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My life has changed in many ways since the last thread so I figured with the rumor of the forums demise I might as well make this thread again just in case I can never do it again. If you remember anything from the last thread I ended up getting married and I purchased the company I worked for. I ended up selling that company a few years later for a major profit and retiring at the ripe old age of 40. Sold my house in Cleveland and moved to Florida to drink fancy scotch and gamble until I die by the pool. Since the last thread I have not shot that much pool, most of my gambling has been done in the form of poker or sports betting. Overall I am a loser in sports betting with some fun runs that you can follow in the bet on MMA thread on this very forums and poker has always been my main source of gambling income since I got bored with shooting pool. I usually play 5-10 NL holdem or 5-10 Omaha depending on what local games I can find. This past month I have been playing terrible poker and my bankroll took quite a hit and I was chasing hard in sports betting so I am on gambling lockdown until I pad my bankroll again. How do I do that? I go to my local pool hall and find drunk idiots to take money from. Since I am new to this area I have had to do some research and find some places to get money matches. I found a nice pool hall through the local APA pool league and I basically set up shop there. It's been less than a week but I have already put the word out that I am looking for some money matches and played a couple of guys but it was just a couple of small bets nothing fun. So I figured I would start out with a classic story from one of the old threads. I have partied pretty hard over the years so memory isn't the best but I still remember most of the details of these stories sometimes I mix things up though. When I was in my early 20's my ego was out of control and quite a few times I learned a very painful lesson from it. I use to drive around the midwestern states and find dive bars and look for people to hustle all the time. My Uncle Frank was my backer when I first started but I was able to start my own bankroll pretty quickly so I cut him off and went out on my own. I basically traveled with a few close friend and whatever girl I was with at the time but this time I was just by myself and headed to met up with some friends to stay with while I shot pool in their town. One night I was driving through Kentucky just hitting pool halls that my uncle told me about. I stopped to eat at a diner and through natural conversation a lady told me about this biker bar that had a few pool tables. I figured it would be a fun spot to get a few drinks and maybe hustle some drunk bikers. So I stuffed my face and headed down the road to this dive bar. It was exactly what you expect with a biker bar. 20 bikes all surrounding the place and I couldn't find a parking spot so I parked down the street and headed inside to have some fun. I was totally out of place and as soon I walked in I could feel the eyes on me. I walked up to the bar got a beer and asked for change so I could put it in the pool table. Grabbed my beer headed over to the table and just began to shoot around and after about 3 or 4 games was approached by and older guy named butch. He asked if I wanted to shoot for a beer and happily obliged him. After him buying 3 beers he gave up trying to beat me and I told him I would buy him a beer just to be friendly. We walked over to the bar and I bought bought us a round. He asked me how I got so good and I just told him that I have always been good and in fact I am probably the best shot in this bar. That was usually my line to let people know I thought I was the poo poo. So we laughed and drank a few more and he ended up leaving and I walked back to the table. No one else seemed interested so I just continued to drink and shoot. About an hour later Butch came back and said he had a friend who wanted to play me for some drinks. I told him maybe another night because I am already pretty drunk. He said his friend is pretty good and he thinks he could beat me. I told him to go get his friend and I will talk to him. Butch walks right over to the bar and talks to his friend for a few seconds and they both approach me. Butch introduces me to his buddy Dave he towers over me and I would guess he is about 6'6 and has a big old beer belly. He also has a real long white beard and he is wearing a jacket that instantly tells me he is part of a motorcycle club. I specifically remember he had a few patches on his jacket and the one that stuck out was "eatin aint cheatin" and I chuckled to myself when I saw it. Dave says Butch told him I was pretty good and that I was bragging about how I was the best shot in the bar. I downplayed it a little bit and told him I can hold my own but im nothing special. He said that we was a really good shot and he thinks he is the best shot in the bar and wants to shoot me for drinks. I told him I can't drink anymore so I don't really want to shoot for drinks he then says those magic words that make my heart pumping. "How about we bet a little money on it?" My eyes light up and tell him how much are we talking here and he says 50 bucks. We agree and we flip a coin to see who breaks. He wins the coin toss and breaks and hits 3 balls in and misses a pretty tough shot. I step up to the table and make a nice run of 6 balls and play a nice safe to leave him with an almost impossible shot. He misses and I run out and take his 50 bucks. At this time I figure he sees my skill and will either do one of 2 things move on and not lose any more money or get frustrated and want to shoot again. I have been in this situation a million times so either way didn't matter to me because I had 50 bucks in my pocket which basically paid for my food at the dine earlier and the lovely drinks at the bar. I was happy to walk out of there with that in my pocket and continue my journey through Kentucky to meet up with my friends. Dave hands me my 50 and says wanna run it again? I tell him that it's getting kind of late and I should leave. He says he wants a shot at getting his 50 back and I tell him that if he wants to shoot me again it would have to be for a little more money. He