The cost of living in Las Vegas as a tourist

[ZenKinG]

I always find the "worth it" discussions interesting. Almost as interesting as the count discussions. I look at myself with only a high school education, no special skills or practical work experience to speak of. I left a low end retail job to pursue my card counting interests. Since I moved to Vegas 9 years ago, I have averaged just over 70k a year in earnings from card counting blackjack. (we will forget a small amount of supplemental AP stuff for now and just go with BJ figures). I don't see any way I would be earning 70k, had I stayed on the path I was on in 2004, when I began my blackjack career. I figure at best I might be some low level manager at a retail establishment like Lowes or Target, making whatever they make 35-40k. That was my best case scenario.

And worse yet if my AP opportunities dried up today and I had to go find employment in the private work force, I would be lucky if someone offered me 20k, with no experience and a 14 year gap in my work history. So yeah, I can definitely say this option is worth it to me.

Now take someone like SmallCapGrowth and I am only using him as an example because many in the community are familiar with his history. If Smallcap or someone with his earning potential suddenly was forced to play my level of play (green to mid black) and had potential annual earnings in the 70k range, No, I think we can all agree it would not be worth it to him.

Second thing is that I think some of our more experienced players in the community (that is a kind way of saying older) are a bit tainted because they had access to much better conditions 20-30 years ago. Some of them, I think are no so much answering is it worth it, as they are comparing today's conditions to what they once enjoyed and looking down on that.

Didnt you say once you crossed over 1 million in blackjack earnings at one point in time not too long ago? Now youre averaging 70k a year for 9 years? Somethings not adding up. Hmm

 

[Stevel96a1]

dont you dare question KJ lol just kidding, question him all ya want, im sure hes gotten comps and teams to push him up a mil =)

would the casinos still exist today if we were all Chris money makers, Bob dancers, and Kewlj's? i like to think so !

 

[BoSox]

I sympathize with the older generations. There use to be more casinos with mirrors on the ceiling. Ever since the decline it has been rough for may of us

John, you should put a mirror up on the ceiling in your kitchen it might help out on the numbers you are currently getting. When the time comes you will be ready. First, you have to beat the practice software.

 

[KewlJ]

Didnt you say once you crossed over 1 million in blackjack earnings at one point in time not too long ago? Now youre averaging 70k a year for 9 years? Somethings not adding up. Hmm

I am in my 15th year of supporting myself from advantage play, mostly consisting of card counting. The 9 years mentioned is my time here in Vegas.

Yes, I am over 1 million in total AP earnings. This includes over 200k of not blackjack winnings. My blackjack earnings alone have not yet reached 1 million. Perhaps by the end of this year with a really strong year (would have to be my second best BJ year ever), more likely sometime in 2019.

1 million really means little today, but it has a little meaning to me because when I started I had a 10-year, 1 million dollar plan. That plan was for blackjack only as I didn't know anything about other AP plays. So my original 10 year goal is going to take at least 15, maybe 16 years to hit.

So, hmmm back at ya.

 

[sidthesquid]

It was not meant to be funny but meant to be was serious

Everyone trying yo make mpney Mr Yoshi hit the tables with a 3k bankroll (but everyone says to me thats not a br) and he came out the other end with 300k i heard this nugget on gambling with an edge

 

[KewlJ]

Who is Mr yoshi?

 

[sidthesquid]

Hes just another cool jay i heard on a gambking talk show called gambling with an edge he claimed to drive people around for 2 months earned 3k and took that to the tables and won 300k in 6 months i maybe wrong on the months but they said thats not typical results he saod he played with a high ruin and got lucky bought cvcx and protected his 100k roll

 

[Ryemo]

Yoshi is a close friend of mine. I actually just saw him two days ago. Yoshi is absolutely legit, but he did run really well in the beginning. His story is probably 1 in a million. Funny thing too is that he’s more than doubled his bank since taping that GWAE episode lol. But he’s been grinding insane amount of hours too. He put in over 1,200 hrs of play last year. It’s amazing.

 

[sidthesquid]

Maybe i too will hit the tables and mimic his success with a 3kbank roll

God i imagine that was a 1 in a 7000 shot but he did it! Just like all the lotto winners takes 6999 billys to make one Yoshi

 

[Hell'nBack]

If the "good games" paid 6 to 5 on a blackjack I don't think there would be many card counter AP's anymore.

