Originally Posted by redietz View Post
A couple of things: whether KJ's 8K loss was a good day or bad day in any sense depends on whether those opportunities are going to be there awhile. If the exact same game will be there for months, I'd feel a lot better playing perfectly and getting slammed than if that game will disappear next week. If you're going to play blackjack for a living, you can't close up shop on a minus 8k day just because of variance. Unless, of course, you suspect a mechanic is part of the problem.

And I guess that would be an issue with me. I'm not able to recognize a mechanic, or a magician, so I'd become paranoid over a result like that which took 10% of my annual earnings away in one shift. Video poker is different, in that so much value is in the royals. I've experienced 100k (hands) without royals and gotten three in a few hundred hands, so getting clobbered in one day with a big edge wouldn't bother me.

I think you have to track the EV. I don't see how a professional machine player or blackjack player could pass on doing that.
Well said.