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[gr8player]

I've been reluctant to posting any trip reports lately, as I'm not sure that anyone has any interest in reading of my grinding out rather consistent weekly 10 to 12 unit wins.  It all has the feel of "been there, done that" to it, so not much sense of a weekly rehash.

That all said, I do feel compelled to report what had transpired this past week, partly because it was out of the norm for me and partly because I happen to believe that we all benefit from the sharing of our experiences.

Let me begin by stating the fact that I won.  I won a total of 4 units for the trip, so it is not about any loss that I'm about to relate, rather the unusual circumstances that surrounded the entirety of the trip.

On my Thursday afternoon session, I started off my first set in my "7-series" with a minus 1, losing 4 bets while winning only 3.  Now, if any of you know anything of my play and my Gr8Player's Progression, I do not raise my bets into any -1 of any of my series'; I raise my bets only into any -3 (win 2, lose 5) or any -5 (win 1, lose 6) or, obviously, any -7 (win 0, lose 7).  So at only a -1, I remained at the same 1-unit level.

Well, as it turns out, it's a good thing I did.  Why?  Because I proceeded to lose the next 7 bets I made, going 0-for-7 for my next series of bets.  So the conservative version (the only mode I play) served me well in this instance, keeping my bets as low as possible into this horrible run.  But, I bring this session up not to discuss my progression, but to elaborate on that terrible losing jag.

I had lost the last bet in my first series and then proceeded to lose the next 7 in-a-row, leaving me with an 8-wide losing streak.  That's alot for me.  A whole lot.  Let's talk about that for a minute.  I must admit, I started doubting myself into that long losing jag.  You start thinking that you're never gonna win a hand again, or, at the very least, that these 20 units that I bought in for are doomed for failure/loss.  Now, I go into "2-ville" (2-unit bet sizing) in my progression, and I win the first bet, lose the next bet, won the next bet, but lost the next 3 bets.  Oh boy.  This, for me, is as bad as it gets for probably over 90% of my play, so believe me when I tell you that "I'm feelin' woozy" at this point.  Now, this brings me to something that I must expound on:

Consistency.  While the thought did enter my head, if I am going to be totally honest about it; but I NEVER CHANGED MY BET SELECTION PROCESS.  I remained consistent.  And why is consistency important?:  Variance.  You see, my friends, there simply exists no variance on mindless betting, on betting on "feel" or "looks" or "whatever"....there exists variance only for bets that are placed in a consistent fashion, time after time, bet after bet.  So, while I'm not exactly feeling very confident right about now, I plod on into this so-far stuff session:

I'm now down a total of 12 units (8 from base level and 4 units from my -2 in "2-ville").  I have but 8 units of session buy-in remaining.  I need to make a decision.  Let's see, I've lost my last 11 out of 13 bets placed.  11 out of 13!  In fact, for this session, so far, I've won only 5 out of 19 bets placed.  Holy cow, that's terrible for anyone's standards.  OK, back to the decision I need to make:

With only 8 units left, I decide to go into "3-ville" right now.  I figured that this losing jag is about as bad as it can get, so let's ramp up on recoup, for if it is going to happen, it's going to happen right quick.  Well, fortunately, it did.  I won the only 4 bets I needed to make in "3-ville", recouping every cent of my 12-unit drawdown in the process, and pulled even.  Even, and out.  I colored up and cashed out, frankly, feeling as if I'd won.  Why?  Because a loss, and a rather large one for me at that, looked looming, and I felt very fortunate to have fought it off and avoided it.

But, I gotta tell you....doubt crept in, and along with it the fear of losing my entire session bankroll.  I must admit the truth, I thought I was losing it.  I think that comes with consistent winning.  Losses (not all losses, just "entire"/larger-than-normal losses) that aren't expected are very difficult to accept.

But, it's happened before, and I do have a plan for it....I raise my base unit size for the next session in order to facilitate recoup.  But that doesn't make losing it all at any session any easier to swallow; it still hurts.

And look how I was doubting myself.  Unbelievable.  But that's why I've been espousing consistent play for all these years in these forums; you just have to stick with your planned method of play and have the faith in your statistics that it will, in the end, prevail.

It is what it is.  Welcome to the wacky world of Baccarat betting.  And trying to win over the long term.  Man, it ain't easy.  But, I suppose if it were easy, the game wouldn't exist.  So on and on we go.

I wish you all the very best of it.  Stay well.