Ki and Karma, or "The Aikido of Blackjack"

Hi Awll!
Here's a fun one for you:

I just spent a week in Vegas on vacation. First time; MAN what a great place to party!!
Weirdo that I am; I took along my gi in order to practice on grass in the mornings. Got a lot of Blackjack in too.
Now; I'm a pretty good Blackjack player, I run about 70% success, but whatever a player's skill; he's gonna have good days and bad days. But here's where it gets fun:
Morning practice for me consisted mainly of breathing in seiza for about 15 minutes, then some hitori-waza, half an hour of ukemi on grass and asphalt (which doesn't help the gi, let me tell you!), then half an hour of techniques, ultra-slow speed. Being a card player - and therefore superstitious - I believe sorta strongly in karma at the tables - the cards may be truly random; but there's just some dealers I can't beat, other I can, good and bad tables etc. Well; I noticed something: After practicing; I always feel good, with a pleasant lightness for lack of a better word. On the mornings I practiced; the sessions I played just after practice went well - walked out with at least 100% profit. When I played without ki-breathing first; I didn't do so well - lost at about 60%. Then one morning, I was walking to the casino (the Excalibur, if you're interested) and for no good reason stepped on a cricket that was in my way. Deliberately. Don't really know why. I played as perfectly as possible, but man; did I lose BIG! It took me almost two days to recoup my losses. At the end, I just broke even - by that I mean; I paid for my trip - made about $800 IOW.
This topic's really just for fun; no serious answers required; though they'd be welcome of course but does anyone have any ideas on this ki/karma thing? I thought it was neat myself; something to think about. Who knows - if there is something to it; I might just have a career change in mind! (ROFL!!)

(BTW - never even thought about it; but there are some on this forum who practice in Vegas - Damn; I should've looked you up! I will next time, I promise! )

Have you ever considered threating the dealer? With something like, "If you dont let me win I'll break both your arms".

I think that would work well.

Here's a random response for you... I was thinking about, and I wonder if you would even remember stepping on the cricket if you had won. I know that when I'm feeling superstitious, I may attribute something to this or that observation; but when I really look back at it, there are plenty of times when that thing happened and the outcome was different. The mind is a very tricky thing, and I know that there are times when you may not notice something as unusual, but when something else happens that day that's unusual you may go back to that other thing and it seems different somehow. In my opinion, it's like reading a horoscope. If something alters the way you view the past or the future, you will see things or remember things or notice things that you may not have otherwise. If someone tells you that you will have a lucky day, you will subconsciously seek out lucky things and not focus on unlucky things. That is, if you're not a skeptic. You have to believe in it before it works. I think there have been many times that I've done something bad and not payed for it, but I really only remember the times that there was some sort of karmic retribution going on, and something else happened to me. When that happens you automatically think that there is a connection, when in reality there were many times in the past that the same two things didn't line up in that order, and you never connected them. It's a fact that the human condition causes us to attribute order where there is none, and we always try to explain things that we find odd. What happened may not be odd, but we make it so anyway.

As far as breathing exercises go, I'm not much of a gambler, but I know from the few times I have been in casinos the excitement and atmoshphere can distract you and impair your judgement. It would make sense that the more collected and focused you are, the better you will do at something like Blackjack. If this weren't true, they wouldn't make casinos so distracting. It's a science of distraction, and if you can counter that distraction with proper centering and breathing you may have a bit of an advantage. I don't know if any of that makes sense, just fun to think about...

Dave Organ (DaveO) wrote: Hi Awll! Here's a fun one for you: .... (BTW - never even thought about it; but there are some on this forum who practice in Vegas - Damn; I should've looked you up! I will next time, I promise! )

I was about to ask.

You do know that there is a Ki Society club in Las Vegas associated with Clarence Chinn Sensei ?

and there is a Shin Budo Kai group there also (Imaizumi Sensei having been a student of Tohei Sensei and former senior teacher in Ki Society, is very martially oriented flavor of Ki-Aikido, you would have liked it.) In fact he was there a week ago teaching along with many other Aikido teachers at the Aiki Expo. Andy Sato Sensei of AAA was there and many teachers of other styles were there. It sounds like you were probably in Las Vegas while this was all going on!

Simply shocking!

Instead of blowing $250 at Blackjack tables you could have been soaking up a unique Aikido experience at UNLV ! and then resting your buns at the blackjack table watching others play and lose the rest of the week.



Because of this, you have now flunked the Aikido fanatic test!

this I am sorry to say may make you inelegible for Aiki-slut status in the future.

Craig

lmao @ Aiki-slut

LOL!
Oh well; looks like I missed some real fun and good teaching; I guess I'll just have to go back down again. Thanx, all!