Ouchez,
It is so nice to read about APs having fun and enjoying life while on an AP venture. I never want to lose what you put so well. My wife and I have enjoyed many get aways while I was able to play enough BJ to help with the expense. Excellent post O.
Baberuth
I drove from the Bay Area to Reno, Wendover, Vegas, and San Diego in July. I actually enjoyed driving through the middle of nowhere. A 4 or 5 hour drive with no traffic doesn't bother me.
I'm considering a much longer round trip, maybe as far as Mississippi.
Insane, right? There's no way I can justify it in terms of EV, but like Ouchez said, I would be looking at the trip as much more than gambling. I've never been to Colorado or New Orleans or other places along the way. It's about 80 hours of driving over the course of 5-6 weeks. I would drive for 5 hours or more on 4 days of the trip.
I'm also considering another version of this – drive to Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and back to Nevada, take a break for a couple of weeks, and then fly to Kansas City and rent a car.
Feel free to tell me I’m nuts.
One good way to save a little bit of money on hotels is to stop at the tourist information places (usually just inside the state line) and pick up the coupon books. They usually have information about all of the casinos in the state too, which help out a lot since my usual game plan is something along the lines of "Oh well there's gotta be a casino or two around here somewhere!"
This maybe isn't really directly relevant to this thread, but the .50/mile estimate is really a very rough estimate. If you insist on driving nice late model cars and swapping cars every 3 years, your cost per mile will be higher. If you drive an economy car and run it well beyond 100k miles, the numbers are much, much better even if the car is bought new. As an example, I calculated the total cost of buying a particular well-reviewed economy car, if I were to buy it new today and drive it 150k miles, and I came up with a total cost of around $38000, including depreciation, fuel, maintenance, repairs, insurance, etc. that works out to a little over .25/mile. For someone filing as a professional, with a marginal tax rate (including state and self employment taxes) approaching 50%, the mileage deduction saves you about that much for every mile driven for business. The net result of all of this is that 1) a professional gambler can basically drive for free, if willing to choose an appropriate vehicle, and 2) non-professionals too can save a substantial amount of money by considering total cost of ownership of their vehicles. For someone driving 15k miles/yr, just a different choice of car (.25/mi ownership cost instead of .50) means $3750/year more to add to savings and/or bankroll.
Originally Posted by itrack
For those of you who are not aware, itrac, is a highly educated and intelligent full time pro with extreme SKILLZ as great as the finest players out there today, bar none. If you see his posts you should make sure to read them.
Ouchez
Thank you Ouchez, I agree completely. When I go on "gaming" trips, I make sure to keep things in perspective, gambling comes second, I always try to make sure I also spend time enjoying nature's beauty in a new area, or see what other activities are available.You should always look at these trips as more than just gambling,,,but a vacation, to see and do new things,,enjoy the country side and new views,,,and on the way check out the casinos.
Look at it as a vacation with maybe positive EV in the relaxation realm.
I, 99 % of the times traveled to areas that had great beauty, sometimes just the smell of the air in the morning, as the mist lifted from the Cedar Bogs would make the long trip worth it just for that heavenly experience,,,,,or maybe the view of a frigid artic landscape, where after many hours of BJ you come back to the hotel and sit by the fireplace with a glass of Asti and gaze out at the icy, frozen, desolate expanse,, or maybe a dinner overlooking a deep wooded gorge inhabitated by Bears and Wolves and Panthers,,again-- after a long day and night playing some of the finest DD the U.S had to offer.
O Yes,,a gambling trip can be SO much more.
Ouchez
Even if the BJ EV doesn't make up for the cost of the trip, people who don't gamble pay full price for all of their trips, yet they still do it! Trips often have their own intrinsic value.
You kidding? For pure joy I love road trips. There's a difference between vacationing and working at EV generation (as many are saying on this thread) and no reason you can't combine the two so long as you understand the economics of what you're doing.
Only thing nuts in your post is the idea that a 5-hour driving day counts as long when you're trying to do serious miles.
I was insane in my first year of AP-ing as well. I would work 60 hours/5 days, then on Saturday night around 11pm I would drive 2 hours to the casino, wong in and out for 5-6 hours straight without sitting at all, and around 7-8 am would drive 2 hours back home. CRAZY!I drove from the Bay Area to Reno, Wendover, Vegas, and San Diego in July. I actually enjoyed driving through the middle of nowhere. A 4 or 5 hour drive with no traffic doesn't bother me.I'm considering a much longer round trip, maybe as far as Mississippi.Insane, right?.
I had no idea. Thanks for the great tip.
Me, I just hate the drive to Nevada in afternoon traffic, coming out of west L.A. I'm a lightweight compared to you guys. I've been thinking of taking the time to learn Spanish... Or fly more.
i can relate , i am currently in my first year and I am driving 175 miles each way weekend each way to the casino on the weekend and play for anywhere from 8-12 hours on the weekend and then make one trip during the week after work for 4 hours of play driving 90 miles each way. At least im getting a min of 15 hours a week so everything should be good.
P.S. I will never lease a car again. I am so f'd on miles
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