Dear Mark,
I know you always say to
set your win and loss limits, and that makes perfect sense. But, how
about when you get on a great winning streak at blackjack and it seems
that you can do no wrong... do you still walk? I play $100 hand
blackjack and increase like a crazy man when I'm winning, sometimes even
table max (2K) when it's "one of those nights" I just never know when to
leave when I'm doing so good. Mike B.
The two hardest times to leave a casino
are when you are ahead or when you are behind. That, Mike, is why I
recommend that all gamblers set loss limits and win goals. As for when
to bid your farewells, setting a specific win goal (such as doubling
your money), then sticking to it, is the correct money management
strategy when it comes to saying "cheerio" to the dealer.
The biggest (and usually only) advantage
you have over the casino is the ability to quit while ahead. So, if you
want to show a profit, Mike, you've got to get up and leave the
blackjack table while you've still got it.
That said, I am not saying you need quit
a hand when you are on a winning streak. Why tempt fate? Magical
gambling moments do happen. Your hand-to-hand encounter with Kismet
could be today. Fifteen, 18, even 20 winning hands in a row is possible.
When your date with the Goddess ends, however, signalled by possibly
one, two, no more than three losing hands, you flaunt your famous mad
dash to the cashier's cage.
As Amarillo Slim was quoted in last
week's column, "... be able to quit a loser, but for goodness' sake,
keep playing when you're winning."
And there is this wise old Jewish
Proverb: When Fortune calls, quick! — offer her a chair.
I just don't want readers to catch a
mild-to-moderate case of the greed virus, where their fevered fantasy
looks far beyond a possible 100% profit, escalates it to 1,000%, and
wakes up with a real-life hangover at minus 300.
The Wow-Jee-whiz-Yippee cancellation of
probability just ain't going to happen in most cases.
Dear Mark,
I don't understand some
of these bets. You wrote: "In great detail, Slim and Dinkin chronicle
Amarillo's winning ways and his larger-than-life-wagers like these
classics. He won $300,000 from Willie Nelson in a televised match of
dominoes, or remember when he beat Bobby Riggs out of $10,000 in a game
of Ping-Pong played with frying pans as paddles? He also trounced a
world champion ping-pong player with a Coca-Cola bottle, and even
whooped Minnesota Fats in a game of pool using a broomstick as a cue."
The last two don't at all make sense. Was Fats using a real cue? Was the
World Champion Ping-Pong player using a real paddle? If he were, I'd bet
against Amarillo knowing the outcome. No way, it could have happened.
Ken M.
Naturally, Ken, it is all a matter of how
Amarillo Slim set his pigeons up. Making them play in an environment
they were not used to, and couldn't have anticipated, is the pivotal
pry-bar. For instance, Amarillo once outran a horse in a 100-yard race.
No one had said anything about the race
being on a straightaway.
Would you, Ken, take a $100 bet that I
could hit a golf ball 800 yards with a seven iron? It's easy to do in
the empty parking lot of a shopping mall. A concrete surface can really
add to the length of your drive. Then there's the guy who rakes in the
sheckles by knocking the ball a mile on the smooth winter ice of a
frozen lake.
Rule #1 when it comes to making
proposition wagers: In every bet there is a fool and a thief.
Rule #
2. If you are ever making such a wager and you don't know who the sucker
is, it's probably you.
Gambling quote of the week:
"A sucker has to die every minute to make room for the one that is
born."-Herbert Asbury, Sucker's Progress (1938)
