KewlJ
Well-Known Member
I don't often do this...what I will call "pulling a moses" and commenting on a thread at another forum of which I am not a part of, but I feel there was an entire aspect of this discussion which has not been touched on that is fairly important to a serious card counter.
The thread primarily focuses on walking away to preserve BR and EV And the responses are great in that regard. Walking away isn't going to change either unless as Norm wrote "you never play again".
But what was missed is that for a serious card counter, walking away from a shoe when losing is a very big tool in preserving longevity. "Booking a loss" as we sometimes call it. Now this isn't to say that you ever want or try to lose. But walking away when behind can have big value. One of the surest ways to "lose" a casino is to play rated and for the casino to have easily available records that the vast majority of your sessions ends with a win, meaning you are a strong winning player. Booking a loss helps that record look more like a regular player at a glance (even if the wins are bigger than the losses). At least there are losing sessions.
Second issue is one of the absolute worst things a player can do is sit down play for an hour or so, losing and KEEP playing, digging out of that loss, showing your bet spread and max bet numerous times, Most of us have done this. Just clawing back to even from a big hole, feels like a win. But it is seriously detrimental to longevity. The player shows far to much information, bet spreads, max bets, index plays. Players sometimes think that losing as they did at the beginning of that session buys them some sort of immunity and as a result stay far too long and expose themselves. Losing does NOT buy immunity. And digging out from that initial loss exposes the player! And often times the player pays the price for this action, not on the day of the big "dig out" but on your return visit, when you are backed off.....seemingly out of the blue.
The solution is that a player should be playing with some sort of time constraint anyway, just so you don't show too much information. Many players choose about an hour. Mine is shorter because of my circumstances of having many casinos in close proximity, which few players have. But an hour is fine. You can even stretch it to 90 minutes, IF you have had no big high count shoes where you showed your top bet and then retreated back to minimum bet. But whatever your time allotment is, if you are losing, get up walk away and "book that loss".
Again....don't try to lose, but don't be afraid to "book that loss" either. This is one of the least talked about keys to longevity.
The thread primarily focuses on walking away to preserve BR and EV And the responses are great in that regard. Walking away isn't going to change either unless as Norm wrote "you never play again".
But what was missed is that for a serious card counter, walking away from a shoe when losing is a very big tool in preserving longevity. "Booking a loss" as we sometimes call it. Now this isn't to say that you ever want or try to lose. But walking away when behind can have big value. One of the surest ways to "lose" a casino is to play rated and for the casino to have easily available records that the vast majority of your sessions ends with a win, meaning you are a strong winning player. Booking a loss helps that record look more like a regular player at a glance (even if the wins are bigger than the losses). At least there are losing sessions.
Second issue is one of the absolute worst things a player can do is sit down play for an hour or so, losing and KEEP playing, digging out of that loss, showing your bet spread and max bet numerous times, Most of us have done this. Just clawing back to even from a big hole, feels like a win. But it is seriously detrimental to longevity. The player shows far to much information, bet spreads, max bets, index plays. Players sometimes think that losing as they did at the beginning of that session buys them some sort of immunity and as a result stay far too long and expose themselves. Losing does NOT buy immunity. And digging out from that initial loss exposes the player! And often times the player pays the price for this action, not on the day of the big "dig out" but on your return visit, when you are backed off.....seemingly out of the blue.
The solution is that a player should be playing with some sort of time constraint anyway, just so you don't show too much information. Many players choose about an hour. Mine is shorter because of my circumstances of having many casinos in close proximity, which few players have. But an hour is fine. You can even stretch it to 90 minutes, IF you have had no big high count shoes where you showed your top bet and then retreated back to minimum bet. But whatever your time allotment is, if you are losing, get up walk away and "book that loss".
Again....don't try to lose, but don't be afraid to "book that loss" either. This is one of the least talked about keys to longevity.
