D Day in Vegas

Quote: AxelWolf

No doubt followed up by some bullying. Some kids are just asking for it (-;

No, all the males in middle school used that to refer to their respective members. Must have just been this area, or maybe even our specific school.

Quote: ZenKinG

Well it turns out, sleeping in my 2 door car was never going to work. If I had a 4 door where I could actually lay down, maybe it would have worked. I lasted until about 2am moving from the cold parking lot to the parking garage until the left side of my back got strained out and couldnt sleep. Having a persistent cough and coughing up phlegm for the past 5 days after getting over a massive headache, I just couldnt last anymore in there and needed a proper sleep so i ended up finding the cheapest motel possible for 38 bucks a night.

As much as I love saving money, the combination of pain in my back as well as being sick just wasnt worth it to save $76.

I finally did win a session though of around $700 in one shoe, basically won every hand I got playing heads up. Not holding my breath though.

I think your doing it wrong. If your going to sleep in your car on cold nights like these at around 40F or so you should buy some Nyquil or Sleeping Pills or something that will knock you out for long periods. I slept in my car when I was in my youth. I was in AC outside of the Homeless Shelter and I would have to turn the car on every hour or so to get the heater blasting and nod back out. I was in town for a few weeks with about 300 to my name. This is far less than you came to Vegas with. I was working day labor and playing low limit poker. I was hired in Room Service at one of the Casinos but it was going to take a few weeks to get processed in. I ended up playing over my head and lost it all in a 10-20 game and in the car I slept. It didn't take long before I was making decent money and poker turned around for the better. I moved into some weekly and started to save my money. As usual I didn't last long in the job market and I met some girl and we went off playing poker together around the country for a short spell. I ended up in Vegas and California and back to Vegas. Vegas isn't for everyone in general and I think you missed out on the easy days of Vegas, especially for counting in Black Jack.

You seem to be unlike most gamblers I know in that you post that your losing and that things aren't going well. Almost everyone I know in gaming is doing great or they are on the street and doing horrible as always. You are a little different in that your winning overall but you haven't cracked Vegas just yet. If you get around to posting I would like to hear how the Holidays went at your parents house. I mean that is going to be some peach of a Holiday for you. I can hear your Father and Mother preaching to you how they were right and you were wrong. I just think it will be uncomfortable for anyone like you or me. At the least it is nice that you have a Family to go home to and enjoy things. What did you get everyone for Christmas in the way of presents? Do you think your family will give you a nice envelope of cash? I know that is what I always want when I get a Christmas Present unless it is something that is handmade. Handmade presents like an Afghan Blanket that my Great Grandmother crochets is always best, even better than cash.

Have a safe trip and a nice Holiday(s). After reading your thread I think you are playing a little high in limits. I mean couldn't you scale it down and have less risk and still make enough to have a decent living? I don't believe these people telling you to get a part time job though. You either get a job and work and save for your life or you get to counting cards or whatever game you decide to play to make your living. My point is you either do one or the other. This is more for the Lone Wolf type that you are. If your going to team up than by all means you can get into the PT gaming aspect but if your gonna Lone Wolf it I think you have to choose.

Quote: AxelWolf

I guess no one who is now very wealthy was ever homeless, broke, ate cheap, slept on friends floors or in their car.

Axel are you married to a high maintenance woman, with children, house, several vehicles, etc.?

It's been my experience that what a gambler views as well-off is not very close to what a person with a regular job who views themself as well-off is. Add in the items above and the disparity expands exponentially.

I know quite a few well-off people who work as professionals, and none of them have ever said they began things by sleeping and/or living in their vehicles.

This is why I hammer home adequate preparation before anyone believing they can just go into APing. Jobs aren't totally secure either, but they provide legacy if one is lost. What does failure in gambling provide?

Quote: DRich

If it is it must be something new. In my 50 years I have never heard that monkey was slang for a female body part.

Go listen to Joey Diaz for a little bit. He must say it 40 times on every podcast.

This man claims to EARNED in the neighborhood of 40 grand and he cant afford a 5 star hotel in vegas for a measly 20 or 40 charge per night? instead he sleeps in his cold car coughing mewkus? omg us east coasters in atlantic city would murder for a 30$ hotel at ballys or its sister property i do go there once a year i am not rich guy like you all but something is fishy when this man claims to earn above the poverty line in most cities and cant afford a decent hotel??

i question everything that man does or read about

Quote: sidthesquid

i question everything that man does or read about

Dilly dilly!

