*results not typical

I've returned from my Las Vegas excursion! A good time was had by all.

For those who've expressed an interest in good poker stories, let me just simply say it was not a pretty picture. Aside from my first night there, nothing seemed to go right for me. Combinations of bad decision making, bad rivers, and poor starting hands made it a really poor four days of poker for me. The poker story that I think sums up my trip in a nutshell: I did get dealt pocket Aces one time on the trip, but I ended up showing down to the river with one other player who had the other two Aces, and we split the pot.

Now, I was having fun regardless. But the trip would have been a financial disaster were it not for craps. Even as I say that now, I have a hard time actually believing it.

It started Tuesday morning. Some people wanted to ride the New York New York roller coaster. We went and looked; closed for wind.

Alright, how does poker for a while at MGM sound? But we go, and there aren't any limit tables in play at the time, which we all wanted.

How about craps? We said we kinda wanted to play craps a little bit at a table that's $5 or less. But like we're gonna find that anywhere on the South Strip. Let's go downtown and do that later.

Fine, wanna try another big poker room like Caesar's or Mirage or something? Fine, but it's 100 degrees out and the wind is blowing like a convection oven; let's take a cab.

So we're walking to the MGM lobby to get that cab, and happen to walk by a completely empty craps table. And amazingly, it has a $5 minimum. Now, I'm not really convinced I want to play craps this trip. I was still bound and determined to make the poker thing work. But I was perfectly happy to stand with them for 15 or 30 minutes or whatever while my two friends did what they wanted to do.

Each of them throws down $60, and starts in with the simple betting: straight pass line, taking odds on the point. Winner! Winner!

Okay, some confidence is building here. Add one come bet, and we'll take odds on that. Winner! Winner! Winner!

Well, okay, it didn't really go that long without a single crap out, but the point of the story is, more good than harm was happening, and very soon, my two friends had their nerve up enough to do what many will tell you is the best approach to craps (short of not playing it): run a pass line bet and two come bets at all times, all with odds, and wait for those to hit.

They're each up in the neighborhood of about $300 when I decide I'm missing out on something cool, so I throw in my three $20 bills, just as they did, and get in on the ride.

By this point, they've built up enough confidence and profit that they're willing to flirt with $10 bets even though it's just a $5 table. Me, I start small and timid, just as they did. But I go on a 35 minute run as shooter, interrupted only when I loft the dice off the table once.

By now, the limit at the table's been raised to $10 while we've been there, but we're grandfathered in at the lower rate. Not that it matters that much, because I'm now up about $150, and each of my friends has got an impressive rack of $25 chips started.

Next up, Sangediver is throwing, and the other friend happens to get "out of step" one bet -- he misses a come bet in a distracted moment, or when his drink arrives, or whatever. So he places his one throw of the dice later, and now his "third bet" on the table is in a different place from the two of ours.

And every single time, we're trailing one bet behind him as Sangediver hits one after the other after the other after the other. The dealer finally "moves me up" and starts paying me in $25 chips, which would be awesome any other craps run, but meanwhile, the third member of our group has earned his first $100 chip.

My brother-in-law calls something like two hours into this insanity. "Oh, we're playing craps at MGM, and we are NOT leaving." He comes to find us and actually join in, but by this point, Sangediver now has more than a couple $100 chips, I'm standing with my own impressive rack of $25s, and the third friend has managed to secure his first $500 chip.

"We're gonna get you one of everything we've got on the table, man!" says a dealer.

Other players come and go, total strangers, each stopping by long enough to... I don't know, make a couple hundred, lose a hundred, I'm so not paying attention. We do keep passing the dice around. It's not like we're never losing. But we're having average runs of about 20-30 minutes as shooters, and the stacks keep going up and up and up and up.

I never quite get the nerve to start throwing around $25 chips like they're candy, but I do earn a $100 chip or two in this chaos.

But meanwhile, the third friend earns his first $1000 chip.

And then his second.

Four hours, about 12 dealer rotations, and 117 "holy shits!" later, each of us has pulled out a certain amount of money we're pledging not to give back to casino. But it's still a total rush. Between bets for the dealers and straight-out tips, I expect there's been something like another $500 we've made as a group that we never even really saw.

I know the dealers are suppose to say things to make you feel good and have a good time, but I swear it felt like this one meant it when he said "I have never seen a run like this." Every time a new dealer comes in, one who had been there points to the stack and says, "they all started with $60 each."

The third friend has now taken those two $1000 chips off the table by this point. I'm not sure if we're all collectively looking for reasons to stay or reasons to leave, but one more dealer rotation around, and the guy we'd been having the most fun with in all of this looks at us and says:

"I'm telling you, the dice don't stay hot like this. You really should leave."

We played out that round, each of our group shooting, and then we did just that.

We all bought in for $60. My brother-in-law, who arrived latest to the party and played most conservatively, roughly doubled that.

I walked away with about $450.

Sangediver had over $1400.

And the leader of our pack was pushing $2200.

For those who don't want to do the math, that last number represents over 35 times his starting stake.

This was the highlight of the trip. Possibly the highlight of any trip I've taken to Vegas. I'd have never predicted it, but there you go.