Or shuffle trackers!

 

[ZenKinG]

I dont believe the yoshi story for a second. Take it for what it is. I believe 99% of people on here are frauds either purposely or by accident by not taking accurate logs.

 

[LV Bear]

Ryemo is a highly-regarded, full-time professional player. He has a reputation for total integrity. He would have no need to embellish a story about his friend. I was skeptical of the story too, until Ryemo vouched for it.

 

[Ryemo]

I dont believe the yoshi story for a second. Take it for what it is. I believe 99% of people on here are frauds either purposely or by accident by not taking accurate logs.

We know. I hope you remembered to wear your tin foil hat today too.

I can personally vouch for Yoshi. I’m not going to describe anything in detail here, but I know for a fact Yoshi’s story is true. I have no motive or incentive to be untruthful here.

I’ve never met KJ, but he seems very genuine and I have no reason to believe anything he says is untrue.

Your paranoia and extreme skepticism is killing (or has already killed) your AP career. You’re so paranoid about getting cheated by “crooked casinos” that you pass up so much +EV by refusing to play some very great games. Your inability to trust anyone or anything is destroying your opportunities to build any kind of AP network. As a result, you will miss out on so many profitable opportunities, guaranteed! Lastly, your poor results to date only have you to blame. Your mission was to become a full time card counter, yet you put in less hours than some recreational players put in. You played like 200 hrs since you got to Vegas last year and took 4 months off? Yoshi put in 1,200 hrs in 2017 alone! What did you expect your results to look like when barely play but keep eating out of your bankroll to pay for living expenses?!? Not to mention you pass up so many great games because you feel like they’re cheating? It’s time to quit feeling sorry for yourself and own up to your mistakes. Just because your results don’t align with other players, that doesn’t make them frauds. Wake up!

 

[Ryemo]

Ryemo is a highly-regarded, full-time professional player. He has a reputation for total integrity. He would have no need to embellish a story about his friend. I was skeptical of the story too, until Ryemo vouched for it.

Thank you, Bear.

 

[ZenKinG]

We know. I hope you remembered to wear your tin foil hat today too.

I can personally vouch for Yoshi. I’m not going to describe anything in detail here, but I know for a fact Yoshi’s story is true. I have no motive or incentive to be untruthful here.

I’ve never met KJ, but he seems very genuine and I have no reason to believe anything he says is untrue.

Your paranoia and extreme skepticism is killing (or has already killed) your AP career. You’re so paranoid about getting cheated by “crooked casinos” that you pass up so much +EV by refusing to play some very great games. Your inability to trust anyone or anything is destroying your opportunities to build any kind of AP network. As a result, you will miss out on so many profitable opportunities, guaranteed! Lastly, your poor results to date only have you to blame. Your mission was to become a full time card counter, yet you put in less hours than some recreational players put in. You played like 200 hrs since you got to Vegas last year and took 4 months off? Yoshi put in 1,200 hrs in 2017 alone! What did you expect your results to look like when barely play but keep eating out of your bankroll to pay for living expenses?!? Not to mention you pass up so many great games because you feel like they’re cheating? It’s time to quit feeling sorry for yourself and own up to your mistakes. Just because your results don’t align with other players, that doesn’t make them frauds. Wake up!

I'm not aligning my results with other players, I'm aligning his results with mathematically possible results and he's way over 3SD after how many hours now? Give me a break. He's either lying to you or wrote down inaccurate results.

My paranoia? I have every reason as a customer to request transparency especially in an industry that relies on taking money from their customers to keep the lights on. The fact that I'm the only one concerned about this and get attacked for it shows me a lot and raises even more red flags about this community as a whole.

Yeah, I'm the victim in all of this for simply wanting transparency. So laughable it's not even funny. If everyone was like me, things would be done properly. These casino owners are so brain-dead and have no idea how to run a business. Not only do they think 6:5 blackjack is the long-term solution to more profits, they also have no idea how to offer customer service. You know what casinos tell me? If you don't like it, go play somewhere else. LOL. Yea that's the ticket to building a customer base. They can get away with all of this because everyone in the casino industry is brain-dead, including its patrons. Society is full of mindless drones that don't question suspicious practices, don't question anything, 'do as they're told', and let these owners get away with what they're doing whether the game is fair or not, doesn't matter. You now even got KJ claiming that ASM's can be programmed by punching codes in them? I mean really?

