Stop signs

26 December 2017

By Frank Scoblete

My little village has many stop signs. I like that. Stop signs protect the elderly crossing the streets; they protect the kids playing stickball or wiffle ball; and they protect the cars’ drivers so no one is plowing through intersections just waiting to smash themselves and everyone else. Stop signs do save lives and do save us from injuries.

Sadly not everyone obeys the law when it comes to stop signs. I’ve seen the stop sign criminals. There are some drivers who just blow through them and some others who roll so fast through them that it seems as if they are actually blowing through them. These stop-sign sinners are dangerous, and they should be stopped for blowing or quick-rolling through stop signs. Where’s a cop when you need one? Actually, with stop signs, where are the million cops you’d need to patrol all those stop signs?

Not stopping at stop signs is ultimately a stupid thing. For a few seconds, you put everyone, including yourself, in danger. By way of comparison, not heeding the stop signs when you are playing a casino game can be a dangerous thing as well. Stop signs are important; they protect you if you follow them on the roads and they protect your money if you follow them in the casinos. Do not be stupid by ignoring the stop signs when you are playing.

So what are the stop signs in casino play?

• If you brought a certain amount of money to play a session (or a day) and you lose all that money, then quit. This is not a difficult stop sign to understand. Do not (under any circumstances) take money out of an ATM or ask for another marker or open the safe in your room for more funds. You are done until the next session or the next day or the next trip.

• When you are tired, stop playing. Being tired can also make you play foolishly, much as if you were drunk. “Oh, what the heck; let me go for it before I go to bed!” Those can be economically fatal last words. If you are tired, then go to bed; don’t go to bet.

• If you feel a little too tipsy, do not order another drink. Tipsy is a BIG stop sign because alcohol really loosens the muscles, as in the brain’s muscles, as in there is a great tendency to throw caution to the wind in such cases. When you throw caution to the wind, you tend to be throwing your money to the wind as well.

• If you find that someone is “out-betting” you and that someone is truly obnoxious, do not try to out-bet him to show him you are superior to him. Leave the table and go to another table or take a break. You are in competition with the casino and not with other players.

• If you are playing a game where your strategy decisions actually count in reducing the house edge and you start to get confused about what to do – what to do is take a break. Your brain has become overloaded.

Okay, follow my stop sign rules and it will help protect your walking through the casino.

[Read Frank Scoblete’s books I Am a Card Counter: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Blackjack, I Am a Dice Controller: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Craps and Confessions of a Wayward Catholic! All available from Amazon.com, on Kindle and electronic media, at Barnes and Noble, and at bookstores. Visit Frank’s website at www.frankscoblete.com.]