Quote: ZenKinG

Well it turns out, sleeping in my 2 door car was never going to work. If I had a 4 door where I could actually lay down, maybe it would have worked. I lasted until about 2am moving from the cold parking lot to the parking garage until the left side of my back got strained out and couldnt sleep. Having a persistent cough and coughing up phlegm for the past 5 days after getting over a massive headache, I just couldnt last anymore in there and needed a proper sleep so i ended up finding the cheapest motel possible for 38 bucks a night.

As much as I love saving money, the combination of pain in my back as well as being sick just wasnt worth it to save $76.

I finally did win a session though of around $700 in one shoe, basically won every hand I got playing heads up. Not holding my breath though.

Just need a trunk partition, don't see why the number of doors matter. I'm not up to date on your postings, usually don't read here, at least 20 pages behind from the last visit in your thread. All i know are your quick quotes people bring up everywhere else. What's the cliff notes version of the last 3 months?

Quote: beachmonkey

Ok for this poster I’m making an exception for the rules I give to myself as my personal guideline to keep me from my reverting to my nasty past, it is very easy to be a nasty person, I actually have all the boxes ticked that allows me to be bad . I have all the social disadvantages from a very hard part of town. That rule I’m going to bend is never explain to anyone anything about my past. I’m disappointed you and a few others here have decided to apply this bullying tactic. I am not a bull dike I learnt to fight and protect myself because in hard town that was the only way you made it through. I was steered into the direction of a martial art, it helps to focus and channel the extreme desire to really f##k people up. I was one of the very first female door person in Australia in the early eighties, I found putting men on there arse relatively easy. Yes at that time I did get tremendous satisfaction seeing some bloke pussy whipped the realisation on that face. Priceless. Yes women and bull dikes much harder to put on the ground, they scratch and claw at the eyes and face ,so one had to be super aggressive to get it over with in under 30 sec, a few of you will know what I mean.
I believe the reference you are referring to is in the pm I sent to you , from memory it was something like this , I don’t mind going toe to toe . Threatening behaviour is not my style, I usually just do , I do now as I’m older exercise a rigid discipline. The body is no longer able to backup the agility needed in a street situation. I’m a little sad I missed the new cage fighting era , but then in some ways not , as I’m sure I may have used it as the penultimate excuse to kill someone, nasty me , and another rule surfaces never make excuses ever, cop it sweet or don’t do the crime. Rhonda Rousse isn’t a bull dike ( I’m only assuming)
I’m disappointed that someone genderized the criteria to post here, I didn’t notice in the wov mission statement female, potential bull dike, transgender, or homosexual are not to post here. Must be in the small mind print at the bottom of the page perhaps.
I don’t believe in hero’s as no one saved me in hard town, I’m thankful I had help. I don’t believe in martyrdom , nor do I believe I need to argue , so i won’t . I’m happy to say that if you need to believe you all are correct in everything you think, then you are .
I actually don’t know why ,and to clarify this is not directly , solely aimed at you axel wolf , but at all that what I’m about to say resonates with.
Why don’t you just cut to the chase on some of these post/threads and just say to various posters things like . Don’t post here your a fool, or do some homework come back when you know what you’re talking about ,which incidentally is never . Or you don’t fit the gender requirements don’t post, your political opinion is not relevant don’t post , your not me don’t post .
That would work fine by me as if I’d known this I would have saved time and maybe walked the dog a bit more at the beach. Oh and yes I do understand monkey is a slang in America for a part of a female body, snicker snicker little boys. There are many words and pictures you all use in you non de plumes that have other meanings, and quite frankly some of you should just stop fawning,read some of your own posts, grow a pair. No great loss . This is my last post. I will work out how to log out of my account here as I’ve had some problems there. Oh technically inept don’t post here.
I will have a great Christmas and I wish you all do as well.
Kind regards.

So, perhaps too late if you have already decided not to return, but since this was public, l'll speak here rather than by PM.

I really doubt AxelWolf was saying, even by implication, that you are a bulldyke, if for no other reason than he knows it would get him banned. But also because he doesn't do that to people. I don't share his opinion or stereotypical prejudice, but I'm not him, either.

