Black21Jack said:
Ironically, he passed the loss off as having lost $80 (his actual buy-in). Could be his own way of putting some salve to ease the sting.
BTW - it IS pretty easy to see how that could happen. Let's say he made $80,000. He was playing 2 or 3 hands, at about $1000-$2000 per hand. He loses the two hands. He figures he's now "due", so he doubles his wager. Loses both again. Now's he $6000 down from where he was two plays ago. So now he's a steamer, and continues with his $2000 a hand approach. That's $4000 per play. We've all seen streaks where the dealer wins 5.6 in a row.
So now he's "down" to about $40000. He reminds himself that he had won TWICE that on a mere $80 - and figures that he'll just get himself back to $80000 - then quit.
You can figure out where THAT would lead.
We've all been there - at some point or another, to some degree or another. How often have we smacked our foreheads and told ourselves that we should have quit while we were ahead? Or how many of us have continued to press (a la Martingale - a negative progression system) figuring that we're "due"?
For those who are thinking - "I would have quit at $10,000, so at least I'd walk away with SOMETHING" : valid thought, but if he had that mindset to begin with, he never would have reached $80,000, because he would have quit at $10,000.