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, signaled 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
1000%, 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)
