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Thread: Your Average Joe

  1. #14


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    Quote Originally Posted by ZeeBabar View Post
    BJ is a game where you can quickly discover your limits.

    I had been driving a car, racing in streets, thinking I was one hell of a driver until I ran into a few pros. In th off season, I had my car, back when they allowed you to do it, I found myself at the Indy 500 and I tried myself out, found my limits at about 120 mph, I did go up as high as 135-140 for a round but never got comfortable, sweating, nervous, and quit, moved back to lesser speeds.

    In BJ too, after getting counting and indexes down, even with a significant BR, I was real comfortable with a minimum $25 game and a $250 max bet. However, when I tried the $50 minimum game, the extra heat, bets over $300 and the stress started getting to me. I knew the idea of playing blacks, of having $1000 on a single hand, losing more than $3000 plus in a single session was not something I could ever get comfortable with and thus dropped the whole idea of significant income from BJ.

    Now, after all these years, the best year was where I made $38k after expenses with all others being under $20k, more often around $10k. Good enough for me. I remain a recreational player.
    Heck, snowmobilers go 120 mph in the U.P. on narrow old railroad grades. There is no snowmobile speed limit in the U.P. Probably more deaths from snowmobiles in the winter months than from car accidents in the good old U.P. Very common to hear of folks losing control and going off trail into a tree.

    https://www.mlive.com/news/2020/12/m...ile-crash.html

    https://www.freep.com/story/news/loc...an/2657697002/

    Now a gal bragging about her 13 year old son's need for speed on a snowmobile forum.
    "My 13 year old can't wait to get his hands on it, but he has a horrible condition he inherited from his parents called " a need for speed." He's already had the ZL600 at 92 mph, and I know he won't be able to resist putting it to the handle bar. Since I know it can do 122 mph there is no way I'm letting him on it yet. He needs more maturity before he's allowed on it. Right now it's my backup sled."
    Last edited by Midwest Player; 01-05-2021 at 10:34 PM.

  2. #15


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    Quote Originally Posted by Below AVG IQ View Post
    Hello,

    New to the forum as well as Blackjack. I like gambling but hate losing money, which is why I never played blackjack as I knew it was a -EV game (unless you are counting cards.)
    When I and I'm assuming many others think of card counters the imagination goes to characters such as Ben Campbell from the movie 21. Not just someone who goes to MIT but someone who is able to get into MIT and standout in the class. "A gifted mind" among gifted minds.

    I thought I'd tie my username to my first post/thread. My question is can your average person (intelligence wise) be a successful card counter (Given an adequate bankroll) or does Hollywood's interpretation of a card counter lean towards reality?

    "Successful" may be subjective so if needed I'll let you define it in your response.
    Haha! Hollywood is a far cry from reality. Its more like TV, a "Propaganda Machine."
    http://bjstrat.net/cgi-bin/cdca.cgi

  3. #16
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    Quote Zeebabar: Now, after all these years, the best year was where I made $38k after expenses with all others being under $20k, more often around $10k. Good enough for me. I remain a recreational player.

    This is very discouraging to every newcomers here. If your years of hard work could not even support yourself, how do you encourage students to participate in your efforts?

  4. #17


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    Quote Originally Posted by aceside View Post
    Quote Zeebabar: Now, after all these years, the best year was where I made $38k after expenses with all others being under $20k, more often around $10k. Good enough for me. I remain a recreational player.
    This is very discouraging to every newcomers here. If your years of hard work could not even support yourself, how do you encourage students to participate in your efforts?
    Ace, there's so many variables affecting how much money you can make in a year. Just to name a few:
    -The size of your bankroll
    -The RoR you're willing to take
    -The quality of the game you're playing
    -The number of hours you can play
    -The tolerance of the casinos in regards to your betting level
    -Your longevity
    -The associated expenses
    -The variance you're experiencing
    -Whether you play alone or in a team effort
    -A pandemic...
    -Etc.

