As you enter the world of online casinos, learn the top 10 things every casino newbie should know, and get to know some of your fellow gambling cohorts, you are bound to come across a few aspiring professionals. Heck, maybe you’ve even had some dreams about hitting the casino games as a full time job. It seems attainable enough – it usually looks like it only takes a little affair with lady luck. And with perks like flexible hours and the ability to work from home in your favorite pajamas, being a professional online gambler definitely looks like a dream job. But there’s a reason so few people who love gambling can sustain it as a livelihood – it takes hard work, mathematical finesse, and a heck of a lot of patience. So, before diving in headfirst, there are some things you should know before becoming a professional online gambler.
Online gambling for real money
So, you’ve decided to stop sitting around looking up fun facts about gambling and are finally going to start gambling for real. The first thing to consider when embarking on your career as a professional online gambler is how your prospective money-making casino games are set up. We all know that the casino business model is based on making a profit off of you and your playing habits. This is most commonly expressed in the form of a house edge – a percentage of the likelihood of you losing your hard-earned money to the casino. If the house edge is too low, casinos will generally take a commission. So, for example, in the game of baccarat, a bet on the banker’s hand is statistically most likely to win. To prevent every person from betting on and winning with the banker’s hand and creating an inevitable nightmare for themselves, casinos take a commission, usually around 5%. This means that for any earnings you may make on this bet, they take out 5% of that money and keep it for themselves. For a $10 bet, this shouldn’t be a huge source of dismay because you’re only losing about 50 cents. But on the scale of a full time salary of say, $100,000, that amounts to $5,000! And 5,000 is only how much you lose in a hypothetical situation where you win 100% of the time – which we all know is unrealistic in the world of gambling.
The protagonist of EV is a successful gambler, specializing in online poker. A fair number of the supporting cast are also professional gamblers, of varying levels of competency. In Next Town Over, Hunter is introduced gambling with a woman of this type, who is indignate, and calls in her guards, to deal with the charge of being a hooker. The Right Casino. Tip number 1 to becoming a professional gambler is picking the right online.
So your first question should naturally be: if I want to become a professional online gambler, how can I guarantee that I will turn a profit in the long-run? Truth is, regardless of the game in question, professional gambling will always have the same driving principle: advantage play or advantage gambling. Advantage play is integral in the advantage player (AP) gaining the necessary edge. Even though this kind of gambling can help lower the house edge enough to tip the odds in your favor, it is still based on completely legal methods. You want everything you do to be clean and legal because you cannot joke around when it comes to your main – if not sole – source of income. No har-dee-hars here, buddy. Anything that could be remotely construed as illegal activity might result in the casino confiscating your winnings. If you make sure to conduct yourself in a legal manner, the worst a casino can realistically do is ask you not to return. To understand how this really works, play a round or two of online baccarat. In practice mode or using real money, you will see exactly how the odds play out over a long period of time!
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Blackjack
Perhaps the easiest game to apply advantage play to, blackjack tends to be a favorite among those starting the journey to becoming a professional online gambler. If you have ever watched the movie 21, the MIT blackjack team counted cards in order to ensure they would win every game they invested large amounts of money in. The method they used is called “card counting.” Tracking the cards put down by the dealer and those still in the shoe allow you, as an AP, to minimize the risk of making losing bets. If you are caught by land-based casinos using advantage play, you may be asked to leave. So, keep a low profile and make sure to count discreetly. Another popular form of advantage play is shuffle tracking, where you keep track of a card or sequence of cards as they are being shuffled. Keep in mind, though, that this applies to land-based casinos with man-shuffled decks. Online casinos offer a much more difficult set up because you cannot visually gauge how many decks are in use and how they are being laid out – computer programs shuffle after each deal. But if you’re willing to head over to a land-based casino, blackjack can make the perfect entry-level game. Save yourself some time though, and get in a few practice rounds before risking your money. Log on, play some online blackjack, and become a pro in no time!
Poker
The science behind advantage play for poker isn’t as black and white as blackjack. That being said, the game does have its advantages. Since poker is played against other players and not against the dealer, casinos often take a commission from the table as a “time charge.” This means casinos have already received their profit before the game has started, so they tend to not care so much about the outcome. Aside from not getting asked to leave, a benefit that comes from competing against other players is that you can really make sure that you have a high edge based on your opponents’ skill level. You should look for a poker table that is considered “soft”, with easy opposition.
