The Worst of Times

28 November 2024

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: Charles Dickens probably wrote it best in his masterpiece “A Tale of Two Cities.” The book starts “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”

ABBY: I guess in all of our lives we have had best of times and the worst of times.

CINDY: And casino players can probably remember which were which, maybe not every one but certainly the best of the best and the worst of the worst.

ABBY: Shall we take a look at some of our best and worst of times?

CINDY: Since the casino has an edge on every bet, why don’t we do the “worst of times” first? I am sure that many of us have had more worst times than best times. We might also be able to put some perspective on our playing histories if we just delineate the bad times first and then get to the good times.

ABBY: Or maybe just one good time? The best of the best?

CINDY: We’ll see.

ABBY: Now to the worst of times. I can tell you my very worst time at a casino. In fact, I have had several very worst times!

CINDY: Uh, oh.

ABBY: The very first of my very worst times came in my third trip to the casinos, way back when. I started off losing – I was playing roulette and going up right on one number. Then I went two numbers when that number was constantly passed by. I finally spread to four chips on this or that number, figuring it wouldn’t take too long to hit one of them. Right?

CINDY: Wrong.

ABBY: I couldn’t hit anything and my chip stack just crumbles. I lost every penny. Every five-dollar bet that is.

CINDY: So, you bought in for more chips?

ABBY: Yes, I did. But I went back to going up on one number only but I made the bet double what I had previously done.

CINDY: And you won a fortune?

ABBY: I lost everything. And what is the worst of the worst, I kept making my bet on different numbers. I kind of followed the numbers that were hitting. They hit once, I’d go up on it and then they wouldn’t hit again so I’d go up on the next hit. Kind of like that.

CINDY: I did that too at one of my “worst” sessions. If the ball dropped close to the number I was betting, I’d put another bet up on the near number. So now I had two numbers, then three numbers, then the next number was across the wheel. I’d then go back to one number on that side of the wheel. I was looking for a hot number.

ABBY: You didn’t find one? Because I didn’t find one.

CINDY: Then I got into this long internal debate. Should I go? Should I stay? Things have to get better, right? So, I stayed.

ABBY: And nothing got better?

CINDY: It was a wipe out. I lost every penny I brought to that session.

ABBY: My session went like that too. I actually did think of a whole new way – for me – to play the game. I wish I had thought of that before I played that session.

CINDY: Live and learn.

ABBY: Live and learn. That was the worst of times!