Situational Awareness"The situational awareness exercise by excellence is simple, Manrique mentioned it to someone who couldn't grasp the situational-play concept:
- "When it comes RED, bet RED."
Simple enough right?
Times when continuation is favoring RED (clusters of 2+) are to be experienced clearly by the concatenated wins.
Times when ZIG-ZAG is dominant are to be seen clearly too because after red you lay a bet and you are missing over and over, you just can't miss that! It is clearly seen at the marquee too.
Make a registry for the results of this simple situational awareness exercises; you will also spot times when it is gray, as it is neither a disaster nor holding up well.
Try it! Before jumping into detecting cycles for higher-paying locations (or combinations of them), this simple exercise will force you to see the times and -when betting real money- "your brain says it, your body expresses it".
"your brain says it, your body expresses it"How? You brain communicates by automated thoughts ("now it is time", "not a single more bet, this is going down"), your body says it by feeding you with emotions, when you feel it is a bad time, when you are nervous and sweaty and not confident of your game, this is how it conveys you the message.
There is a whole branch of betting named "psychological play" used by Spanish players, they spot the physical symptoms for losing and winning players at the casino and bet with or against them. It is the same, just using yourself (given you still have emotions when betting of course!

).
A way to force your brain to situational awareness.The most successful situational players I've heard of are the ones
playing to eat. Is this by chance? No.
When you are betting to eat you only want to lay your bets at the times you perceive to be the most optimal for your bet selection. It is
your perceived times, true, but this is simply because of
playing to eat
triggers your survival mechanisms and your brain automatically uses as much of your known experience and information to guarantee survival.
In the light of this am I telling you to go and play to eat to force your brain to deliver?
NO.
There is a lighter way to achieve this mental state shall you choose to experience such, and it lies in taking money destined to a
vanity you truly like and are 20% short.
Choose to make that money 10 units. Aim to win +2 units or your 20% to get what you truly want.
10 units do not make that much of a room at this extreme-prone fluctuating game so you better focus.
Train your brain at home as much as possible and then when confident take what you have to the casino and bet with this money you know you are getting a reward if you can manage to win OR you will spoil getting what you will truly enjoy. (of course, as it is isn't neither rent money nor food money but vanity, there won't be any real trouble.. remember, vanity money
only).
A yet more softcore way will be to simply train at the simulator and reward yourself with something you like only if your hit rate is getting you to 20% consistently over a period of time. No real-money play.
Thing is you don't have to cheat yourself, if you are truly faithful once your brain sees making the effort is rewarded, then you will have your ally.
Brains can be trained, but brains are like puppies, they need that rewarding price. Once you have your "puppy in the head" trained you can count of it. It won't buy you luck, but a trained brain will make as much as possible within its reach to achieve the goal, in this regard, you can rest assured your trained brain won't let you down."
Victor