I'm Back!!
Well, kind of. I probably won't write in this again for ages but I thought this might be interesting to whoever stumbles across my Livejournal for whatever reason.
I recently went to Vegas and had some luck in the casinos:
I ended up coming away with $1100 of the casinos' money. My trip cost me around $800 when you add up the airfare, hotel, food, entertainment, ground transportation and incidentals so I still came away a few hundred dollars richer. I made my money on roulette. I slightly adapted an old betting system called The Martingale. It's a cool system. It greatly increases your chances of winning over the short term. Unfortunately, there is no sure thing and if you play long enough you're bound to lose and when you do, you lose big. It's essentially progressive doubling on an even pay bet. So let's say, red or black on roulette, which is what I played. You have just shy of 50/50 odds on any given spin because of the two greens on the wheel and it pays even money, so you bet $5, you win $5. If you bet $5 and you lose your $5, the next spin you bet the same color but you double your bet to $10. If you win, you get back your bet on that spin, you get back your bet on the previous spin, and you win $5 overall. This continues, doubling every time. No matter how many times you double, you come away with a $5 profit. One of the problems is, doubling turns into big bets really quick: 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280... that is only 8 doubles. So, if you hit an unlucky streak, you have to start throwing down some big money and you may wipe out your bankroll and not be able to continue doubling. The other problem is that there is a table maximum bet, designed specifically to thwart this tactic. Let's say it's $1000, which is pretty common, you hit the max after only 7 spins. You lose 7 times in a row, and now your fucked because you can't keep doubling and by that point you're locking in losses. The traditional Martingale system says to always start at the table's minimum bet, the logic being you maximize the number of times you can double before hitting the max. The problem is, you have to play a shit load of times to get any serious winnings and by playing that many times, you increase the likelihood you're going to hit the unlucky streak that knocks you out. Let's say you start at $5 and play on $1000 max bet tables. Let's say you play the system successfully 20 times. You've now made $100. Let's say the 21st time you hit your unlucky streak and you lose, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 360, 640 and you're out. You just lost $1275. Thankfully you've already won $100 so really you only lost $1175, don't you feel better? Not really. I decided, instead of betting the minimum, I'm gonna bet $100 to start. This means on a $1000 max table, I can double 4 times: 100, 200, 400, 800 and I'm out. Four times instead of eight. Well, it's not THAT often that it will even go a particular color 4 times consecutively. Not THAT often, though I did see it a good amount which made me nervous. So, I adapted it a little further. I always start betting once I've already seen it go a particular color at least 4 times consecutively. If I see it go black 4 times consecutively, I'll jump in and start betting red, thinking it's not likely to go black a total of 8 times consecutively. Now in actuality, this doesn't help me a lick. Because I'm not actually betting that it's not gonna go black 8 times consecutively, I'm really only betting that it won't go 4... hope that makes sense cuz it's a cold hard truth. Even though this second adaptation doesn't give me any statistical advantage, it does make me feel better knowing that a streak of 8 is pretty uncommon. So now, with this system, I'm gonna make money a lot faster. Let's say I play this successfully 6 times. Let's say that on the 7th time I lose 100, 200, 400, 800 and I'm out. Well, I just lost $1500 but I won $600 so I only lost $900 in actuality. Already, I've come out better than if I had won 20 times at $5, in fact, at 4 successful plays, I'm already ahead of the other system. So, provided I don't hit that unlucky streak in the first 4 plays, my adaptations helped. If I win 15 times, at that point I can't help but come away even or better since I've already won as much as I can possibly lose. Of course, this is dependent on you not being a fucking fool and continuing to bet after you've lost your initial bankroll. I started with a bankroll of $1500 and told myself that if I got knocked out at any point, no matter how much I'd won up to that point, I walk away from the gambling. Also, I set myself a max win amount. If I won $2000, I'd get out no matter how I feel. At $1100, I had a feeling in my gut that I was gonna hit an unlucky streak, so I stopped and locked in my winnings.
Crazy thing is, I thought I was gonna get royally fucked by hitting the unlucky streak my first time. I saw a table with 4 consecutive blacks my first night, I threw $100 on red. I lost and threw down $200. I lost and threw down $400. By this point the four college-aged dudes at the table were like, "What the hell man? Are you a professional gambler or something?" and I was like "No, I just gotta get my fucking money back". I lost again and they're like, "Damn dude, sorry". I was sitting there, I'd lost $700 in my first hour in Vegas and I was like, "I can't believe this shit is happening. Am I really prepared to lose another $800 on the next spin?" That's when I realized, if I don't throw down, it's gonna be a bitch to get my $700 back any other way. I heard my brass balls clanking around between my legs and threw down the $800. The dudes at the table were going nuts at this point and one of them was like, "Dude, I'll roll with you." And he threw down a stack of $5 chips on red. That wheel started spinning and I couldn't hear anything else but the wheel and that ball rattling around, everything was in slo-mo and when it came up red, it got loud and everything sped back up like a fucking Guy Ritchie movie. All those dudes were slapping me on the back and high-fiving me and shit... it was awesome. That's when I picked up my $1600 and walked away. Didn't work up the courage to gamble again till the next day. Good fucking times.
