Has this ever happened to you?
A member on the GTC private website wrote a post about a recent trip he made to a casino. It was a rather difficult visit. He went on a week end and the casino was packed with people. He found it hard to find any games where he could play.
All the low limit games, where he would feel comfortable, were jam packed. He finally found a spot at a low limit craps game and was able to get on. Shortly after starting to play, they raised the limits on the table. This venue does not grandfather you in so when the limits went up, he walked away. The rest of the trip continued in this vein.
He walked around, waiting and finding a spot here and there where he could play for a bit. He managed to eek out a small profit after struggling thru these less than optimal conditions. Having made a small profit, he decided to call it quits and went to search out the friend that came with him. His friend was playing blackjack and doing reasonably well. The dealer was shuffling and his friend wanted to stay for one more shoe before leaving. There was one open seat but our poster opted not to play, deciding to walk with the modest win which he had been able to garner with great difficulty.
Well, you know what happened next. Another player sat down in the empty seat and went on a tear. That seat had fantastic cards, luck with bad hands as well as good ones and our poster could only stand there and think how, "That could have been me". His friend also did well in the shoe just as all the other players at the table because the dealer had horrible cards.
Now he regretted his decision to take his modest profit. He could have sat in that seat and multiplied that profit several fold. That brings us to the title of this article, "Has this ever happened to you?"
Put yourself in his position and think about what thoughts might have gone through your head. Think about how you have felt when something similar to this has happened to you in the past. I wrote a post in response to this on the GTC private website which I will now share with you. Pay careful attention to what I told this poster. If you can get yourself to think as I describe, you will be much better off in the future and a stronger player with a new skill to add to your arsenal against the casinos. All you have to remember is the final sentence of the article which you will read down below. Here we go:
I have heard Frank say several times, "There is a hot roll going on right now at a casino some place in the world. I am not on that table so it does not matter to me."
That truism has been very helpful to me when it comes to these types of situations. Second guessing what could have been is a useless waste of time at best and a source of frustration at worst.
The only thing that matters in gambling is what happens to you when you are playing. Everything else is meaningless because it happens all the time someplace when you are not there. So what!!! Just as the fact that you are missing someone's hot roll, a hot shoe at a bj table, a great run of cards at a poker table, etc. etc. because you are not at that location at the moment, you can not worry about what happens in front of you if you are not involved in the game.
As an advantage player you only want to play when conditions are at their best for you. When you are involved in a game you should use all your skill and knowledge to capitalize on the slight advantage you have as a result of the work you have done to get that advantage. If you are not playing it does not matter what is going on. The same exact thing will be going on again in a few minutes at some casino some place else in the world. It will probably be going on every hour, every day of every year at some casino some place in the world. Just as you are not bothered because you are not at the hot shoe occurring thousands of miles away from you, don't be concerned about not being at the hot shoe in front of you.
Here is a trite, yet profound statement for everyone to remember. You can only play when you are playing! Don't give a second thought to what happens when you are not playing because it has no impact on you unless you let it and that can not do you any good whatsoever.
Let us look at what happened during this trip. It was a difficult visit. Conditions were far from optimal and you struggled thru some tough obstacles. You made a profit, always a good thing and were satisfied to walk with the casino's money. This is an excellent, better yet a fantastic decision! You chose not to take the seat because you did not want to put your profit at risk. Your trip was over and you left a winner. Whatever happened at that table is just as meaningless to you as what was taking place that very exact instant at a casino in Asia.
You can only play when you are playing!!!