I can't imagine, as another at least somewhat tough female, that you can have lived as you have and not be able to post here among the guys, because there was no offense meant. I suggest you blow it off and continue to participate. There is a block feature you can use if you find someone not to your liking. Or (better) you can educate the ignorant poster, argue your side of an issue, or rebut an opposing opinion.

This is a tough crowd. There are a lot of mathematicians, programmers, game designers, and professional gamblers on here. Part of their implied job is to debunk systems, point out foolishness like blaming a bad run of cards on conspiracies, and demonstrate the effectiveness of bankroll management.

This thread got extreme several times, led to some short suspensions, and caused some arguments. It also has proved to be extremely educational in what works and what doesn't in certain situations, and following a particular person through starting a counting career.

Some folks offered sympathy, some advice, some scorn. Pretty close to real life. And that's been the point of the interaction; to try and bring reality and discipline to someone to help them succeed in a tough business.

Your choice, of course, but I'd rather see you active than gone.

When I travel, I know that I will run into situations where I cannot sleep so I always have my preferred non-prescription sleeping pill in the car and keep Aleve as well for headaches and back pain. If I really can't sleep then I will go for the good stuff (Ambien) which I also use once in a while.

As for BM, I don't think excuses are relevant. A couple of members put out a couple of comments that BM found offensive. It's up to BM and them to work it out.

As for ZK, I hope he has a safe flight and has a good Christmas with the family. Also hope that he is picking up some wisdom along the way...

Quote: mcallister3200

It really doesn't Bill. It is surprising that he doesn't have a couple room comps I guess. I know numerous players who almost exclusively play table games unrated and make 75-200k a year, don't exploit casino clubs really at all. Depending on your concentration, it can (and became for me) more of an opportunity cost because it can tie you down to the area and discourage/prevent travel to more lucrative opportunities that pop up if you are mostly a solo player. The free play and the food comps allowed me to keep my food expenses at $4 a day simply for comped buffet tips early on so I do agree it would be helpful for him to learn that. Trying to jump into VP mailers without knowing where/what to play along with a bad run is actually what destroyed my initial bankroll though, the edge was too thin.

Also, your situation is so different (residual monthly income that covers basic living expenses?) that it is really just no sort of comparison.

One thing he definitely needs to stop doing that will surely doom him if he keeps it up is talking about how unlucky/cursed he is and comparing himself to guys who got lucky early. You aren't even on the extreme end of the bell curve, and one thing that has never worked for anyone is making excuses for why others are doing better. Gotta cut out that negative process. Ok, off my soapbox.

I don't know any AP, be it Bob Dancer, or the many I met thru this site who doesn't depend on casino promos for a significant
source of profit. ZK had the same opportunities I or any other newcomer had to ask for guidance in setting up which casinos would be good sources for mailings. Biggest difference is I had a sincere desire to learn, and was willing to put in the time. Didn't think I knew more than anyone and was willing to learn and adapt to new circumstances. Learned early on that one doesn't put all of ones eggs in one basket. I have a number of revenue streams. When one dries up, it's not a crisis. That's by plan, not by accident.
I'm here almost 18 months now. A lot of things I planned on happening fell through. Some crashed with a thud, some just petered out. Some got put on the backburner when unforeseen opportunities popped up, some due strictly from networking here and other sites.

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

My spidey sense is telling me that this isn't the first time you've joined....

Let the record show that I was correct.

I can't understand why a counter can't chose one casino and offer up their id for comps. Just make sure that casino isn't connected to the properties you count at. Play some low house edge game like paigow poker so you can get hotel stays. I am assuming someone with average intelligence would have thought of this. If you need to sleep in your car then, you shouldn't be APing.

Quote: alphastorm

I can't understand why a counter can't chose one casino and offer up their id for comps. Just make sure that casino isn't connected to the properties you count at. Play some low house edge game like paigow poker so you can get hotel stays. I am assuming someone with average intelligence would have thought of this. If you need to sleep in your car then, you shouldn't be APing.

Nonsense,many Ap's when starting out have slept in their cars, or stayed in dumpy motels.

https://www.cigaraficionado.com/article/the-game-killer-9203

"A small-town Holiday Inn is not where you expect to find one of the world's most astute and notorious casino gamblers. But James Grosjean doesn't hustle high-roller suites and comped meals at the steak house. With the money he extracts from casinos, Grosjean can buy his own porterhouse and fries. Right now he sits on the edge of a twin bed, in the small room..."