I recently went to Vegas and had some luck in the casinos:
I ended up coming away with $1100 of the casinos' money. My trip cost me around $800 when you add up the airfare, hotel, food, entertainment, ground transportation and incidentals so I still came away a few hundred dollars richer. I made my money on roulette. I slightly adapted an old betting system called The Martingale. It's a cool system. It greatly increases your chances of winning over the short term. Unfortunately, there is no sure thing and if you play long enough you're bound to lose and when you do, you lose big. It's essentially progressive doubling on an even pay bet. So let's say, red or black on roulette, which is what I played. You have just shy of 50/50 odds on any given spin because of the two greens on the wheel and it pays even money, so you bet $5, you win $5. If you bet $5 and you lose your $5, the next spin you bet the same color but you double your bet to $10. If you win, you get back your bet on that spin, you get back your bet on the previous spin, and you win $5 overall. This continues, doubling every time. No matter how many times you double, you come away with a $5 profit. One of the problems is, doubling turns into big bets really quick: 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280... that is only 8 doubles. So, if you hit an unlucky streak, you have to start throwing down some big money and you may wipe out your bankroll and not be able to continue doubling. The other problem is that there is a table maximum bet, designed specifically to thwart this tactic. Let's say it's $1000, which is pretty common, you hit the max after only 7 spins. You lose 7 times in a row, and now your fucked because you can't keep doubling and by that point you're locking in losses. The traditional Martingale system says to always start at the table's minimum bet, the logic being you maximize the number of times you can double before hitting the max. The problem is, you have to play a shit load of times to get any serious winnings and by playing that many times, you increase the likelihood you're going to hit the unlucky streak that knocks you out. Let's say you start at $5 and play on $1000 max bet tables. Let's say you play the system successfully 20 times. You've now made $100. Let's say the 21st time you hit your unlucky streak and you lose, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 360, 640 and you're out. You just lost $1275. Thankfully you've already won $100 so really you only lost $1175, don't you feel better? Not really. I decided, instead of betting the minimum, I'm gonna bet $100 to start. This means on a $1000 max table, I can double 4 times: 100, 200, 400, 800 and I'm out. Four times instead of eight. Well, it's not THAT often that it will even go a particular color 4 times consecutively. Not THAT often, though I did see it a good amount which made me nervous. So, I adapted it a little further. I always start betting once I've already seen it go a particular color at least 4 times consecutively. If I see it go black 4 times consecutively, I'll jump in and start betting red, thinking it's not likely to go black a total of 8 times consecutively. Now in actuality, this doesn't help me a lick. Because I'm not actually betting that it's not gonna go black 8 times consecutively, I'm really only betting that it won't go 4... hope that makes sense cuz it's a cold hard truth. Even though this second adaptation doesn't give me any statistical advantage, it does make me feel better knowing that a streak of 8 is pretty uncommon. So now, with this system, I'm gonna make money a lot faster. Let's say I play this successfully 6 times. Let's say that on the 7th time I lose 100, 200, 400, 800 and I'm out. Well, I just lost $1500 but I won $600 so I only lost $900 in actuality. Already, I've come out better than if I had won 20 times at $5, in fact, at 4 successful plays, I'm already ahead of the other system. So, provided I don't hit that unlucky streak in the first 4 plays, my adaptations helped. If I win 15 times, at that point I can't help but come away even or better since I've already won as much as I can possibly lose. Of course, this is dependent on you not being a fucking fool and continuing to bet after you've lost your initial bankroll. I started with a bankroll of $1500 and told myself that if I got knocked out at any point, no matter how much I'd won up to that point, I walk away from the gambling. Also, I set myself a max win amount. If I won $2000, I'd get out no matter how I feel. At $1100, I had a feeling in my gut that I was gonna hit an unlucky streak, so I stopped and locked in my winnings.
Crazy thing is, I thought I was gonna get royally fucked by hitting the unlucky streak my first time. I saw a table with 4 consecutive blacks my first night, I threw $100 on red. I lost and threw down $200. I lost and threw down $400. By this point the four college-aged dudes at the table were like, "What the hell man? Are you a professional gambler or something?" and I was like "No, I just gotta get my fucking money back". I lost again and they're like, "Damn dude, sorry". I was sitting there, I'd lost $700 in my first hour in Vegas and I was like, "I can't believe this shit is happening. Am I really prepared to lose another $800 on the next spin?" That's when I realized, if I don't throw down, it's gonna be a bitch to get my $700 back any other way. I heard my brass balls clanking around between my legs and threw down the $800. The dudes at the table were going nuts at this point and one of them was like, "Dude, I'll roll with you." And he threw down a stack of $5 chips on red. That wheel started spinning and I couldn't hear anything else but the wheel and that ball rattling around, everything was in slo-mo and when it came up red, it got loud and everything sped back up like a fucking Guy Ritchie movie. All those dudes were slapping me on the back and high-fiving me and shit... it was awesome. That's when I picked up my $1600 and walked away. Didn't work up the courage to gamble again till the next day. Good fucking times.