Advantage play for poker comes in reading your opponents – all of which probably fall in the top 5 types of gamblers. If you can tell whether they are bluffing or not, you may save your wallet a lot of heartache. Pay attention to how they react to certain cards, how much they bet, whether it’s too low or too high to be a reasonably safe bet, and most obviously their facial expressions. If you’ve seen poker championships, you may have noticed that players tend to wear sunglasses and hats. Yes, it makes them look beyond cool, but it also serves the purpose of hiding their facial expressions so they won’t give their opponents any indication concerning what kind of hand they’re actually playing.
If you want to make a living from playing online poker, then you’re going to need to up your game. Since online poker games are played behind screens, you don’t have the benefit of reading your opponents’ expressions. Without this, you are required to read their actions when deciding on your next move. Patterns will become your best friend, especially if your opponents are playing predictably. Pay attention to how large their bets are. Often in real life or online poker, a bet that is too big or too small is an indicator of your opponents trying to pull off a bluff. Also, keep track of how fast they place their bets. An extremely long hesitation time, for example, can indicate that the player is weighing their options, meaning they more likely than not don’t possess a winning hand. But don’t take my word for it. The best way to learn how to read your opponents is practice, practice, practice. So turn on your computer and play a few games of online poker – you may discover that you’ve finally found your calling!
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Slot machines
Slot machines are the big money makers for casinos, whether in real life or online. The payout percentage over a long time averages around 90-95%, meaning you lose on average about 5-10 cents per one-dollar bet. But there’s still hope if you’re dying for slots to be your saving grace at the casino. With no rhyme or reason to the outcome, slots are a good choice for those not looking to master any particular strategy or skill. So, if you’re hoping to make your living on playing slots, look for a good progressive slot game. Progressive slot machines are often grouped in clusters, and every time money is deposited, the shared jackpot rises higher. This is the best kind of slots game to make a profit with, because once the jackpot prize becomes large enough, the house edge actually disappears, playing in your favor. This is due to the potential winnings from that jackpot outweighing the money you put down with each bet, meaning that in the long run you make a profit. The only downside with this kind of professional gambling is that you can’t figure out what kind of edge you have. So, playing your hand at progressive slot machines leaves quite a lot up to chance. My advice to you is to do some research on online progressive slot machines and find a few that you like. Every professional online gambler knows that luck can strike at any moment, so choose a slot machine and start spinning!
Casino bonus whoring
This isn’t for a particular game so much as an advantage method to apply to casinos as a whole. Online casinos will offer bonuses and promotions to pull you in and get you to sign up as well as continue to patron that particular casino. Casino whoring, despite the ugliness of the name, is simply looking around and taking advantage of the best bonuses you can find. Sometimes the offers are so good and often you will receive free plays and money in the process. Done correctly and with enough gusto, casino whoring can help you decrease your personal financial investments in the casino games and effectively eliminate the house edge on your favorite games. Then, repeating the whole process again and again means that you can turn a profit and even make enough money to sustain yourself.
Now that you know the basics of gambling professionally, you can try your own hand at advantage play. Your career as a professional online gambler can start right here, so what are you waiting for? Log in and check out the endless variety of games at CoolCat Casino and decide which game is calling your name. A jackpot may only be a click away!
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So, you’re looking for a career change? If you’re wondering what it takes or if you have what it takes to become a professional gambler, you’re in the right spot. Before I get started, though, I want to be clear on what you should NOT expect from this post. Do not expect me to give you a sugarcoated, rainbows-and-unicorns look at what it takes to become a professional gambler. Instead, I’m going to give you a gritty and in your face breakdown that does include some harsh realities.
Why am I opting for the more intense approach? I’m doing this because I assume a lot of you that are here are seriously considering what to do with your time or your future. I think it would be a gross disservice not to give you the raw information. If you only get the good side of something, you can’t ever be prepared for the realities that come along with it.
Why should you listen to me? Well, without going into too much detail, I was a professional poker player for 12+ years. It wasn’t just something that I did on the side of my real job; it was my job. Poker was my sole source of income. Because of that and the time I spent in casinos, I was able to meet a lot of people that made their money from the gambling industry (not just poker). Today, I want to share some of that insight with you, hopefully give you the information you need to decide if this is the road for you, and then tell you how to get there.
Skill Games versus Games of Chance
If you take nothing else from this article, please take the information I am about to give you. You CANNOT be a professional gambler at a game of chance (with one exception). This means, if the casino has a statistical advantage in a game, there is no way that you can ever beat that game in the long run. No matter what “system” you think you have, you are not Houdini, and you cannot defy math.
