Pissed & depressed... your strategy when you're not alone?
Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:00 am
This one's a long read. I appreciate ya'lls taking the time to read it and reply. If you just wanna 'cut to the chase', read only the last paragraph.
I've lost big on two occasions this year. Last year I had one big losing excursion, and I'd clump all three incidents into the same "polar opposite" from my big-win days. When I've won big, my "discipline" has pulled me off the table almost immediately after the hand, if not immediately after.
To define winning and losing big--greater or equal to 150% of my buy-in. (I buy in with the idea that I'm paying for half the chips I'm willing to 'use'--$500-700. [Last week, I conceded that I had to play on the $10 table more often because the $5 table is almost always full, so I upped my loss limit to $4-500.] I'll go back into my wallet and rebuy for whatever it takes to cover the last number of a possible "ALL" ATS payoff with a lay bet, up to 50% of the value of the potential payoff. I hope that makes sense as I've written it.) This new loss limit only magnifies how badly out of control my losses actually were, since they happened before I raised my loss limit.
Last year, I had a personal family occurrence that put me in a depression. I didn't realize it until I left the table down $1500. I re-bought twice for $500 each time and lost it all. Maybe I had $50 or $100 left in my wallet when I got off the table, I don't remember. I do remember explicitly, thinking, "I'd rather stay here and play than take the chance of going home and having to listen to my sister on the phone." I had intended the casino trip just as a way to take a break from "life", but I didn't realize I was in that depression until I'd paid to leave the table.
This year, I had 2 big losses (for me). The first was $1600, the second, a week later, was $1300. In both cases, the situation I faced was the same...
I go to the casinos in the late afternoons only because I feel I should accompany my wife on the hour's drive when she wants to go play slots. Mainly because the return trip always occurs after dark, it's just safer that I go. I guess the best description of our play is, she's there for the entertainment. She's the one with the job, and this is her release. I'm there to make money; I'm retired.
I hate playing with so many other shooters though; and usually, when we arrive, the $5 tables are full, leaving (sometimes) only the $10 table. If I make the 6th shooter on the $10 table, I might stay. 7th and I'm either playing slots or grinding out $5 hands at a card table. There, my goal is to limit my loss to $100 for an hour's exposure. I HATE both games. I don't even watch the slots 1/3 of the time. Cards are b-o-r-i-n-g, and 7-stud is more luck than talent w/ some drama (I'm not discounting the position and leverage features of the game, but); with that attitude, there ain't much left for me to do at the casino ifn it ain't craps.
Last month when I had both losing sessions, I was at the $10 table. (Our agreed regimen is that when she's had enough, she's to come find me at the crap table or call if I'm not there. [Sure, she says, "when you've had enough, come find me" but when I've had my wins real early and wanna go home, she's almost never willing to leave yet, so de facto--usually she makes the decision to leave, not me.]) On these two occasions, I lost my limit very early; within the first 30 minutes. Rather than grind time by playing slots or cards I thought, "hell, we can afford it and if I gotta be here, I might as well play the game I like if I have to wait; I ain't going to the car this soon" and re-bought until a single moment of clarity (read that, 'monetary loss--I'm tapped') and enough time had passed that I got off the table. Only then was it not 'too hot and humid' to go out and read in the car (my usual pastime exercise when I have to wait; it's not hard to do at all when I've won big). By then, I was pretty much flat-assed broke. On one of those 3 occasions--the last time--I still had $600, so I dunno, I didn't totally succumb to the funk.
Do these mental/psychological challenges ever happen to ya'll, and how do you cope with it?
Say you're don't have a room for overnight... What do you do when you're not alone and you've agreed to meet at X hour, but you've won big--do you play the time away or quit? What if you've lost big early and have at least another 90 minutes until your appointed time?
Thanks, Guys!
I've lost big on two occasions this year. Last year I had one big losing excursion, and I'd clump all three incidents into the same "polar opposite" from my big-win days. When I've won big, my "discipline" has pulled me off the table almost immediately after the hand, if not immediately after.
To define winning and losing big--greater or equal to 150% of my buy-in. (I buy in with the idea that I'm paying for half the chips I'm willing to 'use'--$500-700. [Last week, I conceded that I had to play on the $10 table more often because the $5 table is almost always full, so I upped my loss limit to $4-500.] I'll go back into my wallet and rebuy for whatever it takes to cover the last number of a possible "ALL" ATS payoff with a lay bet, up to 50% of the value of the potential payoff. I hope that makes sense as I've written it.) This new loss limit only magnifies how badly out of control my losses actually were, since they happened before I raised my loss limit.
Last year, I had a personal family occurrence that put me in a depression. I didn't realize it until I left the table down $1500. I re-bought twice for $500 each time and lost it all. Maybe I had $50 or $100 left in my wallet when I got off the table, I don't remember. I do remember explicitly, thinking, "I'd rather stay here and play than take the chance of going home and having to listen to my sister on the phone." I had intended the casino trip just as a way to take a break from "life", but I didn't realize I was in that depression until I'd paid to leave the table.
This year, I had 2 big losses (for me). The first was $1600, the second, a week later, was $1300. In both cases, the situation I faced was the same...
I go to the casinos in the late afternoons only because I feel I should accompany my wife on the hour's drive when she wants to go play slots. Mainly because the return trip always occurs after dark, it's just safer that I go. I guess the best description of our play is, she's there for the entertainment. She's the one with the job, and this is her release. I'm there to make money; I'm retired.
I hate playing with so many other shooters though; and usually, when we arrive, the $5 tables are full, leaving (sometimes) only the $10 table. If I make the 6th shooter on the $10 table, I might stay. 7th and I'm either playing slots or grinding out $5 hands at a card table. There, my goal is to limit my loss to $100 for an hour's exposure. I HATE both games. I don't even watch the slots 1/3 of the time. Cards are b-o-r-i-n-g, and 7-stud is more luck than talent w/ some drama (I'm not discounting the position and leverage features of the game, but); with that attitude, there ain't much left for me to do at the casino ifn it ain't craps.
Last month when I had both losing sessions, I was at the $10 table. (Our agreed regimen is that when she's had enough, she's to come find me at the crap table or call if I'm not there. [Sure, she says, "when you've had enough, come find me" but when I've had my wins real early and wanna go home, she's almost never willing to leave yet, so de facto--usually she makes the decision to leave, not me.]) On these two occasions, I lost my limit very early; within the first 30 minutes. Rather than grind time by playing slots or cards I thought, "hell, we can afford it and if I gotta be here, I might as well play the game I like if I have to wait; I ain't going to the car this soon" and re-bought until a single moment of clarity (read that, 'monetary loss--I'm tapped') and enough time had passed that I got off the table. Only then was it not 'too hot and humid' to go out and read in the car (my usual pastime exercise when I have to wait; it's not hard to do at all when I've won big). By then, I was pretty much flat-assed broke. On one of those 3 occasions--the last time--I still had $600, so I dunno, I didn't totally succumb to the funk.
Do these mental/psychological challenges ever happen to ya'll, and how do you cope with it?
Say you're don't have a room for overnight... What do you do when you're not alone and you've agreed to meet at X hour, but you've won big--do you play the time away or quit? What if you've lost big early and have at least another 90 minutes until your appointed time?
Thanks, Guys!