I can remember my first trip to a casino like it was yesterday. As a freshman at Boston U I had never really gambled before. Back in high school in Cleveland, we spent our time going to rock shows or just hanging out in parking lots, but we never thought to have a poker night. In college, all that changed. One friend in particular was well versed in the various forms of gambling, and he also happened to have a car. So, on a Friday, five of us hopped in an Isuzu Rodeo and headed for the middle of nowhere. Where? Upstate New York. Verona. Home of the Oneida Indian nation, just east of Syracuse.

It sucked getting there. I think it was just under a five-hour drive. While spacious, the Isuzu liked to broadcast each bump in the road directly to your backside while sitting in the back seat. Regardless of the discomforts, our excitement couldn't be calmed. For most of us this was our first jaunt into the world of legalized gambling. We pegged our driver with question after question about the finer points of playing blackjack.

"What if you have two 9's and the dealer has a 6 showing?"

"What if you have two aces and the dealer is showing a face card?"

No number of questions and answers could have prepared us for that realization that we got when sitting at the table for the first time. Our fingers were shaking and the sweat started to form in places that only expel sweat from nervousness.

You are thinking, "I have five dollars on the table and it could be gone in a matter of seconds."

Little did we know then that a five dollar table was rare because most places consider that an extremely low level of play.

But once we all sat down at our first table and got those first few nervous hands out of the way, we learned to ride it out. We would lose and then we would win. All we had to do is recognize streaks and capitalize more on the winning ones than to explode on the losing ones.

Sure, we were all blown away at first.

Sure, some people didn't ever find their way back from that first bad run of cards.

But there I was. I had started with $50 and I now had $250 sitting in front of me. I was now playing with house money. What should I do? Should I walk away and take a very valuable $200 of profit with me? Should I keep playing and hope to turn that into $500? Should I set a limit guaranteeing myself that I would walk away with at least $100 of the casino's money?

This, my friends, is the position that the Cleveland Cavaliers are in right now in their series with the Detroit Pistons after going up 3-2 last night.