't quite as polished as the real CDS, but the performers were top notch and did some pretty cool stuff. well worth 1.5 hours if you're in town to see it.

after the show we had a few minutes before our dinner res, so i stopped at the tables to try to do a little hit and run before dinner. well it started off bad and only proceeded to get worse. at one point i think i was up $1k, but that was it. most of the time i was down. i ended up completely skipping dinner partly because i wasn't hungry, but mostly because i was chasing. i kept switching tables, getting a marker, losing that, switching tables, getting a marker, losing that, etc, etc. finally i hit a table where we were doing pretty well and i was making a come back. i was actually 5k from getting even at 2 points and put 5k out there each time and lost. i probably should have just the second time i was down only 5k, but i wanted to get even.

but then this guy at the table (different guy from last night) decides that it's his mission to beat me. so he continues to bet the other side of me. at first i'm doing well and he's losing, but instead of giving up and joining me, he starts getting really pissed and really aggressively betting against me, like it's some sort of competition. well then he gets lucky. i have 7 on bank and he has 1 and he draws a 7 to win. next hand i have 6 on bank and he has 0 and he draws and 7 again to win. after that i never won another hand until i had blown through my line again and my TTO and my cash. lost 6 or 7 in a row and was pressing big, it was bad. and right after i had almost gotten even, which is really frustrating.

so i took another break and walked around for a while and just tried to relax. i had some cash in my pocket for tips and stuff, so i say what the hell and go back to the same table i had won at the night before and put most of it, $2200 on player. i win. ok, now i've got something to play with. after that it's really a blur. really, i don't remember much. i know player had a 6 run, then banker had an 8 run then it went chop/chop for a while and then player had another 6 run. but i kept winning hand after hand and cheering with the entire table and a couple of hours later i cashed out $30k and paid off all my markers.

i honestly can't believe i've had 4 epic comebacks in the last 3 trips. seriously the comebacks i've had have been truly epic once in a lifetime kind of comebacks and 4 in a row? makes me wonder why i can't have that kind of amazing luck when i'm even and make a huge winner?

because of the cash i had put in play i was still down about $6500 even after i had paid off all the markers, but on sunday morning i took the 13k in promos and bet half on player, half on banker and took the $6500 straight to the cage. so i broke completely even for the trip. so overall i can't complain to break even. sure i would have liked to win, but it could have been way worse. at least with breaking even it means this weekend's trip will start off on the right foot instead of starting in the hole.

 

A couple thoughts come immediately to mind.
First, what is going on with Beau's management? The Mansion gets you into Kirk's suite during CNY and the Beau can't hold a place for you?
And how often do bad vibe tables end up with bad results? Too many in my experience. Great to find a positive environment at the end. Again.
I have heard stories about what Fazio did with that course, especially the bunkers.

 

that and similar issues there is the reason I haven't been back in 3.5 years.