says how about 100 and I tell him lets make it 500 and he agrees. I tell him since he is putting up this kind of money he can break again. He breaks and doesn't make a ball and thankfully the table is wide open and I run the table on him. As soon as the 8 ball drops he yells out a loud audible "gently caress" which makes me happy inside. I got him on the hook now and he is emotional. He hands me the 500 and asks me to run it again and I agree. Now I am going to try and make the 8 on the break. I love trying to make the 8 on the break it's one of the first skill shots I learned in my Uncles pool hall when I was younger. I would spend hours racking the balls up and trying to make the 8 on the break. I got so good at it in my uncles place that some guys would stipulate I couldn't try that shot if I wanted to gamble with them. So Dave racks and I go for it and bam the 8 goes in the side and I swear the look on Dave's face was priceless. He looked like he saw a ghost and he was about to throw up. I look up and laugh and say I have never done that before. Butch asks what just happened and I can hear him say this motherfucker got lucky on the break and dropped the 8 ball on me. I tell Dave it was pure luck and let me buy him a drink. He declines and says he wants to shoot again and I tell him I should probably leave. He is practically begging me to play one more and I tell him lets do this. I will shoot him one more time for 1k and that way if he wins he wont be having such a bad night. He agrees and says he has to go get the money. I sit down next to the table and watch him walk over to a group of guys on the other side and he is negotiating with them. One of them pulls out a wad of money and hands them to him and then he comes back to the table with that group of guys. Now there is an audience and I can just feel my ego bursting to get out. I look up and say hey you brought a couple of friends to watch you lose? Dave doesn't like that and says lets just shoot some loving pool rear end in a top hat. I tell him to calm down it's only money and to not get so emotional. He racks and I break and can't believe not a single loving ball drops. Dave lets out pretty loud woo and walks up to the table. He proceeds to go on a nice run and clears all his balls off the table and just has the 8 ball left. He leaves himself a really tough shot with the 8 in the middle and the cue on the other side of the table on the rail. I stand up and start counting out the 1k right in eyesight of Dave as he is lining up his shot. He stands up and thinks about it for a minute and I say anyone wanna bet me 100 Dave misses this shot? His friends don't like that and tell me to back off and I sit back down money in hand ready to pay Dave. Dave leans back down to take the shot and misses it by a mile. I laugh stand up walk over to the table run the balls off and line up my 8 ball shot and look right at Dave as I stroke the cue and the 8 goes in the pocket. Dave is very angry and my ego is out of control at this point. I ask Dave for the money he gives it to me and I count it out right in front of him almost mocking him. Dave says lets run it again and I says sure lets make it 2k this time he talks to his buddys and says only if he can break and I agree. Dave breaks and misses on the break and I run it out again with ease. I am in the zone and nothing is gonna stop me or my ego. I stand up form the table and say money please. Dave walks over and says I think it's time for you to leave and I say but I am just starting to like you Dave why should I leave now this is just getting fun. He grabs the money and shoves it in my chest and I walk backward a little bit and bump into his 2 buddys who are now standing behind me. Completely oblivious to the fact that I should leave I turn around and say oh hey are you guys next in line to lose? Next thing I know I feel a crack over my head and that warm feeling of blood running down my neck. I grab my head and look at my hand and its full of blood. One of the other guys stabs me in right in the knee and another one stabs me in the side and thats all I really remember. I wake up on the side of a highway way out of town next to my car with my face all hosed up and it hurts to breath and blood is everywhere. I pull myself up and all of my money is gone about 12k or so, my wallet is gone but my car is there with the keys laying right next to me. I pull out my emergency fund of 500 in my sock and another 500 in the spare tire drive myself to the nearest hospital and get myself all fixed up. I was there for about 3 days and my 2 uncle had to come from Cleveland to drive me back home. A couple of broken ribs a couple of stab wounds and a concussion was a very tough lesson learned to maybe keep my mouth shut when I taking sums of money from guys in their own bar.
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Nov 10, 2017 17:46
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Love your stories, jase.
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Nov 10, 2017 22:41
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Buy SA Jase
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Nov 10, 2017 23:00
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That's a great story. I have a feeling once he borrowed the 1k from his buddies, unless he won, your fate was already sealed.
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Nov 11, 2017 02:06
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Don't poke the bear...
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Nov 11, 2017 02:18
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I always follow your gambling and story threads. This one will be no different. Thanks for letting us live vicariously through you (except for the stabbing part).
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Nov 11, 2017 04:34
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lesson one is dont tap the glass
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Nov 11, 2017 12:06
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Whats the rumor of the forums demise?
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Nov 13, 2017 06:34
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Do you stick with a monthly budget, have a financial planner, cpa, etc?
