Playing Black jack sounds much better than the odds being described above - hence likely the reason that hardly anyone mines solo unless they have enough hashpower to hit on a weekly or maybe monthly basis or so.. which probably would cost quite a bit of money.  I suppose if you cannot generate enough hashpower to attempt to hit close to 10--12 times per year, then likely you would have to join a pool.  This post likely demonstrates part of the reason that I am not a miner.