Hi all, I make a couple of presumptions in this post so for the sake of clarity I’m going to define my terms first.

When I say “professional blackjack player” I am referring to a person whose primary means of income is playing blackjack. Or for whom their income from blackjack is required to maintain their day to day living.

Further we are presuming that their bankroll is subject to a regular amount of variance and they haven’t found some way to cheat good old standard deviation.

Based on most of the educated voices on this to ‘make a living’ as a player one has to play many hours a week at high hand values and they should have a bankroll after adjusting for risk of failure in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So everything is great on an upswing but how do these individuals support themselves on a downswing? When you hear of players having a year or two on a downswing how do they fund living? Do they withdraw from their bankrolls (thus increasing risk and undermining the entire idea in the first place)? Do ‘professionals’ only play with or leverage other people’s funds? (Seems like a hard investment to sell)

I guess what I am asking is is there a sensible way to make a living playing blackjack for any length of time or is one required to be independently wealthy/retired?