Sometimes AP’s who have enough money but not a ton might sleep in their car or cheap hotel because they understand volatility... Why work for comps and increase volatility if the value of the comp per hour invested is lower than his hourly EV?

Quote: mcallister3200

Sometimes AP’s who have enough money but not a ton might sleep in their car or cheap hotel because they understand volatility... Why work for comps and increase volatility if the value of the comp per hour invested is lower than his hourly EV?

And sometimes we're just cheapskates:)

Isn't there a couple of threads on a couple of other forums about the dangers of using a players card?!? 🤔

Well, the losing hasn't stopped, which has made me go and review my log for my past 1000 hours or so and it's interesting what I found. Turns out I didn't have a pure losing streak last more than 150 hours. I did have a patch right in the beginning where I made over 20k and coincidentally enough lost 20k right back only to start the next winning cycle. This spanned 450 hours putting me slightly in the red, but that's different. I'm talking about strictly losing since my last high. Right now I'm in a 250 hour losing streak dating back to when I was back home right before I left for vegas. I had a net loss of about -600 before coming out to vegas that lasted for 40 hours. Ever since I got to vegas I put in around 210 hours.

Here is the breakdown of my career hours since I started betting decent stakes. They are rounded by 5 hours or so give or take and by about $500 or so because i calculated it all in my head and didnt bother looking at a calculator. Vegas and California are exact though because I already have the figure in hand.

Won for 300 hrs (+23k)

Lost for 150 hours (-23k)

Won for 150 hours (+30k)

Lost for 140 hous (-1k)

Won for 45 hours (+13k)

Losing for 250 hours(current streak) (-3105 in Vegas, -1670 in California, -600 back home)

More hours needed. You have an edge. Go exploit it or find something different to do. Fear of bad variance will get you nowhere fast. 250 hours should be experienced in a month at your age, not over damn near a year.

By my calc. there is a profit of over $36K.

At your place, you might get in 500 hours a year. Less than 10 hours a week.
You better increase your hourly ev if you have a prayer of succeeding.

Just lost 3400 betting 2x150 in 4 hours. 90% of the time i backcounted and only played with an edge. +22 count with 1 deck. +14 woth 1.5 decks. Yup all the cards are definitely there today. What a coincidence, vegas rigs the games on St Patricks Day, the one day they get massive volume. The fact that I still cant be beat after all this cheating just shows how good i really am.

+41,737
831.5 hours
PA / Maryland

+3,332.50
228 hours
Vegas

-1,670
6.5 hours
California

Total +43,399.50
1,066 hours

Seriously, god bless me. God bless the king of this game. Im legitimately the best counter that has ever played blackjack. Dont believe all these fake stories you hear about how much someone made counting. 99% lose their shirt. Im the 1%. I get cheated and still cant be stopped, thats honestly ridiculously impressive.

Quote: ZenKinG

Just lost 3400 betting 2x150 in 4 hours. 90% of the time i backcounted and only played with an edge. +22 count with 1 deck. +14 woth 1.5 decks. Yup all the cards are definitely there today. What a coincidence, vegas rigs the games on St Patricks Day, the one day they get massive volume. The fact that I still cant be beat after all this cheating just shows how good i really am.

+41,737
831.5 hours
PA / Maryland

+3,332.50
228 hours
Vegas

-1,670
6.5 hours
California

Total +43,399.50
1,066 hours

Seriously, god bless me. God bless the king of this game. Im legitimately the best counter that has ever played blackjack. Dont believe all these fake stories you hear about how much someone made counting. 99% lose their shirt. Im the 1%. I get cheated and still cant be stopped, thats honestly ridiculously impressive.

Will the real Zenking please stand up, please stand up, please stand up? Are we gonna have a problem here?

Glad to see you’re back to accusing the casinos of cheating ZK. Who had the under 20 days?

If I'm reading this correct, you grossed about $2000 last year, and after expenses you must be $10,000 in the red.
Congrats. Live long and prosper.

Quote: billryan

If I'm reading this correct, you grossed about $2000 last year, and after expenses you must be $10,000 in the red.
Congrats. Live long and prosper.

Expenses is what it is. I already proved everyone wrong and came to vegas and beat the game. God bless me. Can any city in this country beat me? I think not.

Living in a crack den while making two grand a year.
Let me know when you are tired of all this winning.