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Nov 14, 2017 00:46
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Do you stick with a monthly budget, have a financial planner, cpa, etc?
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Nov 14, 2017 00:47
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Bad Mr Frosty posted:Do you stick with a monthly budget, have a financial planner, cpa, etc? I have a gambling bankroll that usually stays between 150k and 200k. If I ever get over 200k I usually use that money to buy something nice for myself or my wife (mostly my wife). My retirement money and gambling bankroll never mix and never will mix. They are completely separate. I have a financial advisor who has helped me invest my retirement money and also place it in other things like smaller investments the stock market some high risk stuff and some low risk stuff. I have a bunch of money in 1 year, 3 year and 5 year CD's that I just continue to roll over just in case I ever need emergency money for some reason. I have been doing that for almost 15 years now. Just recently here my bankroll has gotten down to about 110k so I decided to build it back up to 200k shooting pool and put myself on lockdown on any other types of gambling. It's gonna take a while but I was playing terrible poker and chasing in sports betting so it's best to take a break before I lose my whole bankroll on something stupid. When I was younger and really reckless I went broke a lot but now that I am older and have learned to be responsible, my bankroll will never go broke again.
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Nov 14, 2017 02:40
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Always love your pool and gambling threads Jase, keep the stories coming! Even the ones I have heard before I enjoy hearing again.
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Nov 14, 2017 06:42
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banned from Starbucks posted:Whats the rumor of the forums demise?
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Nov 14, 2017 07:46
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Lowtax posted:EDIT: Please buy a bunch of forum poo poo because I'm seriously going broke
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Nov 14, 2017 08:51
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Here's the previous thread for anyone looking: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3475307
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Nov 14, 2017 19:25
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This all sounds kind of dumb tbh. Will most places just let you walk out with a few grand of their money in cash if you don't needle them too much? The risk of being robbed seems super high compared to say, playing poker in a casino.
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Nov 15, 2017 23:03
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maskenfreiheit posted:
Yes. It is riskier. But that's part of the life.
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Nov 18, 2017 01:15
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banned from Starbucks posted:Whats the rumor of the forums demise? Lowtax posted:Forums revenue is now currently 8% of what it used to be, right now it takes roughly half a month *just* to pay for hosting costs, and I've had to take out loans to cover bills, and I've had to take a $10,000 penalty to withdraw $10,000 from my IRA to cover costs, so we might have to wait a little bit before I can amass enough money to pay for pretty much anything at this point. Aint nobody buying nothing on the forums.
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Nov 19, 2017 07:52
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That was an awesome story. Having read a few crime stories about bikers I'd naively say that you were lucky to make it out alive. But it does say that you never win big unless you take risks. Maybe you could have gotten out earlier, and earned enough money in a few hours what most people would be happy earning in a week.maskenfreiheit posted:This all sounds kind of dumb tbh. Then again, if it's just cash, well, heh. Pre-laundered cash is as much a liability as an asset. That cash might well be dirty money from drug deals or organised crime, and be relatively less useful to its owner than its actual value would suggest. In its own way, a casino is worse. If they catch you using a system, ANY sort of system, don't they bar you from the establishment for life? Not just that particular casino, but all casinos around the world (using facial recognition software)?
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Nov 21, 2017 15:14
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IronClaymore posted:In its own way, a casino is worse. If they catch you using a system, ANY sort of system, don't they bar you from the establishment for life? Not just that particular casino, but all casinos around the world (using facial recognition software)? You typically need persistence and a serious bankroll, possibly even accomplices, to get that kind of treatment. Most legit casinos are usually happy to tolerate or even encourage small timers to try counting cards because it's a great way to take their money; if your bankroll is only a couple thousand you've still got decent odds to go broke on a 1-2% edge, even assuming you're a good enough player to play that well (which is a much, much smaller group of people than the group of people that think they can.) Casinos also have lots of tools to gently shake things up to disrupt whatever system you're using--more shuffles, more decks, rearranging tables to reset the game--which let them keep taking your money without giving up their edge. The casino is running its own hustle: they want you to think that you can beat them at their own game, and letting people think they're going to beat the casino with a simple card counting system helps them take money from suckers. Ultimately as long as more people are playing more blackjack it's a win for them; mostly, it's only when people get really serious about scouting tables and playing very selectively that it starts to become a threat (and yeah those people are going to get perma-banned in a hurry if they keep heading back to the blackjack tables.)
