Without a doubt, one of the biggest obstacles in any field of gambling is accepting losing runs and being comfortable with them. This goes beyond human nature as most of us do not react well to loss and tend to get emotional as a result.
The edge for a card counter tends to average out at about 1%. This 1% of turnover may not sound like a lot and it isn’t. You can have all the skill in the world but your edge is less than what the casino has if you bet on even money roulette. This is something that I always tell people when I discuss variance in blackjack.
The house edge on roulette is 2.70%, if you play even chances on a single zero wheel then you can halve this to about 1.35%. You can see that this is akin to the edge that a good counter has. So the edge for a good counter is akin to them playing even chance roulette but being paid 1.5 times your bet every time that zero arrives.
Suddenly when players see blackjack in this way then it really strikes home to them how fragile the edge really is. It is for this reason why a player needs to look at blackjack in this way otherwise the game can literally drive you crazy. It is also for this reason why players will find it very difficult to play full-time. When you are playing part-time and play whenever you want then when you have a bad session you can accept it far better.
Once you have rejected the concept of playing full-time then you will be a far happier player. You will be able to have an absolute nightmare session (which will happen) and then be able to walk away for a few days to clear your head.
This is not so easy when you have to pay the bills.
