Win More, Play Less
I would like to talk about a concept that is the ultimate contradiction to winning in the casino: Win More, Play Less. On the surface, this saying seems absurd. How can you win more, if you play less? Taken to its ultimate conclusion, are we to say that we win the most when we don’t play at all? Yes, if you are an undisciplined gambler who doesn’t understand the importance of departure rules. Let me explain.
In an experiment conducted a few years ago, a professional gambler played 1,000 rolls of the dice two different ways on the pass line. The first way he played at the same table for 1,000 consecutive rolls. The second way, he limited his play to just 50 rolls. He then stopped and played another session the next day. Win or lose, after 50 rolls his session was over.
Guess what? The first way had him losing almost his whole bankroll. The second way had him way ahead. In the end, both ways played out exactly 1,000 rolls of the dice. But it was how he played these rolls that made all the difference.
So the question arises: How can the same number of rolls show such different results? The answer is simple: the more you play in one session, the greater the chance of the casino’s math emerging. The greater the sample, the greater the chances of the negative expectation to take hold.
Think of this analogy. If you flipped a coin, the chances of throwing heads and tails is 50/50, right? But if you just flipped the coin 10 times, how sure are you that the 50/50 probability will surface? Wouldn’t you be more confident this 50/50 probability would appear if you flipped the coin 50, 100 or 200 times? The same with casino gambling. The chances of the casino’s mathematical edge surfacing in a very small sample is much less than if you just played and played.
In the end, we will play the same number of rolls as the compulsive gambler, but we will do it over a few months, avoiding the casino’s math with our departure rules. So next time you hit the tables, remember Win More, Play Less. And keep the casino’s edge out of your play! Till next time.
