Quit When You're Ahead

27 August 2024

By Frank Scoblete

“You’ve got to quit when you’re ahead.”

How many times have you heard someone say that and you nod in agreement or just look at the person who is saying it and not give a response?

There is no sensible response to the statement.

Correct. No sensible response. Give the saying some thought and you will see that just taking the statement apart, bit by bit, leaves you in a conundrum that will require a small article to untangle the whole thing.

Let us say you wish to quit while you are ahead. You’ve planed your casino vacation and you are flying to whatever sin city you enjoy but this time you are going to “quit when you’re ahead!”

You check into the hotel; go to your room, check it out and head downstairs to your favorite pleasure, casino gambling. You sit at the blackjack table and immediately get a blackjack! Hooray! You are now ahead.

What should you do? Leave immediately. You nailed the game. You’ve beaten the casino and now you should leave at once and never return. You are a winner!

Huh? You didn’t book a room for a week to just up and leave once you won a bet, did you? Isn’t that ridiculous? Of course. But you were ahead, weren’t you?

Hmmm? Seriously, what should you do? Oh, let’s just place another bet and see what happens. Oh, no, you just lost. Now, you are tied. Okay, one more bet and see what happens. You lost again!

How can you leave now that you are behind? So, you start playing and you never get ahead for the whole day. I mean you win some; you lose some; but overall, you are behind.

Wait a minute, does being behind mean you can never leave the casino? Of course it doesn’t because you aren’t about to sell your house when you lose every penny you’ve got.

But can you quit now that you aren’t ahead? Of course, you can quit now. You are tired from long hours of fruitless play just as you always are when you are behind and leaving the casino. Oh, sometimes you are ahead, right? Right, right. So, I
should quit when I am ahead.

Wait a second; didn’t I just do that at the beginning of this article. Didn’t I just cancel my hotel reservations? Or figured out something else to do with my time? Wouldn’t I have to pay for that something to do too? Would such payments get me ahead? No, obviously not. I would be behind no matter what. Seriously, how many movies can I see? How many restaurants can I visit?

Everything costs me. I’m always behind something or other. Is this my total state of affairs? Am I always going to be behind? Is life ultimately being behind?

When it comes to casino games? Here is the truth: You will lose after a few decisions or you’ll lose today or tonight or after a few days or finally at some time or other or after your very first bet never to get to the world of the winner.

The casino knows that too. And you should know that too if you understand how the casino structures the games to give themselves the edge.

Ultimately, life ends in a loss – the loss of you. So, enjoy your time in a sane way and don’t give yourself an impossible criterion to live up to. You have enough crazy things to live up to.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

Frank Scoblete’s books are available from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Kindle, e-books, libraries, and bookstores.