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Nov 21, 2017 18:45
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Sorry I have not updated this thread but I went to the doctor for blood in my urine and some pain and found out I have bladder cancer and about 10 kindney stones just chilling in there and I have been dealing with that. I am going under the knife monday where they are cutting that poo poo out and filling my bladder with chemo medication and all of that will be done by going up my dickhole which is I think the worst part. I can handle cancer I just don't want a catheter up my junk It's consider low grade and the doctor thinks after they slice it off they can kill the rest of it with the meds so at this time it's not life threatening but it's still the big scary C word. Hardest part was telling the wife and she is not handling it very well. Some good things about this are I flew my parents in to be with me even though we don't have a great relationship and we have been able to work past some issues because of this. They have always hated my lifestyle and choices considering they are deeply devout Christians but nothing like scaring the poo poo out of everybody to bring people close together. My uncles will be here tomorrow and things should be interesting since my parents and my uncles hate each other. It's a 2 hour procedure and I should be back home the same day so whenever I am feeling better I will update the thread with some stories. In the meantime my wife is being extra nice to me and letting me eat lovely food for the next few days and letting me stay home from running every morning so I am finally getting to sleep in and eat greasy hamburgers.
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Nov 22, 2017 05:59
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Yikes dude. Hope you get through it okay, we're rooting for you.
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Nov 22, 2017 06:08
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Godspeed, jase1! Get better soon.
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Nov 22, 2017 10:25
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Tough news, man. Good luck!
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Nov 22, 2017 15:22
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Good luck, jase.
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Nov 22, 2017 17:21
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Jase won before and he'll jase win vs. cancer. Best wishes dude
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Nov 22, 2017 22:38
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Hang in there man
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Nov 22, 2017 23:53
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I always assumed my drinking would kill me and my liver would poo poo out on me but turns out even though I quit smoking cigarettes over 10 years ago it still caught up to me I never knew alcohol doesn't cause bladder cancer but cigarettes do. I spent a lot of my life in smoke filled bars and pool halls and didn't help myself by smoking a pack a day or more for 15 years straight until I just up and decided to quit one day. Thankfully the kidney stones were there and that is what caused the pain and the blood if I didn't have those I would have never went to the doctor to get checked out. I caught it early and things are looking good as long as the surgery goes off without any problems on Monday. If you smoke cigarettes though now is the time to quit that poo poo. We shall see how strong I really am because every since I found this out I'm on strict orders from the wife to quit drinking. Haven't had a drink in 5 days now and that's longest I have went in a pretty long time. I fully expect my 2 uncles to clean me out when they are here especially since they have to deal with dad. That's a good way to get rid of your alcohol stash is just invite all the family that hates each other over for a few weeks. Thanks for all the well wishes I am pretty confident I will come out of this a better man and hopefully by next weekend I will be back at the pool tables working on padding that bankroll and posting stories on here.
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Nov 23, 2017 01:29
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Glad you're back, jase! Sorry to hear about the medical issues, but it sounds like you'll make it out alright. Catheters suck.IronClaymore posted:In its own way, a casino is worse. If they catch you using a system, ANY sort of system, don't they bar you from the establishment for life? Not just that particular casino, but all casinos around the world (using facial recognition software)? For sports betting, you're not playing against the house, you're playing against the other players. Ideally, casinos like to try to balance their bets in sports betting, e.g. make sure there are as many bets for a team winning as there are for that team losing. Then, the house just has to take a small transaction fee and they're guaranteed to come out ahead. There are some very, very rare, exceptional sports gamblers who have studied teams, ideal betting lines, and betting strategies very carefully, and have a positive edge over the other players, even when you take the casino's cut into account. The casino doesn't care about those players because they casino still makes money. Also, they give something for the bad players to aspire to; knowing there are professional gamblers out there makes it easier for people to think that they've figured it out and could also be a professional gambler. Of course, the vast vast majority of these sports betters are delusional and will lose money over time. This is even more true in poker: players play against each other, and the house just takes a small piece of every pot. As long as games are running, the house is making money. There are tons of examples of players who have made careers out of this, and proven they can be winners even over hundreds of thousands or millions of hands. Casinos typically like the good regulars, because they come in a lot and keep the tables full. Full tables attract more players and keep making the casino money. Becoming a winning player at casinos typically takes years of practice, thousands of hours at the table, and a lot of intense study. Most players don't do this, and are losing money. Most other casino games aren't beatable. You can't beat Roulette, for example. Many casinos actively encourage players to come up with "systems" to try and beat the house, because the house knows the player can't win, but