Ask the Slot Expert: Superstition or routine

The reporter asked Shaun White, three-time Olympic gold medalist, how he dealt with the pressure of competing at the Olympics.

He said that he tried to treat the Olympics like any other competition. He had the same routine at the Olympics as he had at any other competition. He had the same training regimen. He ate the same foods. He had the same talks with his coach. As far as his body and his mind were concerned, this was just another competition. That's how he tried to alleviate Olympic pressure.

It's not superstition for him. It's just routine.

I follow the same routine at the casino. First, I try to park in the same space.

Having a usual space is advice a friend gave me after I told him that I had temporarily "lost" my car in a Costco parking lot. He said that he always parked in the same general area so he didn't have to go on a treasure hunt to find his car.

Before I qualified for entry into the VIP lot, I once couldn't find my car at Sam's Town. I thought I knew the general area I had parked in, but I couldn't see my car. I had to use the remote trunk opener button on my key fob to make my car stand out from the others.

In addition to parking in the same place, I also try to play the same video poker machines. My habit creates a positive feedback loop.

I originally chose machines for environmental reasons. A nice place to play, good dealing speed, and no overhead light reflection on the screen. Almost all of my play is on these machines. As a result, almost all of my big wins are on these machines. And that makes me more likely to play them and have more big wins on them and play them ... and so on.

Now I have two reasons to play these machines. They're pleasant to play and I've had good luck on them. And I'll keep reinforcing the good-luck aspect by playing them instead of other machines.

Granted, I could have the same long-term results no matter what machine I played. A machine with no glare, however, will always be a machine with no glare. I can use that as my primary reason for playing the machine.

I can prove that my actions are not superstition. I'm not convinced that I'll lose if I can't park where I want to park or have to play a different machine.

It's not superstition. It's just routine.

Speaking of the Olympics, a few thoughts about the recent Olympics and Paralympics.

• Is it any wonder that Johannes Klaebo won every cross-country skiing event? At the end of the relay, most of the other anchors collapsed after crossing the finish line. He was chatting with his teammates and didn't look at all like he had just skied 7.5 km.
• An aspect of the men's free skate competition was overlooked in the coverage. In addition to Ilia Malinin, Yuma Kagiyama and Shun Sato -- two other skaters who also were expected to do well -- had rough moments during their performances. Their problems didn't cost them as many points, though.
• Slalom has flushes too. A flush is three or more gates stacked vertically on top of one another. I'll stick with flushes in video poker.
• The slalom -- and all of the skiing events -- are hard. Now try doing them if you're visually impaired or missing one or more limbs.
• Some of the Paralympic events have modifications compared with the Olympic events to accommodate the abilities of the Paralympians. One event, however, is harder. There are no sweepers in Wheelchair Curling. Once the stone is launched, it's going to go where it wants to go and no one is on the sheet to influence its trajectory. As a result, there are more missed shots and stones that go straight through the scoring area and out of play. It's also more impressive when the stone goes where the player wanted it to go.
• Isn't it ironic that dense fog started rolling in just as the second run of the men's slalom in the visually impaired classification began?

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