Technology and the Death of Blackjack
The best estimates are that there are perhaps (at the most) 200
full-time Pro BJ players in the U S A and perhaps (as few as) 150.
I do not play full-time.
Full-time is a fuzzy term.
Nobody plays 2,000 hrs. per year.
Some months I may spend as much as 60 hrs. at the tables.
Some months will not find me at the BJ tables at all.
I have had no "earned income" since 1992.
In spite of the hyperbolic claims, the reality is that one
can only "grind out" a rather modest income at blackjack.
Many are called. Few are chosen.
This is much harder than it appears to be.
There are realities that exist outside of computer simulations.
You will NEVER approach the "long run"
We are obliged to think in terms of the "law of large numbers"
I do not live solely in an abstract world of numbers
when working to extract soft profits from the casino.
There are still a few good games in a few places;
but they are monitored so closely, by staff that is so paranoid,
that having a "good outcome" has become less and less likely
over recent decades. The trend has become exquisitely clear.
The public is given poor games at stakes that they can afford.
The wealthy are given [good to great] games but are surveilled
as closely as imaginable.
I say, with utmost certainty, that you, the reader, can hardly
imagine it, but BJ, on a serious level, becomes work.
Work in the sense of a tedious, boring, predictable activity that
swallows up the finite days of your life.
TRUTH: Card Counting is a nice hobby for those who can afford it.