I am about to watch this movie, but I thought that I would not bother to critique it (as of yet). Instead, I offer the following pithyn commentary: I am a veteran (professional) Card Counter. There is an estimated 150 - 200 pro's in North America. The books and films on this subject make it appear to be an easy skill to master. It is certainly not that. It takes extensive study and practice. The memorization and playing skill need to be virtually flawless, as there is NO room for error. The Card Counters actual profit margin is approximately 1% of all monies wagered. Any errors commited will negate that and you'll be playing without profit and putting your assets at risk with a false expectation of 'earning' a living! What's more, It takes a HUGE bankroll to survive the (inevitable) losing streaks; meaning (at minimum) 1,000 times your minimum wager in [order to earn perhaps 1.5 minimum wagers per hour. Mull that over for a moment. You will be unable to play more than perhaps 15 - 20 hrs. per week as fatigue will degrade your playing accuracy and excessive "exposure" to casinos will quickly have them 'showing you the door.' There are only a few places in the U S A where I am permitted to play this game before security gurads and executives ask me to kindly take my business elsewhere before they arrest me for 'trespassing'. NOTE: Canada has NO casinos that offer games with rules variations and procedures that are profitable for a Card Counter. This is because the courts in Canada decided that Card Counters cannot be ejected from the casinos for counting cards. Ditto for Atlantic City, N.J. ~ but I digress. So you think that you will play an average of just 20 hrs. per week (flawlessly) and you'll need to earn perhaps $60 per hr. to survive as you'd like to? $60 times 1,000 means that you'll REQUIRE a CASH bankroll (on your person) of $60,000 ! Ready to give it a go? Before devoting a half year to intense study and hundreds of hours of monotonously mind-numbing practice to hone your skills, you''ll do well indeed to develop a healthy sense of cynicism and skepticism to aid you in fully understanding that the purveyors of books and films on this (quasi-romantic) subject employ a generous measure of distortion and hyperbole when they extoll Card Counting. Is it a hard way to make an easy living, or is it an easy way to make a hard living? Neither. It is an intensely repetitious boring activity. There is no gambling excitement for a professional player - only endless hours of doing the same mental arithmetic endlessly ~ while pretending to care whether or not the individual hands played are winners or losers. Last week I played about 30 hrs. of blackjack. Did I see or do anything that I have not seen or done hundreds of thousands of times before? No. Card Counting quickly develops all of the charm and excitement of an intellectual assembly line. Fun it aint my friends. A job it is -- for the few who can hold their focus on the numbers swirling in their heads amid the clatter of slot machines, the stench of cigars, and the patter of players and dealers alike. It is intolerable for nearly any intelligent person who tries to do this for any appreciable period of time.
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likethemike
18 years ago
Reading your story I suppose you are intelligent person, so why are you doing this intolerable, boring, nonprofit job?
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DarrenDirt
16 years ago
Agreed, my thoughts exactly. Why acknowledge all the downsides of your chosen career? Yeesh, take up low stakes poker, at least as a change of pace ;)
- - -
Chipping away at a mountain of pop culture trivia,
Darren Dirt.
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Visaman-1
17 years ago
I will say that I play enough to "earn" the same as I would from a minimum wage job. I did however suffer a bad loss and may never return, but I did have a 6 week winning streak. I play a quarter a hand and I quit when I win 8 times my bet.
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