21

We had been to Reno this last long weekend. As we set foot on their biggest casino floor, we knew we were going to spend most of our time and energy and money on the Blackjack tables.

Preparations for this day started months back. Me and Karthi had painstakingly sifted through numerous reading material on blackjack strategy and had concluded that wiki was the way to go. Since then we had spent considerable time reading and re-reading the strategy tables, and practicing them on IPhone blackjack apps and practice sites on the Internet.

We swore to stick to the strategy rules, which, by now, we knew like the back of our hands.

Now and then, we would murmur amongst ourselves, “Eight and Five, Thirteen, Dealer has Five, I should Stand right?”

“Yes, go by the rules!”

“Oh, no, the dealer won!”

“But you did the right thing! You followed the rules! Don’t let emotion sway you!”

Life is so much like a blackjack game. There is a strategy to live by, constructed by those who were previously successful. And then, there are your emotions. And there is always something at stake.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. You make a part of that choice.

In the hope that the next set of cards will bring you “21”….

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