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Blackjack - Casinos Suck - Page 3

post #31 of 100
9/4/07 at 12:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkestred View Post
I've made back 2000 these past 2 weeks.. so hopefully mind over body.
This is a short sighted view common with problem gamblers.

There's nothing within a gambler's power to legally overcome the house advantage, and in the long run the house will have its way. The best bet at any point is to stop, accept all losses, and move on to better things to do with one's valuable time and money.
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post #32 of 100
9/4/07 at 12:47pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dj_mocok View Post
I know I shouldn't but I just love playing Blackjack at the casino. No I don't have gambling problem, but if I lost I could lose big. The thing is, most of the time when I play blackjack, when I am winning, I will chicken out and quit when I'm 150-200 bucks ahead.
But when I'm losing, I suddenly have the nerve to bet big. This is very wrong philosophy I know, but it's hard to control.
yes. i love blackjack as well. the only game i play when i go. so much fun when you are up a bit. horrible when you are down and are losing hand after hand after hand.

Quote:
Originally Posted by chadbang View Post
Then again, it's not all luck. There are crooked dealers at casinos.
i don't know. maybe small casinos but large ones, i doubt they are crooked. too much at risk if they got caught somehow. statistically the odds are in their favor for all games, so i think they just use that for their advantage. then again, on some tables the max bet is up to $10,000. who knows what they are capable of doing when someone puts down one of these bets.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkestred View Post
I would win most times but there were those times were i did ill-advised bets and lost it all. Very quickly i lost that money and went 1000 under. I built it back up to 8000 in less than 2 months. Then it soared to 26,000 in a few months.
whoa! that is hardcore. you should stop/get help.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jahn View Post
i'm a wimp when it comes to gambling. i think i'd cry if i lost 100 bucks.
yes. i did cry. and i wish it was such a paltry sum. the problem was that i was never up and always trying to break even on the night. wrong way to approach things. that's how they want to think/play.

Quote:
Originally Posted by 1Time View Post
The best bet at any point is to stop, accept all losses, and move on to better things to do with one's valuable time and money.
yes. that is very sound advice. actually last night i was so worked up over what had happened i for some reason thought about going back this morning to try to recoup some of my losses, playing a little differently, and hoping that the results would be different. when i woke up the idea seemed like one of the dumbest ones i had ever had. gambling does something strange to the mind. if i never see a casino again, that will be fine by me.
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post #33 of 100
9/4/07 at 12:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vcoheda View Post
yes. i love blackjack as well. the only game i play when i go. so much fun when you are up a bit. horrible when you are down and are losing hand after hand after hand.
Yep, and when it seems that dealer is so hard to bet and then a dealer got a 6-card 21, you know it's time to change table.
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post #34 of 100
9/4/07 at 1:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dj_mocok View Post
Yep, and when it seems that dealer is so hard to bet and then a dealer got a 6-card 21, you know it's time to change table.
This is another short sighted view common among problem gamblers... anything to help support the fantasy of having more control over the outcome than what actually exists.

It's just as likely at the other tables for the dealer to get a 6 card 21 or to win several hands in a row, and the house still has the advantage no matter which table you sit at.
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post #35 of 100
9/4/07 at 1:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wodgy View Post
Unless you count cards, there's no skill involved in blackjack, since there's only one mathematically optimal way to play if you don't have extra information. Might as well play video lottery terminals. It's the same thing.
No, if you play every blackjack hand "by the book" (which is a learned skill), the house advantage will be less than a vast majority of video gaming machines.
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post #36 of 100
9/4/07 at 2:08pm
I think the best lessons hurt the most. At least that's been my experience in life.
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post #37 of 100
9/4/07 at 2:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ken36 View Post
I think the best lessons hurt the most. At least that's been my experience in life.
The best lessons are the ones learned without having to experience the pain others already suffered to learn the same lessons.
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post #38 of 100
9/4/07 at 2:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1Time View Post
No, if you play every blackjack hand "by the book" (which is a learned skill), the house advantage will be less than a vast majority of video gaming machines.
The only difference is the rate at which you lose money. VLTs are typically played with smaller bets, so it probably works out to roughly the same rate of loss anyway.

If someone is not playing blackjack by the book, they just lose money faster. My point is that there is no skill involved, unlike poker. It can be played algorithmically. People feel that there is skill involved in blackjack because you get to make choices, but it's an illusion. They do the same thing with video lottery terminals. You choose which "rows" you want to play, but in the end it's just an illusion designed to make you feel that there is some element of skill involved in the game. There isn't.

If someone actually enjoys the blackjack experience, get into card counting.
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post #39 of 100
9/4/07 at 3:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1Time View Post
This is a short sighted view common with problem gamblers.

There's nothing within a gambler's power to legally overcome the house advantage, and in the long run the house will have its way. The best bet at any point is to stop, accept all losses, and move on to better things to do with one's valuable time and money.

