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[alrelax]

Well, as most of you know, I have been on the gambling scene since right around the early 80's after becoming of age. Never was pro and never will be in the sheer sense, referring to a full-time career of gambling, etc.  I did write a piece about that as well.  But last night I saw a great documentary on TV about NASCAR, TV coverage and cameras in the sport, etc.  It was all based around the heydays of Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, and the many other greats of NASCAR in 1979.  They were talking about the great east coast blizzard that basically crippled the east coast in 1979 from Jacksonville, Florida all the way up past the northeast.  So Daytona, Florida @ the Daytona 500 was raining and down right miserable with rain and nasty weather for central Florida.  Back then there were no track dryers, the race cars would have to go around and around numerous laps to get the track in raceable condition.  Cameras were just coming about trackside and the first ones were in the race cars as well.  It was what everyone now consders old-school but it was racing!  I grew up in the 70's so my first car was a Mustang what today, we refer to as a 'muscule car' and back then it was just a regular car.  Along with all the 442's, Cudas with 383's, 426 hemi's and legendary 6-packs 440's, Cameros, Chevells, Trans Am's, etc., etc.  No one had cell phones and there was 4 TV stations, ABC-CBS-NBC and PBS.  We even had the weekly TV guide little magazine that we would go through and mark the TV shows that we were going to watch.  Fax machines and internet coming about in the 90's, there was US Mail and other courier services for the real important letters and checks, etc.  Life was a bit less complicated and not blurred by everything having to be absolutly instant and everyone's opinion that so many allow themselves to be influenced by from the internet.

Then there was gambling.  I was introduced to it in Atlantic City, New Jersey after it came about around 1978.  In the early 1980's I was playing baccarat.  Every casino had the big tables, the ones with the 3 dealers, 2 pit personnel and a pit manager, right there whenever the game was going.  There was huge camraderie and friendship at the baccarat tables, unlike today for many reasons.  There was white and Asian people mostly playing with occasional players of other races, but not as a norm.  Players were extremely cordial and numerous things were different, but attitudes were the most extreme difference between then and today.  Mindsets were different and most players conversed and shared what they expereinced, knew or thought in nearly complete harmony.

The traits, the mannerisms, the dress of the players.  All drasitcally different than post 'early 2000's' or so.  It's all good, just like the newer 'vats' car keys compared to the old school regular car keys.  Or, the tire sensor to tell you when your tires are low on air rather than those without the $60.00 sensor that needs replacing and all that.  Heck, we used to check our tires 2 or 3 times a week and keep them properly inflated but now you can forget all that and let the sensor do it for you, if it is working properly.  Oh, I was in Vegas last time and heard these two guys in their 20's boasting about going to Barret Jackson auto auction in Arizona and buying a prized Cuda muscle car, etc., etc.  They knew all the talk, slang and history of the car, heck--the internet is great i guess, really.....LOL.

There was not that mindset which exists today, like to knock the other player out, wager against, and all the other stradegy and thoughts which seems to exist today.  Back then during the complete 1980's and 1990's, it was 99% or so, the players versus the casino.  But seriously, I cannot remember a player putting one finger over one of his nostrils and then blowing out the other side right there at the baccarat table and onto the floor as if no one was next to him or watching.  Sure there was times a new player or an obnoxious player would enter a game and make it known he was literally the best thing since sliced bread and he was there to win money and didn't want any part of talking, high fiving, hugging, going to go eat a good meal while taking a break or anything of the like.  Usually after a bit, that kind of player found out it was best to try another casino down the boardwalk and maybe he would find his group of people that fit him better.  But the type of baccarat players that we really were, all of us were mostly the same and the highest majority got along as regular players.  We all looked forward to the weekends or other times we would meet at the casinos or even ride down to Atlantic City together from the New York City Metro area. 

Then sometime in the early 2000's, the internet and all the instant everything came about that seemed to affect every part of daily living.  Then baccarat changed.  Not only in Altantic City, but in Las Vegas and of course Connecticut also.  More of everything became instant, no patience, everyone knows everything, and of course systems and internet self taught professors and experts of the game--no matter their experience, age or level of play.  I have found a few good things on the internet about gambling but with lots of thought thinking about it all, not much changed my game.  What happens in a casino is based on numerous factors that nothing on the internet can really change to convince the highest majority of players about anyway.  I have found that even knowing the vital plan of action that suits myself, money management, progrssions and other tactical matters are usually influenced by other actions and events at the live table.  Sometimes for positve effects and other times for negative effects.  For some reason, most do not think about or subscribe to things like 'sections', 'point values'. 'turning points', 'your plateaus' and a few other baccarat factors that will almost always influence the outcomes.  Stats and long term results over hundreds of thousands of shoes are the most important now, even if the player sits down for 3 or 5 or 7 shoes, LOL!  What is funny, no actually sad--is the internet teaches the stats, the long range 500,000 shoe results that almost all the players subscribe to following when they risk and they lose their money wagering, because the internet preached it.  But the real tactical and wagerng advantages are so often over looked and not really talked about because everyone is writing manuals and selling gambling systems that will make you an absolute fortune for only $99.00 or $595.00 or even personal training from a Doctor of Baccarat for like $4,500.00.  The real nitty gritty and the real advantages are the things you cannot and do not learn on the internet. 

But go ahead and pay $99.99 or even $4,500.00 to a self proclaimed baccarat doctor that has testimonals from 30 different students (all with generic Facebook looking pictures and last names with one letters) and you too can be on the road to riches and learn what all those that took decades to learn, are selling for less than a weeks salary.  Of course the internet is gospel, no one lies and it hold that elusive 'holy-grail' that everyone announces they found and willing to teach it to you for some type of payment, LOL!  That in itself has to be the one huge laughable and most insane thing I have every read or got from the internet. Seriously, hands down--take it to the bank gospel.

I don't sit here and wish to go back or dwell, but it sure is nice when a bunch of late 40's to mid 50's or even 60 year old players are around and everything acts as though there is no internet or other related new school things around.