20240321 CVP Mixdown 1

I found out something very unsettling about him. Gamble? What do you mean, gamble? He plays craps in the back room of a private club. I mean, you know, Yule Eleven. Come on, Little Joe. It's a hard way. But, how so? He loses a lot of money. You had no idea? No, I didn't. You're listening to a Crap Vegas Patreon Exclusive. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another CVP special. Josh, how are you doing? I'm doing well. Although we lost, because it's weather talk, we've lost our 70-degree days. We're back to 50s and kind of rainy here. And the PMW. Is that what you guys call it when you're living in the PMW? Yeah, the PMW. Nice. Well, and the MW, the Midwest here. The weather has been very cold as well. But, Josh, it feels like I have seen you more on Zoom in the past week than any point in my life. Yeah, so Chris and I were just talking before we pressed record on this here CVP show that we are going nonstop in the celebrity, not celebrity, the celebrity bracket challenge. You're a celebrity, Josh. And to be fair, last night's recording, I would say Garrett's a celebrity. He's a legit celebrity. I mean, one of People magazine's 50 most beautiful people in 1997 is a celebrity. Is it? But you notice I did not say that. You didn't mention that when we were recording. It was still in the intro. I don't know if that was creepy. Garrett, you are such a sexy man. We are so happy to have you on Zoom. Well, yesterday, Josh, like Josh said, we were recording some of our bracket specials. We recently recorded with Karen. The episode with Keith has already come out. And yesterday we recorded with Garrett Wong, who is unfortunately a Star Trek celebrity that Josh is just a huge fanboy of. I mean, my God, he was falling apart. And I, of course, had no clue who the hell this guy was. We had a lot of fun with Josh. Like, this guy's a really big deal, Chris. I mean, and I'm like, I don't know who he is. And I couldn't pick him out of a lineup. But anyways, we recorded last night. He was a terrific guest. That's probably my favorite bracket challenge we've done so far. I think you guys are all going to really like it. A lot of upsets that I wasn't expecting came out of that episode, thanks to Garrett and his persuasive – what did we say here, Josh? Just his persuasive opinions that he provided to us. Persuasive opinions, persuasive personality. Yeah, he got us involved. And it's really funny, because as you guys will listen to this episode, he describes kind of who he is. He's a big craps player. Oh, he's a big craps player. If Josh didn't tell me that he was a big celebrity actor, I would say this guy is a craps degenerate. Because that's what he sounded like. Just like us. Oh, yeah, just like us. I mean, we fit in perfectly with him. But he also, Josh, he kind of sounded like a dice setter a little bit, even though he said he's not a dice setter. He said he sets them, but it's not for – He's not a – yeah, he's not a KCS, is what it is. He's not a KCS. Because he was talking about his launch angle multiple times during the episode. And at one point he told Josh and I, he's like, you know, I got in real big trouble at this place, and they gave me a hard time. Because they said I was taking a minute and a half between roles. And I'm thinking, if this guy took a minute between roles, I'd never want to see him at a table. Don't give the whole show away, Chris. You've got to keep the secrets. It will be good. I think everybody's really going to like it. Something else, Chris, about Garrett that I didn't want to mention to him last night, because, again, don't know him all that well. He was being asked at the Star Trek convention one time what he would do if he hadn't been an actor. And he said, I would have been a professional craps player. Oh, interesting. So that's how you know he's a true degenerate. That is true. But the reason that we're even bringing this up is during the episode, Garrett had a comment that really kind of we thought would be fun to dive into a little bit, because it's something we haven't talked about. So, Josh, go ahead and play that clip. Okay. M is another place I'll never play at, either. So it's just I almost feel like somehow the owners or the casino, the head of the casino has hired some type of witch coven to put some hex on there or something. No, I don't know. I've gone there. I've tried that place probably 12 times. Okay. Total in over the last since they've opened. So basically, I, you know, I tried them like once a year for about and then I gave up. I was like, this is can't win a dollar there. It's just one of those things for me. It's one of those places where the whatever, whatever. When I'm at that craps table, any of those craps tables, I'm zigging. The tables are zagging. I'm zagging. The tables are zigging. And it's always like that. And it's never, ever been the opposite. And I told, you know, a friend of mine, the one that I met at Ellis Island, he, he, that's the closest casino to his house. Right. And he keeps going there and he keeps getting his ass handed to him as well. And I, and I told him, I said, just don't go there. That's cursed. It's like a cursed casino. I don't know. Maybe it was built on native grounds. Maybe who knows? It might be, you know, some indigenous cultures burial ground that is built. I don't know. It's not. I'm sorry. Why would I go to a place where I just can't win a dollar? It doesn't make any sense unless I, unless I like to lose my bankroll. And I don't want to, I don't like losing my bankroll ever. Right. So no one does. No player does. Okay, Josh. So the first thing I thought we'd take away from this, let's start this way. Are there any properties in your eyes that you just love playing at, but you feel like you can just never win there? Well, lately I would say win. