Staying Close to Home
Let’s talk about a concept I feel is integral to the “1 Out of 3” principle presented last issue: Staying Close to Home.
It has been my experience that winning has never been a big problem for most gamblers. But losing, well, that has frustrated and stopped many a gambler from continuing. These days, we have a nice “scientific” term for losing: fluctuations. Like the name “fluctuations” is going to change the bottom line. Hey, you lost!
Depending on this “fluctuation” from session to session most times determines whether a player will continue with a system or not. It’s just the way it is. It takes a special player to fight through large fluctuations and keep the battle going. The Benson player has been trained to fight these big fluctuations with his table and daily departure rules.
But I personally hate any fluctuations. In fact, I have found that when I am down more than 12-15 units, I very rarely beat that session. I don’t know why that is. It’s just been my observation over years and years of playing. Historically, if I start off poorly and start losing a third or half of a buy-in, I just hope to come out even by the end of the day.
That doesn’t mean you can’t find a hot table in craps or streaky shoe in baccarat, but now you’re asking for a lot. Why put yourself in that position? Why not stay close to even and not ask for an exceptional run to make a profit? And to me, “close to even” means within 3-5 units of where you started.
If we can maintain this “closeness,” then we are never asking a lot from the tables to make us an overall winner. We are just looking for reasonable streaks to make a consistent profit. And to me, that’s how you win in the casino, with what is reasonable or happens most of the time.
Consequently, that is how I came up with the “1 Out of 3” principle introduced in an earlier article. I wanted a strategy and money management that always kept me close to home. It is based on the Benson money management but narrows it down to eliminate the fluctuations of 12 or more units that I feel are difficult to overcome.
If you look at some of our gambling strategies, there is no time when you are not “close to home.” There is no situation that will not allow a reasonable run to make you a good profit. But please note, reasonable runs will only make you a winner if you have not strayed too far. Think about it.