Many people have tried, and all of them have failed miserably. I’ve personally met people that claimed to play games like craps or roulette for a living thanks to their systems. Here’s a spoiler. They were all poor and broke. I asked them why they weren’t rolling in the dough (yes, I am forward), and they informed me that they were just on a bad run. Ummm, hello!!! That is what gambling is. You can potentially win in the short run, but in the long run, the house is always going to come out on top.
The only way you can beat the casino in a game of chance, in the long run, is by cheating, or by doing something that will get you kicked out and banned from the casino.
What is the one exception I mentioned? Blackjack. Blackjack will have tournaments that you can enter that allow you to do those things that would get you kicked out of the casino on a normal day. They let you count cards, and that allows you to gain a statistical edge over the house and your opponents. The only reason they allow this is that you aren’t playing against the casino. You have paid an entry fee to compete in the tournament, and all you can win is the entry fees from other players. This scene was pretty big and growing for a while but in recent years has leveled off in popularity and prize pool sizes.
Skill games, on the other hand, are games where the better players will win in the long run. How can you spot a skill game? If you are not competing against the house but against other players and patrons, you are most likely playing a game of skill. If you are competing against the house, with the exception of sports betting, you are playing a game of chance. If you truly understand sports betting, you’ll see that you’re actually competing against other patrons as well even though your bet is with the house. That’s a discussion we can save for another day, though.
So, what does this mean? This means that step one in the process of becoming a professional gambler is to choose a game of skill. Make sure you are playing a game where it is possible for you to make a long-term and sustained living. To help you out, I’m going to list off a few of the popular games you could choose from that people do make a living at.
The Gambling Games You Should Choose From
As a quick note, while most of the world will refer to these games as gambling, they really aren’t gambling at all. Gambling is when you make a wager on a game of chance. Since you are in control of the outcome of these games, they are no longer games of chance. Therefore, they aren’t gambling. Yes, some of these games will have a luck factor involved, but in the long run, skill is going to prevail over the variance caused by that luck factor.
Blackjack
I figured I would lead off with the exception to “get it out of the way.” If you’re looking to make a living at Blackjack, the only way that you’re going to pull that off is by getting involved in the tournament scene. The problem, though, is that the scene is shrinking and the people that are currently in it are very good at what they do.
Warning:If you’re considering becoming a professional blackjack player by counting cards, good luck. I am definitely advising you against it.
The casinos know every trick in the book, and you’re just going to end up getting caught and banned from every property on the planet. My best advice is to pick a different game on this list if you are looking to play for a living.
Poker
One of the best options on this list of games to play professionally is poker. Am I a little biased because it’s what I did? Probably. However, if you take an objective look at all of the facts, it is the clear winner. It’s a game where there is a lot of money to win, several different formats you can try, and a constant influx of new and bad players to win money from.
Out of everything on this list, I would say that it’s the easiest to get to a professional level. No, I am not saying that it is easy, but I am saying it is feasible for you to do. There are a lot of varying levels of success that you can hit as well so it’s not a make it or break it kind of game. If you’re serious about getting into a “gambling” profession, this may be a great place for you to look if you want something that has some longevity to it.
Chess, Backgammon, Tonk, and Spades
Believe it or not, a lot of the games that you may have played as a kid or teenager are games that you can play professionally for a living. Now, at first you might not have thought to include these in the same category as games like poker and Blackjack, but in reality, they fit. Again, these are games of skill with lots of options for playing for a living.
Years ago, your only option for these games was to find a major tournament at a brick-and-mortar location and play against the best in the world. Today, though, you can find these games offered online at casinos. You have the option of playing against thousands of players of all skill levels from around the world for real money. The best part is that the stakes start low so you can work your way up the game ladder, and you don’t have to pony up a ton of money to get started.
Sports Betting
I mentioned earlier that when you’re betting against the house, you can’t sustain a long-term profit. The only exception to that is sports betting because even though you are betting against the house, you are really betting against other patrons. The house does their best to get even bets on both sides of a game so that no matter who wins or loses they make a profit. This means that the line shifts will happen because of what the rest of the betting public does.
Note:You’re ideally looking for value opportunities of bad lines thanks to the ignorance of the betting public.
I could go deeper into that, but we’d end up in a full-on discussion of how sports betting works, and I’d like to try my best to stay on topic today. Sports betting is a form of “gambling” that is certainly beatable. It’s probably one of the more challenging forms of gambling to do for a living and requires a strong heart that can take a lot of pressure and anxiety.
