These are sobering words, and yet they're very true, and in my many years as observer, player, and writer on the gambling scene, we've seen it happen over and over again. Gamblers who are behind get frantic, try to get even fast, and go even deeper into the hole.

In other words, these people don't really want to win; all they want is the thrill of the action. So even though the house edge is small, it doesn't matter to these gamblers. They will play till they have no money left, and if they've been winning a fortune, they'll make wild outlandish bets, change the pattern of their play, do anything to prevent themselves from leaving the table as winners.

What the casino president said was true. There is some psychological quirk that prevents many gamblers from being winners. Anyone who's ever been to Las Vegas and Atlantic City undoubtedly has watched some players pull out rolls of $100 bills and bet them on outside place numbers, hard ways, and other terrible wagers, and after they'd lost, pull out more rolls of bills. Why are these people at the tables? What do they want to do, just lose their money as fast as possible? It's really difficult to fathom their motives.

And it should be evident to any astute person that most people who play blackjack or craps don't have a true grasp of the odds in the game and the correct strategies for playing these games.

How could these people expect to gamble and win at twenty-one? To make money at blackjack, three steps must be followed: First, players must know the correct play in every situation that arises. Second, they must count cards. Finally, they must alter their bets according to the favorability of the deck.

With the first step, correct strategy, the player is playing even with the house. With the combination of the second and third steps, the player has an advantage over the casino. The people attending were gamblers, some of them, according to their stories, very heavy players, and none of them had mastered the first step. These people didn't want to study the game; what they wanted from me was a magic formula for winning. They thought that, with one hour of my time, we'd transform them into big winners. But it's not that simple. Anything involving skill must be studied and mastered.

To ensure victory, to take home the casino's money, isn't that difficult a task. But to do so, you cannot be impatient. You must first study and learn the games to play, learn the correct bets available in a game such as craps; and in blackjack you must study the basic winning strategies and learn to count cards so that you can alter your bets according to the composition of the remaining deck. This is the first step to winning, and all the information you need can be found in those chapters on the three table games we recommend for serious play: blackjack, craps, and baccarat.

The second step is to manage your money wisely. A section in each chapter on the three recommended games is devoted to money management, and in this chapter we'll repeat the basic principles involved.