Week 13 NFL Picks + Atlantic City Trip Report
JMP took a quick trip to Atlantic City and has a report back for us to go along with his NFL picks. In an effort to tease their fans a little more the Jets won Thursday. Yippee. Onto the picks and trip report.
It’s time for another very special edition of JMPicks Plus.
Let me fill you in on a dirty little secret: I pitched myself to TC by saying I’d be his PA casino correspondent, but since then, the closest I’ve come to a PA casino was on 7/3. I tried to go to Harrah’s Chester for the fireworks but saw the line of cars waiting to park, drove past, made my way through lovely downtown Chester back to 95 and headed home. It’s tough out here – Sugar House Casino down on Delaware Ave is behind schedule and they can’t figure out where to put the Foxwoods. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll get something in the mail about Parx Casino opening this month, but I’m not holding my breath (and it’d be 7/5 Jacks or Better anyway; bleh).
Instead, I’ve actually been going to AC; I went back in September and again this past Saturday. Like TC, I also rate ‘car service’… of a fashion. I take the bus! You may laugh, but for me, the plusses far outweigh the minuses. I live about 1.5 hours away if I drive myself and I’ve done so many times, but I never know when I’ll get a bad night’s sleep due to my 10 month old daughter teething (love you, Peanut!). Instead of worrying myself and my wife with the prospect of driving home from AC tired, I’d rather leave the driving to someone else. The downside is that it’s a shade over 2 hours each way and I have to listen to a bunch of senior citizen chatter, but if I treat it like an airplane flight, with a neck pillow and ear plugs, it’s not bad. Taking a seat away from the bathroom at the back helps, too. The other plus is that it forces me to stick to a schedule and budget my time. Can’t miss that return bus, after all!
I pay $25 round trip and, on Saturdays, get dropped off at Caesars where I get $25 in Reel Reward play which is good on certain machines. Luckily, the 9/6 progressives by Toga are ‘in play’ and over the past two trips, I’ve turned $50 in fake money into $51.25 of real (yes, I keep track!). Essentially, they’ve paid ME to come to them. Then I jitney over to the Borgata where I’ve been getting bounce back offers ever since I was there in May – $15 in food a month, $15 in slot play on some dates with the occasional ‘mystery dollars’ promotion thrown in. Combine it all together and I’d like to think that 9/6 JOB becomes a positive expectation game for me.
Well, not this past Saturday. I did have a nice, mostly free, meal at the buffet, but that was in the middle of a suck sandwich of VP. Down $60 before lunch, down another $40 afterwards. Couldn’t hit a quad to save my life. That said, I got pretty good action for my money; enough to avoid calling the machines ‘tight’. I jitneyed back to Bally’s and finally hit a quad to trim my losses back to $60. Even with an hour to kill, I cashed out on a ‘high note’ and headed south to check out The Chelsea. I ended up at the counter at Teplitzky’s, enjoying a $2 bottle of Bud (it was happy hour) and the mac-n-cheese I had heard good things about. It WAS good, but I was still pretty full so I had them box it for my wife, who really liked it and she knows her mac-n-cheese! I’d recommend Teplitzky’s for a light snack/meal before or after drinking/gambling. The people next to me had a nice-smelling plate of wings and the non-breakfast menu seems reasonably priced. The breakfast menu, though, is another matter. Look it up online if you want and then be prepared to put your eyeballs back in your head. I can’t in good conscience link to it!
Onto the picks, bullet-style:
NYJ (-3) at BUF: took the Bills, so I’m already 0-1.
PHI (-5.5) @ ATL: Eagles.
STL @ CHI (-9): Rams
DET @ CIN (-13): Lions
TEN @ IND (-6.5): Colts
DEN (-4.5) @ KC: Chiefs
NE (-5.5) @ MIA: Pats
OAK @ PIT (NL): Steelers
NO (-9.5) @ WAS: Redskins
TB @ CAR (-6): Bucs
HOU @ JAC (NL): Texicans
SD (-13) @ CLE: Bolts
DAL (-2) @ NYG: Cowgirls
SF @ SEA (pick ‘em): 9ers (note this is not a ‘no line’ according to Yahoo!)
MIN @ ARI (NL): Vikes
BAL @ GB (-3): Packers
Last week: 8-8
Overall: 89-85-1
