SEASONED GAMBLING • ADJUSTMENTS • Where should it end?

[macguy]

If you truly take the worst of it most of the time you lose most of the time. Having to try hard to win isn't taking the worst of it. Some only take locks, some take tougher games. The people that deliberately take games they can't win without luck, which is what outrunning the nuts is, are either suckers or addicted gamblers. It sounds like you enjoy making tough games but not games that you don't think you can win. That isn't taking the worst of it.

I never gambled at pool after the first year or two. I wagered nightly for years, I didn't miss five nights a year wagering on pool. On the other hand it was almost unheard of to finish a week in the hole and there was never a month I wasn't in the black playing pool, no gamble to it. An individual match-up might be a gamble, the overall process was no gamble at all. I think the same is true for almost all of the seasoned gamblers who have been gambling for years. If somebody is losing money overall gambling they are either paying to learn or doing it wrong.

Hu

I should put it another way, I don't really argue much about spots. I am willing to play a game and see what happens. It also means I have plenty of people to play any time I feel like it. There are other dynamics when it comes to pool. The game the player thinks they can win on paper with when they are asking for a spot, they often find is tougher then they thought against a good player. I remember playing Allen Hopkins getting 100 to 40. I though I had a good game, heck I could run 40 and out most any time. I found out it was not so easy against a player like him.

I also keep things in perspective, I like pool and it is a hobby. When I had boats it could cost a couple thousand a month between dock space, fuel and other expenses every time you went out. Playing a little pool is a lot cheaper hobby. It's funny when people try to give you advice about gambling who don't really gamble at all or believe one must never lose or there is something wrong if you lose, it is some kind of shameful thing. In fact that is probably what keeps them from getting up and playing more so then the money, they are afraid of looking foolish. For some reason they want to project they own insecurities on you. It reminds me of when you park your motorcycle in a lot there is often someone who will come over to tell you how dangerous motorcycles are and they would never ride one. So, don't ride one, what the hell are they telling me this for.

Everything you do in life has some cost to it. You see guys in the pool room who spend $200.00 a month just on table time practicing, yet they won't even enter a tournament with a $50.00 entry fee, and forget about them ever matching up with anybody. We know it is not the money because look what they are spending just to practice. It's strange, why do they play in the first place if they never want to test themselves. What is all this for? Maybe I am a little more of a fatalist in that I know no one get out of this world alive. Living ones life afraid of everything just does not appeal to me.

I learned a lesson when I was kid from a family experience. I had an uncle who drove a bus in NY city. He was going to retire at 30 years and decided to work another 5 to get a little better retirement. At the end of 35 years he retired. The first thing he and my aunt did after he retired was to go to the worlds fair in Canada. They were both killed in a car accident on their way there. He never collected a dollar of the retirement he worked all his life for. When they would visit us I would hear how much he hated his job but had to stick it out because he had so much time invested. It was all for nothing.

We all have reasons why we do what we do and how we live our lives and they are often not what other may think.

 

[ShootingArts]

a different thing, some like to compete some don't

I should put it another way, I don't really argue much about spots. I am willing to play a game and see what happens. It also means I have plenty of people to play any time I feel like it. There are other dynamics when it comes to pool. The game the player thinks they can win on paper with when they are asking for a spot, they often find is tougher then they thought against a good player. I remember playing Allen Hopkins getting 100 to 40. I though I had a good game, heck I could run 40 and out most any time. I found out it was not so easy against a player like him.

I also keep things in perspective, I like pool and it is a hobby. When I had boats it could cost a couple thousand a month between dock space, fuel and other expenses every time you went out. Playing a little pool is a lot cheaper hobby. It's funny when people try to give you advice about gambling who don't really gamble at all or believe one must never lose or there is something wrong if you lose, it is some kind of shameful thing. In fact that is probably what keeps them from getting up and playing more so then the money, they are afraid of looking foolish. For some reason they want to project they own insecurities on you. It reminds me of when you park your motorcycle in a lot there is often someone who will come over to tell you how dangerous motorcycles are and they would never ride one. So, don't ride one, what the hell are they telling me this for.

