How many times growing up were you told to always do your best? How many times have you told it to your own kids or grandkids?
While it has a catchy ring to it, it is basically terrible, short-sighted advice that’s impossible to follow. Continue reading “Always Do Your Best” is Questionable Advice
Perhaps twenty years ago, I attended a series of motivational lectures by Dr. William Kerley. Near the end of the last lecture, he spoke of the time when he was hired by Continental Airlines to give classes to their non-pilots on how to deal with pilots. To properly understand what pilots went through, he spent many hours in flight simulators for a variety of airplanes. (This happened before 9/11). Continue reading Drivers, Pilots, Artists, and Perfectionists
More than a decade before I started playing video poker, I was doing my best to make it as a backgammon player. In the 1980s, I regularly played at the Cavendish West, located in West Hollywood, California, right where the Sunset Strip met Beverly Hills. Continue reading Going Down in Stakes
I receive a lot of mail addressed to [email protected]. These are primarily from podcast listeners who hope I can answer one of their questions. Continue reading How Do You Figure?
I recently was reminded of a quote by George Bernard Shaw. “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can’t find them, make them.” Continue reading Opportunity versus Circumstance
I was playing 9/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe at the South Point on a double point day. A lady I’ve known for years, “Sandy,” sat down to play at the machine next to me. She’s a fairly recent widow and I knew her husband as well. We’re friendly, but not close friends. Continue reading How Do I Answer?
I ran into a man, “Paul,” who had taken several of my classes. I remember Paul as a better-than-average student. I believe he makes good “what game to play” decisions and will have a strategy card with him. When we met in early January, I recommended that he play the South Point promotion because I thought it was a good one for him. Continue reading Bankroll Concern
If you spend enough time in casinos, eventually you’ll drop or lose something. If it’s a chip, you’re probably out of luck, but I’ve seen found chips returned by pit people. A bigger problem is dropping your wallet in a casino where you have heat.
For me personally, this is a hypothetical topic, because the only wallet I would carry is a decoy wallet containing a small amount of cash, a few worthless business cards, an empty Starbucks gift card, and an expired third-party ID that has no picture or someone else’s picture. Such a wallet is handy to give to a mugger, and if lost under heat, need not be retrieved at all. Continue reading I Lost My Wallet at a Casino Where There’s Heat: What Now?
There is a slogan by a major beer manufacturer that says, “Know when to say when”. A slogan by one state’s Council on Problem Gaming says, “Winners know when to quit.”
The attitude expressed by the two slogans is virtually identical — that is, to drink and gamble responsibly. And there is no doubt that problem drinking and problem gambling are both serious problems today and anything that can be done to reduce these problems is a good thing. Continue reading When Do You Quit?
The cardinal rule is “Do not stay where you play.” I know you’re a sinner. Sigh.
Continue reading The Casino Locked Us Out of Our Room: What Now?