convincing them they can is what makes the house money. You'll often see big boards of numbers by Roulette tables, where they show the last 25 numbers and the distribution of red and black spins for that day. They want to encourage folks to look for patterns and think they've got it figured out. Of course, this is all random noise: the previous spin of a Roulette wheel does not influence the next one. Random distributions dictate that sometimes you'll flip a coin and get 5 heads in a row. Just by random chance, any five rolls in a row will have a 1 in 16 chance of being all red or all black. Bad gamblers see this and think it means the wheel isn't truly random, but again, you'd actually expect this pretty regularly in a random wheel. I was playing craps last week, and there was a player holding a booklet where he would write down every roll that happened. Whenever the next number came out, he'd nod knowingly, note it down in his book, say something like "of course... of course..." He'd then throw out a couple very specific bets based on what he believed was coming next, based on his calculations. It was obvious to the floor and everyone around him that he'd though he figured it out, and the floor was more than happy to take this dudes money. He lost $2k in about 20 minutes and left. Finally, there's the one beatable holy grail of beatable games: blackjack. Most casinos will let you sit at a table instructions on the ideal strategy for playing blackjack in any given situation. Hell, they'll even sell cards with this information to you in the gift shop! Why? The rules of blackjack are such that you cannot win at blackjack if you only play the game focusing on one hand at a time. At the right table, with the right rules, and the right deck, you can make money by "card counting," which is using the information about what cards are left in a deck to help predict when favorable cards for the player are likely to come out. Contrary to popular belief, "card counting" is not illegal. However, casinos can ban you if they think you're card counting in a way that gives you a huge advantage against them. These strategies are fairly obvious, because they require that the player makes bets that vary wildly in size; you might bet $10 in one hand, and then bet $1000 in the next hand. Card counters often employ teams to try and hide this activity from casinos. Casinos have done a number of things to mitigate player edge in blackjack and also their ability to effectively count cards. They've increased the number of decks to minimize the edge from counting. Sometimes they'll use random continuous shufflers for every hand, which mitigate the ability to card count completely. Sometimes the tables allow only a small range of bets: instead of being able to vary your bet from $10 to $1000, you might be able to bet only $10 to $100. This hurts card counters. Casinos have also altered the rules of the game itself: traditionally, players get paid 3:2 (more than even money) when they make a blackjack. However, it's increasingly common to see tables paying 6:5 (still more than even money, but significantly less so) for blackjack now. This seems like a small change since blackjacks are relatively rare, but it gives the house an additional 1.5% in edge. You'll also see differing rules about "surrendering," splitting aces, and what actions the dealers take. Many of these have less to do with card counting, and more to do with just making more money from players that don't know better. Each of these rule changes gives the house a percent or two more of an edge. Nowadays, it's very hard to find a low limit blackjack table on the Las Vegas strip that pays out 3:2 for blackjack. That all being said, for every successful card counter out there, there are hundreds of bad players that think they've "figured it out," but really have no clue about what they're doing. The casinos enjoy the legendary stories of card counting at this point, because just knowing the game can be beat makes players feel more at ease when they're playing it. It even gives them something to strive for, even though they'll never actually spend the time to learn how to card count correctly. All this to say that yeah, while casinos will ban folks sometimes for being "advantage" players, this is pretty darn rare. They know that most players are terrible, even the ones with "systems," and if they let a few winning players slip through the cracks, it's probably not the end of the world. In order to win at card counting, you usually need to spend a lot of time at the tables, and your betting patterns will be very obvious, so if you're making substantial money from the casino, they'll catch you eventually. As another poster mentioned, you also need to start with a fairly sizable bankroll, or you'll go broke most of the time. Sure, if a player is out there winning big every week, they'll ban them, and the fear of being banned is usually enough to keep most folks from even trying. I don't know how prevalent the facial recognition stuff really is. The casinos like to play this up, but pretty much every player I've seen pulled from a casino has been spotted by a dealer or floor person, not by a camera.
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Nov 30, 2017 18:12
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Good luck Jase
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Dec 1, 2017 18:36
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Cancer sucks, best wishes for a quick recovery. I also want to thank you, because if you hustled here in Cleveland, you helped pay my salary. I work for an operator, and anything that makes people put money in pool tables a good thing.
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Dec 2, 2017 16:26
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Hope you're still alive and not hustling chumps in heaven godbless.
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Dec 23, 2017 01:13
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Yeah, OP, I remember reading your old thread about hustling and whatnot. I found it interesting with some of the terminology that you used. I didn't know that putting "English" on the ball was spinning for example. Do you find the terminology varies a lot from place to place? Some of the local terminology in my area: Putting "spin" on the ball, (english). "Sewer" is sinking the cue ball regardless of situation. "Scratch" doing a lovely job of hitting the cue ball such that it goes in whatever direction that isn't where you wanted it to go. "Prick shot", putting the cue ball somewhere that your opponent doesn't have a shot.
