I was playing some video poker in a multi-game machine and a woman sat down next to me and began playing the slot machine. I started talking with her and through the course of our conversation I found out her name was Carolynn. She said she was on vacation and decided to visit the casino to play some slots and enjoy herself for a few hours. About twenty minutes after sitting down I heard her shriek. I thought by the sound she must have really hit a big jackpot. I looked over at her machine and saw that she had hit a jackpot of $250. I congratulated her on the win.
Carolynn told me she was really happy because she had only brought $40 to play with. She said “I felt really lucky today and thought I would try to win $100 or go broke trying.”
“You more than doubled your goal. Are you going to quit?” I asked fully anticipating what her answer would be.
I was not surprised when she said “No. I just got here and think I should play for a while. I told you this was my lucky day.”
“Well make sure you lock up your $100 profit.” I told her.
She asked me what I meant by locking up a profit. I explained it to her this way. “You came to the casino with $40 in hopes of making $100. You should put at least $140 aside and then play with the rest. This way you are guaranteed that you go home with $100 profit you wanted.”
“But I don’t want to cash out and put the money away” she said.
You don’t have to cash out.” I said “Did you put all of the $40 in when you started?”
She told me that she had only put $20 in the machine. I looked over and she had 1036 credits. “You still have $20 in you pocket. You have $259 in credits on the machine. All you have to is play down until your reach 440 credits. That is $120 which equals the $20 you started with and $100 profit. That will be your stop loss figure. If you want to take more home with you then you can set it higher. Just make sure you don’t go lower than that” I told her.
She said that sounded good to her. A little later I got up and left. I don’t know if shed took my advice or not. I hope she did. Too often people hit a small or medium size jackpot quickly when they sit down to play only to lose it all. Because they are going to be at the casino for a while they naturally want to play and they end up giving it all back and then they feel bad about not quitting while they were a winner. Learning to lock up a profit will avoid this and make your trip to the casino more enjoyable. There is nothing like the feeling you get when you go home a winner.
Until next time, remember:
"Luck comes and goes...Knowledge Stays Forever!"