Casinos effectively got rid of threat of Martingale System gambler or player by setting Table maximums (and minimums). i.e. A player bets $5 on banker and lost. Next bet, $10 on banker, next bet $20, etc, and he continues to lose. Before long, his bet will have doubled up to a point that it will exceed table maximum. In this case player can't bet any higher and his system has failed, he must quit. The Martingale System is a horrific betting system that follows a human beings panic thinking - their natural thought pattern that somehow believes that if a coin lands heads up 9x in a row, there is a greater chance than 50% that it will land tails on 10th flip! IT DOES NOT WORK!

So - if all these strategies and systems - card counting, pattern spotting, streak spotting etc are worthless strategies for baccarat - is there any good one? Well...practically and mathematically speaking... when you analyse numbers, odds do seem to always be in favour when a player bets on banker, though this is a very boring tactic to play. Perhaps throw in some pattern chasing to break tedium, or count scorecards!

The only way around this is to be able to afford to pay someone else to set-up and maintain your tank.

3) Mingle! (see 2 above) There are plenty of reef-keeping societies out there with lots of experience to help you along your way and teach you what you need to know. As long as you are doing your own homework, they are usually happy to help!

4) Keep an open mind! There is not just one way to keep a reef tank - no matter how loudly people on various bulletin boards and forums out there might shout that there is. 5) Share! It is amazing how much help people are willing to give when they realize that you are offering a particularly nice specimen that they have always wanted. Equipment that they didn't even remember they had may magically appear or they might be willing to share a very nice piece of their own reef frag with you.

Trading frags not only is a great way to increase your variety, but it helps maintain genetic strains of corals (frags are also known as 'clones') that might otherwise die out in a single tank struck by calamity mentioned in 1 above.

Chris Knowlton is an avid fan of reef keeping and propagation. He maintains a nano tank and two large saltwater reef aquariums. To visit his site and read 5 More Steps to Success with Saltwater Coral Reef Aquariums visit http://www.KnowltonsReef.com