The Pink Dice

It was back in 2005 that I blogged "Vegas Vacation Recap, Part 4 – The Pink Chip" (along with four other articles from the same Vegas trip). The thing that made that vacation unique was my receipt of a pink ($500) chip instead of 5 black ($100) chips in a "color out" (combining lower-value chips for bigger-value chips) when leaving a craps table.

Well, my pink adventures are certainly not at an end.

On my last trip, I found myself in Bill’s Gambling Hall (for you Vegas old-timers, it used to be the Barbary Coast, and for you Vegas aficionados, it’s owned by Harrah’s). I was playing Craps at a $5 table (my usual pastime and level) and, for some reason, raised the ire of a boxman (the guy who sits across from the guy with the stick) because I wasn’t hitting the far wall when throwing the dice.

Note to Craps noobs: the house does want you to throw the dice with sufficient "style" to hit the far wall, to ensure a random bounce. I wasn’t doing this intentionally, and certainly did hit the wall as often as I can remember, but, no matter.

After two warnings (I was busily collecting winnings at the time), the guy reaches into his pocket and pulls out two tiny pink dice, explaining to me that if I lacked the strength to reach the far wall, I could use these .. the ladies’ dice; he went to great pains to describe these akin to the ladies’ tees on the golf course.

Of course, it cracked the table up (myself included), and I promised to do better. The next few throws went over the far wall (again, not my intention), which was more than enough fun for the evening.