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. No, seriously. And it's interesting here. I mean, hearing Garrett give that opinion, I hadn't really thought about it that way. But he was dead set in certain, and it comes across in some of his voting for the properties. But he was dead set. If he's not winning at a property, he's not going back there and he's not in favor of supporting it. And he's very passionate about that. Win is the one, honestly, that comes to mind that I've had a hard time winning lately. And I was going to say Aria, but we won on the last trip. But win's been tough. How about you? I agree 100% with you, Josh. I can't remember the last time I had like a really good win trip. It's been well over a year. It might have been two years since I had a really good trip there. I've had a break even here or there. But like a winning trip, no. And it does feel, I love the dealers there. I love the tables. I love the rooms. The food's pretty good. I just, it feels like I can't come home with more money than I started with. And on the opposite end of that, recently I've had good trips at Aria. I had a good trip at Venetian recently. I just, I don't know what it is about win, but I can't win there. So does it affect me going? No, it doesn't. But I think the reason that it doesn't affect me and it clearly affects Garrett is that it depends on how superstitious you are. Do you really think that past performance is going to dictate future results when we're talking about a craps game? And of course the logical answer is no, it has zero effect on it. It does not matter where we're throwing these dice. But craps players are horribly superstitious. So it doesn't surprise me at all that somebody like him would have such a strong visceral reaction to a property based off wins and losses. Yes. And you'll hear him when we, when we air that show, you'll hear him talk about various things that are his superstitious idiosyncrasies. I'll say that he knows rationally. He knows, you know, he says it in the episode that the dice are random and there's no memory, but still he makes his decisions based on these things that he knows to be random. But they still influence his decisions. Now, I will say, though, Josh, maybe a small correction, or maybe I just wasn't paying good enough attention yesterday. But he did say he's a random roller many times during the thing and use that as a defense with floors. But at the same time, I think he did reference that, you know, there are people, though, that are controlled shooters. Yeah, I think he might believe it. I don't know if he 100% believes it or not. But it's funny because after talking with him, if you didn't have the whole conversation, if you just heard about his idiosyncrasies and the way he thinks, you would 100% believe he's a case. Yes. Yes. If he hadn't said flat out, I believe in the randomness of the dice, something to that effect, then, yes, you would think this guy is taking a minute and 30 seconds to set the dice because he believes that. Oh, yeah. But, you know, I think there's nothing I mean, there's nothing wrong with his beliefs that if I'm not winning there, don't go there, because if it affects your emotional state, sure, it's putting you in a bad mindset. Then, A, it's not going to be fun. Right. And B, people in bad mindsets are more likely to lose money than somebody in a good head frame. And that's what we've always said. I mean, when I said, you know, show number one, whatever it was, play the way that brings you joy. If, to use Garrett's line, if you're zigging and the table is zagging and you're zagging and the table is zigging and you're not having fun because of that, then don't play there. And if that means, I know we have a lot of listeners that feel that way, that they're not going to play the particular property, no matter how nice it is or what kind of offer they get, because they can't win. Yeah, no, I understand that. No, how about this, Josh? Maybe it's not the property for some people. Maybe it's specific dealers. Do you have any dealers that you actively avoid because you just can't win with them? Well, you know, Chris, at first I was going to say no, there really aren't. But when I think about it, I kind of hate to admit this. Sometimes I'm reluctant to play at Rick's table, our favorite dealer at win. Really? Yeah, because I don't seem to have good luck with him. That's true. And it's so oftentimes in the morning if there are two options and I can casually walk by and I love playing with Rick. So if Rick ever joins Patreon and hears this episode, it's not meant to be anything against you. But for whatever reason, I don't seem to win as often when I'm playing at a table where you are. And I hate to say that because I love the crews you're with. I like you. I like Liz. But if there is sometimes an open table and another dealer is there that I feel luckier with, I'll go there for sure. How about you, Chris? Do any dealers scare you away for that reason? Here I am thinking, Josh, I'm going to edit this clip when it's all said and done. I'm going to email it to Rick because he can't hear it on Patreon just so he knows how you feel about him. No, you know, I'm thinking about it, Josh. I don't avoid dealers specifically because I can't win with them. Right. But there are dealers that because I never win with them combined maybe with their personality, I have a tendency to stay away. I'm not saying that the winning or losing is really what dictates it. But if I have in my mind this is a dealer I never win with, I don't particularly like playing with them, it makes me want to skip their table more so than somebody that I just have no opinion of or no history