Sounds like a pretty decent job to me
My younger brother counts all 52 cards without effort when playing Bridge, he’s an ace at mental math, has zero facial expressions.
Could have gone pro as a poker player, said “you spend your whole life actively seeking out drunks and malcontents”.
Ended up an IP lawyer, I guess the pay is more regular.
Fake. Counting cards (in blackjack) isn’t a good way to make money. It involves large changes in your bet size that make it extremely obvious. If you’re bad at it, places will let you do it while you lose money. If you’re actually good at it (he’s not), they’ll kick you out. It’s an obvious thing that places don’t put up with if you’re winning.
It’s really hard to do in casinos too. They often use something like six decks and shuffle well before they’re through it.
Op is counting 52 cards in a basement game, he’s found his calling, until he encounters a shoe
Or worse.
For his sake, I hope he takes his winnings so far and walks.
Clowning on a bunch of underground gambling rings is a good way to end up on a lot of shitlists of a lot of less than scrupulous people.
I mean. Temporarily.
While the profits rolled in, so did the “heat” from the casinos, and many MIT Team members were identified and barred. These members were replaced by fresh players from MIT, Harvard, and other colleges and companies, and play continued. Eventually, investigators hired by casinos realized that many of those they had banned had addresses in or near Cambridge, and the connection to MIT and a formalized team became clear. The detectives obtained copies of recent MIT yearbooks and added photographs from it to their image database
I’d argue that getting away with it for 20yrs means they were still pretty successful.
Detectives
Lol if there’s one thing the police are needed for it’s protecting capital
Edit: looks like they were private dicks, carry on
It’s absolutely possible to make good money counting cards. There’s a great series by Steven Bridges on YouTube where he goes through the process of counting cards in action, in several different casinos in different states and countries, both alone and with team-play.
If you’re actually good at it (he’s not), they’ll kick you out.
I never understood why this isn’t allowed. Just seems like getting good at the game to me
Just seems like getting good at the game to me
Because it isn’t sportsmanship that they’re interested in it’s getting all your cash. They don’t give a damn about the integrity of the game or anything like that.
No it doesn’t involve abnormal shifts in betting. Only idiots would move from $5 directly to $100 per hand. Average gamblers start small and get excited too.
If you do it slowly, starting at the minimum and getting “excited” when the deck is rich in tens, no one will notice or care. Play $5 to $50 and order a drink.
The average card counter is a young single dude in a baseball cap drinking a water. Wear a fun outfit, get a free drink, and talk to the dealer. No one will notice.
And yes, you can count a shoe. You just need to find a dealer that deals about 70% of the cards.
Geev dees maahn hees mah-nnahey.
so he played poker or blackjack
If you’re going to be a “professional” gambler. You need to be a PROFESSIONAL.
That means ledgers, records, receipts, keeping track of travel expenses, meals… its easy to lie to yourself about how you’re really doing.
Also a lot of professional gamblers lose a grip on what a dollar is worth, because this week they are $60,000 up and just bought themselves a brand new car, and in 2 months they havent hit a decent win in weeks and are selling the car to make their rent.
Also, you cant put it on your resume. About the only place that might care if you’re a professional or semi professional gambler is a casino if you’re looking for a job. In that case the ledgers might be able to prove that you know your ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to gambling. But beyond that you arent really building to a career. So either git gud or have a backup plan.
Good luck OP.
Why can’t you put it on your resume:
Self employed, semi-pro poker player
Managed ledger of winnings, generated X% average profit margin, completed in X tournaments, kept up with competitive strategies, etc.
Would be a decent resume for a lot of jobs, like she’s, some management roles, etc. Combined that with other expertise and it’s a good measure of being a self learner and being motivated,
A good resume entry for a management role generally involves managing people beneath you.
Why would a professional gambler, a “career” track with no need for managing anyone but one’s self, want to be hamstrung by the reality and nuance of management? You know (I presume) how exhausting that is.
No, a smart (or even passably well written) professional gambler could present their legitimate skill set for jobs that make use of it.
They also, aside from hard skills (corroborated by good record keeping), would presumably develop or possess at least above average soft skills in the areas of communication, assessing client needs, and negotiating.
They would be terrific lenders, corporate salesmen, insurance investigators, the list goes on and on.
EDIT: Meant to reply one level up, sorry.