Ouch ouch ouch. I just got spanked to the tune of $600 at the riverboat. Quite a "variance" eh? I made the cardinal mistake of pulling more cashish out of the machine. Should have just left at minus 300.
While the swings were there, for the most part the games werent great. Lots of stiff hands. Enough to make me want to go buy PBJ.
Anyway, QUESTION of soul searching for all of you. I was analyzing why the heck this BJ/counting thing is so great. Is it?????
1) IF you play perfectly, you all have said that over the long run you can expect to eke out 1.5 or 2% (I'm being generous) over the house.
2) There are variances bigtime which can destroy money.
3) However, a true Wong disciple is in it for the long run, again, 1.5 to 2 percent.
So my question is WHY. I am certainly intrigued by the mathematics and the chance to "beat" the house. However, any numwit should know that it is much easier to earn more than 2% RISK FREE - with no work. I can earn 5% risk free and not have to 1) spend 5 hours in a dark casino on a nice afternoon 2) have smoke blown in my face by some old Asian lady 3) have some big dude tell me I "ruined the table" because I hit my 12 against a 2, and much much more. Fun eh? Also, like one of these books said, you aint gonna impress any ladies or non-gambler friends (most of the world) with your tales of that one excellent count where you took the house.
I'd be interested to hear your rationalizations. I certainly have some "gambler" in me, so that is why I was drawn to this, but the "true counters" keep saying that they are so robotic in terms of Basic Strategy, the count, etc that it isnt even exciting. You win, good but you know it is just positive variance. You lose, oh well, negative variance and one step closer to "ruin".
Anyway, maybe I dont have what it takes. Maybe I'll sleep on it and feel differently. But right now I must ask WHY??????????????
