Like Most Professions, Gamblers Must Pay Their Dues
Posted At : March 5, 2009 9:47 AM | Posted By : Administrator
Related Categories: Las Vegas,Poker,Professional Gambler,Blackjack
I know a number of people who've come to Las Vegas to make it as professional gamblers (PGs), primarily as poker players. They're generally in their early twenties to early thirties and they believe that they have the skills to make it in this town gambling. Maybe they've read some poker books or had some success in some private poker games in their hometown and it seemed like an exciting life with limitless wealth potential.
Now some of these people are starting to utter the most horrific three-letter word in the English language. For a gambler in Vegas no four-letter word can come close to the repugnance of this particular utterance. Can you guess the word?
J-O-B
For a gambler that's used to sleeping at will, playing cards and throwing money around, and hitting the shows, restaurants and clubs frequently, the thought of punching a clock, answering to someone, and getting a fixed paycheck for an amount that they're used to betting on a flip of a card, it feels like being sentenced to Alcatraz for the rest of one's life. (Often that frivolous lifestyle is a contributing factor to their lack of success. True professionals don't behave that way.)
How many times have you heard the expression that if it were easy then everyone would do it? Well now you've heard it a again.
Gambling for a living requires a particular blend of discipline, bankroll management, skill in mathematics, and other factors.
Of all factors necessary to be successful it's my belief that the most important of all qualities is the willingness to work hard and swallow one's pride. Perhaps that's two qualities but they're closely related to one another. Pride and sloth are the preeminent enemies of PGs.
One gambler came to me and told me that he's only got about $100 and he needs $6,000 by the end of March to cover his expenses. I handed him a stack of funbooks.
Why a funbook, you may ask? The successful gamblers reading this will know why. Funbooks have coupons for match plays, free aces and other good opportunities like a 125-coin bonus on a 25-cent video poker machine.
It's the Las Vegas version of give a man a fish and feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.
I said he could take that $100 and if he played all the coupons I gave him, he'd likely have $300 at the end of the first day. Then he at least has a little more to work with if he wants to sit in a low-stakes poker game. Or he could go get more coupons for more places and build it up to $1,000 after a week or so.
If someone worked 12 to 16 hour days in Las Vegas doing coupons for a whole week, I'm certain that person could turn $100 into $1,000 with a greater-than-90% success rate.
Sign up for the player's clubs all over town. Play the free slot play at Hooters and Casino Royale. The play is on bad slot machines but it's free so you can't lose. Also both Hooters and CR have other gambling coupons worth money. Grab funbooks all over and just go play them.
I'd say the first thing to do would be to sign up for a $37 membership for the Las Vegas Advisor and get that coupon book. You'll be way ahead if you just play the gambling coupons in there. When I say way ahead, I mean a 200% to 300% return on your initial $100 bankroll.
Once you have a few hundred find other promotions such as the $100 refund on slot losses promotions that have been offered in the past at Station Casinos, Harrah's and Stratosphere. I'm not sure what casinos, if any, are doing that right now but they'll refund up to $100 in losses on slots so you can play them, take a shot at winning some money, or get your money back. Sometimes these offers require you to wait a month for the refund. That wouldn't work as well for a quick bankroll boost, but my point is give an example of what promotions are out there and not to pinpoint this exact promo. Find the promos that will work for you and play them.
But here's the rub. My friend looked at me when I handed the funbook and gave me this look like "What good is that?"
I don't loan money (albeit he didn't -- and wouldn't -- ask me for any), so I thought that would be a good start for him. He responded by saying that he didn't want to do any coupons "until he got his bankroll up a bit." He's got it backward. The coupons are the best way to build his bankroll safely.
I think that the two reasons he wouldn't start with the funbooks are what I stated above: sloth and pride. Playing a $5 match play coupon is embarrassing or menial. It's "beneath" him to peel off a piece of paper and bet a coupon for a small expected profit. Also, it's hard work going from casino to casino playing the coupons. After a full day, likely well more than eight hours, one is exhausted.
Unless you can create money from nothing when your back's against the wall then you don't have what it takes to be a professional gambler. This is the most important point of this blog entry.
My friend J is fairly successful at gambling but does like to overbet his bankroll. I've heard stories about him betting everything he owns on a sports bet, which he lost, of course. I talked to him once about that and he said, "I'm not afraid of losing my entire bankroll because I feel like I can bounce off the ground. There's a ton of free money in this town that I can always gather up."
