One of the main things that makes playing casino games so enjoyable and interesting is trying to work out how to improve your chances of winning. The house edge doesn’t mean that winning is actually impossible, it just means that the odds are against you. There’s absolutely no reason why you can’t win money in a casino, and it’s certainly a lot of fun to try.
In games of chance, even when there’s some skill involved, the outcome is always unknown and it’s the uncertainty of what will happen that ultimately makes playing so exciting. Although the house is basically guaranteed to win in the long run because the odds are in their favor, there’s no guarantee that they’ll win your money every single time you play.
Equally, there’s nothing you can do to guarantee that you’ll win every single time. It simply isn’t possible. There are, however, some things that you can do to greatly improve your chances of winning each and every time you play. In our opinion, the most important of these is trying to stay disciplined.
On this page, we explain why self-discipline is so important and why it will impact on your overall results. We also offer some tips on exactly how you can go about staying disciplined in the casinos.
Self-Discipline & Casino Game Strategy
There are a few methods that players employ to try and maximize their chances of winning. Many players spend a huge amount of time and effort studying strategies for example. This can definitely be beneficial in some games as using the correct strategy does directly effect your chances of winning. The correct strategy will often put the odds in your favor.
To make using any strategy worthwhile, you need to stick to it. There’s no point in setting out to minimize the house edge only to deviate from that strategy and take unnecessary risks. You can have plenty of fun playing in a casino, and still win, without using any strategy at all. If your aim is to give yourself the best possible chance of winning, then having the discipline to adhere to the correct strategy is vital.
Self-Discipline & Betting Systems
Discipline is also essential when using some kind of betting system. This is something that many casino players do. The majority of these systems fall into one of two categories: positive progression or negative progression.
Positive progression systems involve increasing your stakes when you win and negative progression systems involve increasing your stakes when you lose. Many gambling experts will tell you that using positive progression systems or negative progression systems are a complete waste of time.
The important thing to recognize about these betting systems is that they won’t help you overcome the house edge. In terms of your overall chances of winning, they essentially have zero effect. This is largely why so many advise against using them.
However, we don’t believe that there’s anything wrong with using betting systems in general. They can be a lot of fun and some of them can help you win a decent amount if you happen to go on a winning streak. The downside, though, is that some of them can greatly increase your losses if you experience a run of bad luck.
This is precisely why self-discipline is so important when using betting systems. The rule here is similar to employing a game strategy; if you’re going to use a betting system, then you need to adhere to it. Ideally you need to put a limit on the maximum amount you’ll stake and stick to it, otherwise you could lose a lot of money.
Self-Discipline & Money Management
It’s our view that your best hope of coming out ahead when playing in a casino is to practice good money management. Your goal should ultimately be to maximize your winnings when things are going well and minimize your losses when they’re going badly. To do this effectively you absolutely have to manage your bankroll correctly.
When playing casino games it’s quite common to go on long streaks of either winning or losing. There’s no logical reason why this happens, but it does. If you’re experiencing one of these streaks, then it’s important to recognize that they won’t go on forever. It’s also impossible to know when a streak is going to end.
Players can get carried away when playing and forget this, which invariably leads to things going wrong. For example, players will often keep on increasing stakes to a higher and higher level when on a winning streak. While in theory this isn’t a problem, you have to have the discipline to drop your stakes back down when your luck turns. Otherwise you can give back everything you have won very quickly if you happen to lose a few big bets in a row.
Many players also have a tendency to increase their stakes when they’re losing, in the hope that their luck will eventually change and they’ll win their losses back. This is a huge mistake.
Chasing losses is possibly the worst mistake you can make when it comes to gambling. There’s just no way of telling when a losing streak is going to come to an end and your bad luck could continue for as long it takes you to lose everything. You might get away with chasing your losses on some occasions, but it’s almost certain to end in disaster at some point.
Both the scenarios we’ve just mentioned can be easily avoided if you have the discipline to practice good bankroll management, although we do recognize that this can be a challenge sometimes. When things are going well it’s a natural response to feel like you can’t lose and just keep on betting higher and higher. Equally when things are going badly it can be very tempting to keep betting higher to recover your losses.
You really need to avoid losing control if you can though. In order to have the best chance of making money out of casino games, you absolutely have to have the necessary self-discipline. The easiest way to do this is to set yourself some rules, so that you have proper guidelines to follow.
The first thing you need to do is to decide how much money you’re comfortable spending in the casino and then effectively allocate that as your bankroll. There are no particularly hard and fast rules about how to manage your money from that point on, other than knowing to never chase your losses. You really should have some kind of system in place to prevent yourself yourself from doing that.
A good guide is to set a maximum amount you’re prepared to lose in any one session and also set a limit for what percentage of your bankroll you can stake on any single bet. This will ensure that you’re unlikely to lose too much money if you do have a run of bad luck.
You should also set some kind of target for winning and then stop if you manage to win that amount. This way you can make sure that you don’t end up giving all your winnings straight back to the casino. Also, if you tend to increase your stakes when you’re winning it’s advisable that you still stick to only ever betting a certain percentage of your bankroll.
If you really don’t like the idea of stopping during a winning streak you can always just take a certain amount of your winnings off the table and then stop if you lose the rest of your profits.
Summary
We have established that there are certain strategies you can use in some casino games to increase your chances of winning and there are some betting systems you can use that may help you make the most out of a spell of good luck. The fact is, though, there’s basically a zero chance of you finding a strategy or system that will enable you to beat the house consistently.
The only way you’ll ever get the best possible results in a casino, regardless of luck, is if you have the discipline to manage your money properly. You have to try and maximize your winnings and minimize your losses and knowing when to quit, or at least reduce your stakes, will give you the best chance of accomplishing that.
Note that self-discipline and money management alone won’t guarantee you win money in the casino. You’ll still need luck on your side and there will almost certainly be plenty of times when it isn’t. However, with good discipline and bankroll management you should be able to make the most out of the times when it is and not lose too much when it isn’t.
