Cindy's 100 Hours at Roulette

22 June 2023

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: After one hundred hours of roulette play, betting straight up on the numbers, I am down somewhat, okay, okay, I am down quite a bit. I made some errors in my play, I have to admit to that. Too many times I went up to two bets; each bet being $10 which made my risk $20 total. There was no reason for me doing this. I just got antsy with losing streaks. Winning streaks, I sometimes went up but rarely. Losing bets got to me.

ABBY: Explain why you might have long losing streaks in straight-up betting.

CINDY: Well, it is obvious. You win once on 38 spins on average so you have so many chances to lose, that’s 37 losses per win, or you bet two bets and you can win twice in 38 spins coming to 36 chances to lose. Still, both ways can be money eaters for me and money winners for the casino.

ABBY: Do you think 100 hours was enough time to give you a good insight into the game as a straight-up bettor?

CINDY: Interesting question. The game was what I thought it would be but one thing wasn’t.

ABBY: What was that?

CINDY: Me! I couldn’t get away from the real me. I wasn’t what I thought I would be. I thought I’d be cool, win or lose, “cool baby cool” as they sing in “West Side Story.” I was anything but cool. I found I couldn’t take losing streaks even though you are going to have a lot of them with straight-up betting. One chance to win on 38 spins or two chances with two bets in 38 spins. You can’t escape that but, worse, I couldn’t escape my emotions. I even cursed Blaise Pascal for one rotten losing streak during one game. I wasn’t out of my mind but I was close to it at times. I started sometimes thinking the game was against my very being. I kid you not. I’m glad I am not much of a drinker or you’d have had to carry me out of the casino.

ABBY: What about wins? You did have some wins, right?

CINDY: Oh, yes. They were glorious!

ABBY: Did you ever have what you thought of as winning streaks? Did you ever have back-to-back straight-up hits?

CINDY: No, nothing like that. A couple of times I came close to that. The ball landed in a number only a few pockets away from my bet. But a few times I’d get a hit and maybe, oh, I don’t know, maybe within 10 spins I’d get another hit. Now that was thrilling. If that happened all time, I’d have owned the casino!

ABBY: Bottom line? You don’t have to give it but it would be interesting for the readers and me, of course. (We didn’t look over our shoulders at each other as we did this, so this is new for me as it is for you.)

CINDY: A shade over $2,000 lost. I didn’t count the tips I gave the dealer in the money figures but, naturally, I did tip the dealers.

ABBY: What lesson did you learn?

CINDY: Well, I did learn that I have emotional reactions to bad sessions. I had some sessions, a few, where I didn’t win anything. I mean nothing. I need some reinforcement when I am betting my money. More wins than I got playing straight-up roulette. I can understand why straight-up bettors tend to go with several or more numbers straight-up on each, just to cut the losing streaks if they can. I know, I know, the game’s edge works its way no matter how you bet but emotionally, well, I needed more hits; just a few more hits would have done it for me.

ABBY: No matter how much you know, your emotions tend to not see it the way your intellect sees it.

CINDY: Correct.