playing with. Right. And I don't like having to individually call out people because I don't want them to think it's their fault. But there definitely are a couple dealers that win that I've never had good luck with. You may call out somebody. Well, I appreciate you doing that. Thank you. I need to stay on their good side, I guess. You know, there are a couple dealers that I intentionally avoid because history has been bad with them and their personality doesn't mesh with what I like. So I do have a tendency to do that. On those same lines, though, Josh, do you have a lot of dealers in your mind that you intentionally avoid just because you don't like playing with them, win or loss? Yeah, well, there are some dealers that I just think are generally kind of grumpier. Yeah, and same with boxes. We had a box at Aria, I won't call the person out, but that we always thought was kind of just grumpy and frowny. And we would avoid that table just because we didn't really want to play with that box. Nothing personal, it's just that person wasn't very much fun, didn't make it fun. I'll say that win is one of the only properties that I can think of that I've ever played at where a box can actually be far more important to me than the dealers at the table. Oh, me too. And I think that's because wins dealers are all so good. Yes. Their quality of dealing is so high that most of the time it really doesn't matter what crew you get. You're going to have a great time. They're all going to be friendly. You're going to enjoy yourself whether you like one of them or four of them. You're going to enjoy it. But the boxes can really dictate, you know, my overall enjoyment for the session. And win just has so many really good boxes, you know, whether it's like cruising afternoons or in the morning. Since you were talking about Star Trek, people like Ben. Right. Or even people like Meeba in the morning. I don't want to forget him because he's always terrific as well, just a super nice guy. And there are some boxes at win that I just don't particularly care for, and I know you love them. Right. So it's just a personality thing. But, yeah, I let boxes dictate where I play more than dealers sometimes at win. You know, Chris, as we're talking this out, kind of going back to the Rick thing, and it actually dovetails all the way back into Garrett's original statement, I think part of the issue is because Craps is a negative EV game and all of the games that we all play, whether they're slots or black tech or whatever, unless you're an AP, you know, find an AP play somewhere. They're negative EV games. So, Chris, what I was thinking about Rick is part of the reason maybe I have in my head that I tend to lose more with him is because I stay at his table longer. That's because I like Rick. And if I'm playing with him, we'll get to chatting. I'll be having a fun time there. And next thing I know, I've lost my whole bankroll. And it's not because of anything. Obviously, it's nothing to do with Rick, but I've stayed at the table longer than maybe I would otherwise because I like him. And it's the same with properties. I mean, going back to Garrett's point, maybe the reason we've lost more at win recently is because we're playing more at win recently. No, I mean, you are. I mean, that is true. At win, we typically play seven to eight hours a day. And it's a higher, right. Very heavy at a higher level. So mathematically, yes, we're going to lose more money there. And I don't know how much less, but I do know when we're at Aria, we have a tendency to play less. Right. And because it's an MGM property that gives us a lot of free show tickets and stuff, we have a tendency to do other things, you know, shows and events and stuff in the evenings. Where at win, we might be playing during that time. So we definitely get less play hours in at Aria than we would at a win place. Yeah, I think that's all just it's something to consider. But, yeah, I'm just a great conversation that we had with Garrett and made us think about this a little bit. Yeah. And I think when push comes to shove, we're not as extreme as as Garrett in the sense. No, we don't not go back to a place because we've lost. I don't think either of us really go that far. No, I wouldn't do that. OK, Josh, but before we go, since we've been talking about win a little bit, something in the news this week and, you know, us, we're all about timeliness with. Oh, yeah. News. Yeah. There was a message from Las Vegas locally on Twitter. Right. Correct. Yep. I think that's where I heard it first. Right. And I haven't seen confirmation yet, but he is indicating that when we'll start tear matching next month for a couple of months. Is that what you understand? That's what I understand. And I am not in favor of it. I think that's a terrible idea. And quite frankly, I never thought when we'd do it again after COVID. Right. Because I don't think they have any reason that they need to. Well, that's my thought, too. So to kind of refresh everybody's memory, when, at least as far as I know, never did any. Well, they didn't have tears until they restructured their players program kind of during COVID. But they match the tear match during COVID for a period of time. And then that's the one and only time up to this that they've done it as far as I know. Yeah. No. So this is this is definitely going to catch people by surprise. We've talked before about our thoughts regarding tear matching. And I think our general gist is if you're a real gambler and you actually play a lot, then tear matching is a horrible thing. Right. And if you're a casual visitor that goes once or twice a year and you don't play that much, tear matching is great. At the same time, I mean, I'm about to hopefully knock on wood tear match