If You Reach Your Yearly Goal Do You Quit Playing for the Year

[Midwest Player]

I don’t have set playing schedules as such, therefore, I don’t have yearly goals.

My best year, I peaked in November and dropped about 12k in December. Shit happens. Mind you, I still had most of my local joints in those days.

I guess I really don't have a hard and fast goal either. I always have enough money withheld in income taxes during the year to cover a certain win, but most of the time I don't win that much. So maybe you can say I do have a goal based on past experience.

Anyway, I did manage to get another blackjack trip in this year and driving conditions were not the best. Winter has come very early this year along with way below normal temps. On a trip in Oct, I left my pop in the car and it froze. This time I decided to put the pop in an ice cooler to keep it warm, but it still froze. On the way home, I had no pop to drink, but it was probably a good thing because I didn't have to make a piss stop. The shoulders of the road were not plowed and pulling over to run into the woods to leave a leak was not the best idea with over a foot of snow on the ground. Besides, it is deer season, never know when someone might think you are a deer.

My winning streak of 7 wins in a row came to an end on my last trip. However, it was still a good trip (4th best of the year), and it was good enough for me to blow though my goal for the year. So yeah, I want to call it quits right now for the year. I like playing the game, but I don't like traveling in winter conditions anymore.

This year I made 16 trips with only 3 of them losing trips.

[Freightman]

I guess I really don't have a hard and fast goal either. I always have enough money withheld in income taxes during the year to cover a certain win, but most of the time I don't win that much. So maybe you can say I do have a goal based on past experience.

Anyway, I did manage to get another blackjack trip in this year and driving conditions were not the best. Winter has come very early this year along with way below normal temps. On a trip in Oct, I left my pop in the car and it froze. This time I decided to put the pop in an ice cooler to keep it warm, but it still froze. On the way home, I had no pop to drink, but it was probably a good thing because I didn't have to make a piss stop. The shoulders of the road were not plowed and pulling over to run into the woods to leave a leak was not the best idea with over a foot of snow on the ground. Besides, it is deer season, never know when someone might think you are a deer.

My winning streak of 7 wins in a row came to an end on my last trip. However, it was still a good trip (4th best of the year), and it was good enough for me to blow though my goal for the year. So yeah, I want to call it quits right now for the year. I like playing the game, but I don't like traveling in winter conditions anymore.

This year I made 16 trips with only 3 of them losing trips.

To keep my wife happy - One thing I used to do religiously, was totally separate blackjack funds from other assets. The obvious reasons were despite my wife’s faith in me, the possibility that I would comingle funds upset her. I’m looser now, primarily since the personal accounts owe the BJ accounts a shitload of dough - and it was a good way of getting rid of some dough.

That being said, I ALWAYS check winter road weather conditions prior to a driving trip. Information is easy, and I’m very prepared to delay a trip over poor conditions. I don’t care about cold - I care about whiteout, black ice, heavy wind (got caught once with wind so brutal, it blew a heavy vehicle into the path of a semi, brutal rural conditions).

In your locale, unless you were flying, my routine would tell me to call it quits, over safety issues, for the year.

[21forme]

Here we go again. This guy cannot help trying to bring me into every thread or get on my thread. Why do you have the need to get publicity for your obsession?

It could have been a good post without the need to show hostility.

No hostility. Simple staetment of fact. You are the poster child and perfect example for what not to do as an AP.

[ZeeBabar]

No hostility. Simple staetment of fact. You are the poster child and perfect example for what not to do as an AP.

You have said that a million times, perhaps you feel the need to repeat it again to educate all those people on this forum who have ignored your pleas to ignore me. You are in denial of you think you are not obsessed with me. People know you have contacted administrators of more than one forum to ban me. Now, you bring me into threads, knowing you are derailing threads by doing so, by making threads about me. Soon, a couple of others whom I have offended by playing rated, offended because your and their prediction that I would go bankrupt playing in the manner I do has not happened.

In any case, I hope Norm sees who felt the need to make this thread about me.

.

[Norm]

The concept of divisions of time are inventions of man. They have nothing to do with math.

[mosalah]

Hey Guys I am new here. Just want to introduce myself.

[Midwest Player]

........Now, you bring me into threads, knowing you are derailing threads by doing so, by making threads about me.............

CUT IT OUT, BOTH OF YOU GUYS.

21forme can't you ever say anything nice about Zee after all he is having a great year. Why don't you congratulate him on it instead of putting him down. Zee's posts are always the most popular of any post of this forum. And you were the one to throw the first punch in this thread.

And Zee you are no better. Just how many times have you told the story of how 21forme screwed you over. I know it by heart and I assume everyone else here does.

BELIEVE ME I DON'T LIKE IT WHEN NORM CLOSES A THREAD BECAUSE YOU TWO HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN BELITTLE EACH OTHER.

[tomf23]

absolutely not
bj is a side side hobby for me right now but has been profitable this year. it also helped in that 2 of the casinos i am down a lot lifetime at they gave me a ton of free money back in the form of slots dollars, amazon gift cards etc almost entirely erasing my losses at those places.

however i make my real money from poker. i have exceeded my annual goal this year (hit in in early September actually.) My hourly poker win rate is almost double what is was last year and i've played more hours. Last year i ran like absolute death for half the year in poker, and this year I have ran really well. I'm probably also playing better this year. I am continuing to play and hopefully will continue to make more money. For various reasons my poker year usually slows down in october and ends a week or so before christmas and this year will be no different.

