08: I am a gambling expert now I guess.

So uh, yesterday, when I was organizing my shelves, I found this gambling set! With two hundred chips separated in four different colors and two brand new decks, I can seriously start a mini-casino, BUT I WILL DEFINITELY NOT. I'm sorry, but gambling certainly does not go accordingly to my morals.

Just recently, because of my anime addiction, I've been watching a lot of shows that include gambling and one of them was even made solely for gambling. It's very interesting to see gambling from a mathematical perspective since most anime gambling protagonists are often faced with probabilities so against them, but still managing to win, not because they are skilled, but because math.

No matter how skilled or good you are at gambling, there are just some games that you won't win. Although contrary to popular belief, understanding the math behind games and making complex calculations won't make you win. It can tell you when you win and when you lose, but it can't make you win. At most, all math can do is manipulate probabilities by a few percent, but they're still probabilities.

The gambling set was right in front of me so uh, MIGHT AS WELL LEARN A FEW GAMES LOL. Not gonna lie, the thought of asking people (some friends maybe) to play some games with me, knowing I have a probability advantage, to earn a few cash has crossed my mind, but I'm not that type of a person haha.

One of the games I had learned was blackjack. This game is in almost EVERY SINGLE CASINO. Why it's so popular is because even at a huge probability disadvantage, so many people believe that they can win against casinos. Unlike slot machines or other games that are purely just based on luck. Blackjack actually requires skill, but skill isn't enough lol, after all this is still gambling.

Now in blackjack, there are plenty of ways to manipulate probabilities in your favor like learning basic strategy, a list of all optimal responses to every combination of cards, maximizing the chance of winning, and card counting, a way of knowing which cards will be drawn next. These things take hours to learn and study shows that even then, your chance of winning is only increased by one percent. GO SEARCH IT UP LOL IT'S TRUE.

IT'S SAD REALLY. ONE PERCENT ADVANTAGE LMFAO HAHA.

Nevertheless, I still wasted my time learning these LOL. I'm still not yet done memorizing basic strategy, but I would say that I'm great at counting cards now haha.

In case you don't know, let me explain how blackjack work. Basically, blackjack is a one on one battle against you and the dealer. The dealer is like a representative of the casino. The dealer almost NEVER LOSES in the long run.

Anyways, here's how it works. I'm not gonna go through every detail haha I'm only gonna talk about the basics. Right before a round of blackjack starts, you have to bet. Like bet lol. You should know what betting means I'm not explaining that LOL. After that, the dealer draws two cards and places them right in front of you facing upward, and draws another two cards, placing them in front of himself, but with only one of the cards facing upward.

The goal of the game is to reach or get as close as possible to the number twenty-one without going above twenty-one. What do I mean? I don't know. BAHAHA, IT'S DIFFICULT TO EXPLAIN OKAY GIVE ME A BREAK.

This will be much easier to explain through an actual game.

This is how I would break up a round of blackjack.

Betting.

Hit/stand/split.

Reveal the dealer's card (only if you didn't pass twenty-one)

Win/lose.

Repeat.

That's how it goes and that repeats until you're broke LMAO. Let's play a game, shall we?

So we start with betting. Let's just bet a small amount since it's our first game. How does fifty fucking billion sound? All right, so let's say we just betted fifty billion dollars. Not a lot of money, just some change; you know. The dealer now hands us two cards facing upwards.

(note: the type of card (e.g. hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades) does not matter. Only the numerical amount of a card matters.

The dealer hands us a seven of hearts and ten of diamonds. So we have a total of seventeen (7 + 10 = 17). The dealer then draws another two cards, only one facing up, which is a seven of spades. The goal of the game is to be as close as possible to twenty-one. Since we are at seventeen, as long as they don't have ten or higher we win.

After we stand (don't do anything), the dealer reveals the hidden card and VOILA! It's an eight of hearts. So in total, the dealer has a fifteen (7 + 8 = 15) against your seventeen so you win! BUT because of rules, the dealer is forced to hit (draw another card as an attempt to get closer to twenty-one). He draws a card and VOILA LMAO he has a king of hearts (which has a value of ten). So now he has a total of twenty-five which is higher than your eighteen so that means the dealer wins right?

No.

In fact, he loses lol. Remember, the goal is to get as close as possible to twenty-one WITHOUT going above twenty-one.

So uh yeah we win. LEZGOO WE JUST WON FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS- I mean pfff lol ok. Now I have more change to giveaway to give to beggars. *rolls eyes*

I've been SO SO SO invested in gambling. I DON'T KNOW WHY. *cries*

It's me with everything, to be honest. Like how I'm super invested with writing a web novel right now haha. I HAVE AN ADDICTION WITH MAKING NEW ADDICTIONS. *cries even more*

Oh my noodles. WE ARE ALREADY AT ONE THOUSAND WORDS HAHA. I PASSED MY EIGHT HUNDRED WORDS GOAL BY TWO HUNDRED. I GOT CARRIED AWAY. I'M SORRY.

GOMENASAI!!

GOMEN GOMEN *sob*

SORRY FOR TAKING YOUR TIME. GOODBYE LEAVE.

SHOO GO AWAY. BYE.