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The Toughest Way to Make An Easy Living Should You Consider Playing Craps Professionally? That is the most oft asked question when I get
together with other Precision-Shooters who have learned the skill, but are still working
on improving other aspects of the game. What advice would you give to a person who is considering
becoming a full-time professional player? With a
few exceptions for remarkably talented people, I think "professional player" is
a great second job and a lousy first job. By that I mean that a good Precision-Shooter can
and will make money, but there are a lot of lifestyle and financial issues that make it
tough without some other means of support, or a serious nest egg sitting somewhere for
back-up. When you
are just starting out to play professionally, there is a big psychological leap that you
make from being a casual or regular player who makes some decent money from his session
wins; to relying solely on the income that your craps play will generate. For most
people, that adds a stress element that usually has a negative effect on their game. Just as most college athletes never make it to the
big leagues, most craps players who COULD make it professionally NEVER ACTUALLY DO. In most cases, its due to the added stress,
plus the lack of extraordinary skill, discipline, maturity, and commitment that is
required to maintain that level of professionalism. What is a proper bankroll to start out
with? No
bankroll is sufficient for a losing player, of course, because the ALL the money
eventually goes! If you can play
full-time in Vegas at the low-limit tables, I would say that an adequate bankroll of
$25,000 for a proficiently skilled winning player seems reasonable. That
bankroll is made up of money that you aren't going to need or touch for the rent or other
expenses. It is strictly your gambling stake. Why so much?
It has to do with the previous paragraph.
The added stress that going professional brings to your game, plus the
additional playing time that you put in, actually increases the volatility of your income
for the first little while. Its a
phenomenon shared by every other Precision-Shooter that I know of who derives their income
solely from this game. In starting out, every
one of them, including myself, found that there was a drop in performance for up to sixty
days. Hopefully you are the exception to this
rule, but if you are not
welcome to the club, because once youve earned your
stripes, youll be glad to have the additional character that that particular
experience brings. Im
interested in making more money that I currently earn.
What is the money like? As far as
earning power, I think that $50,000 per year is the absolute rock bottom limit for someone
to support himself in any sort of reasonable lifestyle. Yes, the perks and comps are good,
but there are other expenses that are incurred. Those
expenses do not go away when we play craps, and in some cases, they increase. Costs that may have previously been taken care of
by your employer like health coverage, company car, expense account, airplane and other
travel expenses, are now entirely under your umbrella of financial responsibility. The
amount of hours that you have to put into this new career depends on how much your play
generates on an hourly or daily basis. If you
have to play 16 hours every day of the week to make ends meet, you just can't make enough
money to make it worth the number of hours you have to put in. Is it possible to be on a three-month lucky streak,
and think to yourself that it is all skill, and then quit your current day-job, only to
find out that your throwing ability is marginal, at best?
Sadly,
the answer is, YES! Even if
you have been having a good six-month winning run, youll want to determine how much
of that winning profit is derived from luck and how much is due to
skill. We sometimes underestimate
the amount that is due to luck, and overestimate that which is attributable to skill. This is when the naked truth is required. The only lie that you can tell here is to
yourself. If you cant be brutally
truthful to yourself at this critical juncture, there is an overwhelming chance that you
lack the maturity, discipline and commitment will prevent you from making it
professionally. How man y hours do I have to work, and how much
can I earn per hour? If you
figure out that your play alone is worth $20 per hour, then it's probably more realistic
to get and keep a $20 per hour job. Playing
craps for $20 per hour, with no benefits (health insurance, paid vacation, retirement,
etc.) isn't such a terrific job. Figuring a 40-hour week, that's $40,000 gross a year,
before all the taxes and living expenses. That doesnt leave much room to handle
unexpected expenses or savings in that budget. Occasional
losing sessions destroy good hourly rates pretty fast. You might have three or four
sessions where you average $50 per hour, but after losing in session #5, you find your net
rate is only $20 per hour. If you have a bad run for a few days or even a few weeks, as
even the best players often do, you might suddenly find your hourly rate is only $10 per
hour. Thats scary and pressure-packed
without another means of support. Most
players who play for a living need to earn at a higher rate, and NO, INCREASING THE SIZE
OF YOUR BET IS NOT THE ANSWER! At the
lowest $1 Las Vegas table, your income should be around $35 per hour, day in and day out! The low limit tables provide the highest
flexibility at the lowest risk. At a $5
table, your hourly profit has to be a consistent $50 per hour. If you cant produce this most of the time,
you are probably best advised to keep your day job, and continue practicing your throwing
as much as possible. There is absolutely
