Random Thought 6.0

There can be a direct correlation between the way you play (or perhaps more accurately, the length of time you choose to play) and the distance you must drive to get to the casino.

This is a strange phenomenon, but I find it to be somewhat accurate.  Oftentimes, if the player must travel a long distance to play, he or she will decide to play longer than otherwise.  It’s a mental mind-game, perhaps feeling as though you’re “getting your money’s worth.”  If you have to drive a long distance, it doesn’t make sense to hit and run.  You drove two hours, stay and play!  This can, of course, work to one’s detriment.  If you get up $300 in the first twenty minutes, reaching a goal of sorts, you are less likely to exit.  You may continue to play, thinking “Hey, I drove all this way for twenty minutes of play?”

It is also possible to lose your entire bankroll in less than an hour.  Then what?  Four hour round trip, and an hour of unequivocally unsuccessful playing?  That sounds horrible!  So, we continue to play, dipping into the wallet for another unanticipated buy-in.

This is not to say, necessarily, that the player who lives next door uses the best judgement either.  Oftentimes this player will go to the card room far too frequently.  He need not get his money’s worth!  He lives next door!  He can lose hundreds of dollars without much concern for travel, he can simply go back the next day!

This correlation does not universally hold true.  An experience card player will overcome this mentality.  But I, myself, have succumb to this silly thinking!  Losing four hundred dollars and driving home three hours is a lot better than losing a thousand dollars and driving home three hours!  Far too much time to think… and regret…