It's much different with interatice betting. I win 70% of my games. But, i slip occasionally due to what happened to me earlier. If i didnt think about that and just thought about winning 1-2k a week, id be fine. I would never have won 1000 let alone 26000 if i did non-interactive betting. I will never stop. It's too much fun! Im also ok with the money i lost.
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post #40 of 100
9/4/07 at 3:25pm
putting it in context, in under half a year the money out of the bank account equals to a Sennheiser Orpheus system. the enjoyment you got out of gambling versus the enjoyment you could have gotten out of listening may have been equal even, but at the end of 5 months you'd still have the system and could sell it to even up your bank account, guaranteed, but with gambling that money is gone with no guarantee of ever seeing it again.
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post #41 of 100
9/4/07 at 3:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wodgy View Post
Unless you count cards, there's no skill involved in blackjack, since there's only one mathematically optimal way to play if you don't have extra information. Might as well play video lottery terminals. It's the same thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1Time View Post
No, if you play every blackjack hand "by the book" (which is a learned skill), the house advantage will be less than a vast majority of video gaming machines.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wodgy View Post
The only difference is the rate at which you lose money. VLTs are typically played with smaller bets, so it probably works out to roughly the same rate of loss anyway.

If someone is not playing blackjack by the book, they just lose money faster. My point is that there is no skill involved, unlike poker. It can be played algorithmically. People feel that there is skill involved in blackjack because you get to make choices, but it's an illusion. They do the same thing with video lottery terminals. You choose which "rows" you want to play, but in the end it's just an illusion designed to make you feel that there is some element of skill involved in the game. There isn't.
For most there is skill involved because of making decisions, but this is because they have yet to fully learn the skill of playing "by the book". Once having learned this skill, there is very little else that can be done legally that qualifies as skill. And, once one learns to play a video gaming machine, there is no other skill available for playing it. However, the timely selection of video gaming machines is a skill that can be learned to improve one's odds of winning (and losing at a slower rate).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wodgy View Post
If someone actually enjoys the blackjack experience, get into card counting.
Not the best advice here. Casinos protect themselves against card counters. I doubt the enjoyment of the blackjack experience is too comparable for a blackballed card counter as it is for vast majority who don't count cards.
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post #42 of 100
9/4/07 at 4:43pm
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post #43 of 100
9/4/07 at 4:51pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1Time View Post
the house still wins big time and a vast majority of gamblers pay the price.
did you or do you gamble? where do you get all this information from.
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post #44 of 100
9/4/07 at 5:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vcoheda View Post
Just got back from a casino (mohegan sun). lost a ton of money playing blackjack. the worst part is that i never gamble, didn't even want to go, but just tagged along and kind of got sucked into it. i tried to prepare and read a bunch of websites on basic strategies to use and generally how to play "smart." we planned to spend about 3 hour there. i figured i would gamble a little bit, watch and look around the rest of the time. maybe i would win a little or lose a little. didn't figure anything else would happen. but things worked out much differently.

i lost ALL of my money (at least what i had on me which was a decent amount) in the first 20 mins we were there by losing 10 of the first 11 hands of 21 (what awful luck!). i never had a chance. almost every hand i started out with 12-16. i told myself this was a mistake, i never should have come, and i was done for the night. there was one problem though. i still had 2 hr. 40 mins to kill. for about 40 mins i walked around and just watched but everywhere i went i saw open seats at tables. before long i was at an atm machine withdrawing another hefty sum.

with this amount i was down and up, but never even for the night. with about 5 mins to go before i met my friends to leave i had enough so that if i bet it all and won i would actually be even or close to even on the night. at the time i was having a decent string of luck with the cards and so bet it all. the amount i put down was about 5-6 times what the other players were betting. the dealer noticed the large hand and gave me a personal "good luck." i get dealt a 19. a decent hand. but the dealer had an ace showing, so my heart fluttered a bit. he asked if i wanted to surrender (give half my money in case he had 21). i said no. i was all in. he checked. he did not have 21. one bullet avoided. he flipped over his card and then dealt himself another. he was now at 15, a very favorable hand for the betters. more than a 50 percent chance he would bust on the next card, giving me the win. he gave himself another card. it was a 5. he had 20. i had 19. the hand was over and i lost yet again everything i had on me. a terrible night and truly the last time i will ever gamble.

people got any other stories, miserable or lucky.
You don't realise you are really lucky, imagine the worst, you WIN that bet at the end of the night, you will come back for more and lose a lot more money.
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post #45 of 100
9/4/07 at 5:25pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by brrritish! View Post
You don't realise you are really lucky, imagine the worst, you WIN that bet at the end of the night, you will come back for more and lose a lot more money.
ha ha! an odd way of looking at things but possibly true. i still would have preferred to win that last hand though. i had a 19. only 2 hands could beat me. i was tense because of the sum but somewhat expected to win the hand with the 19. it was a tough loss.

moral of story: only bet big if you are going to win.
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