I am a very casual gambler, mostly playing poker home games, and I'll go to the casino maybe 3-4 times a year. These days all I play is baccarat. Usually I just play each hand as it comes and make a few yes or no decisions to hopefully get lucky a few times. But I've talked to some more avid gamblers who believe in chasing streaks. They sit on a table for hours if they have to and might even walk away having not really gambled that much. But once a table gets hot they'll dump chips onto the table. I'm curious what people think about this way of playing.
I know people make up these convoluted reasonings for how their methods of betting truly work, and have other weird gambling ideas, like how even though you know it makes no logical sense, you know certain blackjack dealers have this aura that means they are going to destroy your happiness. But is there any legitimacy, mathematically speaking, to chasing streaks say when you play blackjack or baccarat? All I know about counting cards is that I would never be able to do it. And for bacc especially, I feel like no matter what reasoning you come up with, it's all just 50/50 in the end. And I imagine waiting out streaks could be dreadfully boring. On the other hand I've seen guys start with a few G's on the table and within half an hour have like 15 in front of them for about a minute before they lose it all. Anyone ever catch a hot table and rape the house? Or have ideas on this way of playing?
