Resolutions for the new year

As you play your last sessions of 2005 and look ahead to 2006 what have you learned about gambling and yourself this year? This is the time for reflection and this reflection won't be useful if you aren't honest or can't be accurate with your assessment.

Accuracy and honesty start with compiling good records. If you don't keep records of your play then you are not able to know whether you are a winner or a loser or by how much. Not keeping records is allowing you to lie to yourself. Since you don't have proof you can estimate what your record was and almost everyone will estimate high. How many times have you asked a fellow gambler how are you doing and got, "I'm about even" as a reply? "I'm about even" in gambler speak means I haven't lost much yet. If you want to be on the path of being an advantage player you must keep accurate records of your play.

As you look back can you identify times during the last year that you allowed yourself to be in a bad situation and sustained a loss that you feel really bad about? Most people will say that they have had bad sessions that could have and should have been avoided simply because "I should have known better." You can help keep yourself out of these situations by using your record keeping properly. Take very good session notes after each session and then transfer them to a spread sheet after your trip. Your notes should reflect the casino, amounts won or lost, notes about the table, what time of day it was, dealers, supervisors or anything else that may have affected the session outcome. What about this session helped you win or distracted you from winning? Do you want to remember not to play when a particular dealer was on the game? Perhaps by keeping these notes you can help yourself to find out what pitfalls to avoid. Remember the first step to winning more is trying to lose less.

Start the new year off with a resolution to keep excellent records of ALL of your play, and use these records to guide yourself toward better situations, whether they are shorter sessions, avoiding poor games or only playing when you are feeling good and wide awake. If you can avoid the times that you seem to lose the most you should improve your bottom line.

Billy the Kid