While I don't recommend his bankroll management style, he's right about the free money.
But being able to create money out of nothing and actually doing it are two different things. If you're going to do the coupons, then put on your best pair of walking shoes because you've got a long day ahead. When you're done, I guarantee you'll have more money than when you started but you'll feel like you earned every penny of it.
Another friend of mine, we'll call him Fred, is in his early forties now and by most people's definition very successful -- but he wasn't always that way. He likes to tell me stories of when he came to Las Vegas in his early twenties what he experienced.
Fred had a bicycle and very little money. Using the bicycle he was at least able to tavel from the Strip to Downtown and back without spending money.
Fred played a lot of coupons. He says that he couldn't afford to rent an apartment, so from Sunday through Thursday he'd find casinos with room rates of $10 a night and he'd stay in the hotels. On the weekends, the rates in Vegas were higher so he'd find hotels that didn't check if you were a hotel guest at the pool and he'd sleep at the pool all day. Sunday night was always a good night because he was able to sleep in a bed once again.
He had a friend who would play match play coupons with him. The deal was that the friend got free drinks and Fred got the money. They'd play hundreds of $5 match play coupons over a few days and that's how we was able to grow his personal bankroll.
Fred also tells me about a stretch of two years that he never paid for a meal. He would use coupons and casino promos like a free buffet for a certain number of points and would play on 100% machines to earn the food comps. When your bankroll is that small, this is a great savings. Money not spent is money earned.
Things were not always rosy for myself in my evolution as a gambler. I remember one day in particular that I was rummaging through my eight-year old station wagon that my parents had given me for loose change. I found a total of 58 cents and I said to myself, "Boy, I'm hungry. What can I buy for 58 cents?"
I didn't have the skills, and more importantly the ambition required, to do what Fred did. I had to learn the hard way. I did end up with a J-O-B for several years from January 2000 to December of 2006, and while I still gambled "part-time," I wouldn't have made it without a paycheck.
People sometimes ask me if I've ever been broke and my response is, "Many times."
There are a number of success stories of very successful gamblers, some worth tens of millions of dollars, that were broke and had to do "the grind."
I think that any top-notch gambler has to have that ability even if they never have to use it.
Some gamblers come from successful careers and decide to retire and gamble and they may never experience being broke. Others come from families that have money or they have a trust fund or inheritance to get them going. I don't think you have to have had a time in your life when you had nothing, but you have to be able to succeed if that were the case.
Here's a test that any professional gambler should be able to pass: You're dropped off in Las Vegas with no place to stay and no automobile and a $100 bill. Your goal is to make it a month with never going more than 36 hours without shelter including running water and electricity for a month, and have at least $500 at the end of that month. If you can't pass that test then you likely aren't cut out for this career.
A few other things I've noticed about the best gamblers:
One is that they walk very fast. Time in a casino is money. Fezzik, who is a sports bettor, is like a freight train in a casino. He jokingly claims that the slow people ambling about looking at the sights are casino shills meant to slow him down and cost him money. Another friend, Tom, barrels down the sidewalks and -- when the pedestrian traffic is too thick -- will speed walk against traffic right on Las Vegas Blvd. Most of the good gamblers I know don't saunter: They sprint.
Another trait is that they're frugal with tips in casinos. A dealer tip directly impacts the bottom line.
I see some of these people who claim to be professional poker players playing at 1-2 no-limit and tipping a minimum of $1 every single hand, while giving larger tips on larger hands. Show me a low-stakes poker player who tips every winning hand and I'll show you someone who doesn't have what it takes. Why? The tips cost money for sure, but that isn't the main problem. The underlying problem is that they demonstrably don't understand the disastrous mathematical implications of tipping out of one's profit.
There are a number of "successful" pros who may not have the skill and humility necessary to grind, but they're the exception and not the rule. Perhaps they ran well at poker won a big tournament for a million dollars. Some video poker pros I know had insane luck early in their careers and were dealt many more than their fare share of jackpots, and that money is enough to sustain them going forward for a while. Given a level playing field, unless they're willing to do the gambling equivalent of scrubbing the floor of a gymnasium with a toothbrush, then I don't think they'd be successful.
