The 2+2 Forum Archives: Almost there with Success and Failure (Long)

This may be seem off topic, but I submit it anyway. I was in Atlantic City once a couple of years back, and per my usual routine I was doing a very little bit of playing table games and alot of watching. I simply enjoy the reality of watching the fluctuations we call luck play themselves. Like when I bump into a guy with a stressed look on his face and ask him how he's doing.. He replies, he's down 10 baloons. 10K.. I offer a sympathetic tight smile and give him my patented, It'll turn....It'll turn..
Then within 5 minutes I witness him call to a Sic Bo dealer he knew "Hey Joe I need the triple 5s NOW" He places a bet for the triple fives, the dealer shakes the dice cup vigorously and out come three fives, a 216-1 shot. With a $25 chip on it, the dealer smiles and pays him out 5K. Next lesson I step to the left and watch two 20 something year old guys at a Pai Gow table, I watched them from the start. Their grubstake a couple hundred bucks. Within 30 minutes they ran it up to 100k, I witnessed every hand of the journey. At 100k the pit boss or floor person told the dealer that's it, he had to come out. The dealer begged and pleaded with the manager to let him stay in, "these guys were going to turn around" It took 10 minutes of pleading.. The manager left him in. As if they rang a bell... the downhill run for these players began in earnest, Straight down.. so they went for a nice ride, from $200-300 up to 100k right back in slightly less time to nadaville, zip and they quietly walked away. I looked at the dealer and I walked away too... Looking for a $6.00 hot dog and the next show of high drama in probability. What's the lesson here.. well the lesson is in the world of gaming, any gaming, you must know that you'll face fluctuations and if you don't have the mind set to deal with it, well enuf said..... And the Chris Moneymaker thing... you have to realize exactly how many times (plenty) his championship hung in the balance of a final all in draw, and that something other than all of his skills, which are great.. had to present to help him close out all of those opponents. What was it?? A luck vector. Something he could not control.. His main skill in my opinion, was knowing(feeling) that the vector was there
and that it was going to be strong enough to carry him to the end that he hoped for...

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