Coming In From Out Of The Cold

**RandomEvent** · 8th October 2009, 07:48 PM

Hi all!

Another new member here. I've come here to lean more about online casino stuff as a player. Not as in how to gamble and make tonnes of cash, as for me that would seem unrealistic.

I've checked out some parts of the site outside of the forums earlier and this looks like one of the more informative websites on the subject of gambling. For this reason I'm looking forward to finish reading Simmo's guide, as the small part that I have read seems a great find already.

My gambling history looks like this....

I am from UK and have dabbled in online casinos in the past. Until recently it would average like one session every 3-4 months. I was originally doing this out of curiosity, placing �100 in an account with Ladbrokes each time and just killing it through Blackjack.

Almost everytime I'd lose money, but I kind of felt like I took a wrong approach. A few times I did quit while I was ahead, but always felt I was not happy at gaining whatever I did, like a �20 gain.

I decided to try the Betfair casino and got carried away on my �100 deposit. My balance was up to about �800, but I kept going and subsequently maxed out my balance, losing it all within 10 minutes.

I chased this �100 loss on the same day. I added another �100 to my Betfair account, getting that up to �500, only then to lose it all again (still wanting more and more). In losing, I put a further �200 deposit and lost that within 15 minutes. Finally I put another �200 deposit in and lost in about the same time. �600 in one day!

I really regret doing this as it killed most of my pay for this month. However this did not deter me from trying further, starting last Monday. I signed upto William Hill casino (who use Playtech), depositing �128.00.

Being inexperienced in how casino's work, I took the �30 sign up bonus without reading the terms and conditions. Having started playing Blackjack on William Hill, I realise I was doing ok.

I started to wonder how much I needed to spend in order to keep the �30 intro bonus offer. After 40 minutes I stopped play and thought that I'd best read the terms and conditions to see how much I needed to wager.

Well not only did I need to spend �600 in terms of wager, I found out that a Blackjack wager has only 20% value of real money value (�1 real money = 20p Blackjack wager value). I think I remember working it out that I needed to spend in the region of �3000. Found out through customer services that I somehow achieved this bonus in a few sessions and my balance was now sitting nicely on �400.18. Only to feel gutted at the same time having found out also that I could only keep a maximum of �200 in winnings from this bonus offer. Lesson learnt! Still I was happy to be +�200. I aimed to withdraw the �328.00.

I gave up waiting for the money to arrive in my Paypal and decided to put a further �128.00 in. The idea being that I can now use that �128.00 to begin playing again the next day. Over the next week my outcome has ended like this....

Deposits: �740.00
Winnings: �656.14

I had 7 sessions. On 3 sessions I generally could have added another �100-�150 in winnings to each had I not kept pushing higher. In these sessions I maxed out my account balance each time. In fact every time I had a bad session I never cut my losses I went gung ho. Of which, 2 were �128.00 deposits and 1 was a �100.00 deposit. I recovered the winnings value to the above this morning having gained an extra �57.72 from my play.

I will give my casino account a rest until the middle of November now. I will accept the loss of about �83.86 and try to use what I've learnt from those sessions into my next play. I do have just �72.18 still residing in my account. This is the excess of my bonus play (over �200 in winnings). I guess this will be deducted in the next day or two, once all of my withdrawal requests eventually get 'accepted'. Hopefully the positive results will come soon.

I will stay with William Hill. Without trying to seem like a promotional tool I think their Blackjack game seems the most random of the three I've used. Although I've noticed in two sessions the software seemed hell-bent on me losing. However this has happened in the other casinos also.

Part of me thinks that once I max out a session I should not continue any further for that evening. The following may sound foolish, but my past experience shows me that .... once I've maxed out my balance due to what seems like a 'hell-bent' software moment, if I then add another deposit straight after and play Blackjack again I only end up losing it all within minutes. The way I play would not be disimilar to how I played before in any other session. However the software though seems to just go hard ball and give me far fewer chances to win. Maybe I'm foolish in thinking this, but maybe people have had something like this in other casinos.

This is not me complaining, well perhaps in some small way it is. It just seems to be a little strange that everytime I re-deposit I lose my money far quicker than any other session. This doesn't just happen in William Hill, this has happened in Ladbrokes and Betfair. Well with William Hill I find that if I don't re-deposit until the next day, the play appears to be much fairer.

Anyway sorry for the detailed introduction. I will try online blackjack one more time in November. I will see where this takes me, if I lose it then I will have to think if I will continue etc. In the mean time I will try to learn much more from this site.

- Thanks for reading this post. You deserve a gold star just for getting to the end of my post

**GGW Laurie** · 8th October 2009, 11:20 PM

hello and welcome to the forum RandomEvent

..............laurie.............p.s........just a half a gold star will do

**RandomEvent** · 11th October 2009, 07:29 PM

I'm afraid I can't do half stars. Sorry I'll have to give you a biggie!

On a seperate note, how do you thank people?

**Simmo!** · 11th October 2009, 08:43 PM

Hi RE

Interesting read - thanks for sharing. On the basis that you have a tendency to "chase" I would personally ditch Will Hill and go to Tote or Bet365 (same games) where they have faster cashouts and, if memory serves, Tote is the only Playtech that gives you the option to withdraw instantly and avoid the temptation of playing it back.

Are you familiar with the fact that most online casinos licence their games from one of a few software providers? WH, Bet365, Betfred, Mansion and Tote all use "Playtech" software while 32Red, Ladbrokes, Jenningsbet use "Microgaming" software and Paddy Power, Blue Sq, Coral (Gala) and Virgin use "Wagerworks". That geneally means you find the same games at each casino. (Betfair is Chartwell along with Victor Chandler and Stan James I think).

As far as bonuses go, it's rare to get good Blackjack terms (or Roulette) because they are near 50/50 games. Also, you can opt out of bonuses by contacting support at any casino before you play.

Hope that helps a bit.

Cheers

Simmo!

**oldtrvlagt** · 11th October 2009, 10:28 PM

Hi Random and welcome to the forum

You will find a lot knowledgeable people here and a wealth of information

Good luck and enjoy yourself!

**KasinoKing** · 12th October 2009, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by Simmo!

(Betfair is Chartwell along with Victor Chandler and Stan James I think).

Victor Chandler switched to Net Entertainment software some time back.
Very popular in Europe, but under-rated in the UK and on this forum IMO.

KK

**RandomEvent** · 12th October 2009, 06:51 PM

Hi all! Thanks for your replies.

Simmo, thanks for the info. I did read your guide a while back and formed the understanding that casinos mostly use software from a either of a limited number of providers. In November when I come back to the gambling table, I will do a few more sessions with William Hill. Of course this depends on how successful I am, as I know I can win and always lose a few. If I do ok and the cash withdrawals do become more of an inconvenience, then perhaps I will look at others. I would consider going back to Ladbrokes, but part of me thinks I would most likely try a casino I have never tried before or go back to Betfair. Anyway, I'm about a month away from that lol.

I realise that having a betting system is pretty much pointless, in the sense that the house edge is always against the player. I think the Martindale system is a bit suicidal, although it can give quick gains, it can always do a reverse just as quick.

I use free mode on William Hill and it's great to see that every session I have played for the last two days I've never truely finished with more. This confirms that at least it is not like the user will appear to win often in free mode, only to then go and put real money on the table finding that they never win.

Is a bit of a toughie how to approach the bets, as every session is going to be different. However I will think further more while I redecorate my room.

So does anyone now how to give 'thanks' to a post? Am I missing the obvious