Also there has yet to be one person on any forum give me a rational explanation to why the cards come pre-shuffled. If they come pre-shuffled to save time, why are they then STILL throwing them into the ASM to shuffle it again? Wouldn't the same thing be accomplished had the cards just come in order and laid out in front of the customer when they first open the table? If you're going to throw the cards into the ASM to shuffle it anyway, what is the purpose of ordering them pre-shuffled? Not to mention dealers still have to lay out the cards to check for marks on the cards. So again, someone go ahead and tell me what time is the casino exactly 'saving' by ordering pre-shuffled cards? The only explanation is that they're hiding something and the gaming commission already admitted to me they don't check the cards either. So who is checking them? Some rogue factory in China that is completely outside U.S law?

Things that make you go hmmm.

 

[Stevel96a1]

i believe it, what should have happen at the table assuming it was a 6-8 decker with good rules the table should have swallowed his whole 3,000 earnings in 1/2 shoe what took him a couple months to make. with that being said i do believe theres a chance he did get super lucky over betting his bankroll early in, my wife kept hiting royal flushes left and right when she started her VP career, just wish she was playing 25$ a turn table and over bet her roll she could have supercharged it to the 125$ table and put her equal footing with Yoshi hmm maybe 1/3 of what he won early in but anyway still very possible. if 7,000 gamblers over bet their roll 1 has to come out ontop and the blackjack tables always always busy, i never seen a heads up play in atlantic city or Pennsylvania tables

 

[Ryemo]

I'm not aligning my results with other players, I'm aligning his results with mathematically possible results and he's way over 3SD after how many hours now? Give me a break. He's either lying to you or wrote down inaccurate results.

Things that make you go hmmm.

He’s over 3SD? How? He’s played like over 2,000 hrs life time and his hourly EV is HUGE! I’m not going into details, but I know there are some games he plays where his hourly rate is anywhere from $500-$1,200/hr. And some lower, $300 or $400/hr. But let’s says he’s been averaging $350 to $400/hr for the last 1,500 hrs and maybe $100 for the first 500 to keep it simple. Do the math. What does that come out to be???

And I don’t need to see his spread sheets, ZenKing. I’ve seen the amount of cash he travels with and I’ve seen his massive chip inventories (from only one casino) that’s larger than your entire bankroll. Once, he played on a table right beside me and I watched him win 20K in a single shoe. He’s been honest with me regarding his wins as well as his losses. He has no reason to lie about his results and I have no reason too either. Believe it or don’t believe it. It doesn’t matter.

 

[ZenKinG]

He’s over 3SD? How? He’s played like over 2,000 hrs life time and his hourly EV is HUGE! I’m not going into details, but I know there are some games he plays where his hourly rate is anywhere from $500-$1,200/hr. And some lower, $300 or $400/hr. But let’s says he’s been averaging $350 to $400/hr for the last 1,500 hrs and maybe $100 for the first 500 to keep it simple. Do the math. What does that come out to be???

And I don’t need to see his spread sheets, ZenKing. I’ve seen the amount of cash he travels with and I’ve seen his massive chip inventories (from only one casino) that’s larger than your entire bankroll. Once, he played on a table right beside me and I watched him win 20K in a single shoe. He’s been honest with my regarding his wins as well as his losses.

Wow with that win rate and starting with 3k and he didn't go bust? Interesting. Keep believing your fairy tale friend, unless you're the one dishing out these imaginary stories. If he indeed showed you the cash, and that's a big IF, I wouldn't be surprised if he did something like smallcap and took out a massive loan/mortgage. It's also very interesting to see how he's managing 2000 hours with the amounts he's betting in how many years? 2?

Things that make you go hmmm is all ill say to this.

 

[Ryemo]

Wow with that win rate and starting with 3k and he didn't go bust? Interesting. Keep believing your fairy tale friend, unless you're the one dishing out these imaginary stories. If he indeed showed you the cash, and that's a big IF, I wouldn't be surprised if he did something like smallcap and took out a massive loan/mortgage. It's also very interesting to see how he's managing 2000 hours with the amounts he's betting in how many years? 2?

Things that make you go hmmm is all ill say to this.

Dude, you’re clueless. I’m not going to go back and forth with you when you don’t know anything about his situation or anything more than what you heard on GWAE. This conversation is pointless.

 

[KewlJ]

Zenking, you appear to have a need to burn bridges.