It's not gambling if you always win*.
* I do not always win.
I went to Atlantic City on Sunday. My roommate and I hit the road at 7:45 and were throwing dice at the craps table by 11:15.
For future reference: wearing a blazer is really overkill for the Trump Taj Mahal.
Almost as soon as we got to the craps table, it was my turn to throw, and I immediately lost us each some money. Then my roommate lost us some money, and after 20 minutes we were each down close to a hundred dollars. Mmmmm, gambling.
After that debacle, we were pretty well soured on craps. We sat down to play some blackjack. My blackjack philosophy is pretty damn stupid--I don't make any effort to keep track of high cards/low cards, I take stupid risks, I put too much money down at once, I play two hands at a time, etc. But the cards must have been on our side, since after an hour or so we had both gotten back to even, and were both actually up a little bit (I think).
My roommate decided to go hit the poker room, but I was feeling so good about blackjack that I told him I'd meet him over there later. After he left, I spend the next 2 hours steadily pissing away my winnings, and then pissing away the rest of it.
I love that feeling, when you're at a casino, where you realize, "well, I've lost all the money I brought here. I should just stop now, before I lose any more. But there's an ATM right over there, and a few good bets could win me my money back, and then some..." The first dozen times you're in this situation, you vacillate between the ATM and the Right Choice for an hour, and then end up giving in and taking out some money. The thirteenth time, however, you just skip the guilty conscience stage and immediately hit the ATM.
So I took my crisp $200 and sat down at a different blackjack table. I'm not superstitious, and I know it's fundamentally random, but are you seriously going to go back to the same cards and same dealer to whom you just lost all that money? No, no you are not.
After half an hour, I was up $30, and they were about to raise the minimum bet to $25, so I vamoosed, happy that I hadn't yet lost all the money I really shouldn't have even taken out of my bank account in the first place.
I headed over to meet my roommate in the poker room, but since there were no spots at his table they stuck me all the way on the other side, with a few other young guys and a bunch of old folks with wattles and no obvious tells.
I lost $50 in three hands.
Then, thankfully, a spot opened up at my roommate's table, so I moved over there. The other people at this table were a lot friendlier than my previous neighbors, and my roommate and I were trading hilarious barbs across the felt, and it just seemed a lot more comfortable to me.
A sidenote: if you're thinking about playing poker at a casino, bring your iPod. You spend most of the hands sitting around waiting for the next one, anyway (you fold at the first round of betting a majority of the time), so you really need something to fight the boredom. Just so you know.
Almost immediately after sitting down, I got dealt A-10 suited, and started throwing some money into the pot. Ultimately, it came down to me and the guy next to me, and I ended up beating him with Aces and 10s--he had Aces and 9s, and was emphatically not happy about this, and left the table. So that was pretty cool.
Over the next 90 minutes, I won about $325 (only a little bit from my roommate), which got me all my money back as well as $50 of the Donald's hard-earned cash. It felt good.
Then I stopped playing, because I may not be the most perceptive person in the world but I can recognize an appropriate stopping point (sometimes).
The drive back to DC sucked--driving home from the casino always sucks. But we did see a pickup truck ablaze on the other side of the interstate, stopping traffic for a couple of miles behind it. That was pretty cool (we saw the driver chatting with the police, so it was all right to enjoy the sight).
Yesterday I spent 5 hours playing frisbee, which got me a lot of sore muscles, a borderline sunburn (despite actually using 45 SPF--what a ripoff!), and did I mention the sore muscles?
In summary: if you are losing money, just throw more money on the table until you win. And sunblock is a total crock.
I went to Atlantic City on Sunday. My roommate and I hit the road at 7:45 and were throwing dice at the craps table by 11:15.
For future reference: wearing a blazer is really overkill for the Trump Taj Mahal.
Almost as soon as we got to the craps table, it was my turn to throw, and I immediately lost us each some money. Then my roommate lost us some money, and after 20 minutes we were each down close to a hundred dollars. Mmmmm, gambling.
After that debacle, we were pretty well soured on craps. We sat down to play some blackjack. My blackjack philosophy is pretty damn stupid--I don't make any effort to keep track of high cards/low cards, I take stupid risks, I put too much money down at once, I play two hands at a time, etc. But the cards must have been on our side, since after an hour or so we had both gotten back to even, and were both actually up a little bit (I think).
My roommate decided to go hit the poker room, but I was feeling so good about blackjack that I told him I'd meet him over there later. After he left, I spend the next 2 hours steadily pissing away my winnings, and then pissing away the rest of it.
I love that feeling, when you're at a casino, where you realize, "well, I've lost all the money I brought here. I should just stop now, before I lose any more. But there's an ATM right over there, and a few good bets could win me my money back, and then some..." The first dozen times you're in this situation, you vacillate between the ATM and the Right Choice for an hour, and then end up giving in and taking out some money. The thirteenth time, however, you just skip the guilty conscience stage and immediately hit the ATM.
So I took my crisp $200 and sat down at a different blackjack table. I'm not superstitious, and I know it's fundamentally random, but are you seriously going to go back to the same cards and same dealer to whom you just lost all that money? No, no you are not.
After half an hour, I was up $30, and they were about to raise the minimum bet to $25, so I vamoosed, happy that I hadn't yet lost all the money I really shouldn't have even taken out of my bank account in the first place.
I headed over to meet my roommate in the poker room, but since there were no spots at his table they stuck me all the way on the other side, with a few other young guys and a bunch of old folks with wattles and no obvious tells.
I lost $50 in three hands.
Then, thankfully, a spot opened up at my roommate's table, so I moved over there. The other people at this table were a lot friendlier than my previous neighbors, and my roommate and I were trading hilarious barbs across the felt, and it just seemed a lot more comfortable to me.
A sidenote: if you're thinking about playing poker at a casino, bring your iPod. You spend most of the hands sitting around waiting for the next one, anyway (you fold at the first round of betting a majority of the time), so you really need something to fight the boredom. Just so you know.
Almost immediately after sitting down, I got dealt A-10 suited, and started throwing some money into the pot. Ultimately, it came down to me and the guy next to me, and I ended up beating him with Aces and 10s--he had Aces and 9s, and was emphatically not happy about this, and left the table. So that was pretty cool.
Over the next 90 minutes, I won about $325 (only a little bit from my roommate), which got me all my money back as well as $50 of the Donald's hard-earned cash. It felt good.
Then I stopped playing, because I may not be the most perceptive person in the world but I can recognize an appropriate stopping point (sometimes).
The drive back to DC sucked--driving home from the casino always sucks. But we did see a pickup truck ablaze on the other side of the interstate, stopping traffic for a couple of miles behind it. That was pretty cool (we saw the driver chatting with the police, so it was all right to enjoy the sight).
Yesterday I spent 5 hours playing frisbee, which got me a lot of sore muscles, a borderline sunburn (despite actually using 45 SPF--what a ripoff!), and did I mention the sore muscles?
In summary: if you are losing money, just throw more money on the table until you win. And sunblock is a total crock.