BoSox said:
Of course there are a few rare exceptions to everything like our own member KJ who when he first came out to Vegas was a workaholic averaging around 84 hours a week and living dirt cheap, and him being the honest person that he is will say he was very lucky that he did not start out with a big negative swing..
While I agree with everything you stated BoSox, I do want to correct the record. The
really lucky part of my career was the first few years, pre-Vegas, living in Philadelphia and playing Atlantic City. That was the period that I lived dirt cheap, sharing a fairly cheap apartment, and basically living on a diet of mac and cheese and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, while I tried to grow my small and inadequate bankroll, which took 3 years. THIS was the point that even a mild negative swing would have wiped me out. I was very lucky that never occurred.
By the time I relocated to Vegas, I had managed to grow my BR to the point that I was spreading green to light black. Moving up in stakes to green chip level was actually the tipping point in that I started to get some heat in AC, where I had played unmolested at the red chip level for years. I realized I was going to need a much bigger rotation than AC had to offer.
It is true that my first year in Vegas, I logged a lot of hours. But I was alone in Vegas, (my partner followed me from Philly a year later), so I would be out of the condo 12-15 hours a day. Not all playing, as I mixed in meals and even occasion breaks to take in a baseball game. But I racked up a lot of play that first year or 18 months.
Anyway, I agree with the premise of what you are saying, just wanted to correct the details of my record.
BoSox said:
Does the person who is attempting full time play have another source of income separate from gaming to cover living expenses? If not I do not think they completely understand what they are up against.
I think this is a
real important issue, especially since there have been a number of folks recently undertaking this playing fulltime or for a living.
I had some discussions (private and public) with Kim Lee at BJ21 about this. Kim Lee believed that for a fulltime playing, playing for a living, everything he owned, his complete net worth counted as bankroll. I always had trouble with this concept. That puts too much mental burden on a player, IMO. Or maybe it's just me that is not mentally strong enough, so it places extra mental pressure on me, when you hit one of those extended downhill runs.
I believe a better way is to separate out BR from living expenses and other finances. And that is especially true for guys starting out. I'll use Zenking as an example (sorry Zenking). I think he has like 45k remaining. I would set aside a year's living expenses (a cheap as possible), 10, 12, 15 grand and then make the remaining 30k, your BR and size bets, spread and ramp according to that. But you gotta be willing to lose most of that. You can't have the mentality that if you lose 5, 7, 8 thousand you freak out and stop playing, because if you do that you really are only playing to that 5, 7 or 8 k BR (freak out point) and basing your bets on the much larger amount, means you are really playing to an astronomical RoR. Suicidal RoR!
But the key is that as hard as it is, you have got to be willing to risk most of whatever amount you determine to be your BR. If you are not, then you are overbetting and almost guaranteeing the "ruin" part of RoR. I mean, maybe you set aside an extra 5k as emergency money, or stop when the BR gets down to that last 5 k, and say ok, I need to find a job and, and re-evaluate where I am and what I am doing and where I am going.
Your really not in the clear as far as playing for a living until you have grown your BR to 100k or close to it. Below that level, you have to really work at it.
You have to find out if you can handle this, because not everyone can.