Quote: billryan

Living in a crack den while making two grand a year.
Let me know when you are tired of all this winning.

+43,399.50 in 1066 hours. Thats about 40 an hour. Most people work 2000 hours a year and make 15 an hour. So youre wrong. I made over 43k in half a year, not 2k in one year. I look at it from an hours standpoint. Ive basically played part time. Its also of course not easy to log hours either.

Nice try. Next.

In 11 months you have played 220 hours, that’s 5 hours a week. Sorry ZK but you aren’t part time or full time anything and you aren’t beating the casinos. Either shit or get off the pot which means as Romes keeps saying go play some fu*king hours man. Also I thought you were done claiming the casinos were cheating?

You've been in Vegas a year. During which, your own records indicate, you made just over $2,000. Some folks here get that in free play.
What was your taxable income for 2016? Did you put any away in an IRA?
The fact you made $40,000 in 2015 on the East Coast doesn't translate to beating Vegas.
You should be thriving here, not living where you are.

Quote: billryan

You've been in Vegas a year. During which, your own records indicate, you made just over $2,000. Some folks here get that in free play.
What was your taxable income for 2016? Did you put any away in an IRA?
The fact you made $40,000 in 2015 on the East Coast doesn't translate to beating Vegas.
You should be thriving here, not living where you are.

I have asked about taxes and such and he never answered. I assume that means one of us could get a nice reward from the IRS.

$1562 profit after 234 hours in a year.
Working part time at In and Out, someone putting in those hours would have made at least $2500 with numerous free meals.
In essence, you've bought yourself a shitty part time job. Not that that's much more than I have, but I'm not here to build a career, I'm here to enjoy my retirement.

Quote: ZenKinG

+43,399.50 in 1066 hours. Thats about 40 an hour. Most people work 2000 hours a year and make 15 an hour. So youre wrong. I made over 43k in half a year, not 2k in one year. I look at it from an hours standpoint. Ive basically played part time. Its also of course not easy to log hours either.

Nice try. Next.

Most people make $15 an hour? You must know different people than I do. Pacomartin probably has the real numbers, but I can't imagine that at least 80% of working American adults don't make more than $15 an hour.

Median household income in US for 2017 was $59k. Average hourly is $22.40 [ref]

UPDATE: just to be as relevant and accurate as possible, for Nevada (ZK's current place of residence) the 2016 average hourly was $21.17 and the median hourly was $16.59

Quote: billryan

Did you put any away in an IRA?

I'd consider a Roth under two assumptions. 1) ZK is relatively young and 2) a withdrawal of principal after 5 years might be nessissary.

Smells like failure to me.

Might be time to point that tinted-window rice rocket eastward and motor back to your folks' home.

Bring back a couple Las Vegas pennants to tack onto your bedroom wall, lest you forget the fear and loathing you experienced in Sin City.

ZK needs to realize that he had a nice job back east. One that evidently paid well. He quit it, moved to Vegas and now makes $7 an hour. Pretty sure you can top that playing quarter JOB, or the FPDW at Klondike.
I'd suggest attending a few Bob Dancer classes this up coming semester.

Quote: billryan

ZK needs to realize that he had a nice job back east. One that evidently paid well. He quit it, moved to Vegas and now makes $7 an hour. Pretty sure you can top that playing quarter JOB, or the FPDW at Klondike.
I'd suggest attending a few Bob Dancer classes this up coming semester.

The video poker machine will never spread the deck face up to prove all the cards are there. :-)

I kinda get where ZK is at. When everything is going as planned, Im thinking I don't need my day job. However, when things go south I'm REALLY glad I have a day job. Variance is a b*&ch...

While it is probably not wise to make any sort of judgment based on posts on a message board, I think it is safe to say that this member Zenking appears to be having some difficulty in dealing with the variance that is an elementary part of blackjack card counting. That is not unusual. I have worked with many people that have trouble with this aspect. Some get better as time goes on. Some never do. I don't know that there I a magical formula for becoming more comfortable with the variance involved. But I hope this member figures it out.

Blackjack card counting is a game about long-term results. Everything else is just variance. And this member has some long-term results that indicate him to be playing a winning game. $43,000 over 1066 hours, if these numbers are accurate is a reasonable barometer. That is better than a years worth of play for most full time lower stakes players and 2-3 years worth of play for most high stakes players. This is a reasonable amount of play to begin to draw conclusions from.