For most people you have to pay your dues. There is no substitute for hard work.
Posted At : March 5, 2009 9:47 AM | Posted By : Administrator
Related Categories: Las Vegas,Poker,Professional Gambler,Blackjack
I know a number of people who've come to Las Vegas to make it as professional gamblers (PGs), primarily as poker players. They're generally in their early twenties to early thirties and they believe that they have the skills to make it in this town gambling. Maybe they've read some poker books or had some success in some private poker games in their hometown and it seemed like an exciting life with limitless wealth potential.
Now some of these people are starting to utter the most horrific three-letter word in the English language. For a gambler in Vegas no four-letter word can come close to the repugnance of this particular utterance. Can you guess the word?
J-O-B
For a gambler that's used to sleeping at will, playing cards and throwing money around, and hitting the shows, restaurants and clubs frequently, the thought of punching a clock, answering to someone, and getting a fixed paycheck for an amount that they're used to betting on a flip of a card, it feels like being sentenced to Alcatraz for the rest of one's life. (Often that frivolous lifestyle is a contributing factor to their lack of success. True professionals don't behave that way.)
How many times have you heard the expression that if it were easy then everyone would do it? Well now you've heard it a again.
Gambling for a living requires a particular blend of discipline, bankroll management, skill in mathematics, and other factors.
Of all factors necessary to be successful it's my belief that the most important of all qualities is the willingness to work hard and swallow one's pride. Perhaps that's two qualities but they're closely related to one another. Pride and sloth are the preeminent enemies of PGs.
One gambler came to me and told me that he's only got about $100 and he needs $6,000 by the end of March to cover his expenses. I handed him a stack of funbooks.
Why a funbook, you may ask? The successful gamblers reading this will know why. Funbooks have coupons for match plays, free aces and other good opportunities like a 125-coin bonus on a 25-cent video poker machine.
It's the Las Vegas version of give a man a fish and feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.
I said he could take that $100 and if he played all the coupons I gave him, he'd likely have $300 at the end of the first day. Then he at least has a little more to work with if he wants to sit in a low-stakes poker game. Or he could go get more coupons for more places and build it up to $1,000 after a week or so.
If someone worked 12 to 16 hour days in Las Vegas doing coupons for a whole week, I'm certain that person could turn $100 into $1,000 with a greater-than-90% success rate.
Sign up for the player's clubs all over town. Play the free slot play at Hooters and Casino Royale. The play is on bad slot machines but it's free so you can't lose. Also both Hooters and CR have other gambling coupons worth money. Grab funbooks all over and just go play them.
I'd say the first thing to do would be to sign up for a $37 membership for the Las Vegas Advisor and get that coupon book. You'll be way ahead if you just play the gambling coupons in there. When I say way ahead, I mean a 200% to 300% return on your initial $100 bankroll.
Once you have a few hundred find other promotions such as the $100 refund on slot losses promotions that have been offered in the past at Station Casinos, Harrah's and Stratosphere. I'm not sure what casinos, if any, are doing that right now but they'll refund up to $100 in losses on slots so you can play them, take a shot at winning some money, or get your money back. Sometimes these offers require you to wait a month for the refund. That wouldn't work as well for a quick bankroll boost, but my point is give an example of what promotions are out there and not to pinpoint this exact promo. Find the promos that will work for you and play them.
But here's the rub. My friend looked at me when I handed the funbook and gave me this look like "What good is that?"
I don't loan money (albeit he didn't -- and wouldn't -- ask me for any), so I thought that would be a good start for him. He responded by saying that he didn't want to do any coupons "until he got his bankroll up a bit." He's got it backward. The coupons are the best way to build his bankroll safely.
I think that the two reasons he wouldn't start with the funbooks are what I stated above: sloth and pride. Playing a $5 match play coupon is embarrassing or menial. It's "beneath" him to peel off a piece of paper and bet a coupon for a small expected profit. Also, it's hard work going from casino to casino playing the coupons. After a full day, likely well more than eight hours, one is exhausted.
Unless you can create money from nothing when your back's against the wall then you don't have what it takes to be a professional gambler. This is the most important point of this blog entry.
My friend J is fairly successful at gambling but does like to overbet his bankroll. I've heard stories about him betting everything he owns on a sports bet, which he lost, of course. I talked to him once about that and he said, "I'm not afraid of losing my entire bankroll because I feel like I can bounce off the ground. There's a ton of free money in this town that I can always gather up."
