MONEY AND EMOTION

Is there anyone out there making money at 8 decks using Wong Halves?

I am very confident with the technical aspect of cardcounting using Wong Halves but I am not making money on the game, yet. I think I overbet sometimes. After a few lost to big bets on high counts, I tend to overbet. I get emotional and loose track of the fundamentals of cardcounting. For those who have played this game long, what suggestion can you give me so that I can control my emotions? I think this is all it takes for me to become an advantage and a winning player.
Sincerely,
Donavan

Patience. Do not overbet. Stick to the rules. As has been said before
you will win when you are lucky but lose more when you are unlucky and eventually fall victim to the inevidable gambler's ruin.
No info on 8 deck.

Drink a lot of ice-water before playing. Hopefully some of it will work its way into your blood-stream. :)

You simply have to detach yourself from the idea of "money" and just play using chips instead. Make the bets according to your count, play according to your indices or BS, which ever applies, and don't get into the "I should double this 8 against the dealer's 6 with the count this high, but that is too risky for me. That way there be dragons...

You need to TELL yourself the following: If I play with emotionality instead of hard logic I will LOSE what little advantage I have gained from my study/practice. I need DISCIPLINE to make this system pay off! At an 8 decker with standard rules and a modest spread you have less than a 1% edge. It is facile to give that away. IF you OVERBET, your risk of ruin can easily be OVER 50% ! That means that over the long haul you are a favorite to go belly-up and crawl off into the gloom of night with your own personal stormcloud over your head as you mutter to yourself a lot of nonsense about "the dealer never breaking" or similar bolderdash.

Some while ago I took my new lover to her first casino experience. We were at the Bellagio and they were the new kids on the block so they were offering a few tables with $5 - $500 SIX deckers. Penetration hovered around one deck and like a fool I tried to impres my sweetie and I overbet wildly. I dropped $5,000 of the 7K before I brought myself up short. Basically, I tapped myself on the shoulder and said "Your play is too WEAK for this joint. You are free to . . ." Later review of my play lead me to understand that my Risk of Ruin was in the vicinity of 40% !!! I was 5-2 against tapping out !!! Let that be a lesson to ya'

Rule #1: Continue to overbet your bankroll and you will go broke with statistical certaintity.

Rule#2: Make sure you don't need to use your bankroll money for other things. It needs to be discretionary funds. Funds that you can do with-out. Don't use the money that you need to pay bills with.

It's much easier to detach your emotions if the money means nothing to you.

Rule#3: If you bet appropriately and play correctly, you will come out ahead in the long run. Betting correctly (based on your bank)will actually take out SOME (not all...trust me) of the emotion because you KNOW you are playing within the confines of your bank and you should feel "safe" knowing that.

Rule#4: To survive, you must be able to separate money/emotion. If not, how else are you going to have the nerve to put out your max bet again (if called for of course) after you've lost 4 or 5 max bets in a row?

Some are cut out for this, some aren't. In the words of Don Schlesinger "Blackjack will test your metal". Indeed.

JB