And the conclusions drawn should be that this player has demonstrated the ability to play a winning game. The results work out to roughly $40/hr. I don't know his exact betting patterns so, I don't know if that is above or below expectation. I would guess probably below. But that is ok. This is where a player should take this information and evaluate his play. Work on plugging any holes in his game and focus on playing better games, the best conditions he can find, to improve his game and results going forward.

To those that seem to be focusing on a segment of this players results, presumably the last year since he moved west to play, what you are doing makes no sense. Why would you focus on a small segment of data, that we know becomes less relevant, when a large sample size of data that more accurately represents his results is available? The only answer that I can see, is that there are some wanting to focus on the negatives, just to put down and discourage this member because they have decided they don't care for him.

If there is another reason why some of you including billryan, who is an experienced card counter who knows better than to focus on short term results is focusing on 225 hours of results, during what anyone who has read this thread recognizes has been an underperforming period rather than focus on the whole 1000+ hour period of data available, I would like to hear it.

This thread can be of great value to less experienced blackjack players, demonstrating just what blackjack card counting entails. But the direction it has taken with so many showing bias against this poster based on that he has rubbed them the wrong way, just negates all that.

I would encourage members to stop turning this into a referendum about a member they don't like.

I don’t disagree with you Mr. Bo, but ZK has consistently provoked the reactions he is getting by coming across as abrasive and arrogant 95% of the time. I am pulling for him to put the work in and see the results bear out, but he makes it extremely difficult to do so at times.

Even though I thanked your above post I want to reserve my rights to give ZK a hard time when he goes on one of his rants. There is no doubt ZK is a winner. I just don't understand why he chooses not to win more. Maybe he needs a manager. Someone to put him on the fight card and push him into the ring. Maybe even wipe the sweat off his brow when he takes a direct hit from a Chinese deck.

Quote: MaxPen

Even though I thanked your above post I want to reserve my rights to give ZK a hard time when he goes on one of his rants. There is no doubt ZK is a winner. I just don't understand why he chooses not to win more. Maybe he needs a manager. Someone to put him on the fight card and push him into the ring. Maybe even wipe the sweat off his brow when he takes a direct hit from a Chinese deck.

I don’t know if his bankroll is big enough to do this, but he needs to keep his bankroll separate from his personal money, and pay himself out of the bankroll whatever his EV was for a given session reguardless of actual win/loss.

When someone claims they can run a four minute mile but all physical evidence shows them running an eight minute mile, I tend to believe the evidence, not the hype.
Nothing,and I will repeat nothing, ZK has done since he moved here gives any indication he can make it. Doesn't matter if it's Chinese cards and prisoners, cheating Indian casinos or even the conspiracy that left him homeless for awhile, it's become obvious he is cursed, and cursed by a powerful entity.
We could sit back and cheer him on, encourage him to give it the old college try, or we can accept reality and realize nothing we say or do will offset the influence this powerful entity exerts.
I don't know , nor do I care, what ZK did to suffer this horrible fate, but who are we to interfere with the gawds of BJ?
Best not to encourage him, least we all face this unknown wrath.

Perhaps a career as a sin eater is in order.

Quote: MaxPen

Even though I thanked your above post I want to reserve my rights to give ZK a hard time when he goes on one of his rants. There is no doubt ZK is a winner. I just don't understand why he chooses not to win more. Maybe he needs a manager. Someone to put him on the fight card and push him into the ring. Maybe even wipe the sweat off his brow when he takes a direct hit from a Chinese deck.

I have wasted too much of my life reading too much of this thread, so I can appreciate your position that this member has brought on much of the attitude that he receives. And I understand the feeling you and others have to give him a hard time. But again, that just makes for the thread deteriorating to what it is and negates the positive that could and should come from it.

I have managed teams for decades and it is not the job of a team manager to babysit a particular member of the team as you are suggesting, nor would that be fair to the other members of the team. Rather than a manager, perhaps what Zenking could benefit from would be some sort of mentor relationship. Someone who traveled a similar path before him. I am not in that business, nor am I sure he would be receptive to hearing what he didn't want to hear, so that too might be a waste of time for both parties.

I don't know that there is a good answer at this point. Bridges appear to have been burned. It may be that his success or failure will be dependent on him figuring out things for himself. But I just see some of the attacks and openly rooting against him as devaluing this thread from being beneficial to other members.

