One of my great pleasures in life is playing a game of chance. In this section I will be discussing Gambling. When I refer to Gambling I mean Casino Gambling (Black Jack, Craps, Roulette, Slot Machines and other table and video games). I will not be discussing Sports Gambling, Horse Racing, or Casino Poker. The reason is simple I don’t enjoy them so I don’t do it and really don’t know much about them. In addition, I don’t consider poker with friends where you are drinking and smoking and complaining about our wives as gambling its just a fun night out.
Whether it was sleeping over my friend Vito’s house and playing poker with him, his father “Dutch”, Nicky, and the Great Jim Veltry until 3am or was it sneaking into Bally’s at 14 with my brother or something else that got me hooked on the games of chance. I really couldn’t tell you when I first started gambling, it just seems I have always been doing it. However I have one problem, I hate losing money. Unlike a lot of people I know you cannot beat the house, in the long run they will get your money. So how do you gamble a lot and not lose a lot (get over it, you will lose). Actually it is pretty simple if you remember these simple Rules:
- Gambling is Entertainment – Never gamble with money you can’t lose – sounds simple right, but its not. I view gambling as entertainment not as a way to pay my mortgage. I have friends that spend a lot of money playing golf, or fishing, or going to the theater, this is all entertainment. So if you want to gamble put aside some money to build your bank roll, just as you would decide to put money away for a vacation or a sporting event.
- Never Play More than your Bank Roll – Your Bank Roll (The amount of money you have for gambling) is your best friend. It’s you best friend because you set your limit before you ever walk into a casino. Your Bank Roll is should be the amount of money you are willing to lose without getting pissed off. You do this because your adrenaline isn’t all worked up when you are at home and it is when you are in the casino. So set your Bank Roll before you leave your home and NEVER BET OVER IT OR BEYOND IT.
- Never Chase Your Bet – So many times I am sitting at a table and I see people all of a sudden increase their bets dramatically. Sometimes this is a way a serious gambler will play, but for most of us we are not serious or professional. Trust me the serious and professional gamblers still lose more than they win. Normal people tend to do this because they are losing and are frustrated and think if they double or triple their bets they can win. DON’T DO IT YOU WILL LOSE FASTER.
- Know When To Walk Away – As Kenny Rogers said in his song the Gambler “Know when to walk away and Know when to run” . I have had session at the black jack table that lasted almost 12 hours and then I had some that lasted 12 minutes. You need to learn when to get off the table. So here are the basics, (1) Set you session limit and if you lose it get off the table. For example if you sit at a $10 black jack table and you cash in $200. Once you lose the $200 leave and go to the pool or bar. (2) If you are playing for more than and hour and you are up at least half of your session amount then stay on the table until you get less (in my example in (1) when you are up $100). Stay on the table and if you keep wining put money aside on top of the $100 and no longer play that money. Once you lose the rest walk away.
- Don’t Play Sucker Games – As long as there have been Casino’s they have been improving ways to take your money. Don’t let them. Black Jack is my first choice, so most of my examples will involve Black Jack. First the Casino’s increased the number of Decks from 4, then to six, then to eight. After a while they introduced the shuffle machine and got rid of shuffling by hand. This increased the number of hands per hour therefore increasing their chance of winning. A few years back they introduced the “continuous shuffle” machine. I will go into detail why these games are so bad and you should avoid them. Lastly my biggest pet peeve is the 5/6 Black Jack. This is a new trick Casino’s are playing. Traditionally Black Jack pays 3/2, but many Casino’s have changed it to 6/5. So if you have a $50 bet up you win $60 instead of $25. So try and find a traditional game with 6 decks and hand shuffling. If need be go to 8 decks, but never play at a continuous shuffle machine.
The above rules are the basics, throughout this section of the site I will discuss the following items:
- Where you Gamble is as important as what – for me it is either Las Vegas or Atlantic City, the two best places to gamble
- How to preserve your Bank Roll – Get the most from your Bank Roll, the goal is to play not win money
- How to Bet – How you bet is the most important thing about Gambling
- Table Games vs Slots – Slot players rule the Comp world, but I would rather stick a hot fork in my eye than to be a slot player
- Myths about Casinos – There are a lot and the biggest is – THE DON’T PUMP PURE OXYGEN INTO THE CASINO, with all the smoking the place would blow up.
- How Las Vegas & Atlantic City lost its way and its very sad – While they are still the two best places to gamble every trip a small piece of the Old School dies, and the new school Sucks.