Well,....poker is only about a 2 year experience in my life, whereas playing
high stakes blackjack seriously has been over 35 years or so. The winning and losing part of it can feel the same, i'd imagine.
I will say the more your play either, you HAVE to treat every session as
a separate event, and play the very best you can for that session. It sucks to
lose,...ALWAYS,.....but can't be totally "unexpected" either. It's part of the game,.....either poker or blackjack.
My biggest wins and losses have been at blackjack, where i usually played
in the big pit. (higher limits). I usually played at my local casino about
100 miles away, but it has a top limit of just $2,000 per hand. I only played
that limit once i got up serious money. Usually played $100 to $700 per hand
until then.
However, in Atlantic City (about 275 miles away), i would make the trip a few times per year because they had a usual table maximum bet of $5,000 per hand. So when i got up decent money it was easier to really push! Best ever day was close to $175K,.....but it's possible to lose some serious money also. If you're going to play either game seriously, you have to be able to accept the losses and still function!
I remember a few years ago i was invited down to the Trump Taj for a
$100K "winner take all" tourney which had only 36 players,.....and NO buy in! I had never played there before, but i suspect my name had come up from my serious play at Bally's,....which is where i usually played.
Anyway, i get thru the preliminary round and reach the final table, but we never played the final round. Someone relayed the sad story of one of the Taj casino folks being shot and killed by a nut at the casino, and how in a previous tourney like this the final table decided to each take $10K, and donate $40K to the family of the slain worker as his son would be going to college soon. This murder was around July of 2009 as i recall, and our tourney was in middle of November 2009. An earlier tourney had done the same thing, so a $80K donation to the family was pretty nice to that point.
I really didn't mind anyway, as it was a winner take all event. Recieving a guarenteed $10K, on top of the $23K or so i was up playing on the
tables while i was waiting for the tourney to start, was not a bad days pay!
So i go home that night with $33K more than i arrived with, which represented
more than a years takehome pay from my "real" job!
The following week i went down again to the Trump Taj with a $100K cashere's check, and deposited it into my account to draw off of. Unfortunately, i ran into a terrible 5 or 6 hour session. No matter what i tried, moving tables, switching up my hands from 1 to 2 or back, playing at minimum $100 a hand for awhile,......after the 5 or 6 hours i was DOWN about
$56K!
I was totally bumbed out with the card runs, and felt like the dealers were all
super hot and i was getting killed! I mumbled to myself "why don't you just shoot me now and get it over with".
Well, i never thought for a moment the dealer had heard me, but about 15 minutes later the dealer goes on break. A few minutes later the pit boss (lady) comes over to me with TWO security guards, and said i was being asked to leave!
I asked what i had done, and she said "One of our dealers felt threatened by you,.....something about you were going to shoot her!"
Well, i KNEW now the dealer had only heard enough to get it all wrong. I explained to the pit boss that for the last 5 or 6 hours the dealers had been beating me up pretty good, and i was down $56K. I mentioned i felt i was getting "killed", and had mumbled to myself in frustration that the dealer should shoot ME now, to get it over with quickly!
The pit boss said, "We'll,.....we take any threats seriously around here, especially since one of our own was murdered several months ago!"
I said: "I know,......i played last week in a blackjack invitational tournament,
and we donated $40K of the prize pool to that family!"
She looked surprised, and decided to let me play on,......but not before the two security guards looked thru my "man bag" i had on my shoulder to carry
extra cash and some personal effects like toothbrush and paste, checkbook, blood pressure meds, etc.
......and then they left me to play on.
About 1/2 hour later i FINALLY caught a turn in the table dynamics, and began
a 3 hour climb out of the $56K hole,......and cashed out about $86K ahead!
Now that's a hell-of-a turnaround!!!!
I always wondered if that pit boss got chewed out, .....or fired!
Sometimes you don't get a tournaround, and get hit with a loss. I remember on one of my trips to Bally's in Atlantic City i deposited another $100K casheres check, and got hammered for about $76K. Now that's an ouch, as
it represented over 2 years gross income from my regular job!
This was on a Friday, and i will say it was an especially long drive home. I decided
the very next day to take the remaining $24K cash from that original $100K check, and work at getting ahead at my local casino. (Turning Stone in New York State).
I knew i could still play well, accepted the losses when they come as good as anyone, and got back in. I started my table play there with $10K in chips at a double deck $100-$2000 max table, along with 3 and sometimes 4 other players.
After about an hour the whole table was doing real well, and i was asked to continue to cut the decks since it seemed my cuts were working the best for
everyone!
We all played thru the night until about 7:00AM in the morning. After i got up initially about $50K i went to 2 hands of $2,000 each for the rest of the night.
I did this right after one of the players decided to leave around 3:00AM with
$30K he didn't want to risk anymore. My extra hand kept the table "running" the same!
By 7:00AM i was getting really tired anyway, and my several full chip stacks was starting to collect a lot of table watchers. These chips were orange "pumpkins:, bigger than the other chips and worth a cool $1,000 each. I have to say 5 1/2 stacks of "pumpkins" is a sight most folks never get to see,......hope you all get there someday!
I ended up $102K for the night, and represented the very best trip i've ever had at this casino. It's much harder here to get up that kind of money, because of the $2K maximum hand limit. Atlanic City's $5K max allows a hot
streak to build your roll much faster!
The other 3 remaining players were each up at least $40K,.....one closer to $60K. When i quit,....they all quit and followed me to the cage! lol
About an hour before we all quit one of the other players was nervous his wife
would be mad at him, as he was supposed to be home to drive them both to church on Sunday morning,......he wasn't going to make it! I looked down at his stack of maybe $55K profit at that time,.......and mentioned that i thought
he'd be able to somehow make it up to her!
Anyway,.....the point of all this is there ARE going to be losing sessions,....
.....ALWAYS! Expect nothing less,......accept them,....but get over them!
Start every session relaxed, well rested and having eaten a healthy meal. And
don't dwell on the past. This truly is a new session, and if you do you part and play either game well,......can build a serious bankroll.
Oh,....a big part of that is a lesson i learned 35 years ago,.....DON"T PLAY WITH MONEY YOU CAN"T AFFORD TO LOSE<>>>E V E R!
You will play scared, and will NOT make the best decisions.
Last edited by joejeweler; 07-01-2011 at 09:16 PM.