Page 24 - July 2004 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
We Are Not Fortune Tellers by Bill Burton
E very day we are faced with making decisions. It doesn’t matter if we are playing a casino game or going about our daily routine. And we don’t know the outcome of our deci- sion until after the fact because unfortunately, we are not fortune tellers. We don’t have
access to a crystal ball that will enable us to look into the future. erefore, our decisions don’t
always work out the way we had hoped they would. We also are victims of “selective amnesia.” We tend to remember all the times a di erent decision could have brought about a favorable outcome, but forget about the times that our choice was correct. Here are a couple of common
We are only human. Sometimes we make a wrong decision. When this happens we need only ask ourselves if it can be corrected. If it can, we correct it. If it can’t, we learn from it, we accept it, and we move on. Exhausting resources by worrying about past events that cannot be changed will serve no practical purpose. Does it matter that twelve years ago I forgot to double down with my A-7 against the dealer’s six while playing blackjack? Of course not.
As human beings, we will all make right and wrong decisions in the casino and in life. It is part of the learning and growing process. Anybody who has never made a mistake has never attempted anything new. It’s how you handle the outcome of your decisions that really matters.
You are not a fortune teller, but you are an intelligent person. Make all your decisions in life based on the facts, as you know them. Understand that the outcome will not always be as you desired, but that’s a fact of life we all must learn accept. Play your game and live your life to the best of your ability and be happy.
Bill Burton is the Casino Gambling Guide and columnist for the Internet portal About.com. He also writes for several national gambling publications. He is the author of Get the Edge at Low Limit Texas Hold’em available for $15 postage paid. Send checks to Bill Burton, P.O. Box 310299, Newington, CT 06131-0299 or order online at: http://vegas.home.attbi.com/. His website is located at: http:// casinogambling.about.com.
examples I see all the time.
A blackjack player has a 15 with the dealer showing a ten up. He takes a hit according to basic strategy and busts. e dealer turns over a 5 and then draws a ten for a bust. He laments that he would have won if he stood on 15. e fact is, he made the right decision. He forgets all the times the next card gave him a winning hand.
A video poker player is dealt an ace and ten of the same suit when playing Jacks or Better. He throws away the ten according to correct strategy, hits the draw button and sees the king, queen and jack of that suit appear on the screen. He laments that he would have had a royal ush if he kept the ten. e fact is he made the right decision. He forgets all the time he draws four aces or some other winning combination.
ese are examples of decisions we make when playing in the casino, but there are other instances
that happen in daily life as well. Have you ever cleaned out your garage or basement only to nd that an item you look for the following week was thrown out? You lament that you should have saved that item for the future. e fact is it probably would have gone unused for the next ten years if you had saved it.
It’s human nature to look at the outcome and lament on what would have happened if we made a different decision. You have to make your decision based on all the available facts that you have at your disposal and be confident that you are making the right choice. Sometimes this will not always bring about the desired outcome, but you have to learn to accept the fact that you made the correct choice and then move on. They always say hindsight is 20-20.
Page 24 July 2004
Column: Bill Burton About Gambling