“My First Thousand Hours”
Comments Off on “My First Thousand Hours”by “Joe748”
I wanted to share with you guys my personal outlook and advice based on my first 1,000 hours of card counting. First and foremost I am very much up for my 1,000 hours & my hourly rate is fairly close to my EV.
The Lifestyle:
In order to make a living off blackjack you have to travel a lot. It’s just unavoidable if this is your sole source of income. Everyone asks if it gets lonely, but I can honestly say there’s not much time in my head to get lonely while I’m on a blackjack trip, between driving from casino to casino playing, and sleeping there’s not much downtime to dwell on things if you’re a lone wolf. Personality wise I’ve never had a hard time doing things “alone” but at the same time I’m pretty personable so I’ve met and hung out with a lot of cool people while being on the road. I love the freedom blackjack can give you because you can take a week, or two weeks, off any time if you want. And what other freelance work can you point your finger on the map, fly there, and just start working? You don’t have to spend any time acquiring clients or advertising to find work. You just pack up and go.
The Game:
After playing at many places and having a wide range of session playing time & back offs it always comes back to the same mindset. Play as aggressive and as long as you can until they say its time to go. There have been more than a few times when I was getting heat (phone calls, half shoe’ing) and I just kept playing. Usually it leads to a back-off but there have been sometimes when I get many hours of play in after some serious heat. Sometimes casino personal are feeling you out and it’s worth it to me to just keep playing until they make you stop. I would have missed out on a lot of hours if I got scared and left the casino after I saw or experienced heat. I was playing at a place with another counter and once we experienced heat he left because of it. I kept playing for 20 hours over the next two days, so I’ve always just let the trip end when they say it’s over. That way I have no regret about the hours I may have missed out on.