reaching the end of my rope

JohnCrover

JohnCrover

Banned
Hi guys,
I have been on massive losing streak and I just can't seem to win at anything. I feel with each loss I just go deeper in to the abyss. Last night I spent 7 hours wonging, sitting at the table and just wonging only true counts. Some times sitting there for 30 minutes between neutral and negative shoes to only book a loss at the end of it. I feel hopeless, I feel like I can't win my money back and I feel like if I continue to play I will continue to lose. I'm having trouble controlling myself when a ploppie wants me to double his 200 dollar bet in a positive EV spot when he doesn't have the money. I'm having trouble controlling myself when there's a dealer sitting there all alone, heads up, in a good game with decent pen but the minimum is just too high for me. Each time I go to the casino it feels like I'm being pushed farther in to the abyss and I feel more hopeless every time I come home. My soul feels like it's being drained from my body.
I don't know what to do....I want to keep fighting but I feel like if I go back and play more I will just continue to lose, get more depressed and fall further in to the abyss. When I go to the casino I can't even just go for a few hours either, because of the fair to get there. I have to play for at least 2 hours to break even for the $20 dollar fair both ways (if i'm lucky and don't have to take a taxi)
Increasingly frustrating is watching the bank roll I nourished for years collapse before my eyes. I started growing my BR when I was 17 in high school with $100 dollars my grandma put in my saving account and I watched that BR grow big and strong and I nourished it like a child for years. Now I'm watching it just collapse before my eyes, slowly, while I sit there and watch for hours and hours.
I just don't know what to do
Edit: I have been thinking and I guess I need to just work harder
 
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D

Dummy

Well-Known Member
It sounds like you need to add to your BR before playing anymore. In the downtime you can examine your system for ways to make improvements. Improvements can either strengthen your game or make procedures easier and faster, while being less likely to involve a possible mistake.

For example if you are only playing advantage counts the I18 may not be the best indices for you. Many are no longer index plays as they will always be played the same way for any count you are playing. Knowing more positive indices is what you need. Also look up counter's basic strategy. Those hands that are always played the same constitute a new BS if the are deviations from BS.

You can also look for procedural changes that are easier for you. Like dividing can always be made into multiplication. Instead of changing the RC to a TC and deciding what that says to do, you can change the decision boundaries into RC's and compare to the RC. This can help you keep from losing the RC since it is always the primary focus. You aren't converting it to a TC. This method is faster and more accurate for most people, once they grow accustomed to it.

There are a lot more. I was just trying to give some examples of how to make your procedures fit your game and your strengths better.
 
J

JJP

Well-Known Member
You need to take a break. Sounds like classic burnout. It can happen in any form of gambling. And I don't care how big of an advantage one can have, if their frame of mind isn't in the right spot, the results won't be either. None of us are robots. Take a month off and see if your attitude and outlook improve.
 
sagefr0g

sagefr0g

Well-Known Member
card counting blackjack affords a lousy advantage, imho.

and yes you could easily lose every nickel that your precious grandmother helped you acquire.

you could also, make some money.

there is, what?, a spectrum of people in various financial positions. some wealthy, some broke. some with no other option than blackjack, others with loads of options of which blackjack is just one, that can make money. ask yourself, where do you fit into that spectrum. are you wandering, lost in the desert, thirsty and seeking water with no other hope than finding water, or are you out in the desert seeking water, but you have a radio and can call a helicopter to rescue you if you don’t find water? what s the nature of the eggs in your basket, is it blackjack and only blackjack, or do you have other more lucrative options? what would you want the answer to that question to be? how can you make the answer to that question to be what you want it to be?

hopefully you can make your financial position and options what you want it to be, then maybe playing some blackjack might be an option. then maybe you won’t even want to mess with it, since the advantage isn’t all that great relative to other options..

if you can understand how it is possible to make a living with blackjack, then you can generalize the nature of how that is so and apply it to other options.

just me maybe, the real golden nugget existent when it comes to blackjack, isn’t what you can make card counting blackjack, so much, as it is understanding the general nature of being able to gain an advantage or not. read up on Thorp a bit, although he was one of the one’s that came up with the card counting gig, he didn’t make playing blackjack his one an only thing. for good reason, me thinks.
 
Joe Mama

Joe Mama

Active Member
JohnCrover said:
I feel like I can't win my money back and I feel like if I continue to play I will continue to lose.
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Bad variance sucks, but it happens. If you are doing things correctly, it will even out in the long haul. The key is to keep playing with an advantage whether you are up or down. It's not your money anymore once you've lost it; it's the casino's money. On the flip side, when you are winning you are not playing with house money, you are playing with your money.
 
D

Dummy

Well-Known Member
Confidence in what you are doing is important. Take a break until you get your confidence that you will win in the long run back.
 
