Masterhoudini, How R U? I still remember you as if it were yesterday. I saw your good-looking picture (a2015flyer of you) in a Tropicana pit. Casinos have ill-treated you and done you wrong, and now covid19 takes your longdeferred-revenge on casinos. Bad karma catches up to casinos, and covid19 has shut them down for months and made them lose billions of dollars.
Romans 12:19 : "Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord ."
Aw well, I guess I can't play. I've gone full-time for six-eight month stretches over the past 25 years, but always find I miss the people I interact with in a "regular" job as well as the satisfaction in producing something "real" (in contrast to just making money). I like being able to point to something and saying I helped with that, particularly if it helped someone else's life.
What bj has done for me is allowed me to take more satisfying, meaningful jobs ... the kinds that typically don't pay as well as other kinds of jobs ... and still live relatively comfortably. And it has allowed me to build a nice retirement/investment portfolio for when I'm ready for that.
But I guess none of that counts as what bj has done for me.
I don’t think blackjack has much to do with the problems, it’s a convenient excuse if you’re trying to lay blame for them. Whatever problems one has without blackjack are still there but I don’t think it creates them. Money doesn’t solve real problems other than background stress of being broke. The travel does tend to isolate you from “normal” life and consequently makes relationships difficult. It suppose it depends on what sort of “career” you’re giving up for it, it probably best as supplemental if you have a good one you don’t despise. For me I gave up a $17 hr job with no degree and have averaged a bit over 100k a year and a bit over 3/4 of a mill total from AP so far, it’s been alright. And you can choose to live somewhere where that income provides a decent living where many places those salaries are more widely available like NYC or SF just cracking 100k you can still struggle to be able to get ahead or buy a home. I still mostly have the same struggles I had before blackjack but with a lot more freedom and a little more money, only new one it’s created is socially.
Last edited by mcallister3200; 06-15-2020 at 11:22 PM.
I can't speak for the FT pros, but it's been very positive for me: a fun hobby that occupies my brain and makes a little money. I look forward to playing, can lose my entire BR without affecting my lifestyle... what's not to like?
Now, I would expect that trying to make my living at it could suck - constant travel, never knowing when your next "paycheck" is coming, having money stolen, ugly backoffs.... probably not for me.
This post is like a bunch of pro NBA players discussing the pros and cons of their career choice. They just seem to have no clue of how many pursue that dream to be like them, become NBA players and then see them fail and drop off the radar after high school, college, the local gyms and playgrounds.
Those who have the components of a full time AP don’t understand that they are a very talented group, don’t understand how rare their skills, their personality make up and will are.
Learning card counting and having success the first 5+ years is like a basketball player having success the 5-7 years from high school thru college. It’s after that, when they don’t make it to the pro-level that they find themselves lost.
This analogy falls apart when you consider when you consider competition. The high school and college players are competing for a smaller number of spots; against a more talented group, as they try to move to the pros. For an AP it is different. If you start with 5 successful years your bank should have increased to the point that you have access to even better games and a higher hourly income. You also learn more advanced skills, and each new casino means more potential opportunity.
Please note that I am not arguing that it is easy...just that it is not comparable to the types of analogies you seem to prefer.
Good point. I think it’s more like making a living as a golf pro. Some get to the PGA tourS, most end up teaching golf in high school or a golf club in Padua or hustling bets.
I was thinking more of the many who fall by the way side.
I don’t agree with the “every new casino means more potential opportunity”. You have to visit them, understand their tolerance (very little beyond red chip play), the cost of getting to them and more.
For most who attempt card counting, do the practice, learn the theory, success is limited to 1-5 years and local casinos. Few can handle what it takes to make a long term living out of it.
I'm not sure if you were referring to me here, but I haven't worked a normal career for several years now. I never went on a seven figure tear in one (two?) year(s?) like you, but I've made a solid six figs every year I've been a full-time AP. And yeah, I wasn't one of those sicko wizard degens who ran 4 figs up to a million, but for me, I wanted a solid bankroll as a cushion in case it didn't work out. I thought that was responsible. At the time I was sending my parents a decent amount of money and I wanted to make sure they could retire if they wanted to. That ended up kind of biting me in the ass, but it was my thought process at the time.
I would never actively encourage a normal, intelligent person with other gainful opportunities who has a reasonable temperament well-suited to corporate life to take up AP full-time. But there are some mavericks who are very intelligent who just are ill-suited to a "normal" lifestyle. I feel I am one of these people. Casinos hassle me and sometimes, yes, they pull illegal stuff that I have to deal with. But at least I can fire back. When I was in finance, if a boss berated me and called me an idiot for something that was actually their fault, I had to shut up and take it. In the AP world, there are all kinds of legal ways to exact revenge. To me, that freedom is worth something. Sound minds can differ.
Well said. I think that at the end of the day full time AP 21 offers a number of potential plusses as well as a number of minuses. In the end its a personal decision as to what works best for everyone. For me the serious part-time route was preferable for many reasons. The full time successful pros that I know are bright, highly disciplined, and have a strong work ethic. Most could probably make more in a straight career but the appeal of being a full time AP seems to appeal to some. Good luck Goat in your new career.Cohiba
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