INPUT ARTICLE: Article: If you've already bought a bottle of bubbles solution, you're ready to start. If you don't have any on hand, it is easily make your own using a few household supplies. First, use any kind of liquid soap as your base. Add cornstarch to make the bubbles strong. Mix the following ingredients in a bottle:  1/4 cup dish soap 1 cup water 1 teaspoon cornstarch Store-bought solution comes with a wand, but if you make your own bubbles solution you will need to make a wand. Here's a chance to get creative. A wand can be fashioned from any item that has a hole to blow through. Look for one of the following items you can easily make into a wand:  A wire dipper for dying eggs. These come in egg dying kits used during Easter. This little wire contraption has a hole and a handle, making it the perfect wand for blowing bubbles. A pipe cleaner. Just bend one tip of the pipe cleaner into a circle shape and wrap it around the stem of the pipe cleaner. A plastic straw. Bend the end of the straw into a circle and tape it to the stem of the straw. A slotted spoon. You can dip the spoon in the bubbles solution and blow a lot of tiny bubbles at once. Any other item that can be bent into a circular shape. If it has a hole, you can blow a bubble through it! The solution should stretch over the hole to form a thin film. If you look closely you'll be able to see swirls of colorful soap in the film. The film should be thick enough to stay in place without breaking while you hold the wand steady for several seconds. If the bubbles solution breaks as soon as you lift the wand from the bottle, add a little more cornstarch to make it thicker. Or you could try adding an egg white. A soft, gentle stream of breath will cause the soap film to bend outward until it forms a bubble. You've just created a bubble! Experiment with different ways of blowing to see how the force of your breath affects the creation of bubbles.  If you continue blowing past the first bubble, you might find that there's enough solution left on the wand to create a stream of bubbles.. Keep blowing until bubbles stop flowing through the wand. Try making a bigger bubble. Very slowly, blow a steady stream of air through the wand.

SUMMARY: Mix some solution. Find a wand. Dip the wand into the bubbles solution. Lift the wand to your lips and gently blow into the circle of the wand.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Play the table minimum when you’re new at a game. This amount will typically be about $5 and is a good place to start while you’re getting comfortable learning the rules. Once you understand a game better, you can start increasing your bets to $10 and $20. The reason you lose so much money playing slots is because you can play them so quickly. Table games take more time, thus any money you lose will be lost more slowly. Even a nickel slot machine loses you about twice as much per hour as a $5 table game. So take a seat at a blackjack table, order a drink, and enjoy the slower pace.  You can opt to sit out every other round to draw out your money as long as possible. Try using a system in which you change your next bet depending on how your previous bet worked out. For instance, increase your bet by 50% every time you win. Betting systems are meant to increase your chances of winning in the short term, but can not improve your odds long term.   Another strategy is to double your bet each time you lose. Also, you can try betting a quarter or one half of your remaining chips each time you place a bet. Since no betting system can eliminate the house edge, temporary gains will always be balanced out with big losses eventually. Limit your usage of betting systems to a few rounds and walk away while you're ahead.

SUMMARY:
Start with a small bet. Play table games at a relaxed pace. Use a betting system. Use betting systems only for a few rounds.