OK, I'm started to get excited because some of the upcoming blog entries are going to get really interesting and I am looking forward to sharing the info with you. But for the moment I need to mention a little about the opposite of the previous page on staying overnight at the casino - namely driving to the casino.
When I was a young gambler I used to get super excited about going out for a night of gambling. I would get butterflies the whole way and would drive with such high hopes and dreams, and could barely control myself. It's now many many many years later, and it hasn't changed one bit! I know I'm going to leave exhausted and sometimes with less money than I went in with, but I don't care. All these years of going and you can't diminish my excitement or enthusiasm one tiny little notch. I have no idea why that is. My parents are total non-gamblers and my poor Mother has spent my entire adult life in frustration at my enjoyment in this genre. She literally cannot understand why anyone would want to throw their money away. Especially their hard earned money. Leaving aside that I now have a sweet little niche where I don't actually lose, the point is there's a large percentage of the population that not only get no pleasure at all from gambling, but many literally despise it. Some with good reason I guess. if they've seen the consequences of an addiction or something. But the point is, they derive zero enjoyment from it. (They can still love Las Vegas though people, so please go and enjoy a show, sunbathe and eat at the finest restaurants).
My point is, I do love it. I love love love it! I haven't quite figured out what the core underlying psychological urges are based on, but the result is I still get totally excited when I'm driving to the casino. Sometimes I tell myself how I'm going to play when I get there. I might talk myself into starting off on a certain machine and then plan that if I get lucky move to another one I like or if I have a bad run may be play keno for 2 cups of coffee to calm me down. I would say try the video-poker machines, but they just don't do anything for me, so I can't calm myself on those as I'd fall asleep trying to decide which cards to hold.
Sometimes on my way to the casino I'll say to myself, if I lose (or win) x then I'll definitely have my (free, obviously) buffet, or may be the (yeah, yeah, free) steak and eggs. Whatever.
And once in a while I'll utter a little prayer in hope that I hit 9 frickin QuickHits (the most I've had is 8, but that's another story). And then I might even go home and give my wife a cut of the money for once!
However, what usually happens is that I go in, sit down (may be on the machine I was planning on going to, may be not) put my Players Card in, download some free money (more on that another time) and then press the start button. At that precise moment whatever thoughts had been going through my head on the drive in get moved to a new place, called fantasy/fiction land, and stay there until 30 seconds after I leave the casino.
Doesn't matter how sane, clever, logical or desirable those car thoughts are, once I hit start, they vanish into thin air. Every time. And I know this because it's happened a gzillion times in a row now. So the barriers that you want to set up to control any activities that go on in the casino have to keep that issue in mind. You cannot go in with good intentions, they don't work. You have to go in with physical barriers! For this post I am talking about my wallet, inside my ugly-arse hip bum-bag. Every time I want to load another $20 in to the slot I have to open structure A, pull out structure B, take out one and only one $20 bill, and then return B in to A and zip up A again. This singular onerous chore is something I now tend to stick to as a new religion. I have a bundle of singles in my pocket for tips, but they aren't important compared to the storage planning of my bigger bills. But I would recommend keeping dollars closer by if you are a regular user of the beverage options provided by the casino.
Speaking of tipping, that's another whole story to discuss. But for high-rollers there is a definite issue of over-tipping and I'll need to return to that at some point. But for now, in case you're not American: For coffee $2 or $3 unless you're down to your last $1, in which case that's OK, but apologize! Beers tip $3 minimum, and spirits (ah, bless you, I'll have another White Russian please) go bold and give $5 if you're in a nice casino ($3 in a dive). Food tip at two times tax then round up. Luggage/bell-boy $5. Car valet $5 in a nice hotel, $3 if you're in a dive might be ok, but not really. I have a friend who only gives $1 and i'm like, what?! I don't take taxis or Ubers or whatevers, so haven't a clue what to tip there, sorry.
Alright, the point of this is why driving is different to staying overnight. The answer is that you can leave at any time. {Hotel California suddenly jumps in my head}. But actually can you? I have often overstayed on a work night and crashed to sleep at 4am knowing I'm going to wake up a 6.30am and wish I had left earlier. Leaving on a high is almost impossible for me, compared to leaving on a low! I lose my allocated money and I'm done. I'm generally very good at doing that. Not always. Sometimes I leave frustrated or angry with the machine (or the bitch next to me that kept winning), but either way I leave. When I'm winning though, time stops being an issue. My wife could phone me and say "Come home NOW" and I'll say I'm on my way - but I know I mean I'm working my way towards the exit, very gradually. Super gradually. She probably knows this too by now. She's a good woman.
But is there another way to overcome this? Honestly? Fuck knows. I think old age will help. I'm almost at the point where I actually KNOW I HAVE TO LEAVE by 2am or I'm going to be sorry the next day. But it used to be 4am. And before that I would just go home, shower and go straight to work. So, just keep going until you get old enough to appreciate your body can't take it no more. There's little else I can say. Winning is a bitch.
So when I stay at the casino's I start late and keep going until exhaustion overtakes me (or I'm sick from drink and cigarettes, but I don't need to share that on a public forum!). But on a work night, it's just about some inner maturity, otherwise that enthusiastic kid driving to the casino stays at the casino till he just can't carry on.
Which is why sometimes I go with a sane friend. I treat them to dinner, they return the favor by dragging me home at a normal hour, sometimes with my profits, way before I would have left by myself. Friends are good. More on that in the next entry!
OK, so there's not much of a secret here I'm afraid. I use the wallet trick to delay me pumping $20's in the same slot. It works for me because I stick to it. But ending a night early when you're winning. Good luck with that level of maturity because I haven't quite mastered that yet!
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