Shoeda, Woulda, Couldas

What’s the allure of gambling again? I was wearing my YSL Tribute T-Strap Sandals at the Harvey’s Casino in South Lake Tahoe and they concluded that the allure for sure isn’t the smoke-filled air, the multi-colored carpets, or the weird drunk guy sitting next to us asking, “So, what’s your story?” I guess the appeal of walking away at the end of the night with more cash than what we came with is enough to have us changing our bills into chips and ignoring everything else. Mama always needs a new pair of shoes, right? While hoping Lady Luck accompanied us to the blackjack tables, we began playing. Nowadays, it’s more like praying, since cards can’t be touched when dealt face up and while using multi-deck shoes (yes, blackjack cards have shoes too). While the goal is to get to 21 or as close to it as possible without going over, we’ll take a win however we can get it, either by beating the dealer or by the dealer busting. Even a draw can some times feel like a win; it sure beats losing. Whether up, down, or even, player emotions run high and if we have chatty shoes like my Tributes, emotions may run even higher. It seemed like every had my shoes had something to say. When I hit because the dealer showed a face card my shoes would say, “You shoulda stayed at 16, there was a 5 that the dealer wasn’t showing and you took the bust card.” When I increased my bet only to end up losing it they’d say, “If you woulda kept the bet the same, you woulda minimized your losses.” Even when I won, they yelled, “Ugh, you coulda bet more!” Yeah, that’s really easy to say when hindsight’s 20/20 and maybe slightly easier if we all consistently got hands that equaled 20. After a while, I had to put my foot down and walk away while I was ahead. While gambling, it’s easy to get carried away trying to press our luck. But if we lived our lives solely relying on luck, we’d have to deal with a hell-of-a-lot of Shoeda, Woulda, Couldas.