For full time card counters, KJ, others..

[KJ]

ZeeBaBar, I am going to answer because, unlike others in the community, I.....well, I don't want to go as far as to say “have taken a liking to you”, but I am certainly willing to answer questions and help you when I can. But, in the future, I would prefer that you address me on the other site or through email, since we communicate occasionally by email.

Remember, because of personal differences and opinions, I am now no longer credible, so you need to take anything I say with a grain of salt.

I don't measure my play in terms of time. I count only rounds played, because that is what really translates into dollars (over the long term). I play in the neighborhood of 70,000 plus rounds per year. (this year it was much lower as at the half way point of the year, I made the decision to really slow down and take some time off, basically playing part-time the second half of the year).

I generally AVERAGE about 200 rounds per day and a day is anywhere from 4-6 hours of actual time. Some days where the sessions all seem to go really short due to quickly showing my spread or the count quickly going negative, I might end up registering 150 or 175 rounds. Other days when I hit a couple heads up sessions and can push the envelope a little, maybe show my spread a second time because the game is moving so quickly, I might get in 300-350 rounds (sometimes more). Also because I spread my play around, approximately 4 days a week, I am on the overnight shift (which I have grown to dislike very much), but those days or rather “nights” tend to be a little longer (usually 8 hours as opposed to 4-6) and I usually register more rounds and head up opportunities.

A lot of players might think 70,000 a year rounds translates into 700 hours. It doesn't for me. I average far fewer than 100/rounds an hour. Probably more in the neighborhood of 40 rounds per hour. But I try to make them high quality rounds. I do this by 3 different techniques. 1.) aggressively wonging out of negative counts. 2.) tracking multiple tables and jumping directly from negative/neutral counts changes the true count frequencies in my favor, meaning I see and play a higher percentage of positive and max bets opportunities within those rounds played. And 3.) just general scouting for better opportunities (mostly penetration). While I have somewhere around 30-35 “playable” games in my rotation at all times, I tend to lean just a little more heavily on the better games....just as much as I think I can get away with without “crossing a line”.

[Three]

When you say that you average 200 rounds per day, that is 2-4 hours a day and assuming you play 4 days a week, that would be about 500-700 hours a tear.

A lot of players might think 70,000 a year rounds translates into 700 hours. It doesn't for me. I average far fewer than 100/rounds an hour. Probably more in the neighborhood of 40 rounds per hour. But I try to make them high quality rounds. I do this by 3 different techniques. 1.) aggressively wonging out of negative counts. 2.) tracking multiple tables and jumping directly from negative/neutral counts changes the true count frequencies in my favor, meaning I see and play a higher percentage of positive and max bets opportunities within those rounds played. And 3.) just general scouting for better opportunities (mostly penetration). While I have somewhere around 30-35 “playable” games in my rotation at all times, I tend to lean just a little more heavily on the better games....just as much as I think I can get away with without “crossing a line”.

KJ said his best guess on his average rounds per hour is about 40 rounds/hour (I think he is counting more than just time playing in this hour). At 70K rounds/year that makes 1750 hours/year that he considers being spent ob counting BJ. That makes his hourly income for time spent on BJ $45/hour assuming an average yearly income of $80K. I suspect KJ has been quite conservative in his figures and has included time a lot of us would not include in his figures but there they are Zee. Your 500-700 hours is way off the 1750 hours derived using math and his numbers to get the figures. I hope your play is not this sloppy.

[moses]

KJ said his best guess on his average rounds per hour is about 40 rounds/hour (I think he is counting more than just time playing in this hour). At 70K rounds/year that makes 1750 hours/year that he considers being spent ob counting BJ. That makes his hourly income for time spent on BJ $45/hour assuming an average yearly income of $80K. I suspect KJ has been quite conservative in his figures and has included time a lot of us would not include in his figures but there they are Zee. Your 500-700 hours is way off the 1750 hours derived using math and his numbers to get the figures. I hope your play is not this sloppy.

Hmmm. $100k annually (on average) at $45 per hour works out to about a 45 hour work week. I'm sorry, but traipsing around casino's putting dollars at risk for 2222 hours per year sounds too much like work to me. I made $1500 a game when officiating or $750 per hour. But if I take into consideration travel to and from games as well as clinics and pre/post game meetings the $$$$ per hour drops considerably.

I wouldn't suggest this lifestyle to my son or son-in-law for $45 an hour. I think it would get mundain for retired folks to employ this work week and likely mismanage larger investments over the long haul. So what part am I missing here?