I have also put in about 250-275 hours at the blackjack tables. I still have some holes and things to work on. Lots of things probably. With poker downswings don't bother me at all bc i have a very long track record of winning. With BJ i don't have that track record so downswings do mess with my head. Hopefully in time I get my bj game where it needs to be on the tables as well as mentally.

[Ikthor]

MidwestPlayer,

Do you take the rest of the year off and enjoy family or do you continue to plug away?

Keep playing. If you stop for some arbitrary reason like that it's essentially backing yourself off as well as falling prey to voodoo thinking.

This isn't to say you can't/shouldn't take some time off to relax or whatever, but trying to protect/lock up the win is pure voodoo. You may start on Jan 1st and lose 50% of what you won the previous year just due to good old variance.

[Dbs6582]

CUT IT OUT, BOTH OF YOU GUYS.

21forme can't you ever say anything nice about Zee after all he is having a great year. Why don't you congratulate him on it instead of putting him down. Zee's posts are always the most popular of any post of this forum. And you were the one to throw the first punch in this thread.

And Zee you are no better. Just how many times have you told the story of how 21forme screwed you over. I know it by heart and I assume everyone else here does.

BELIEVE ME I DON'T LIKE IT WHEN NORM CLOSES A THREAD BECAUSE YOU TWO HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN BELITTLE EACH OTHER.

Midwestplayer, I hate to admit it but I kind of like these two quarreling. Its entertaining. It’s a guilty pleasure, kind of like slowing down to look when you see a car wreck on the side of the road.

I also somewhat miss being belittled by this crowd. With the exception of Sharky, my favorite belittlers have seemed to backoff. I know Sharky has a hard time understanding the “fixed demand theory”, as he calls it. This isn’t the correct way to describe what I’m talking about but I get what Sharky is saying.

On this note, I had an interesting conversation with a dealer at a casino that I frequent often and that recently put in automatic shuffle machines. He said their hold has gone down since they put them in. What? How could this happen? They spent money on expensive ASMs to increase rounds delt per hour and their hold went down? Could it be there was only so much demand for bj at this small casino so increasing hands delt per hour did nothing to increase revenue? I wish Sharky was there to hear this conversation. It might help him understand the concept of supply vs demand. Just because supply is increased doesn’t mean demand will be increased. This is something most economist understand but APs struggle with.

Now I’m ready for the belittling by all the people who beleive in the cut card effect, basically believing that placing the cut card further back increases revenue with no exceptions.

[Norm]

Now I’m ready for the belittling by all the people who beleive in the cut card effect, basically believing that placing the cut card further back increases revenue with no exceptions.

The cut card effect absolutely exists -- but has nothing to do with what you are talking about.

[ZeeBabar]

Midwestplayer, I hate to admit it but I kind of like these two quarreling. Its entertaining. It’s a guilty pleasure, kind of like slowing down to look when you see a car wreck on the side of the road.

I also somewhat miss being belittled by this crowd. With the exception of Sharky, my favorite belittlers have seemed to backoff. I know Sharky has a hard time understanding the “fixed demand theory”, as he calls it. This isn’t the correct way to describe what I’m talking about but I get what Sharky is saying.

On this note, I had an interesting conversation with a dealer at a casino that I frequent often and that recently put in automatic shuffle machines. He said their hold has gone down since they put them in. What? How could this happen? They spent money on expensive ASMs to increase rounds delt per hour and their hold went down? Could it be there was only so much demand for bj at this small casino so increasing hands delt per hour did nothing to increase revenue? I wish Sharky was there to hear this conversation. It might help him understand the concept of supply vs demand. Just because supply is increased doesn’t mean demand will be increased. This is something most economist understand but APs struggle with.

Now I’m ready for the belittling by all the people who beleive in the cut card effect, basically believing that placing the cut card further back increases revenue with no exceptions.

ASM are rented by casinos and they cost over $1800 a month to rent those. So, if the casino rented those ARM's for several tAbles and all during the week most of those tables are closed, it's a lot of money to try to recoup on weekends.

[Three]

They spent money on expensive ASMs to increase rounds delt per hour and their hold went down? Could it be there was only so much demand for bj at this small casino so increasing hands delt per hour did nothing to increase revenue?

No. That would cause hold to stay flat. It is either coincidence or people don't like ASMs and they cut demand by getting their customers to shop elsewhere with the change. Plus with all the red lights and still doing all the unnecessary countermeasures they do for a game were the shuffle is unknown and unseen and the players never touch the cards, I doubt many more rounds are dealt per hour. Maybe fewer rounds per hour at some places. Beware the places where a red light should have occurred but didn't. I was at the GN in AC and 8 cards were upside-down in the machine spread out across the shoe, but no red light. The had the card recognition turned off. The only reason to do that is if they have altered the deck and want to get it thru the shuffle machine without a red light saying there were extra cards or missing cards. There have been many instances that a red light should have been triggered there but wasn't over a long period of time. It is also one of those casinos that I struggle to win at despite getting better or the best playing conditions when I choose to play there. I always feel lucky to get out with a profit. Very suspicious.