Fourth Win In A Row

In the wee hours of Monday morning, I spilled my beverage cup of ice, and the slushy cubes mixed in with the chips. Action stopped as the Thunder Valley Casino help went to go fetch a rag. The pretty Asian girl, about age 23, gazed admiringly at my stack of black $100 chips, and asked in broken English: "How many year?" Well, let's see, I first went to Cache Creek Casino in November, 1995, so that would be about twelve, mostly-losing years of intermittent blackjack. "You winning now because you more experienced," she said. Is that true? I wondered about that. Her boyfriend also seemed to be doing OK at the moment, but maybe he was more of a loser than I realized.

I have never experienced four consecutive wins before. Four consecutive defeats, many times, of course, but never four consecutive wins. These latest wins have been fairly-modest by casino standards (but consistency is probably far more important than absolute amounts).

Of course, age doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it. There was also an extraordinarily exasperated Asian man there of about my age. Every time things went badly, which was often, he would pound the table and make the cards jump. He'd fume and rage and throw things around. Kind of scary (even though completely understandable).

Nevertheless, maybe there is some advantage in age. Mountaineers, for example, reach their peak years in their 40's. That's because, apart from the grueling physical demands, mountain climbing requires a sustained mental toughness and grit that even the strongest young people have trouble mustering. Not all middle-aged people are champion mountaineers, but all champion mountaineers are middle-aged. Maybe the same here. As far as I can tell, the only thing I'm doing differently now is that I simply refuse to concede defeat.

Two things can happen when you absolutely refuse to concede defeat: either you get the ugliest, most brutal defeat you ever conceived of, or you get sweet victory.

I certainly needed grit tonight. The first thing that happened is that I lost $1,400.00 in one hour. I lost money so fast it was like stepping into the Grand Canyon. But like they say, it isn't the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the bottom. Hours of inconclusive back and forth followed. But eventually, the fickle cards betrayed the casino as thoroughly as they had betrayed me earlier.

Win: $2,797.00 minus $1,435.00 initial stake, minus $66.00 ATM fees (and no E. stake) = $1,296.00.