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Dec 25, 2017 00:16
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wesleywillis posted:Yeah, OP, I remember reading your old thread about hustling and whatnot. I found it interesting with some of the terminology that you used. I didn't know that putting "English" on the ball was spinning for example. English is English everywhere Never heard of sewer but that's a scratch Scratch is the same as foul, where the cue ball doesn't hit the object ball or ends up in a pocket What you refer to as a "prick shot" is generally called a safety. These are pretty universal
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Dec 25, 2017 04:11
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Imaduck posted:Most other casino games aren't beatable. You can't beat Roulette, for example. Many casinos actively encourage players to come up with "systems" to try and beat the house, because the house knows the player can't win, but convincing them they can is what makes the house money. You'll often see big boards of numbers by Roulette tables, where they show the last 25 numbers and the distribution of red and black spins for that day. They want to encourage folks to look for patterns and think they've got it figured out. Of course, this is all random noise: the previous spin of a Roulette wheel does not influence the next one. Random distributions dictate that sometimes you'll flip a coin and get 5 heads in a row. Just by random chance, any five rolls in a row will have a 1 in 16 chance of being all red or all black. Bad gamblers see this and think it means the wheel isn't truly random, but again, you'd actually expect this pretty regularly in a random wheel. Last time I went to the casino I bet Black like ten times in a row and won all of those times. People were giving me disgusted looks as they just piled up the bets on Red but I kept winning anyways. It's amazing how illogical people get when gambling. They were convinced it just had to go Red. Of course then after being up like 500 bucks off of doing that I promptly lost it all playing Black Jack poorly. So it goes.
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Jan 2, 2018 07:02
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Hope you're ok OP 
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Jan 11, 2018 05:54
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I've always enjoyed your threads Jase. Hope everything is going well for you.
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Jan 11, 2018 18:49
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I am alive and well. Had my fist checkup since the surgery and things are good. My parents ended up staying longer than expected so I we spent a lot of time with them catching up on life and bullshit. My uncle is still staying with me and will be here for another few months. Since I sold my company and retired early I was looking to either invest in a small business or purchase one outright. I even thought about making a bid for SA when I read the rumors about the potential demise of this place but decided not too after chatting with a few other posters here. So I bought a boat instead and decided to take up fishing which is something I always wanted to do. My wife never cared about that stuff she is more of a fashionista so when my uncle came down I finally had some one who would interesting in taking up the new hobby with me. So for the last month I have been getting drunk and learning how to fish. One of my neighbors has been telling me since I moved here that he would teach me everything and he really come through for me. I have caught, cleaned and cooked my own fish for a few weeks and I am addicted to it. During this time I have been shooting pool a lot and I have gotten over my period of being bored with it especially with my uncle giving me tips and pointers. I haven't done any sportsbooking or poker playing except one bet on MMA since I took a gambling break when I took a huge hit to my bankroll and got put on lockdown until I pad the bankroll again. My roll is usually right around 200k but after having a few terrible months and chasing it got down to 115k. So now the real grind begins I could always go anywhere in the Cleveland area and get a game at any stakes with a lot of players because of my rep. Dorsey was a guy who I could shoot all night for a couple grand a set and win 20 or 30 grand in a weekend but now that I live in a different state I have to find the money players here. I have been shooting at this local bar here that has free tables as long as you buy drinks or food and it's were all the APA players hang out. I knew I could hustle a few of them for some low stakes games and my name would be spread around the circles until a the real money players came out of their shitholes to challenge me. My uncle is serving as my my coach and money man through all this. I learned everything from him and while he has always been better than me but he has arthritis really bad in his shoulders and he is unable to shoot for long periods of time without being in tremendous pain so he has giving up pool for the most part. We will still shoot a few games at my house before we head out for the night and while he still sees all the angles he just can't shoot like he used to but if I need any advice or am in a tough spot he always has a brilliant safe or an out for me and I really trust his judgement. Joe is the owner of this place and have chatted him up on several occasions and I have earned his trust and respect. We have shot pool multiple times and he always told me he would find me games if I ever wanted them when I first moved here. I really just enjoyed his company swapping stories of my gambling adventures and his adventures of owning this place for the last 30 years. Recently I told him I was back in the hustling business and to spread the word that a new guy in town was looking to gamble. His eyes light up and I could tell he was excited at the first opportunity to see if I was the real deal or if all my stories were just made up. I have seen countless guys talk poo poo about their game until the money goes up on that light and they poo poo the bed and lose all their bankroll in one night trying to prove themselves. I'm sure this gonna come off as bragging but really I don't need to prove how good I am, I know that I can walk into 99 out of 100 bars and beat