Lucky

                I never ceased to be amazed at the power of luck.  I’ll begin by saying that I don’t really believe in luck.  I believe in mathematics.  I believe in probabilities.  I have a pretty good grasp on them.   When I come to Las Vegas, I tend to gamble.  When I sit down to gamble, I understand in each game how the house has an advantage.  I accept this advantage and I play anyway.   I tell myself I’m playing for fun.

                All of my logic doesn’t really seem to matter when I play.   I’m either lucky or not lucky.  I either win or I lose.   I know that on the grand scale those are the only two options, but I’m talking about something different.   I either win constantly or I lose constantly.   I played last night and lost 8 straight hands of Pai Gow.   The probability of this happening is astoundingly high.   I play Pai Gow because the house advantage in this game is very easy to understand.   The house has one advantage.   The bank, which is usually also the house, has another one.   The bank wins all ties.   You are welcome to become the bank anytime you win, just be sure you have enough money to cover the entire table.   The house collects a royalty on all winning hands.    This means that even if you win, the house keeps a little bit of your money.   I think this is okay.   They have to pay the dealer, keep the lights on, and deal with me after I’ve been playing and drinking for several hours.   I accept this as an okay deal.

                Back to last night, the odds of winning a given hand are nearly equal between you and the house.   If you take over banking, then they are equal.   That means that on the grand scale you should win as many hands as the house.   Therefore, based on probability, I shouldn’t lose 8 straight hands.   I simply was not lucky last night.  Oh well, maybe tonight will be better, or more accurately stated, maybe tonight will seem better.

Restroom Attendent

                I went out to eat last night in Las Vegas.  I’m here for a conference and I went with a couple of people I met here, along with some friends and friends of friends.   The place was Todd English’s PUB, which is in the new City Center complex.    The City Center complex is interesting.   It doesn’t really feel like Las Vegas in there, which is kind of cool.   The restaurant had good food, but there was something else about it that I really liked.

                When I got up to go to the restroom, I wandered over through a door that was marked as such.   When I entered I was a little startled because I found myself standing in the restroom sink area and there was a female restroom attendant.   She had all of the various restroom sundries like cologne, hairspray, and combs and things.   I thought I had walked into the wrong restroom.   I hadn’t though.   There were separate water closets for men and women, but the sink area was shared.   This allowed for the single attendant.   I like using restrooms that have a restroom attendant and maybe they would be more common if more restrooms were laid out this way.   I didn’t have any small money so I couldn’t tip the attendant, but I may go back and take care of her later.

Hiatus

I’m taking a short hiatus from writing.   I was getting a bit burned out.   I’ll resume in a few days.