Everything you do in life has some cost to it. You see guys in the pool room who spend $200.00 a month just on table time practicing, yet they won't even enter a tournament with a $50.00 entry fee, and forget about them ever matching up with anybody. We know it is not the money because look what they are spending just to practice. It's strange, why do they play in the first place if they never want to test themselves. What is all this for? Maybe I am a little more of a fatalist in that I know no one get out of this world alive. Living ones life afraid of everything just does not appeal to me.

I learned a lesson when I was kid from a family experience. I had an uncle who drove a bus in NY city. He was going to retire at 30 years and decided to work another 5 to get a little better retirement. At the end of 35 years he retired. The first thing he and my aunt did after he retired was to go to the worlds fair in Canada. They were both killed in a car accident on their way there. He never collected a dollar of the retirement he worked all his life for. When they would visit us I would hear how much he hated his job but had to stick it out because he had so much time invested. It was all for nothing.

We all have reasons why we do what we do and how we live our lives and they are often not what other may think.

I think you are talking about a little different thing here, some like to compete, some don't. I have competed at one thing or another most of my life. Oddly enough for the most part I separated gambling from competing. Gambling was about generating dollars not competition. Occasionally I found myself in tough competition gambling but that was the exception more than the rule. Thinking about the full time gamblers I have known over the years, not one was really a competitor. They all wanted to make the money with as little risk as possible. I'm starting to play a little poker now and the same rule applies, avoid competing whenever possible. When I let the competitive urge take over I take risks and ultimately needless risks are the undoing of a poker player.

Pool, poker, the markets, most businesses, risk management is the mark of a successful gambler. The less true gambling you do the more successful you are.

Hu

 

[JoeyA]

Great replies. Gives one lots to think about.

In fact, the next thread is not meant to raise hair up on anyone's neck but if it does, it does. Some things just need to be discussed. It's about gambling and competing.

 

[ShootingArts]

good subject

Great replies. Gives one lots to think about.

In fact, the next thread is not meant to raise hair up on anyone's neck but if it does, it does. Some things just need to be discussed. It's about gambling and competing.

Joey,

That has the potential to be a good, even great, subject. I was trying to avoid it in this thread as I didn't feel that was what this thread was about. Some gamble in order to compete with the gamblers or feel they must to get people's best game. Others gamble for profit. A big difference between the two mindsets. Gambling is usually business with me, competition rarely is although I drove considerably more carefully and profitably when I had no income other than racing or pool!

Hu

 

[JoeyA]

Joey,

That has the potential to be a good, even great, subject. I was trying to avoid it in this thread as I didn't feel that was what this thread was about. Some gamble in order to compete with the gamblers or feel they must to get people's best game. Others gamble for profit. A big difference between the two mindsets. Gambling is usually business with me, competition rarely is although I drove considerably more carefully and profitably when I had no income other than racing or pool!

Hu

Hu it's up and running now. Please share your thoughts about gambling and competing in that thread. I probably posted too many questions but no one has to answer all of them.

For the record, it was your reply to macguy which spawned the idea for that thread. It's a great subject for discussion and I hope many will participate. (THANKS!)

Like I said in the first post of that thread, there is no right or wrong answer. It should make for a lively discussion. Thanks for the stimulus.

JoeyA

 

[Matt]

In my opinion, anyone that is receiving a spot should expect to fight an uphill battle and anyone giving a spot shouldn't give up enough weight that they are no longer the favorite. In any handicapped race, the better player should always have the advantage in the long run and the spot should just be there to give the weaker player a chance in the short term.

Personally, I prefer to just play even, but will sometimes give up weight to weaker players and let them know that I won't give them enough weight to make it a "fair game". I don't like to play for enough to make it worth it for better players to gamble with me, so when I do, I usually just play cheap and even and pay for the experience.