every guy in there on my worst day. I can spot a hustler a mile away and if I am in trouble I won't go on tilt I will lose my set and walk away. Losing has never bothered me much and to be a good gambler you have to learn how to deal with losing money or you will make bad decisions. Joe texts me and says he put a couple of feelers out there that I was looking for a game and I have been bragging at the bar that I'm a really good shot. The very next day Joe texts me again and says he found a guy who wants to shoot me for 1k in a race to 7. I tell him to set it up and I will be there. I thought I would get excited but I didn't really care to be honest the blood wasn't pumping like it used to. My uncle on the other hand was pumped and gleaming with excitement. I asked him why he was so excited he said for one I haven't seen you shoot for money in a really long time and two I am gonna enjoy watching you lose, I stop him dead in his tracks and say what do you mean lose he looks me dead in the eye and says relax I am just loving with you. I am healthy eater I have always been and it's really weird too. I had no problem smoking cigarettes for a quarter of my life and drowning myself in liquor but I have always maintained a healthy diet. We run every other morning and I hit the gym twice a week as well either lifting or doing some form of exercise like basketball or swimming laps. We go to dinner and I get my usual chicken dish at my favorite spot and I drink water with my meal which still feels weird considering the wife and I would usually crush a bottle of wine before the waiter usually has a chance to take our order. I am currently on a strict no alcohol and no pot order from my doctor. He asked me to give it one year then maybe he will let me drink a little bit. Considering I was probably a borderline alcoholic or maybe I am a functioning one thats a whole other thread I haven't had a drink or smoked any weed since Nov. 17th. The longest I have ever gone without either since I can remember. We get home from dinner I grab my pool case and a couple stacks of high society. A stupid rounders reference but it fits the bill because I really did grab 30k. My uncle grabs one of my bottles of scotch ask for permission and proceeds to take a few swigs from the bottle. He has really enjoyed raiding my liquor cabinet since he got here because he knows I have to get rid of all it and he is trying his hardest to drink it all as quick as possible. I kiss the wife goodnight she whispers in my ear to make sure I don't drink and says who cares if you win or lose but if you win make sure to wake me up and gently caress my brains out. Thats a good motivator for sure and I like her thinking. We hop in the A7 to head over to the bar and it's hilarious watching my uncle try to figure out the controls for the radio. I ask what does he want to do and he wants to play a song for me I tell him I control the music from my phone and what does he want to hear. He says The Baron by Johnny Cash and I pull it up on spotify and we jam to it the whole way there. It's such a loving corny song but when an old man drunk on scotch is singing it at the top of his lungs it makes it worth it. We get to the bar and I park and just sit there for a few minutes taking in the atmosphere. It's been awhile and it feels good but it feels different. Usually by this time I am buzzed pretty good and I smoking a joint in the parking lot to keep things going until I get in there and no matter where I was I always walked in like I owned the place but not this time. I am stone cold sober and I can actually hear myself breathing a little harder. What the gently caress is wrong with me I think to myself and I notice my hands are feeling tingly and my I grab the back of my neck and it's a little damp. My uncle looks at me laughs and says are you nervous? I tell him I think I might have a panic attack and he starts howling with laughter at me. I have never realized how much alcohol and pot really masks my feelings and really made me feel invincible. After a few minutes of ball busting my uncle gives me exactly what I need to calm the gently caress down. A stern lecture on how none of this matters and I ask him what he means. He says in only the way he can look dude you got a loving house with a pool, a smoking hot broad for a wife that truly loves you and lets you do whatever you want, a loving boat that you have no business being on because you suck at driving it and you are retired at 40 years old. This means nothing in the scope of life go in there and show that whole loving bar that you are the man, the guy who had no problem walking into the hood with 20 grand in his pocket and challenging anyone no matter what the risk, the guy who literally won a date with his future wife because he hustled some idiot at the pool table, the guy who did it the way he wanted too and didn't care what anyone thought. It calmed me down and I grabbed my case and walked into a bar like it was mine. As soon as I walked my nervousness went away white stripes was on the jukebox and the bass was beating in my stomach it was so loud and that just made feel even better. I scanned the the whole bar and found Joe sitting at the very end by the waitress station chatting up a few locals I had seen in there before. He caught my eye and put up 7 fingers meaning table 7 was mine for the night. It's the table we always shot at and he had a reserve sign on it with the balls already racked and ready to go. My uncle disappeared and I assumed he was going to the bar to get a drink. I put my case on the table opened it and there was a couple of energy bars with a note from the wife that said good luck on it.I texted her thanks put the phone silent and slid it in the case because I knew I wasn't going to check it for the next couple of hours and she did too. Waitress walked over asked if I wanted anything and I ordered a coffee. My uncle came back double fisting some local beers and was already through half of one and couldn't be happier. I put the stick together racked the balls and shot a few to get the feel of my stroke. Joe came over and asked if I was ready and said I was. He yelled at a guy name Brian who walked over and looked to be about 19 or 20. He shook my hand and we exchanged pleasantries before getting down to business. Frank, my uncle already had most of my bankroll in his pockets I had a couple of grand on me and counted out 