My money vs. Casino's money

[Barry_Glazer]

4a. Re: My money vs. Casino's money
Date: Tue Jan 6, 2009 8:24 pm ((PST))

I can't think of a better way to start 2009 than to truly focus on
bankroll. It can "make" or "sink" any of us.

I recall a night when I hit a $5 royal. Later, I wandered over to a
single-line $25 9-6 Jacks machine since I felt at ease. I could
certainly play for awhile and rack up a lot of points, or maybe get a
few four-of-a-kinds for $3125 and make the night even better.

You know the rest. In less than 15 minutes $2500 (over 10% of my
royal) was gone. I had maybe one FH during the whole session, the
rest non-paying or low-paying hands quickly recycled. The cocktail
waitress barely had time to even go and get my bottled water.

As you are undoubtedly well aware, you could easily have lost as much in a minute or two at that level. I think we've all had those disgusting spirals downward where we lose 20 out of 25 hands and the others just break even. And, at $125 a hand, there you are!

I've certainly had $2500 sucked into a $5 machine, long ago, in ten minutes, so it can easily occur on a $25 machine in far less time.

This is not to say that I have not personally made similar "choice of game" mistakes myself -- my "reason" was different - it was when everyone was scaling back from 0.67% cash-back to 0.33% (which doesn't sound quite so terrible now, but back then, it actually made JoB a postive EV game with the CB, without a need for bonuses or multipliers). Mirage had taken the 0.67% off their $1 machines, and their $2 machines, and I went on this trip expecting to have to play $5 and $10 machines - only to find that they too had been scaled back, but not the $25 machine -- so I gave it a shot, knowing it was positive EV with the still-present 0.67% cashback, but also knowing it was way beyond my trip bankroll -- but hoping to "show them what happens whey they treat us that way" by hitting something big. Similar outcome to story above, although I think I did get the excitement of getting ahead a few hundred at the very start.

--BG

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[mikeymic]

I'm glad the punchline of my story was not that I gave them back the
entire $5 royal. And could that not happen in an unlucky evening now
playing at $25 level?

My methods have long changed since that tainted night. And I will now
share one thing I do. If it works for any of you, consider it a New
Year's gift.

I now "standardize" my bankroll back to $1 level regardless of what I
am playing. It helps me separate "apples from oranges" so that I
don't jump denominations without careful thought.

In the experience I mentioned in yesterday's post I lost $2500 of a
$5 royal impulsively playing at the $25 level. I would now view that
$2500 as the equivalent of playing $100 into a $1 machine. Suddenly
it doesn't sound like much of a bankroll anymore, does it? We have
all dropped $100 into a $1 VP machine and seen it disappear in
minutes. Heck, I saw a lady drop a thousand into a $1 machine without
even hitting a four-of-a-kind.

Had I thought that way back on that night I would have never
approached a $25 with $2-3K expecting to play long enough to get to
the good hands. In a sense I feel I got what I deserved, but that
lesson has made me a better player for it.

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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, b.glazer@... wrote:

I've certainly had $2500 sucked into a $5 machine, long ago, in ten
minutes, so it can easily occur on a $25 machine in far less time.