Life Lessons Learned in Baccarat

Life Lessons Learned in Baccarat

When you talk to anyone that gambles, everyone wants to talk about their greatest triumphs; the crazy winning hand that took down the house or 바카라사이트 the 1% shot in the dark that actually paid off. This isn’t one of those happy feel lucky stories.

This is the worst defeat I was ever handed at the casino and the life lesson I gained from it.

After missing my connecting flight from Seattle to Elko via Reno to compete in an upcoming invite only poker tournament, I was faced with a dilemma. I could sleep at the Reno airport overnight and wait for the first flight out to Elko or try my luck at one of the local casinos. Actually, it wasn’t much a dilemma, more of a decision on which of the many casinos in Reno to attend. I have had previous luck at Silver Legacy and thought it was best to try my fortune there. Carrying 6 crisp one hundred dollar bills, I strolled into the front door thinking I was going to kill about 6 hours playing and have a free breakfast to boot.

Being a Thursday night, the casino was quite busy with both locals and tourists occupying the blackjack tables and after being told that the wait time was roughly an hour, I searched for a more immediate table for action. I came across a lonely Baccarat table and staked my night’s fortune on that table. The basic rules of Baccarat are quite simple; both the player and dealer are dealt two hole cards. Any face cards including tens are counted as zero so realistically all the small cards are in play. The objective of the game was to arrive as close to nine as possible with the two cards with your hand (either the dealer or player) being the higher one.

Check out more Baccarat online over here at Hex.

Statically, the dealer hand (house hand) has a 56% chance of winning vs. the players hand hence why the casino takes a 5% rake from your winnings. It does get a bit complicated when it comes to having mid-range hands like 4’s and 5’s but I’ll leave that to a different column on another day.

After securing a spot, I decided my strategy was to double up my money playing the banker hand but because I needed to wait till 5 am for my flight out, I also arrive at the decision to only bet $25 each time. For the first hour, my strategy had awarded me roughly $125; winning 6 more hands than I had lost when the craziest beat happen. I kept playing banker and lost 5 hands in a row. Determined that this was an aberration, I stuck with my strategy. 5 losses in a row turned into 10 losses in a row. Undeterred, I kept going while a small crowd of patrons had gathered around me to watch my misfortune. 10 losses turned into 15 losses in a row. Other players scrambled to bet against banker in the hopes of capitalizing on my misfortune which infuriated me and kept me on the same strategy

In my mind, I was thinking “there’s no way this can keep going, I have 56% chance of winning so I’m closer to winning than losing”. Those 15 losses turned into 20 losses in a row. Now the small crowd had turned into a mob mentality with people saying, hey, you have to bet against that guy, he’s totally bad luck. Finally, I did win a hand but only after losing 28 hands in a row. I doubled up my bet in the hopes of a run of good fortune for me and unfortunately those last chips were swept up in the last hand.

The good news was I was still able to have a comp for a free meal so I took my broken heart to their breakfast buffet. I ate and cursed my misfortune but learned a really important life lesson there. Sometimes you have to cut your losses. Not all gambling can be learned from books and experts. Sometimes you have to go with your gut and maybe that’s why it’s called a gamble because you never really know the results until the cards 안전한카지노사이트 are dealt.

Crazy stories abound about baccarat players

The history of baccarat is rich with stories of gamblers who won and lost fortunes in single sessions.

Here are some popular baccarat stories as compiled from several accounts (the sources are in parentheses):

* In baccarat, the highest of high-rollers are called "whales." Perhaps the Moby Dick of all whales was Japanese gambler Akio "The Warrior" Kashiwagi. In 1990, he waged an epic baccarat battle with casino mogul Donald Trump at one of Trump's Atlantic City properties. The deal was that Kashiwagi would risk $12 million in a marathon session, stopping only when he either doubled his money or lost the $12 million. At one point, Kashiwagi was up $7 million, but his luck turned. A dispute over credit ended the challenge before the money was lost or doubled. The final result, however, was that Trump's casino won $9 million. (From "The Big Game," a story in Casino Player, August 1996.)

* An Arabian high-roller was playing baccarat at a posh Strip casino when, during a long session, he became hungry. Naturally, he was offered the finest gourmet food the casino could prepare. Fearing casino officials would spike the food with a potion that would make him lose $20 million, he sent his servant to a local McDonald's to pick up dinner. Casino officials held up the game while he consumed a Big Mac and fries. (As told by Howard Schwartz, operator of the Gamblers Book Shop in downtown Las Vegas).

* Several years ago at The Mirage, a gambler placed a side bet of $100,000 for the dealers. He won and the dealers split $200,000. (From "The Big Game" article).

* An Asian gambler at a Las Vegas casino asked that the maximum limit be raised to $250,000 per hand. The house agreed, figuring he would lose at least half his bets and the casino would rake in commissions of $12,500 on the hands he won betting on the banker. The bettor went on an amazing win streak. When the session ended, he left with $18 million of the casino's money -- one of the largest takes in Las Vegas history. The next day, the casino's stock plummeted on Wall Street. A few weeks later, the gambler returned and lost a bundle on baccarat. (From "Casino Secrets" by Barney Vinson, 1997, Huntington Press.)

* Many years ago, a high-roller insisted on having his stuffed baby alligator on the table next to him for good luck. Each time he was dealt a hand, he would tap it on the gator's rough skin. Casino officials soon realized he was marking the cards so that the tiny indentations he was putting on the sides could benefit him when the cards were drawn for future hands. Casino officials, not wanting to cause a scene, arranged for a very attractive woman to show up and sit beside the man. After developing a warm relationship with the gambler, she got up and said she had to leave because the alligator scared her. He quickly got rid of it. While the 카지노사이트 주소 couple chatted during a break, casino bosses changed the cards. They told the gambler that a new house policy was to change all eight decks for each new shoe. That policy became the standard for Las Vegas casinos. (From an article in Las Vegas Style magazine, November 1996.)