I do know some friends that do it for a living and have done quite nicely at it, but it comes at the expense of their sanity. That being said, it is beatable in the long term which means that it is a form of “gambling” that you could do for a living.
Esports
Wait, you can play video games professionally? Welcome to 2018! If you’re a rock star at a video game, chances are that you can play that game professionally. Tournaments are exploding all over the world with millions of dollars in prize money available for those individuals and teams that win. On top of that, there are millions of dollars in sponsorships available for these teams from the game creators and other companies interested in having an influence in the industry.
Your Next Steps to Become a Professional Gambler
Alright, so you’ve picked out which form of “gambling” you want to go professional at. Now what? To help you on your quest, I’ve outlined some actionable steps for you to take to get started. Remember this, though. None of this is going to be easy and most people that try end up failing. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and the ability to deal with some failures to make it as a professional gambler. Even after all of that, some people just don’t have the skill set to make it happen.
I don’t say any of that to deter you from trying, though. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do anything. If you work hard enough and smart enough, you can achieve anything you want to. I will climb off my motivational speaker soapbox now and get to those steps.
1. Research Like a Crazy Person
The first thing that you need to do is learn absolutely everything you can about playing your game for a living. Look up other professionals, how they make money, and any other information you can on the topic. Try and identify if there is a smooth road to the top or if it’s something that requires a leap of faith (avoid these situations).
What you’re really trying to do here is a get an idea of what it’s going to take for your game specifically to make it to the top. You’re also trying to identify whether or not there is enough opportunity for you to make a living playing that game feasibly.
Professional Online Gamblers
2. Formulate a Plan of Attack
The next step is to take all of your research and come up with a plan for you to go from schmo to pro. Make sure that your plan is detailed and gives you actionable steps that you can take to achieve your goal. This should mainly be based around how you’re going to learn the game, how you’re going to master it, how you’re going to test your skills without risking an arm and a leg, and ultimately how you’re going to turn it from a hobby into a career.
Your plan also needs to have some contingencies built in for the times that things don’t go according to plan. If you think that everything is going to go according to plan, you have another thing coming. Be realistic and make a plan that you can stick to.
3. Understand the Risks
You HAVE to understand that what you are attempting to do here is not easy. If it were easy, everyone and their brother would be a professional gambler. The risks are real, and when you lose money, you don’t just get it back with a do-over. There is no reset button on a lot of this.
The good news is that the nature of the industry now allows you to start these games for very low stakes and minimal risk. Take advantage of this. Online casinos don’t have to pay additional dealers or setup costs to facilitate more games which means they can offer things at super low stakes.
Note:Make Sure That You Have an Exit Strategy or a Stop Loss in Place.
Don’t let yourself get out of hand chasing your dream. Yes, you shouldn’t let anything stand in your way, but losing all your money trying to achieve this dream is not noble. It’s stupid and the sign of someone who would never survive gambling professionally.
4. Start Learning
The only way that you’re going to make it to the pro level with any of these games is by immersing yourself completely in the learning process. You have to soak up every bit of information out there and ultimately know more than your opponents.
Life Of A Professional Gambler
Here’s the most important part, though. Make sure that the information you are learning is good information. I feel like my track record affords me the right to speak as a voice of reason on poker and I can confidently tell you that most poker knowledge out there that people pass off as pro knowledge is garbage. Make sure that you’re learning from a reputable source and that the information is current and quality. This might mean you have to pay for some of it. Do your research (Step 1).
5. Start Small and Continually Adapt
Take. Your. Time. This is not something that is going to happen overnight. This is not something that is going to happen in a few weeks. It very well could take years for you to be able to reach the skill level necessary even to take a shot at playing professionally for a living. Even if you’re good enough, you still might not make it. You might not have access to the right opportunities, or you may have issues getting your mental game or bankroll management in line.
Warning:Again, none of this is to deter you from giving it a shot. It’s just a warning to take your time.
Professional Gamblers List
The learning process is going to be long and challenging and probably frustrating at times.
The Wrap Up
If you’ve made it this far in the post, you’ve got hope! Look, I seriously am not trying to deter any of you from giving this a shot. I loved my years playing as a professional and wouldn’t trade them for anything. That being said, I wish I would have known how challenging things would be before I jumped in. Would it have deterred me? Probably not, but a heads up would have been pleasant.
If you’re serious about doing this, I wish you the best of luck and hope you follow some of the advice that I gave you. Good luck!