BJ minimums to be rated

[ihate17]

Just another reason why some counters are lifetime losers

Or they just do not win as much as they should have.

The casino is kicking you butt at a high count. Do you continue to throw the big bets on the felt or do you get that funny feeling in your gut and run for cover? If you ran you might not have what it takes to really be an AP and you are basing a decision on the results of the previous hands and not on having an advantage or not.

Or, as the big cards come out and you lose your big bets do you get angry and continue to bet big (steam) even though the advantage is now no longer there? If so, you are just another gambler chasing loses.

My opinion is the easiest part of being an advantage player is counting. The hardest parts are emotional.

ihate17

 

[FLASH1296]

iHate17 couldn't say it any better:

" ... easiest part of being an advantage player is counting. The hardest parts are emotional."

My thoughts on this are that if you have ANY feeling in your gut, (or anywhere else for that matter), when you are being hammered, (or when you are kicking butt), you are playing for the wrong stakes.

More important, any emotional attachment to money all but disqualifies you from being an A.P. Well, that is hyperbole, but it is a crucial handicap, an obstacle to success; a hurdle that must be overcome.

I was once having a conversation with a friend while walking along the strip. He didn't accept my contention that I had (at least) harnessed my emotionality re: money. He finally said to me ... "If what you are saying is true, why don't you set fire to some money." I replied that I had only once in my life done that and it was just $5, but I immediately regretted it because money has utility and burning it was definitively wasteful. With that I reached into my pocket and extracted a $20 bill as I stopped the next dude who happened bye and said "Happy Birthday" as I put the bill in his shirt pocket.

I hopefully proved my point. It was hard to say.

 

[Bojack1]

iHate17 couldn't say it any better:

" ... easiest part of being an advantage player is counting. The hardest parts are emotional."

My thoughts on this are that if you have ANY feeling in your gut, (or anywhere else for that matter), when you are being hammered, (or when you are kicking butt), you are playing for the wrong stakes.

More important, any emotional attachment to money all but disqualifies you from being an A.P. Well, that is hyperbole, but it is a crucial handicap, an obstacle to success; a hurdle that must be overcome.

I was once having a conversation with a friend while walking along the strip. He didn't accept my contention that I had (at least) harnessed my emotionality re: money. He finally said to me ... "If what you are saying is true, why don't you set fire to some money." I replied that I had only once in my life done that and it was just $5, but I immediately regretted it because money has utility and burning it was definitively wasteful. With that I reached into my pocket and extracted a $20 bill as I stopped the next dude who happened bye and said "Happy Birthday" as I put the bill in his shirt pocket.

I hopefully proved my point. It was hard to say.

This I disagree with. You cannot lose your emotional attachment to money when that is actually the fruit of your labor. You need to lose the emotional attachment to the cause and effect of where the money either comes from or goes. Basically meaning the game itself. Losing the attachment of the meaning of money is what happens when gamblers start throwing chips out on the table like its not real money. Its what happens to gamblers when they start steaming away overbetting because they're down, and hey its only money, until its gone. Its the flawed reasoning behind gamblers thoughts on playing with house money. The only house money at the blackjack table is sitting in the dealer tray. If it sits in front of me or is in my pocket its mine. Winning should not set off the alarm to act the fool and bet careless with what is "found" money. It can just as easily be "lost" money so treat it as if it is yours, because it is.

I say as an AP do not get emotionally attached to wins and losses. Playing a good game skillfully is most important, everything else is just noise. Being driven to make money in this game is not bad and should not be taken lightly as something to be dismissed. I will not willingly waste money nor will I give it to strangers to prove a rather pompous point. I do not willingly give my money to casinos either, but I am well aware of what to expect and that in turn is where the emotional detachment plays a part. Too many think you need not care about money to play this game. Thats just not true. You need to care about profit and money to fully understand whats expected, and to enable you to handle the certain outcomes. Which happen to be wins and losses. It sound simple and redundant, but if you understand the strength of game you are playing, and that on any given day you will either have a win or loss, nothing about the outcome of any session should determine your mood to any extreme degree.

Confidence in your skills and your system is what should keep it all in perspective no matter how good or bad things get. Its important to comes to grips with, you are not as good as your biggest wins, or as bad as your biggest losses, you are only as good as you're supposed to be. And that should be determined before you step foot on the floor. But I have found only those who have not lost the emotional attachment to money are the only ones that can think clearly enough to manage it well. Afterall that is the only way to hold on to it. When money becomes more of a toy and has no meaning is when it will be easily lost.

 

[callipygian]

The correct thing to do would be to play through the count.

Unless you lose emotional discipline. The worst thing that's going to happen is that you run into the improbable scenario of losing several big bets in a row; the count drops, but you decide you're going to keep betting big (or even bigger) anyway. Your bankroll, which you've been building at $10/hr for 2 years, gets flushed down the drain because you lost it and decided you wanted to play $1,000/hand BS blackjack for 15 minutes and you lose 5 hands.

That's why people who can't control themselves emotionally (and that is not meant in a derogatory fashion - we all have our limits, some higher than others) have stop-losses.