September 06 2008
One of the mistakes some people commit when they enter a casino is picking the wrong game. A casino offers a dizzying array of games and it's so easy to pick one just because it sounds challenging or the players look glamorous. Picking the right game is not so difficult. The cardinal rule is: choose a game that you know how to play---and play pretty well, at that. Choose a game that will require your skill and experience to win and not one that would have to depend on luck.
It pays to be a specialist in just one casino game than to be a generalist who has only a superficial familiarity in many games. Concentrating on learning just one game allows you to focus all your time, attention and energy to master that particular game. But when you try to learn several games all at the same time, you divide your time, effort and attention and eventually, you become a master of none of these games. In learning a casino game, figure out which one you think you'll enjoy most and focus on it.
When you master a game, you act more confidently when you sit down at the card table. Your confidence alone will be the great intimidating factor that will temper any aggressive tendencies of your opponents at the table and make them take fewer chances that you could exploit in your favor.
Remember that confidence flows from the personality and not from the attire of the player. Dressing up like the WSOP champ with all those endorsements emblazoned on your shirt would only succeed in making an amusing spectacle of yourself. But you could dress up in just jeans and T-shirt yet ooze with such self-confidence that could unsettle your opponents at the casino table.
While you play to win in your casino games, these should be reasonable wins proportionate to the amount of money that you are putting at stake. If you expect to win a huge chunk of casino money, it would be like asking for the moon if you play blackjack at $5 a hand and you might end up losing your shirt, instead. If you are playing in games like poker, it would surely be to your advantage playing against weaker players or newbies. But if you play in games like blackjack, the skill of other players won't matter much to you because you will be playing against the dealer.