S

Stevel96a1

Banned
Hey John, i know what you are going through. i dont know how many max bets the dealer has taken from you but know this :::THE KITCHEN TABLE SIMS CAN CERTAINLY EAT/BLOW THROUGH 50 OR MORE MAX BETS:::: so if you have 100$ max bets id be ready to slam down/piss away 10k-15k EASY EASY its amazing you haven''t gotten the tap on the shoulder, is it PA rules S17/LS? i can't even go near PA/Nj with table min being 10$ and normally 15$ upwards too pricey for me.

i recommend you to buy CVBJ 3.0 its 4.88$ off amazon and you can play for free and mimic any shuffle or house rules that software is a beast a real eye opener and when you give up on BJ try Wolf video poker you can ride 1k$ bank into a million hands win 15 royals with one 4,000 credit line (starting is 1.25 per hand in most casinos) ofcourse everyone is going to say keep going and take a break but man if you don't get those BJ's and 2 face cards you lost money all of it, and i don't want to see another Billyblackjackkids anymore

the kitchen sims on Video Poker on the other hand has been kind enough for me to try 1:1 Bank or 1k$ for 1k$ atlantic city type of games in VP i have gotten 5 royals and i been on the lucky side for me right now a 52 deck beats a 8 decker any day and 1.25$ wager beats a 150$ or 250$ spread you need to get a return im doing well with VP for now but i feel the cards will turn...
 
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Stevel96a1

Banned
oh and before all the nay sayers spew there beliefs yes atlantic city games are negative ev games all but the progressives jackpots, anyone running well on a 99.54% JoB type of game beats the blackjack player doing everything right and losing thousands upon thousands gambling is gambling but there are stories out there with people walk in with 300$ in there pocket and walkout with 12grand, ive worked up 130k with TDB 5$ betting on my phone, people won 8 grand one siting in atlantic city 1$ table in vp

i never ever hear these types of stories from bacarrate, roulette, craps, sometimes blackjack but then they get the boot and if they get "lucky" funny how lucky always comes into play isn't it
 
D

Dummy

Well-Known Member
It is not uncommon in craps. Increasing bets on hot rolls can be quite lucrative. It eats your money up on most rolls.
 
S

Stevel96a1

Banned
i imagine 25,000 hands of real hands / money that being said he punched in over 250hours and and i feel bad for his bankroll, to lose in 250hr of pure card counting can deliver damage, this man had to go pass the 40 max bets assuming he played 100$ he maybe down 4k but we have to ask John, and this is why i played out hand for hand on the kitchen table oppose to just looking at the charts on CVX, charts do not play out and unfold max bet being destroyed no sir it does not, neither does books, but a blackjack software or real hand shuffle does, Even Fred Renzy mentions to have 117 max bets all ready to be slammed down and prepare to lose it all incase your name is Murphy anything that can go wrong will do go wrong, im rooting for ya John i almost want to take 2k or 4k down to the tables but i also fear of losing 4 thousand in a few hours being there table min being 10$ and 15$ on the 8 deckers. no i will just push out 1.25$ which i can afford in hopes of a 4,000 credit return
 
JohnCrover

JohnCrover

Banned
Just played the BIGGEST hand of my life. I need to say first though, that the session ended well, and that I am playing way too big but let's get to the hand.
I was playing 2 spots of 100, with a very high count. I think running count 20 with about 2 decks remaining. I get QK, 88, dealer shows 6. I split QK, get 21, 20, split again, 20, Split again, 21, 14, 13, 14 is the end result, I split my 88, get 10, double, get 5, get 8 on the other, split again, get 15, stay, get 3, double, 20, I have about 1,000 on the felt. Dealer flips 15, hits A for 16, hits 4 to make 20. That one hurt but the end result for the day was very good. It feels good to finally win after all this time, even though I still dream of what would have happened have I won that hand.
 
JohnCrover

JohnCrover

Banned
Badbeat said:
LOL. He’s 19. He lives at his moms house and just sits in his room all day on the computer with no car or drivers license. He rarely leaves the house. He posts lies about interaction with ploppies, seeing a dealer sitting there all alone, and $20 cab rides to and from the casino. He’s a terrible liar. He’s been posting his progress on the trainer and recently made a thread when he passed 20,000 hands. Now he’s at 25,000 hand and decided to make this a real story of him going to casinos.
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I wish...
Edit: My mom made the best tacos
 
JohnCrover

JohnCrover

Banned
On a serious note, I post on this site to vent. I'm not in a good place right now and this site acts as a good way to get my emotions out. I try to keep my chin up and stay strong. I try to talk about the good times because if I focused on the bad it would destroy me. Things are already going bad enough. You don't hear me talking about how I can't afford food so I have to use food stamps, or eat shit food every morning or how I share a room with 2 other guys WHO LEAVE THE TV ON ALL NIGHT, you don't hear about how I cried myself to sleep last night, despite the fact that I made out very well last night, because I don't know what I'm going to do if I go back and lose (Which is very possible) and I don't know if I should even go back. You DON'T know what it's like to have your life sitting on the felt in front of you, with your personal well being and life laying on the hinges of the flip of a card. IT'S NOT FUN.
By the way, you try to paint me as a loser in your post, you try to say I'm a no life 19 year old living in his Mom's basement and I tell you this: I AM A LOSER, BUT I AM NOT A LIAR. I would give ANYTHING (which isn't much) to go back living with my mom, because at least I was happy.
Thanks for shitting all over me though, your point was well taken.
 
Rebecca C

Rebecca C

Well-Known Member
Badbeat said:
LOL. He’s 19. He lives at his moms house and just sits in his room all day on the computer with no car or drivers license. He rarely leaves the house. He posts lies about interaction with ploppies, seeing a dealer sitting there all alone, and $20 cab rides to and from the casino. He’s a terrible liar. He’s been posting his progress on the trainer and recently made a thread when he passed 20,000 hands. Now he’s at 25,000 hand and decided to make this a real story of him going to casinos.
Click to expand...
Why wouldn't a 19-year old have a driver's license?
 
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