1k and out it on the light. Brian pulled out 1k and it next to mine. We flipped and he won the break I racked them up and he broke and run on me and I was down 0-1 within 20 minutes of being there. Didn't really bother me he still had to win 6 more. He broke again and this time didn't make anything on the break. I grabbed my stick chalked it up and for the first time that night every thing went kind of silent. I looked at the table zoned in on what I was gonna do and one of the things that stands out most to me at this moment was I could smell the chalk on my stick and it just put me at ease. I ran the table and left myself a bank shot on the 8 and I rattled it in. I looked up to find my uncle was at the jukebox ramming dollars into it and missed the whole thing. I didn't care and I know he didn't care either he knew I was back and I could feel it. I broke and ran the next rack to put me up 2-1. The kid racked them up again and I was gonna try to hit the 8 on the break. I set up the shot and sure as poo poo the 8 went in but so did the cue and it was tied up 2-2. I racked for the kid and he got a real nice break and got all the way down to the 8 and left himself a tough shot so he played great safe on me and left me stuck on the rail in a tough situation. The only shot I had was to block the pocket where the 8 was with one of my balls but it required a finesse shot with a lot of green and I hit it perfectly. I left my 10 ball blocking the 8 in such a way that I could still get my ball in but he had no shot on the 8. He tried to play another safe and hit a tad bit to hard and left me an open table and I ran out. 3-2 and it was a great game I was enjoying shooting this kid because he knew his way around the table. The next game it all began to unravel for him. He racked them up walked back to his chair picked up his drink and it slipped from his hands and spilled all over his shorts. He literally looked like he pissed himself and was not happy about it. He ran to the bathroom and tried to clean himself up but when he came back you could tell he was not having any luck. He asked if I would wait for him to run home and change and I apologized and told him not during a race we have to finish this race first. He was not pleased and I could tell it really bothered him that I said no. Either you forfeit and leave or finish those where his only 2 options. He mumble something under his breath and I broke and ran out on him to put me up 4-2. He let out a huge sigh and racked them again when his buddy walked over and asked what happened I heard him tell him that I wouldn't let him leave to go change and his buddy agreed with me that not until the race is up. I could see the defeat in his face he knew he was going to lose tonight and it dawned on me that he is new to this. He racked them up again and I went for the 8 and almost made it but I also made 3 solids which cleared the table for me and ran them again. I heard him say to his buddy who the gently caress is this guy and now I am up 5-2. He racks I go for the 8 it creeps towards the side pocket and the 2 ball just nudges it past it and I don't make anything else. He steps up to the table looking relived that he finally has another shot but his stroke is completely gone. He's turned into a banger now and I can see he is upset and he hits a few shots in but then he makes the fatal mistake of putting the wrong english on a shot and the cue ball slams into the 8 and it goes into the side pocket. He lets out an audible Jesus and now it's 6-2. I'm let out a chuckle and tell him it's just not your night kid I will put you out of your misery by making the 8 on the break here. He racks and before I shoot my uncle says I got 100 says you don't make the 8 on the break. I tell him he is on and line up my shot right as I am getting ready to shoot I look my uncle dead in the eye and completely gently caress up the shot I hit the third ball in the rack and the table is a mess. I didn't make anything and grab a 100 out of my pocket and give it to my uncle. You would figure this would make the kid happy that he is still in it after I poo poo talked him but his anger has taken over. He says great now I have to deal with this lovely table. He makes a couple of balls but just can't figure the table out. I step up clear my balls and hit the 8 to take my first grand (well really 900) on my road back to 200k. The kid doesn't even wait to see the 8 drop he knows he is beat and I grab the money off the light. His buddy is chatting me up asking me if I wanna shoot on his league team and I tell him no but I do want him to spread the word I am looking for action. Tell everyone you can I want a serious challenge and I'll shoot any stakes. I give the kid my number he says okay we talk a little more about my stick and the tables I shoot on at home and he heads over to a couple of other tables and I can see him gesturing towards me. Joe walks up ask how things went I tell him the story of what happened to the kid and he says good first night back huh. Franks settles the tab with my hundred that stupid fucker and we go to leave. As we are driving home frank falls asleep and I start to blast Marvin Gaye's lets get it on. Frank is grumpy and I tell him good thing he is in the mini suite on the other side of the house because the real action begins when I get home. He says gross and falls right back asleep. jase1 fucked around with this message at 09:00 on Jan 18, 2018 |
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Jan 18, 2018 08:58
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That was a great read. Keep 'em coming!
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Jan 18, 2018 14:45
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Seeing as you're obviously scary good at pool, did you ever consider going pro? As in tournaments/official stuff rather than sticking your neck out fleecing people in sketchy bars. I don't know how a big a pro pool scene there is, but I imagine a lot of the skills would transfer to snooker pretty easy (may be being naive here, I'm don't really know the game). Surely that would best going out knowing you might get your rear end beat or worse if the atmosphere turns sour. E: also what is the trick to potting the 8 off the break? Is there a particular technique?
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Jan 18, 2018 16:28
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