at Fountain Blue when we go down the end of April. And they match Win Black to whatever their highest level is. So I'm excited about doing that. So, I mean, I feel like a little bit maybe we're talking out of both sides of our mouth here. I don't think so, Josh, because if you gave me the option between tear matching all properties, they offered it. Right. Or nobody tear match, I would immediately say nobody tear match. I agree. OK. I don't want anybody tear matching. Now, if I'm going to a property and they're going to offer me a match, then I would be an idiot not to take it. Right. But that doesn't mean that I think that it's a good idea and that they should do it. And of course, if people are saying, well, you know, you're being greedy, you want everything for yourself. But no, the reason that tear matching is bad in general is because it waters down the benefits for all players. Right. Because if anybody can get matched into higher tiers, then they can't offer you as much as a casino. It needs to have value for reaching it. And specifically with Win, it is so hard to hit the black tear as an average gambler at Win. Yes. I mean, it's hard for us to hit it. I don't know if I'd go that far, but it's much easier nowadays. It used to be hard for us to hit it. It used to be really hard. Yeah, exactly. But that being said, like if there was all of a sudden 50 percent more black card holders at Win, I would really be frustrated by that. Yeah. Because it whether it should or not, it holds some stature there. It has meaning. There are benefits associated with it. Like if you're a black tier, then you automatically get upgraded into the Tower Suites Hotel section. If everybody has a black card, are they going to tell me one time that there are no rooms available there and I get a normal one? You know, things are maybe transportation is not available. And black card people get whatever it is, two masterclasses a year or four, however many it is, or the golf course tickets. The more people you let in to be black status to get those benefits, the less option there is that the masterclass that I want to take is going to be available when we're there or whatever it is, for example. And I know there's been three or four times on trips that we've been going together. We've tried to get into masterclasses and they've always been full. Right. So if you increase the amount of people, that's just going to make it harder. It's only going to get worse. And I just I just don't think this is a great idea for them. I don't understand their philosophy behind offering it. And I'm I'm kind of disappointed in them, honestly. Yeah, I am, too. I was going to say, Chris, the the thing that might be more approachable for a lot of people is the whole Caesars. And they're what do you call them? The Caesars lounges, the Laurel lounges. And I think that they went through a big issue because they had so many people that hit a diamond level through the founders car through matching. You know, all of a sudden those Laurel lounges were packed with people who hadn't, quote, unquote, earned that status. And I think that factored into one of the reasons that Caesars has taken them away. I'm sure it has. And they did the whole thing where originally you had to be diamond to get in. And then they had to change it. So you had to be diamond price or you had to pay per person to get in. And, yeah, it was all because of issues caused from matching. I mean, that's what predicated the whole issue. And now those lounges are gone because they just I guess they thought that was easier than trying to figure out a system that actually works. Well, yeah, I mean, they are. And to be fair, it's not like Wynn has a lounge for their black card holders, you know, but I say that. But at Encore Boston Harbor, they do it right. Yeah. So maybe it's just not a Vegas thing anymore. But, yeah, I'm just I'm a little disappointed in them taking this step. I really hope other properties don't. But quite frankly, if you are going to do some sort of matching, I really hope since the details aren't out yet, I really hope it's more of a quest or challenge, whatever you want to call it, where you have three months to earn X points and keep it. I don't want it to be from this point until January 31st of twenty twenty five or something. Well, and I think that's a really good point. And Chris, I'm sure you've got these same emails. I don't know if you've paid attention, but as part of the MGM alliance, whatever you call it with Marriott, if you're a platinum card holder at Marriott, you automatic. I mean, sorry, if you're a platinum card holder at MGM, you automatically get status for like three months or something at Marriott as a platinum elite. I think they call it, which I don't even know what the not going into what the benefits are. But you have to then spend, I think I saw with seven seven thousand five hundred dollars by the time this expires to keep that status. So that's what they're doing. And I agree that I like that idea, that type of idea of you have to accumulate X number of points or spend X number of dollars to keep that status. After a certain time period. Yeah, I think I'm OK with any property that wants to offer some sort of status challenge. We'll give you the status, but it's only for two, three months and you got to do X, Y and Z to keep it. I'm OK with that. But the blanket just hand me your platinum card and we'll give you this card and it's good all year. And yeah, I don't like that at all. Right. OK, Josh. OK, Josh, so I know we're a little shorter today than we typically are, but quite frankly, we have been recording so much stuff this week, specifically for the bracket challenge that I'm tired of being in front of my computer at this point. And