Abby's Disaster

3 November 2022

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: We have been told by other gambling writers not to write too many negative things about casino play. After all, we are a part of the gambling experience and there must be good reasons why we have done this for almost 30 years.

ABBY: Has it been that long?

CINDY: Yep, just about. We’ve had a lot of interesting experiences, some about good luck…

ABBY: And some about bad luck.

CINDY: Correct. And I’d like to take up the idea of disaster in this issue. I am not talking about losses in the general sense, small or maybe medium ones at that, but monster losses where you question gambling and why you do what you do if such a thing as today or tonight can happen to you. The word disaster is the key word here.

ABBY: Got you. I do think many, if not most, casino players have faced trips to the casino that turned out disastrously. I am also thinking for most of us such disasters happened early on in our gambling careers. I’ll tell my story first.

I am guessing the worst night of my life happened about 26 years ago. I was playing craps and then blackjack and then roulette. I couldn’t win anything at craps. I certainly didn’t shoot the dice well. I was down about three-fourths of the money I was using for that session. I decided to move over to blackjack.

I also decided to refinance my session stake with more money from the safe in our room. I mean could I keep losing like this? Big mistake on my part because the answer to that question was a solid “yes.” Blackjack can be tough when you hit a losing streak. I couldn’t win more then a hand now and then. I even pushed on most of my blackjacks.

I drank some wine to “relax” me. I lost the entire session stake at blackjack as I finished my second or third “relaxing” wine. That meant I lost two session stakes, the remainder of the first one from craps, and the second one from blackjack.

Oh, yeah, I spent a lot of time at the blackjack tables, just losing and losing.

To me I lost a lot of money and I felt I hadn’t even gotten off the ground. I was like those early airmen and women who can’t get their planes in the air.

I went back to the room and got the rest of my money from the safe. Why not play roulette? That would change my luck. Could I possibly get clobbered at three games in a row? That seemed unlikely. I had put in a whole bunch of hours already!

I prefer to bet either black or red so that I can keep my losses reasonable. Reasonable this night was an unreasonable desire. I’d bet black and red would come up. I’d bet red and black would come up.

I even played mini-martingales. I’d bet black and if red came up, I’d double the bet on black. Red would come up again. Double my bet on black. Red! One more shot. Double my bet on black. It has to come up, right? Nope, again a red.

I switched over to red. Black hit!

I went like that no matter how I bet. Yeah, I won a bet here and there but there weren’t many here and there wins, that’s for sure.

I lost every penny I came to gamble with. That’s the awful truth. That was my disaster. Total one-day disaster for our dear Abby.

Now, today if I should lose my session stake or a lot of it. I quit and wait for another session a few hours later. But if my luck still seems bad? I don’t wait to get clobbered.

I wait until the next day. That pause helps me contain myself. I do not change how I bet the games. I don’t do martingales or anything weird.

I’ve lost sessions over the years but nothing like this day.

CINDY: Next week. It will be all about me.