This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.
A.C. says: When should you quit playing during a gambling session? Most advice revolves around the monetary consideration, focusing on protecting a big win or limiting losses. The advice in this article is related to that, but really boils down to using common sense. It advocates paying attention to what you know is the logical thing to do, whether based on your current results or simply maximizing the experience. It sounds a little bit like a cop-out, but because of several points made in this article, there aren’t any hard-and-fast rules for stopping. That’s okay; relying on common sense is good advice for all levels of player. However, there’s a fairly solid rule of thumb for expert players who know how to play with an advantage, e.g., by counting cards in blackjack or playing a video poker progressive that’s above breakeven. Assuming you’re adequately bankrolled, you should stop when the game conditions deteriorate or when you’re too tired to play accurately. For pros, the paramount consideration for deciding when to stop is almost always whether or not the game continues to be beatable, not how much has been won or lost, especially after a small amount of play.
This article was written by Frank Scoblete in association with 888casino.
When Is It Quittin’ Time?
At any point in your contest with the casino you could be in any one of the following situations:
- You are way ahead and feeling like the true champion of the world.
- You are way behind, in short, you’re taking an absolute beating
- You are a little or somewhat ahead, not bad.
- You are a little or somewhat behind, not good.
- You are even or about even, you have plenty for another session sometime later or tomorrow.
- You’re tired.
Let us say you have played enough time at the table or the machine to feel you have had a full experience. You don’t feel short changed.
Should you be calling it quittin’ time?
You quit generally when you quit. Not everybody has the same guidlines to follow when to quit and when to play on. I think this article is pretty useless without specific value.
I’ll quit when I’m dead.
The reality is, there’s really no rule to follow when you’re not playing with an edge, so there’s not much you can point to except common sense as it relates to your individual situation. That’s what the article espouses. It’s different for experts, as pointed out in A.C.’s comment.
To me, quitting is “NEVER” doing something again. Stopping for any amount of time and restarting later, whether in an hour or next year, is just “taking a break”. So I stand by my statement that “I’ll quit when I’m dead” because when it’s time to sleep or eat or go home, it’s just “break time”.
Quittin’ Time is usually falls somewhat before your gut tells you “get the hell off this machine/table” and go eat/to bed/tomorrow is another day. Maybe you had some luck earlier but now you are losing more than you won and/or have lost more than your daily allottment (for those that set one). Gut signals are pretty reliable. JMHO.
During my last trip I was playing on a machine that kept giving me more 4-of-a-kinds than what I usually get. I was playing deuces wild (NSUD) and there the 4-of-a-kinds are nice if you get them every 3 or 4 hands because then you are actually free-floating and accumulating points with the cance to hit the 4 deuces sooner or later. That one afternoon was so impressive that my fellow player next to me noticed that it was very unusual what he saw and what I saw. It was really impressive how many times I got 1, 2 or 3 deuces on the deal and this of course is the perfect situation for a deuces wild game.
It would have been crazy to quit under such conditions as that streak went on for about 3 hours I think. Although everybody keeps telling me it’s all random then it was a lot of randomness to get so many deuces all the time and then…at times…you play 100 or 200 hands and hardly see any deuces. Go figure. When would you quit and when would you play on?
From Switzerland
Boris
A LVA subscriber for many years….miss the mail version…..when will the E version hit the computer ? each month….continued success to you all !!
It’s all in my mind, when I’m felling good and lucky I keep going…when I’m not feeling it I don’t do as well and stop.