I disagree. This thread is a great example of what a newcomer should not do. From his very first post, ZK has proclaimed himself infinitely superior to all and only the behind the scene maneuvers by dark powers is keeping him from his rightful spot atop the food chain.
Things as simple as pointing out driving across Nebraska in the middle of the winter turned ugly, not to mention the whole clown shoes episode.

Quote: billryan

When someone claims they can run a four minute mile but all physical evidence shows them running an eight minute mile, I tend to believe the evidence, not the hype.
Nothing,and I will repeat nothing, ZK has done since he moved here gives any indication he can make it. Doesn't matter if it's Chinese cards and prisoners, cheating Indian casinos or even the conspiracy that left him homeless for awhile, it's become obvious he is cursed, and cursed by a powerful entity.
We could sit back and cheer him on, encourage him to give it the old college try, or we can accept reality and realize nothing we say or do will offset the influence this powerful entity exerts.
I don't know , nor do I care, what ZK did to suffer this horrible fate, but who are we to interfere with the gawds of BJ?
Best not to encourage him, least we all face this unknown wrath.

Perhaps a career as a sin eater is in order.

Did you really just say i was "homeless" for a while LOL. Way to be misleading just to fit your little personal attacks trying to bring me down. It's called dedication and discipline, something 99% of this forum doesnt have. I went back home for the holidays and moved out of the apartment to save costs and not have to pay rent while i wasnt there and then when i got back i still had not found a place to move in so i slept one day in my car, big deal.

You say I failed, but yet im in the black and the fact that you dont understand 230 hours is a meaningless sample size tells me all i need to know about what you and others are doing or maybe it shows your true proficiency as an AP. Not that I need any of your guys support, i actually hope everyone here is against me, makes no difference to me.

1066 hours and over 43k profit with an average bet after all the resizing of give or take $200 still puts me under EV, but I guess it could be worse and I've already done what 99% of counters cannot do, which is turn a nice profit and start off my career being in the red after 400 hours and still not give up. Nobody will ever take any of that away from me.

Also, I dont know why you referred to me having a job back home, i was only playing blackjack while i was at home with my parents at least the last year os so i was with them. Also, regarding where I live, i dont even live in that dump anymore, i moved to a different place by the strip like i did when I first got here. Already moved 3 times. It's all about saving costs and adjusting.

Quote: PokerGrinder

In 11 months you have played 220 hours, that’s 5 hours a week. Sorry ZK but you aren’t part time or full time anything and you aren’t beating the casinos. Either shit or get off the pot which means as Romes keeps saying go play some fu*king hours man. Also I thought you were done claiming the casinos were cheating?

10 months. All of you really show your true colors about blackjack when you talk about me only getting in those hours. You guys act like this is machine ay or poker where you can just park your ass on a seat all day and log 10 hours a day. You guys have no idea how much walking ive done and driving. If i didnt take a total of 4 months off to pursue some other things maybe id be at 500 max hours, which still would get criticized cause people here dont understand how much tougher it is to log hours, especially in this sweaty ass town that is braindead.

Quote: MrV

Smells like failure to me.

Might be time to point that tinted-window rice rocket eastward and motor back to your folks' home.

Bring back a couple Las Vegas pennants to tack onto your bedroom wall, lest you forget the fear and loathing you experienced in Sin City.

Yeah over 43k profit after 1066 hours is failure playing the casino straight up. Go ahead and tell me how much youve taken from the casinos straight up. Ill wait. That goes for everyone else here as well.

Face it, im the best counter thats ever played blackjack. I never needed to get a loan or any special service to succeed as a counter like many of these other stories you hear. Most of the successful stories are also frauds, and the ones who made hundreds of thousands were all team play or they took out massive loans to fund their blackjack play or needed someone to back them. I never needed one handout from anyone.

All the crazy GWAE podcasts on youthbe about these counters making crazy amounts are all fake to promote blackjack apprenticeship and also munchkins and dancers channel.

Quote: GWAE

I have asked about taxes and such and he never answered. I assume that means one of us could get a nice reward from the IRS.

I doubt the IRS will get very excited about his $1500 in unreported income.

Quote: billryan

I doubt the IRS will get very excited about his $1500 in unreported income.

You mean 43k or whatever it is