Violating my own rules

I received a call a few days ago from the world's greatest dice controller, the Dominator, and he was quite angry with himself. Playing in a Florida casino that did not have craps, Dom had switched over to his second favorite game blackjack.

He had taken a beating all night, but in the "last" shoe he had made a great comeback in the high [player favorable] counts and he was now only a little behind.

"I decided to only give myself twelve hundred dollars to play with on the next shoe, and if I blew that money, call it a night," he said. "Well, the count kept getting higher and higher [game was now getting positive for the player] and all those little cards spelled doom for my twelve hundred bucks. But, wow, was the count through the ceiling. So now I had to make a decision."

For most blackjack players, the decision would be easy, walk away. But Dom is a card counter and now the shoe was juicily high and ripe for the taking -- hopefully. Dom had put himself in a bad position. If he didn't want to increase his bets in a favorable count, then why bother playing the shoe from the beginning? Just because he had lost his $1,200 he had money in his pocket, a tremendously favorable count on the table and a signal that said to his brain, "Go in for the kill!"

"As stupid as it is," he lamented, "I walked. I left a great count and walked away. I had the money to make the right bets but I froze and walked away. I am now kicking myself in my butt for being so stupid. How could I have violated one of the sacred rules of being a card counter, putting up the big bets when the count favored me?"

Dom is not alone in the self-administered butt-kicking department. Most casino players with highly developed skill at certain games, such as controlled shooting at craps, card counting at blackjack, proper betting at Pai Gow poker, and advantage slot playing, which I cover in my new book Slot Conquest: How to Get the Edge at Slots! have done the misdeed of doing it all wrong.

I've been there too. Here are some of my rules and why I sometimes disobey them:

• Never shoot the dice on the first day of a trip. When I go to Vegas I stay for one or two weeks. My flight is five and one-half hours with another two hours thrown in at the airport in New York and about a half hour at the airport in Vegas. Then the car picks me up and I head for the casino. The time spent is similar to working a full-time job. I am tired and not in any condition to try to do anything worthwhile at craps. But when I get with my buddies, known as the Five Horsemen, it is hard to resist going straight to the tables.
• Never play on the last day of the trip. This used to be a problem until I wised up and made my last day of the trip a 7 a.m. flight. Since I usually keep a normal rhythm in the casino, I will be in bed at 10 o'clock, so not playing on the last day isn't too much of a big deal.
• Never fret after lost money. Yesterday's losses are yesterday. As Jesus said, "Let the dead past bury its dead." As a player, stewing over my losses doesn't help my mind play better today. This has been a rough one to adhere to at times since occasionally I will have a day of massive losses.
• Don't play at crowded tables. It's Saturday evening and the casino is jammed. Players are packed like sardines at the craps tables. At roulette, players are falling all over each other to bet, and at blackjack, many sour-faced "experts" are regaling other players about their poor play. It is best to take the night off, see a show, watch a movie in my room or sit and people-watch. Playing is a waste of time and emotional energy.
• Always stick to my betting style. Don't jack up the bets to make back losses and don't go ridiculously high because I am having one heck of a night. Play the games you play the way you have analyzed you must play them.
• Do not fall into the casino's 24/7 rhythm. This is no longer much of a problem with me. I feel better keeping my usual hours of waking and sleeping. But years ago I often violated this with usually bad consequences. Now my motto is "Play Only When Refreshed."
• Don't brag about wins or whine about losses. People get angry if you won and seemingly lorded it over them and people really don't give a damn if you lost. In a casino it is usually every man and woman for his or herself.
• Never play based on intuition. This happened early in my casino-playing career. I'd get "a feeling" and follow it to its logical conclusion -- and that conclusion was often antithetical to the feeling.

I am sure many of our readers have their own list of do's and don'ts when it comes to their casino playing pleasure. Good gambling habits are just as important as good habits in everyday life. The difficult part is pounding that idea into your head.

Get the Edge! Join Frank Scoblete in Las Vegas, October 21, 2011 for Advantage-Play Friday.