By Frank Weber
Copyright ©2025
The double-down is a dangerous gamble.
It’s a gamble that’s drained men’s bank accounts down beyond the last nickel.
It’s a gamble that’s put lesser men out in the gutter with no way back out.
It’s a most deadly gamble.
And it’s a most unnecessary gamble.
And it’s nothing but a pipe dream.
Still – for some unfathomable reason – it’s a gamble that is played over and over and over to almost certain failure.
I say almost because it will work – every once in a great purple moon – sadly it will work.
Maybe that’s the allure…that one drop of water’s chance in hell to buck all the odds and win.
“If you can just win the double-down, you’ll be a hero!”
Can’t think of too many other reasons.
Probably the most tragic aspect of the double-down, is that it is equated as a last-ditch effort for ANYTHING that a beaten player is trying to save.
It very rarely ever works.
It’s one thing to be at the tables and watch every nickel you ever earned get scooped up and away from you only to be dropped down into the casino’s coffers.
It’s one thing to be down by 3 points with 5 seconds to play and launch a “Hail Mary” pass in the hopes that your last-ditch double-down reaches the endzone for a win. This is probably the only time that a real double-down makes any sense.
And honestly, it’s the only situation where I’ve ever seen it work.
It’s quite another to be soundly beaten and pushed out of relevance, refuse to acknowledge or accept it and refuse to admit you were wrong.
It’s quite another to ignore the wants and needs – and most importantly – THE WILL of millions of The People who are telling you in no uncertain terms that you are wrong.
It’s quite another to ignore the legal ramifications and consequences waiting for those poor folks that still blindly follow you and your double-down…follow you right over the cliff.
It’s nothing more than an ill-conceived, unsupported, ill-advised, ill-directed gamble in the desperate hope that maybe all of those millions of The People were ‘wrong’ or ‘didn’t know any better’ or ‘will believe YOU that they were all lied to’ and that your “Hail Mary” pass will give it all back to you…oh, sorry…I mean, ‘them’. Yes, of course…The People MUST believe you’re doing it for them…that you’re only doing this for them. Yeah…right…pull this leg and it plays jingle bells.
Sorry to bear such tragic news, but it will not.
And for one very simple reason…the more you double-down on known and public failures, the more you alienate those very People that might have supported you in the first place.
As a matter of fact, the ONLY segment of The People that will jump on board your sinking ship are the ones that will double-down on their own because they’re too embarrassed to admit they were conned. Just like you, they’re hoping against all odds that it’s all just a bad dream and this last double-down will bring back their safe – and obedient – world. The very same world they lost from their own catastrophic failures in the first place!
Such a vicious circle you keep yourselves trapped within.
Such a callous circle you keep your blind followers trapped within.
There is nothing wrong with ‘being wrong’.
Everyone is wrong about a great many things over the course of their lives.
Mistakes are how everyone in the world is always offered another chance – a new beginning.
The ONLY thing that matters in any way, shape or form in making mistakes, is realizing the mistakes and working hard never to repeat them.
This is what differentiates successes in life from miserable failures in life.
Sadly, this simple nugget of what should be common sense, flies in the face of the double-down mentality.
And let’s be clear…there is a monumental difference between ‘never give up the ship’ and ‘that didn’t work, so I’m just going to keep blindly doing it over and over again’.
It’s one thing to fight the good fight and never give up the fight.
It’s something entirely different – and pretty childish – to refuse to admit that you failed and worse, to never change a thing because you’re convinced that that first failure was only a fluke – you were right all along – and if you keep playing the same cards, you’ll get your win.
It’s like having a King and Queen showing and screaming “Hit me!” in the wild-eyed belief that the next card will be an Ace. I’ll leave the odds of this happening to statisticians, but you get the point – it’s a reckless, atrocious gamble to take with The People’s lives.
It’s an atrocious gamble when it’s made with your own money or job or reputation.
But it becomes a most heinous, egregious gamble when it’s an attempt made with the monies, livelihoods and psyche of The People.
Grown adults should really know better.
But they do not.
Well, they do, but it’s much easier to blame everyone else and scream and spit and bitch in hopes of getting their way than it ever will be to admit that something must change.
And that is the sad, simple fact of the matter that is so willingly ignored…something must change.
Making changes to a losing strategy is still a gamble, but it’s much more of a hedged bet.
It gives you time to analyze and assess and reassess past failures and really see where things went wrong. It gives you a second chance to correct what’s broken and then play another hand.
It only takes a simple willingness to admit a failure to be able to correct it and return stronger and more on-point, and maybe even win a hand or two.
At the same time, it only takes a modicum of hubris in the failure to crush that hand down into dirt and dust, to refuse to acknowledge reality for what it presents…to borrow against unavailable credit to double-down on the bet.
Don’t try to play at the ‘grown up’ table if you don’t know how to – or worse – refuse to read the ‘cards’. You’ll lose every hand you play.
Comments