Stop Beating Yourself by Avoiding These Costly Mistakes

Casino gamblers face an uphill struggle if they want to become profitable. The house edge works against you even when you’re winning.

It would be best if you stopped beating yourself by avoiding these 8 costly mistakes. When a casino gambler takes an active role in mitigating their errors, it has a profound impact on their final tally.

Ignoring Bankroll Management

Successful casino gambling starts with proper bankroll management. It is the cornerstone of every successful gambling career.

Still, many players will completely ignore the most basic bankroll management tips.

When a casino gambler doesn’t practice any form of bankroll management, it only serves to give the casino faster access to your money. Losing your wad of cash so quickly that you’re relegated to spending the rest of the day aimlessly strolling the casino grounds or lounging by the pool is rough.

However, a far more dangerous mistake can also be the result of not managing your money. That’s when a casino gambler loses much more than they’d anticipated.

Losing more than you can afford may have some very severe ramifications. It’s not so bad when you have a legitimate bankroll and overextend yourself.

You’ll need to get back on course and spend some time building your bankroll back up. When you’re operating on a “chunk of money” in your bank account, things can go from bad to worse. This money could be needed for bills and living expenses.

What does one do when rent is due, and you blew the money at the casino?

Learn everything you can about bankroll management and practice these principles religiously.

Using a System

Betting systems have been around since the first snake oil salesman discovered how desperate gamblers could be.

You’ve probably seen these systems advertised on the internet. They guarantee to make you a winner over the casino.

The math doesn’t allow that to happen. If there were a system that could guarantee a long term profit over the casino, nobody in the world would take the time to sell it to the world.

1. They’d be hemorrhaging money by not spending every waking second on the casino floor. You’d have a license to print your own money.
2. As soon as word got out that somebody had figured out a surefire way to beat the casino. It would be over.

The casino would immediately close every table in the casino. It would either replace them with another game or figure out how to flip the edge back in their favor. The casino would never put a casino game in play that could be beaten. The only exception being card counters in blackjack.

Look, the bottom line is that the only people that have ever made a profit from betting systems are those selling them. Spend your time and money on proper strategies, and you’ll diminish the house advantage enough to stay in the game.

Chasing Losses

Chasing losses is among the most common and most disastrous gambling mistakes in existence.

Recreational and novice players will regularly find themselves behind at the tables. They don’t understand the casino games’ math and think it’ll all come back if they start betting more.

This creates a snowball effect, and the mental state of many gamblers’ will deteriorate. This tilt mentality will lead to several playing mistakes and costs the players far more.

Sometimes the gamble pays off, and this can be even more dangerous. It reaffirms to the player that chasing losses is a viable strategy when they lose.

This fallacious reasoning will always end with the player suffering a crippling series of losses at some point in the future.

Taking Bad Advice

There’s no shortage of bad advice and terrible information when it comes to casino gambling.

Walk-in and have a seat at any Las Vegas table game, and you’ll likely hear a fellow player coaching a newbie along. Sometimes the unsolicited advice will be directed at you.

Whether you’re a solid player or not is of little consequence. Some people really like to talk, and anyone who will listen gets their undivided attention.

Dealers can be fantastic tools for navigating the rules of a game for new players. Still, that doesn’t mean they know the best way to play a particular hand.

It would help if you spent time learning about the best strategy for the games you play. From poker to craps, there is a wealth of useful information and a proper plan for players to tap.

Don’t leave your fortune in the hands of a stranger that’s 7 drinks deep and probably knows less about the game than you do.

Playing Bad Games

Not all casino games are built the same. The house has a definitive advantage in every game in the casino.

However, some games have a much lower house edge than others. It would be best if you learned the difference between good and bad games.

Slot machines can have a house edge of as high as 12%. Blackjack, on the other hand, can be under 1% with basic strategy and friendly rules.

It’s imperative that you stop playing games where you don’t have a fighting chance.

If you don’t stick to the better games, at least stick to making smarter decisions. Don’t aimlessly lay chips on roulette numbers. Instead, make even money bets, and you’ll lose far more slowly.

Given all of the information available to today’s casino gamblers, playing bad games is equivalent to self-destructive. This terrible mistake is only hurting you.

Overlooking Basic Strategies

As I mentioned above, there are seemingly endless resources regarding basic strategies for any game on the planet.

Blackjack is one of the most simple basic strategies to invoke. You don’t need to learn much at all to make a significant impact on your results.

How can a method that drops the house edge by 50% be so simple?

Because players can pick up a basic strategy chart in any casino gift shop, these index cards break down exactly how you should play any hand versus the dealer’s up card.

Video poker is an often forgotten casino game. Still, with basic video poker strategy, the game has a lower house edge than blackjack.

It would help if you became a student for whatever game you prefer to play and implement the best strategy every time you hit the floor.

The poker room is a great place to see the real impact of learning proper strategies. Watch all of the fish flop around as they’re dismantled by more advanced players.

Making the mistake of overlooking basic strategy will cost you money that could easily remain in your bankroll.

Playing by Feel

I am regularly amazed by how many times I see a player making wildly counterintuitive and inconsistent plays.

I followed one of these players to the casino bar one evening and asked him about his strategy. He told me that he preferred to play by feel.

Naturally, I asked him to expound on that, and he gladly described his brilliant strategy over a few drinks. Keep in mind that I had just watched this man lose over $500 in under 2 hours playing real money blackjack.

He told me that if he feels like he’s going to bust, he stays. He also added that if the dealer is showing a 7 or above, he’ll hit.

Only when he has an 11 or less, though. It was painful to hear all of this.

He was essentially saying he played based on a hunch. Not ironically, I asked if he was some form of psychic, to which he laughed.

There’s no crystal ball approach to casino gambling. Players that ignore the available data and go on a feeling are killing their chances of making a profit.

Luck Over Logic

Lady Luck is not going to save you from yourself. The best way to have a chance in the casino is by being calculated.

Betting half of your bankroll on 14 at the roulette table because that’s your grandmother’s birthday is sweet. I can’t help but think that Nana would probably prefer you not lose most of your “fun money” in one spin.

Leave luck for the off chance that you throw a few bucks in a slot machine and hit the jackpot.

Logic and reason are going to be your best ally on the table games.

Conclusion

The casinos are fraught with potential hazards. Learning to navigate these dangerous pitfalls can do great good in making you a more successful gambler.

Stop beating yourself by avoiding these 8 costly mistakes, and you’ll see a vast improvement in your overall success. Remember that casino gambling is a long-term game. While ideally, you walk away with a little extra cash on each trip, the important thing is to mitigate losses until a hot run comes along.