{"id":121525,"date":"2021-03-02T08:59:06","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T16:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/?p=121525"},"modified":"2021-03-02T08:59:11","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T16:59:11","slug":"a-lesson-relearned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/a-lesson-relearned\/","title":{"rendered":"A Lesson Relearned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today we\u2019ll have a personal anecdote about what happened to me recently. I\u2019m not sure how widespread my situation is, but perhaps some of my readers will relate to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been gambling at video poker since 1994. For the right promotion, I\u2019ll go any time of the day or night. To make this work, I also need to be able to sleep any time of the day or night so I can be at my best when I play. Sometimes I\u2019ll play daytime for one promotion, sleep four to six hours, and then go play graveyard at some other promotion. At age 74, it\u2019s more difficult to do this than it was when I was younger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transition between sleep and wakefulness doesn\u2019t happen to me in a split second. It takes some time. My eyes are a bit blurry for the first half hour I\u2019m awake. Probably comes from liking to sleep on my stomach. Usually, video poker cards are big enough that I can see them just fine immediately after awakening, but I normally need to drive to where I\u2019m playing since I don\u2019t spend many nights sleeping in casinos Although I can usually see the video poker cards right away, I probably couldn\u2019t pass a DMV eye test right when I wake up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, to compensate for this, I do some physical exercises; I review strategy if it\u2019s not a game I know cold; I get some water into me; and pretty soon I\u2019m off to the races. If it\u2019s a game like Jacks or Better that I know perfectly, I don\u2019t review the strategy, but I\u2019ll read the news on my computer for 20 minutes or so. I\u2019m just letting my body wake up completely as time passes. I don\u2019t want to make financial decisions when I\u2019m not at my best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, Bonnie and I were spending a comped night at a casino. I wanted to play after midnight (for COVID-evasion reasons), and we like the steakhouse there. Since we drive one car these days, I planned on going to sleep relatively soon after eating, getting up a few hours later, and playing as long as I needed. Bonnie brought along some books on tape or something similar to keep her occupied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I set the alarm for 1 a.m., and was at the machines by 1:30 — going through my typical routine before playing. I finished up about 5 a.m. and came upstairs. I recorded my results on my computer log, and got ready for bed. My cell phone was almost out of juice, so I plugged it in to recharge and set the alarm on my phone for 7:30. We planned to eat breakfast, after which I was going to drop Bonnie off for a hair salon appointment at 10 a.m. While she was getting her hair fixed, I\u2019d do some errands. And when we arrived home after picking Bonnie up at 11, I\u2019d sleep for as long as I needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the alarm didn\u2019t go off. I woke up because of a nature call at 9:20 and told Bonnie we had to leave in 15 minutes to make it to her hairdresser on time. We both jumped up, no time for showers, got our stuff together, and were out the door. I was operating at half speed, checking everything twice because I knew I wasn\u2019t 100% alert, and she wasn\u2019t much better. I left something in the room, but remembered it before we got in the elevator, so I only wasted one minute retrieving it. We took the wrong way to get to the parking garage and when we got to the car, I realized that I had left my parking validation ticket in the room. I had to backtrack while Bonnie called her hairdresser to give warning that we were running late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My eyes were still a little fuzzy when I started driving, but it was daylight and I knew the route well, so there were no problems. There could have been, but sometimes you get lucky. We finally got to the salon 15 minutes late, but the rest of the day went pretty much as planned.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened to the phone alarm? I had plugged it in to an outlet that went dead when I turned off a certain light switch. While I had set it accurately, it ran out of juice before the appointed time. Had I been at home, I would have realized the limits to that particular outlet. But in the hotel room, I didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What lesson did this reinforce? I\u2019m not at my best immediately after rising — especially with not enough sleep. My brain and eyes don\u2019t work optimally. No matter how good a promotion is, I need to give myself time to get going before I can tackle it effectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They say old age and treachery can overcome youth and skill. I\u2019m not sure \u201ctreachery\u201d is a good description of the things I need to go through to compete with others. But so long as I identify my weaknesses and work to compensate for them, I do all right.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we\u2019ll have a personal anecdote about what happened to me recently. I\u2019m not sure how widespread my situation is, but perhaps some of my readers will relate to it. I\u2019ve been gambling at video poker since 1994. For the right promotion, I\u2019ll go any time of the day or night. To make this work, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A Lesson Relearned by Bob Dancer","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[29,2,3],"tags":[428,258,719,196],"yoast_head":"\nA Lesson Relearned - Gambling With An Edge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/a-lesson-relearned\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Lesson Relearned - Gambling With An Edge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today we\u2019ll have a personal anecdote about what happened to me recently. I\u2019m not sure how widespread my situation is, but perhaps some of my readers will relate to it. I\u2019ve been gambling at video poker since 1994. For the right promotion, I\u2019ll go any time of the day or night. 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