nothing wrong with augmenting your current full-time income with additional part-time
money generated at the craps table. Is there opportunity for advancement in this new
career? Certainly
if you turn out to be a great player, you can wind up making more than $300,000 to
$400,000 per year, and well beyond that. The hard reality is that very few players have
the talent and the emotional self-control to win more than that. I count myself in that group, however while I am
satisfied with that level of income, I am constantly trying to improve my game. Lets
re-visit the basketball player analogy. Should
a good high school basketball player ignore his college classes in order to focus entirely
on basketball, in the hope of making it in the NBA? Im not talking about one of
those high school superstars who get drafted in the first round. Im talking about
someone who is the second best player on a good high school team, and who winds up as a
non-scholarship player at a small school. This kind of player is certainly a talented
basketball player, far above average when you consider the general population, yet the
odds against him making it in the NBA are huge. Even the odds against him making it in the
CBA or the European professional leagues are huge. I think
the odds of the typical good amateur craps player making it as a well-paid professional
craps player arent all that different. In the vast majority of cases, the good high
school player, IF he decides to stick with basketball, will be doing well if he can land a
job as an assistant coach in a college program or perhaps as a high school coach. In the
craps world, the good amateur player will probably be doing much better than average if he
manages to eke out a living, working at that benchmark $50,000 per year range in a normal
9-to-5 job instead of in the casino. If you
are really serious, I would suggest that you play as a part-time professional for at least
a year, to see how you like the lifestyle, and to see, with accurately kept records, how
good your performance really is. Again, you
need to be brutally honest with yourself about your vulnerability to going on
tilt, your actual skill and expertise, plus whether the mistakes you make, are
likely to be repeated over and over again. If, after
a year or so of playing lots of part-time hours, you find that you win at an acceptable
hourly rate, and that you like spending lots of hours hanging around with other players,
you can then think about making the move. Yeah, but playing Craps seems a lot more exciting than my
current job, and professional gambler has a lot of sex appeal, doesnt
it? I believe
that anyone who is truly capable of making a living
as a professional craps player is capable of making a better living doing something else,
although the choice to play professionally isn't necessarily a bad one if you like the
lifestyle. But the lifestyle is a good deal less glamorous, and a good deal harder on
one's health, than you're likely to see from the outside, which is why I recommend not
diving in head first. The
casino lifestyle may seem glamorous to you, but you may find many women fleeing when they
hear you are a professional gambler. It takes
a special partner to understand not only what you are doing, but for her to give you the
latitude and space in which to do it. Some of
my most nervous and anxious play was not caused by over-zealous box-men or money
sweating Pit Bosses, it has been when my lady is hanging on my shoulder, and
literally breathing down my neck. In other
settings that would be romantic, but at a craps table, it is a distraction that I
dont need. What else do I have to give up? A lot
depends on what you are giving up to make the move into the professional ranks in the
first place. Some blue collar jobs pay very well and aren't easy to return to once you
leave; others pay poorly and someone willing to work them can always find work in that
industry. Some
white-collar jobs are easily transportable and transferable to different regions of the
world, while others are so highly specialized, there are only a few companies that have
that type of particular position. If you are
thinking about moving away from a locale where you have family and friends to try your
luck in Atlantic City, Las Vegas or Mississippi, you're giving up quite a lot. There are
over a dozen people that I personally know who are fully capable of playing full-time, and
making a great career out of it. However,
they like playing as a second job, and have zero interest in using craps as their sole
source of support. They like the security of
a regular paycheck, combined with the thrill and excitement that craps brings to their
primary hobby. Then what is your best single piece of advice? What
separates the successful pros from the 99+% of other players and wanna-be pros is their
ability to handle themselves when things aren't running so well. And I assure you, no matter how talented you are,
that that time will come... and go... and come... and go. You need a lot of mental
toughness to make it in the craps world. There's a lot more involved than just throwing
the dice well. What
would my best advice for someone considering leaving the working world to be a full-time
professional craps player? I dont recommend it. Just like in basketball, only people
who have been hugely successful as amateurs have a realistic chance to make a
great living at it. Its the toughest way to make an easy living! In a
future article, Ill share with you my Players Diary from the past year to
provide a little more insight into the day-to-day activities of a professional craps
player. Good Luck & Good Skill at the Tables
and in Life. By: The Mad
Professor
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