    Making $10K/year for recreational play is very good for 99% of the players.
    G Man

  5. #18


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    Quote Originally Posted by aceside View Post
    Quote Zeebabar: Now, after all these years, the best year was where I made $38k after expenses with all others being under $20k, more often around $10k. Good enough for me. I remain a recreational player.

    This is very discouraging to every newcomers here. If your years of hard work could not even support yourself, how do you encourage students to participate in your efforts?
    I don’t. I have never advocated anyone become a full time player. I advocate learning to count and all the rest as it’s a good skill to have and pursue some other career. Give importance to other things in life, that is relationships, marriage kids, etc. Play recreationally till you are set in other aspects of your life and it comes in handy when you are ready to retire. It can pay for your vacations and other luxuries. I firmly believe that for most people, it would be a huge mistake to pursue it as a full time career, pay mortgage, bills, insurance etc.

    For me, it’s paid for vacations and for my passion for driving coupes. I have tried a different one every year since I started playing BJ. Usually trade my car for another, pay the difference with BJ income.

  6. #19


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    Quote Originally Posted by aceside View Post
    Quote Zeebabar: Now, after all these years, the best year was where I made $38k after expenses with all others being under $20k, more often around $10k. Good enough for me. I remain a recreational player.

    This is very discouraging to every newcomers here. If your years of hard work could not even support yourself, how do you encourage students to participate in your efforts?
    Don't get ahead of yourself there. Newcomers, first need to get their feet wet and see if they can swim.

  7. #20
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    1 out of 1 members found this post helpful. Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    Quote Originally Posted by ZeeBabar View Post
    ...For me, it’s paid for vacations and for my passion for driving coupes. I have tried a different one every year since I started playing BJ. Usually trade my car for another, pay the difference with BJ income.
    Ah....so it's a profit deal

    https://youtu.be/78Ubd_NkWvM

  8. #21


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    For a long period of time when I was starting out, I didn't think it could be done. (That's having a positive stream of income from blackjack.) When you learn all the things that are needed for that to happen and they fall into place, it can be done except for one little problem. The casinos are NOT going to let you take money from them consistently. If they do, then either they don't know you, or they are being nice to you, or are grossly indifferent or really incompetent.

  9. #22


    0 out of 2 members found this post helpful. Did you find this post helpful? Yes | No
    Quote Originally Posted by 151Proof View Post
    For a long period of time when I was starting out, I didn't think it could be done. (That's having a positive stream of income from blackjack.) When you learn all the things that are needed for that to happen and they fall into place, it can be done except for one little problem. The casinos are NOT going to let you take money from them consistently. If they do, then either they don't know you, or they are being nice to you, or are grossly indifferent or really incompetent.
    You really don’t know if it could be done till your local casinos close you out. In my experience, depending on how aggressive and how often you play, it takes about 1-5 years. It’s only when you start traveling that you find whether you can do it or not. When you start having to pay for travel, motels, car rentals, airline tickets, greasy food, no home to return to each night and more, it’s tough to play the $5 minimum, $100 max bet game and make any money and the move to $25 tables, higher bets, greater swings, greater heat might make most to reconsider.

    Like pro players and entertainers, for 99%, it’s a short career.

  10. #23


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    Quote Originally Posted by ZeeBabar View Post
    You really don’t know if it could be done till your local casinos close you out. In my experience, depending on how aggressive and how often you play, it takes about 1-5 years. It’s only when you start traveling that you find whether you can do it or not. When you start having to pay for travel, motels, car rentals, airline tickets, greasy food, no home to return to each night and more, it’s tough to play the $5 minimum, $100 max bet game and make any money and the move to $25 tables, higher bets, greater swings, greater heat might make most to reconsider.

    Like pro players and entertainers, for 99%, it’s a short career.
    I'm rarely on Zee side, however, this last post is unquestionably right.
    G Man

  11. #24


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    I would agree too , so true.

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