OK, I dabbled. But this time it was a good thing!

[roveer]

Before you read my story (some like my long winded ramblings, some don't), I'll tell you that the first picture is the strangest handpay I've ever had. 4 grand on a 7 dollar bet. What's the strangest handpay you've ever had???

Ok, so many of your read my thread about having to take a break. And I'm serious about actually taking a break. I've cut way down on my Casino VP (which is the only gambling that I do) and especially the size of my bankroll and my re-buys. This past week doesn't change that and has even given me some clarity about how nearly impossible it is to be successful on a regular basis.

So I decided to go down to Harrah's to grab my weekly freeplay. Recently I've been going down to grab 200/400 in freeplay. They are giving me about 1800/month plus other bonus's I'd add to it another 400/600 and try to make something happen. I've been getting scorched. There were times where I'd continue to add but only small amounts and nothing would happen. That's when I decided I just had to give it up and made my post.

So down I went but this time I talked myself into putting together a larger bankroll just to start. If it went into the crapper I was going to take most of the money and just quit. No more chasing if nothing was happening.

I've also been observing that my favorite bank of machines have been really dead for me. Not just some of the time, but all of the time. So what I learned from that is you really can't resurrect something that is dead just because they've been good in the past. I rally took these lessons to heart and promised myself that I wasn't going to fall pray to them again.

So I went about my business playing different machines and one in particular that I had seen giving hand pays. I also played a "dream card" machine that had been treating me good. Before I knew it I had racked up quite a good pile all in non-handpay payouts. I thought to myself "oh it's going to be one of those nights". I've had this happen before where I'm hitting 800/1000 dollar hits all night long. I'm always fine with skipping the W2G part if I'm putting money in my pocket. Then whammo, a 4OAK (A,2,3,4 /kicker) on a 5x multiplier STP for 4k. Wow. Haven't seen that much fun for a long time. Since my bankroll was good I took it as a check. I had gotten away from checks but always seemed to put it back in so this time I was disciplined to take a check. So on I went and this time when the machine started to go south, I stopped playing. I also varied the denom (50c/1d) and number of hands. At times I'd switch over to UX but was hypersensitive on those machines because they are so streaky. I hit a few more hand pays but it seemed like this really only happened when I came back to the same machine. So I'd play, get a good hand pay, wait till it topped out and leave without pouring too much back in. I did however manage to decimate my bankroll to the point where with the check I was only up 1K. I was pretty disappointed in myself but didn't feel like a complete loser. So to make myself feel like a complete loser I went to the cage and cashed the 4k check.   I decided I'd see if there was any hope and if not, run away with what I had and call it a success. Then blamo dealt aces with the kicker!!! on a 5 hand dollar machine, 10K!!! Yes, I'll take a check. Some nights it just happens like that. So happy that I saved myself from a train wreck I went back out to my "favorite row" to see if anything had changed but when things weren't happening I quickly said, "not again", not going to let it get me again. I moved to the center machine which is a Double STP machine and had nickel and dime denoms. I've talked here about how I've started to put nickel play in when the gambling gene is compelling me to play when I know I should stop. I figure I'll wear myself out for about a hundred bucks and then go home happy with the outcome. Can you believe on dimes the multiplier landed on 10x's. That's not so amazing I get 10x's multipliers all the time and always get dreadful cards. This time the cards were pretty dreadful 3 to a Royal. I held the 3 cards and blamo again. A Royal, 40,000 dimes. I thought wow, now I'm right back to where I was before. I played a little more and headed back to my honey hole. Each time I'd give the machine about 1-1 1/2 hours to "rest" before I returned to see if it would produce. Within a few minutes it spit out another 29 hundred bucks. I said, that's the last one, I've got 15k in my pocket and I'm outta here.

So, it turns out it was just one of those nights. I had even said to myself, I'm due for my quarterly quad aces but this time I was keeping things very much in perspective fully figuring It wasn't going to happen. Kinda funny that it did.

What's also different is that no time in the near future am I going to forget that hopeless feeling of all the bad sessions I had been having or be at all deluded into thinking I can have any effect on future winning sessions. Too many times I'd take good winnings and dump them back into machines on return trips thinking I was going to catch lightning in a bottle once again. Nope, that naive way of thinking had led me to much hard brake. I'm going to continue to collect my freeplay and my comps but I'm not going to pour back what I was so lucky to win. The biggest part is knowing when things are not happening and getting out before you've committed too much. I've noticed at the denoms and games I play there is a certain amount an beyond that I'm just wasting money. I've got lots of things planned this summer that don't involve gambling and really am looking forward to getting away for a while.

I guess you could call my decision process on this visit a total failure. I'm still assessing it myself. I think I may have just been dumb lucky especially after I risked a decent profit. There's no other way to look at it and this particular time it just worked out. That's probably one of the biggest concerns I have about all of the gambling that I do and why I probably shouldn't do it. No need to tell me that in a reply, I'm fully aware.

So let this narrative stand as a "what not to do" more than a celebration of my good fortune. I'm thinking that's the lesion I should be taking away from this as well.

Why do I write these things? Because my 24k/year health insurance won't pay for a shrink to sit and listen...

Enjoy the pictures.











Roveer

[chattycattty]

Nice pictures and win but that is a $7 bet not a 70 cent bet. Still happy for you nonetheless.

[Tedlark]

  Getting the congrats out of the way first, congrats roveer. Now for the rest of the story. I, like you did in this trip, have thrown good money after bad hoping for that one hit to save my butt.. I get scorched so I figure why not go totally down in flames and I throw in more cash chasing after the bad. I feel pretty silly and am doing a good job of scolding myself underneath my breath and then I get that one good hand that saves me.    When it boils down to it; I end up not making that much in profit and was it worth it throwing the good money after the bad trying to get back even? Or, even up a bit? At some point the stupid angel on my shoulder over rules the common sense angel on my other shoulder and in the money goes. If I lost my whole gambling kick I'd be mad at myself but if I just lost half of it I wouldn't be so mad at myself but then I also wouldn't be sweating it out, trying to get back everything that I poured into the machine instead of just cutting my losses and living to fight the good fight another day.   Ahh, the lessons we learn in life.   Congrats again roveer.

[JWF]

Dealt 4 Aces with a kicker! What a GREAT hand!   Congrats!

(how come those never seem to come when you have a multiplier??)

[roveer]

Nice pictures and win but that is a $7 bet not a 70 cent bet. Still happy for you nonetheless.

I noticed that after I looked back and corrected the post. The attendant thought it was 70 cents. I was just dumbfounded to see that big of a hit on such a low denim machine.

[pokerforme]

Awesome results, congrats!

[olds442jetaway]

Absolutely fantastic!!!...Ah, yes...the lessons in life..It just seems that we always have to learn them over and over at least as far as vp goes...Again, super job and congrats!!

[kvangild]

Nice hits Roveeer

[JIMDUECE`SWILD]

Congratulation, Nice hits ! ! !

[roveer]

So I went back today. It was triple witching. 200 FP, 300 FP and 250 gas. Here is the text I sent my wife: I'm pretty happy with myself.

"Banked my freeplay, got my gas cards, played 30 bucks in nickles took a piss and on the road"

It's not often I can enter a casino without engaging in a "session" but I now have over a grand banked and will pick a better time to return. The hours I was there I consider evil with mostly dead machines. Twice I was in front of machines ready to "put it in" and twice I walked away. On my way out I was very tempted but I saw one of my regulars pounding away and decided "nope, not today".

Roveer