What makes a good gambler? The right mindset, the ability to know when to walk away, bankroll management skills, or simply one that can win as much as possible? Or is it all of these?
There really is no one way to define success in gambling that will appease everyone. To some, a successful day at an online casino is defined by moderate loss and more-than-average wins. Others will look at their self-discipline that made it possible for them to walk away from the tables when everything screamed ‘stay’ as a win, while others will be happy with simply not losing too much.
That said, we have games of skill and those of chance, and naturally the latter outnumber the former. When a game is hinged on luck alone, there is not much you can do to force the odds in your favor. Still, you can improve how you manage your losses.
Here are four skills that will give you better days at the online casinos.
Bankroll Management Skills
You will need some basic math skills, and you are likely to acquire even more along the way. It starts with finding smart ways to lower your expenses. Searching online for casino sites with free signup bonus is smart since you get free money to get you started. These bonuses come with some extras that serve as no deposit bonuses, such as free spins. This ensures your bankroll remains intact as you work on meeting set wagering requirements with the casino’s money.
With bankroll management skills, you learn how much to wager, which games will get you better returns since they have a better house edge, and simply when to walk away. You will also need to learn to separate gambling money from the rest that you need for bills and such. This keeps addiction at bay.
House Edge
Different games have different house edge percentages, which then determine the Return-to-Player. Expressed as a percentage, the house edge is a variable already determined by the casino, and there is not much you can do to change it. What you need is to know it, so you decide the games worth your time.
Here’s an easy way to calculate the house edge for blackjack which, for the purposes of this example, we set at 1.06%.
The banker bets $30 per hand and plays 70 hands. RTP will be determined by the number of hands played*house edge*amount bet. In this case, 30*70*1.06%=22.26
This means that if the dealer were to play and win as stated, you would, on average, lose $22.26 per hour. Because this is a variable, the actual figure could be higher or lower. Having this skill enables you to determine what game to play based on average returns per hour. This mostly applies to table games and not slots.
Return-to-Player Calculation
RTP is expressed as a percentage, and just like house edge, it is an important metric as it shows how much the player makes per game. It differs from game to game. So, say a game has a 99.5% RTP, then the house edge is 0.5%. If someone places $5 bets at 200 hands per hour, then the return from this is 0.5%*200*5=$5 per hour on average.
The games with higher RTPs are better for players in the long run because they imply the house edge would be smaller. It helps to know this when playing at a casino to develop attention to the RTPs and House edge.
Self-Control and Sportsmanship
Now, not all skills lead to us killing it at the slots or card games. Some victories are packaged in smaller details. To be honest, it doesn’t take too much to fall into addiction. A player making good earnings from a few games can easily get carried away when playing for real money. Knowing when to walk away is one of the most underrated skills you can get while gambling. From the get-go, choose whether to place smaller bets several times or one large stake.
When one starts winning, you could be tempted to go all in. Sometimes you get lucky, and it all pays out, while other times, you lose miserably. Therefore, ask yourself what would be best – to keep what you already have made or risk it once again without any assurance of a positive outcome in rewards. These are lessons you get when you gamble.
Gambling Improves Skills
Most of these skills are learned ‘on the job.’ You want to make the most of the useful excitement that comes from gambling so that in the end, you have more than wins and losses to show for it. These skills, as you can see, can shape someone’s life skills. Also, it helps to remember that your definition of success is not necessarily the next person’s.
