Even casinogoers need New Year's Resolutions. What's yours?

[Alan Mendelson]

It's time for New Year Resolutions and instead of talking about weight loss, and daily exercise, let's keep the resolutions here to Las Vegas, casino going, gambling, casino visits, and the like.

What's your resolution or resolutions for 2013?

I'll go first.

I'm going to make 2013 the year I finally go see the National Atomic Testing Museum (also known as the Atomic Bomb Museum) on Flamingo in Vegas.

755 E. Flamingo Rd.
Las Vegas, NV 89119
702-794-5151
http://www.nationalatomictestingmuseum.org/

I've been talking about going there for years... and years... and years and still haven't made it there.

[slingshot]

Stopping my play when a winner. Tougher than it looks.

[Rob.Singer]

I've never made a resolution. But I can help you convert yours. Next time you're on a vp roll at Caesar's, as soon as you get ahead $500, instead of letting the machines & dice keep pulling you towards them because you have a pocket full of cash, get up, walk to the lobby, call me for motivation....THEN GO TO THE MUSEUM! It's so close!! And you know what? The games will still be there for you to crush when you get back.

(I should charge for advice )

[slingshot]

I've never made a resolution. But I can help you convert yours. Next time you're on a vp roll at Caesar's, as soon as you get ahead $500, instead of letting the machines & dice keep pulling you towards them because you have a pocket full of cash, get up, walk to the lobby, call me for motivation....THEN GO TO THE MUSEUM! It's so close!! And you know what? The games will still be there for you to crush when you get back.

(I should charge for advice )

I was able to just stop smoking 15 years ago. I felt better about myself. I gotta do this for myself to feel like a person. I don't care if it's just $50 a trip.

[Alan Mendelson]

Rob, several years before I even knew who you were, and several years before I met you, I wrote about the importance of "quitting when ahead." A version of the original article is on the "Casino Gaming Tips" page and the direct link is: http://alanbestbuys.com/id71.html

When I originally wrote the article I had no idea there was such a thing as "positive expectation video poker" because while I read about them, I never saw such a game. But even though I know such games exist today -- I still haven't seen one.

Here is the article:

A PLAYER'S RESOLUTION: QUIT WHEN I'M AHEAD

I first wrote this in late December, 2009, just a few days before New Year's, and it is still valid now. While the time before New Year's is the traditional time to make resolutions, you can make this resolution anytime you play in a casino. And one resolution I make every year is to quit while I'm ahead at casino gambling. Yes, I like to gamble and I don't hide it. I play craps and I play video poker. I tend to have more luck at video poker than I do at craps. I also play live poker -- low limit cash games and low limit tournaments in casinos -- but I have limited luck in live poker (mostly No Limit Hold 'Em) and perhaps it's because I'm not aggressive enough. I hate playing against people but I love to play against machines as in video poker, and I enjoy craps which is playing against the house.

Well, back to my yearly resolution to quit while I'm ahead. Frankly, this is the toughest resolution to keep. I have no trouble quitting when I'm behind because when I reach my "loss limit" I'm outta there or headed for dinner or home or up to the hotel room to watch a movie, or to walk around the mall in the casino complex. I love playing at local casinos because when I reach my loss limit I just head for my car and leave; in Vegas I might be stuck for another 24 hours.

It's quitting when I'm ahead that's a problem-- because when you're ahead you think -- at least I think -- that I'm now playing with the casino's money and if I lose my profit I'm really losing the casino's money and not my money. Of course the truth is, once I win it-- it's my money and not the casino's anymore. So every single time I keep making a bet after I'm ahead -- after I have a profit -- I am risking my money and not the casino's money.

What keeps me playing when I'm ahead is the possibility that I'm going to win more. Is this the start of the big streak? What about the advice to let your profits run?

Well, let me remind myself of something here: every casino game whether it be craps or blackjack or video poker or roulette or Let It Ride has a house advantage and over the long term the house advantage always comes out ahead and the player always loses in the long run. So, I might have another winning bet at craps, or I might hit another straight at video poker-- but in the long run, the more I keep betting the more the house is going to win.

So that's why I want to quit when I'm ahead -- because the more I keep playing, the more the house is likely to win.

But gosh, maybe that next throw of the dice will be that win on the passline? And maybe that next push of the button will give me that royal flush?

The truth is, it's awfully tough to quit while you're ahead. So that's why I like to pause when I'm ahead and count my profit. And when I finish counting, I ask myself what can I do with this money? And if an outstanding bill comes to mind, or an upcoming bill comes to mind, or a purchase I'd like to make in the mall comes to mind, it becomes a lot easier to quit while I'm ahead.

[slingshot]

Great post, Alan. I have added: Buy groceries for 2 weeks, fill both vehicles with gas, make sure all monthly bills paid, allow $100 for eating out w/wife.That might mean another week without playing extra. Oh, geez. I may lose my Diamond status! LOL.

[Rob.Singer]

"When you win you just want to win more, and when you lose what you have you just want to get more cash to try and win it back".

These are the first words every GA meet and gambling shrink tell their "patients". If you do either, it means, without doubt, that a person has a gambling problem. Win or lose, with enjoyment or not and as a recreational player or not. Resolutions have nothing to do with it.

I learned this as a losing AP, and as we all know, that style of play claims to just play thru wins, losses or ties in order to get closer and closer to expectation. Where it masks behavior, however, is when it keeps players at the machines after winning and keeps them pounding away after losing, with the false and disproven belief that "it'll all work out in the end". Here, AP's much more prefer to pretend they're simply on their path to gambling glory, in an amusing but sad effort to keep on justifying playing pathologically.

[arcimede$]

I learned this as a losing AP, and as we all know, that style of play claims to just play thru wins, losses or ties in order to get closer and closer to expectation. Where it masks behavior, however, is when it keeps players at the machines after winning and keeps them pounding away after losing, with the false and disproven belief that "it'll all work out in the end". Here, AP's much more prefer to pretend they're simply on their path to gambling glory, in an amusing but sad effort to keep on justifying playing pathologically.

To borrow a line ... I have the feeling 'disproven" does not mean what poor robki thinks it does. And, as I sit on the verge of another profitable year, I can add with great pleasure. Cha-ching !