While I don't recommend his bankroll management style, he's right about the free money.
But being able to create money out of nothing and actually doing it are two different things. If you're going to do the coupons, then put on your best pair of walking shoes because you've got a long day ahead. When you're done, I guarantee you'll have more money than when you started but you'll feel like you earned every penny of it.
Another friend of mine, we'll call him Fred, is in his early forties now and by most people's definition very successful -- but he wasn't always that way. He likes to tell me stories of when he came to Las Vegas in his early twenties what he experienced.
Fred had a bicycle and very little money. Using the bicycle he was at least able to tavel from the Strip to Downtown and back without spending money.
Fred played a lot of coupons. He says that he couldn't afford to rent an apartment, so from Sunday through Thursday he'd find casinos with room rates of $10 a night and he'd stay in the hotels. On the weekends, the rates in Vegas were higher so he'd find hotels that didn't check if you were a hotel guest at the pool and he'd sleep at the pool all day. Sunday night was always a good night because he was able to sleep in a bed once again.
He had a friend who would play match play coupons with him. The deal was that the friend got free drinks and Fred got the money. They'd play hundreds of $5 match play coupons over a few days and that's how we was able to grow his personal bankroll.
Fred also tells me about a stretch of two years that he never paid for a meal. He would use coupons and casino promos like a free buffet for a certain number of points and would play on 100% machines to earn the food comps. When your bankroll is that small, this is a great savings. Money not spent is money earned.
Things were not always rosy for myself in my evolution as a gambler. I remember one day in particular that I was rummaging through my eight-year old station wagon that my parents had given me for loose change. I found a total of 58 cents and I said to myself, "Boy, I'm hungry. What can I buy for 58 cents?"
I didn't have the skills, and more importantly the ambition required, to do what Fred did. I had to learn the hard way. I did end up with a J-O-B for several years from January 2000 to December of 2006, and while I still gambled "part-time," I wouldn't have made it without a paycheck.
People sometimes ask me if I've ever been broke and my response is, "Many times."
There are a number of success stories of very successful gamblers, some worth tens of millions of dollars, that were broke and had to do "the grind."
I think that any top-notch gambler has to have that ability even if they never have to use it.
Some gamblers come from successful careers and decide to retire and gamble and they may never experience being broke. Others come from families that have money or they have a trust fund or inheritance to get them going. I don't think you have to have had a time in your life when you had nothing, but you have to be able to succeed if that were the case.
Here's a test that any professional gambler should be able to pass: You're dropped off in Las Vegas with no place to stay and no automobile and a $100 bill. Your goal is to make it a month with never going more than 36 hours without shelter including running water and electricity for a month, and have at least $500 at the end of that month. If you can't pass that test then you likely aren't cut out for this career.
A few other things I've noticed about the best gamblers:
One is that they walk very fast. Time in a casino is money. Fezzik, who is a sports bettor, is like a freight train in a casino. He jokingly claims that the slow people ambling about looking at the sights are casino shills meant to slow him down and cost him money. Another friend, Tom, barrels down the sidewalks and -- when the pedestrian traffic is too thick -- will speed walk against traffic right on Las Vegas Blvd. Most of the good gamblers I know don't saunter: They sprint.
Another trait is that they're frugal with tips in casinos. A dealer tip directly impacts the bottom line.
I see some of these people who claim to be professional poker players playing at 1-2 no-limit and tipping a minimum of $1 every single hand, while giving larger tips on larger hands. Show me a low-stakes poker player who tips every winning hand and I'll show you someone who doesn't have what it takes. Why? The tips cost money for sure, but that isn't the main problem. The underlying problem is that they demonstrably don't understand the disastrous mathematical implications of tipping out of one's profit.
There are a number of "successful" pros who may not have the skill and humility necessary to grind, but they're the exception and not the rule. Perhaps they ran well at poker won a big tournament for a million dollars. Some video poker pros I know had insane luck early in their careers and were dealt many more than their fare share of jackpots, and that money is enough to sustain them going forward for a while. Given a level playing field, unless they're willing to do the gambling equivalent of scrubbing the floor of a gymnasium with a toothbrush, then I don't think they'd be successful.
For most people you have to pay your dues. There is no substitute for hard work.