the patrons are also getting just the extra video on Sunday when our next bracket releases. So and keep in mind, guys, once we get past the first round, the first four recordings, we've already got three in the can at this point. Once we get past the first four recordings, everything is going to be exclusive to you guys on Patreon. They aren't going to hit our main feed anymore. So all those people are going to miss out and shame on them. But you guys will continue to get the audio and video versions of all our bracket challenge stuff. And eventually we'll see, Josh, who's going to walk away with hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. If we have Garrett on again, I can tell you it's going to be some dark horse. Yeah, I mean, we're not going to give away any picks, but there may be an upset or two on his episode that people are going to be saying, wait, wait, wait. What? Do one? So I'm really looking forward to that. Josh, anything else going on we should talk about before we get out of here? No. Just to let our patrons know, we pretty much have all but confirmed that end of April trip. So I think it's April 26th through I'll be there through that Tuesday, whatever the 30th, I think. Chris and I will be for the first couple of days at Venetian and then I will matriculate over to Fountain Blue. And then we've also kind of heavily penciled in a trip at the end of June that we're excited about. And Josh, I'll be in Vegas a week later after this comes out for my wind trip at the end of the month here. I forgot about that. Yeah. So that I haven't been there this year. So it'll be interesting to get back over there. And I guess since I can't win there, I better brace myself for a big loss. That's right. Now you're going to win and it's going to screw everything up. I hope so. We're going to have to re-record. Yeah, I know. But I'm really looking forward to that. Like Josh said, we'll be at Venetian at the end of next month. That's going to be a lot of fun. And I'll tell you what, Josh, our host at Venetian, I am absolutely in love with right now. I am too and I haven't even met her yet. No, she has been absolutely killing it. I'm not going to go into detail about something that we requested this past week from her. And she immediately got on it. It took a couple of days to get worked out, but she came through at the end and gave us exactly what we asked for. And we were even talking recently about a meet up in the future where if we wanted that craps table reserved in the Palazzo High Limit room, I think she can absolutely make it happen for us. I think that could be a lot of fun. But yeah, I'm excited to meet her. This will be my first time using her services as a host. So Chris better, she better come through. So far, so good, Josh. I got nothing to complain about. And hey, I'll even give our win host a shout out, Josh. I booked my room. I got everything taken care of. And he let me know that I had a large amount of free trips that I didn't even know that existed. So, I mean, that's a plus, I guess. So funny thing as we're kind of rambling on here at the end, funny thing about our win host. So we've we've told you before that he's not the most. He's very timely in his responses, but oftentimes they're just one or two words and you don't get any warm, warm fuzzies from him. So I get this email from him a couple of days ago. That's, you know, hi, Josh. You know, we've got this promo waiting. Love to see you. And it's signed by hostess. I send Chris, you know, a screenshot of it and thinking, you know, this is like the warmest and fuzziest that he's ever been. And Chris was like, I got the exact same email, exact same word for word standard marketing email that he copied out to everybody. And I'm like, gosh, he was Josh was a little sad when that happened. But Josh, you turn around to that same day. I was working with our Venetian host and she's sending me text forward to Josh that have heart emojis and love. And I mean, just like she doesn't want to jump through the screen and tell you how amazing you are. So just different personalities doing different things. And that's OK. Yep. OK. Very excited. Oh, one more. One more. One more. We have been asked if we are going to go to the Blackhawk meetup that's in early June. And I think probably Chris and I will not be able to make that. We really thought about it and gave some, you know, gave some serious consideration to it. There's a lot of people there I'd love to see. I think we both want to go and gamble there. I mean, hell, we've talked about retiring and Blackhawk or Blackhawk. So I'm going to be sorry if we don't make it. I would say it's probably 90 percent chance that we won't be there. But thanks for the invitations and have a great time if you're going. And we'll be thinking about you and living vicariously through all the stories. Yeah. Send us some stories and some feedback on how it went. Yeah. Leave us a voicemail that we won't play, but we might listen to. That's right. Anyways, guys, thanks for listening. We really do appreciate it. Be on the lookout Sunday for the next bracket release coming out on our main show feed and on Patreon for video only. But other than that, we'll talk to you guys soon. Yeah. Thanks again for all your support. We've got a lot of new patrons. And so thanks for joining us in this fun journey to CBP shows. And we'll talk to you soon. Oh, that was the worst thing I ever heard. It was terrible. It was horrendous. Well, it wasn't that bad. Oh, yeah. There were parts of it I liked. Yeah, I liked a lot of it. Yeah, it was good. It was great. It was wonderful. Bravo. More. More. More. I don't think there's a single person that listens to our show that thought that was going to happen. Surprise. Look at that.