What has blackjack taught you about life?

[BugsySeagull]

I haven't posted in a while, and I haven't read the forum much either. But I'll be going to Vegas in a month and so I'm studying up and brushing up on my skills again. I've been meaning to ask this to everyone: What have you learned about life from playing blackjack?

What I've learned is that you have positive variance and negative variance in life as well as in the cards. Life has its ups and downs, just like the game. You can't exactly predict what's going to happen next, but you can have a decent idea. And you make decisions sometimes that seem like the best decision to make at the time, and then it turns out that a different decision would have been better. But you have to still be satisfied to know that you still made the right decision. Just like when you have 16 against a 10 and bust, only to see the dealer turn over a 6 and you realise that you would have won if you had stood on 16.

Anyone else wanna get philosophical?

[Three]

To get the most in the long run of life you must always make the same right decision to each problem. It doesn't matter what negatives happen, whether people approve of your decision, whether it resulted in the best outcome that particular time or whether it makes you unpopular. If you make the right decision each time regardless of what others think you will get the most out of life in the long run.

[RS]

I agree -- choose to do what has the best expected value (or what you believe to be the best expected value), but realize there is variance.

Say you're driving to work but are gonna be late if you go the speed limit. If you speed, you will get there on time, unless you get pulled over. If being 5 minutes late will get you into trouble but showing up 30 minutes late will get you fired (AND a speeding ticket), determine which has the higher expected value....which will most likely be to show up 5 minutes late (although speeding COULD be the better choice).

Also learned how stupid some people can be -- usually ploppies playing poorly.

Also learned how smart people can be, discovering advantages at games that appear to not be beatable (not necessarily BJ related but AP / casino related). Even an outside example would be to buy a $50 gift card and get $5 off on your next purchase (like Starbucks or Rubio's).

[Mickey]

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch!"

(we all remember the times you think you've got 'em with your top bets out...catchin' aces after splitting nines against the dealer's six up...only to find a five in the hole followed by some paint to boot)

[hitA7]

Anything can happen in a given day/week/month/year....but if you persist in making the correct choices and stick to it, in the end you will be victorious.

[stopgambling]

Doing the right thing and expect variance , if you go with the ev maximizing choose .eventually you will get your expected result on average. Our emotions plays a big influence on our choice though. so i say life and bj are somewhat similar only. In bj your see a tremendous amount of variance in a shorter amount of time.

[Bodarc]

In cards and in life play the hand you are dealt.

[Blitzkrieg]

Blackjack has taught me nothing about life. It's more like what I have learned about the game of blackjack up to now.

[ZeeBabar]

Anything can happen in a given day/week/month/year....but if you persist in making the correct choices and stick to it, in the end you will be victorious.

And broke or in jail but you will know you did the right thing, that is victorious!!

[ZeeBabar]

For me, BJ taught me more about myself, how I handle stress, what are my own boundaries.

[moo321]

There's more to life than money.

[Norm]

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

[Thirdbaseman]

Observing ploppies show that that masses can be misinformed.