When do semi pros and pros retire from the game?

[ZenMaster_Flash]

I turned full-time Pro in early 1992, retiring from a high-level medical profession.
At that time my life had turned to feces and I was very unhappy. Just divorced,
I was in a serious auto accident, I developed serious medical problems.
I felt that I wanted to completely re-invent myself. I did so.

I am semi-retired.

I have managed my assets well.
I lead a good middle-class existence.
I have NO debts of any kind and I
own my own nice house and car, etc.

This week I traveled over 8,000 miles to exploit a few extraordinary games
in rural outposts, but generally, I play for a few days once or twice a month.

After about a dozen years playing BJ I felt like Willy Loman ("Death of a Salesman");
in spite of winning considerable money and being very often well-comp'd. I'd rather
be at home with my spouse, my cats, my faithful dog, and my comfy residence,
where I can indulge all of my hobbies.
I generally travel with a partner or two to keep loneliness at bay.
Living a (virtual) "outlaw existence" on the "fringes of society" is philosophically bankrupt.
with or without "mixed metaphors." L. O. L.


but I still mentor BJ Players who are serious about playing on a high level.

[ZenMaster_Flash]

B O R E D O M:

There is the undeniable fact that BJ is always amazingly repetitious.
FUN is washed away in an ocean of hands that repeat forever.
The only variable is how much is won or lost, and that is not exciting.

I have played approx 2,000,000 hands of BJ for stakes between $1 and $10,000
in a few countries and since "There is nothing new under the sun" casinos become
domains of boredom -- watching the public getting their collective pockets picked
while pocketing profits, large enough to be quasi-meaningful, while modest enough to
maintain a low profile.

[Norm]

In my mind, you retire from something when you find something better. Complete retirement is death. Doesn't have to be profit-making if you have what you need. But, one must always have some interest that keeps them alive day-to-day and gives them a feeling of progress.

Some retirement quotes:

Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples.
-George Burns

The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.
-Abe Lemons

I need to retire from retirement.
-Sandra Day O'Connor

Retire to what? I already play golf and fish for a living.
-Julius Boros

[Stealth]

In my mind, you retire from something when you find something better. Complete retirement is death. Doesn't have to be profit-making if you have what you need. But, one must always have some interest that keeps them alive day-to-day and gives them a feeling of progress.

At 68, I can assure you no truer words were ever spoken!

[muffdiver]

At 68, I can assure you no truer words were ever spoken!

Same age, but not for long. When's your birthday?

[ZenMaster_Flash]

NORM is correct about retiring. His post was succinct but weighty.

I have a wide array of interests, activities and avocations.

These serve me well to fill my day with pleasures, great and small.

I neither NEED nor WANT to put cash at risk in a casino. Why, you say?

Because winning ~ or ~ losing makes absolutely NO difference.

A WIN of a few thousand dollars will NOT provide me with "things" needed (or wanted)

that I do not already have. Conversely …

A LOSS of a few thousand dollars will NOT deny me "things" needed (or wanted)

The futility of "gambling" holds little appeal, because I know that at its conclusion

I know that I will have wasted my precious hours and days in meaningless activity,

"tilting at windmills" -- winning and losing money in a random walk with upward drift.

"Life is way too short" to spend (much) time "rubbing elbows" with the drunken cigarette

smoking semi-literate innumerate self-destructive lumpen proletariat -- the casino habitués"

So … I restrict myself to playing with my acolytes and gambling just a few days a month.

Why ? Because Wifey is rather quick to remind me that I am have developed a bankroll

that will be her nest egg upon my demise ! NOT KIDDING !

[Frank Galvin]

ZMF, who is the more skilled AP, you or "wifey"?

I ask, because, if you go to a casino, you might win, you might not. As for your wife, she only loses, if:

1. For some reason you get divorced (then more than probably she will get at least 50%);
2. You blow your entire bankroll (highly improbable, but possible); or
3. She dies before you, so she never gets a plum nickel (doubtful, as I suspect you are more than fair with her, after all, she is your wife).

I suspect her variance and RoR is extremely low!

[ZenMaster_Flash]

Moses,

Define "Big D"

[ZeeBabar]

I wonder how many long time pros do not retire because, over the years, they have become addicted to BJ and the casino environment, where their non gambling friends have long abandoned them as a gambling addict, where they have little or no outside interests and the casino/BJ mean far more than they admit.

Its not uncommon that people get so addicted to their profession that retirement only hastens death, that when forced to retire they have nothing to replace it

[ZenMaster_Flash]

Ordinarily I loath the improper exaggerated term "addicted",
but I am pleased to see a post by ZeeBar that makes sense.

[ZenMaster_Flash]

Moses,

I think of the Big D as death and the little D as divorce.

The latter I have experienced several times,

The former I have a nodding relationship with.

I have seen many dead peeps over the years.

I have faced down death about 12 times.

[muffdiver]

moses,
When I signed up for a BJ tournament in OK, the list of attendees showed a "Moses" and truthfully it's one of the reasons I entered (thinking I would get to meet you). Different Moses but I placed in the tourney so not all bad!