How I Became a Professional Gambler
I had never gambled before and knew nothing about it, but I’d gotten too many e-mails like it. I was at my parents house for winter break during my first year at UT, and I was bored.
“Free $50 just for downloading our casino!”
Hmm. That doesn’t seem very risky. I might as well download to see what it’s all about.
I downloaded, and sure enough they added $50 to my account, which I quickly lost. Even though I lost it, there was a moment where I was up to $75. What if I had cashed out? Would they have actually given it to me? (actually the answer is no… later in my career I found out that that was a particularly sketchy casino)
Then I took a chance. I found another casino that promised to give me $200 if I deposited $200 at their casino. It was a lot of money - but that just made the free $200 more appealing. I was scared when I deposited, and my heart jumped when I saw my balance double to $400 instantly.
Blackjack.
I played a few hands and was actually winning. I managed to get up to $500 and I cashed out. Was I going to get paid? I was skeptical, and felt like an idiot for trusting the site. There was no way they were about to give me $300 for fifteen minutes of playing a game at their site.
A few days later a strange envelope came for me in the mail. It was a check for the $500 I had won. Wow.
When I returned to school I found myself in the cafeteria eating with some friends. Also in attendance was a guy named Adam, who was a friend of a friend. I mentioned something about my gambling experience, and his ears perked up. He was interested in gambling too.
At that point I was playing cautiously, maybe winning or losing $20 a day. I didn’t have a ton of money, and I was just testing the ropes - I felt like there just HAD to be some way to make money doing it.
After lunch I invited Adam to join me and gamble on my computer. He brought along a computer blackjack game and the manual that came with it. We played a few hands and then the “blackjack strategies” section of the manual caught our attention.
The Double Martingale System.
It sounded exotic. We read the description of it and it seemed pretty legitimate :
Bet $1. If you win, you’ve just won a dollar and you’re done with this cycle. Start over.
If you lose, then you bet $3. If you win that you have won 3, lost 1, for a grand total of winning $2. That’s $1 per hand played.
If you lose again you bet $7. If you win that you’ve won 7, lost 4, for a grand total of winning $3. Still $1 per hand played.
In fact, as the progression escalated to 15, 31, 63, 127, 255 and beyond, you would always end up winning $1 per hand played. And you had to win eventually, right? It was genius.
We decided that we ought to go into business together and try this strategy out. Being the prudent business men we were, we played about five minutes on his simulation and declared the strategy a clear winner.
I had some money in one of my casino accounts, so we used that. At first it worked - we made maybe $30 or so. But then all of a sudden the progression had doubled and we had to bet over $500. We didn’t have that much money in our account. But that wasn’t the strategy’s fault - we just didn’t have enough money.
At this point it was about 7am. In our excitement we had stayed up all night playing and planning what to do with our massive winnings. That’s when we made an important decision - we would empty my bank account which contained the $1000 that constituted my life savings, and use that. We’d split the winnings or losses down the middle.
Excited, we went downstairs to the bank and wired the money. A few minutes later, it was all there. We placed our $500 bet and held our breath. 16 vs. 10. Not good. We hit, got a 2, and the dealer busted. We won! It felt great -we knew the strategy was good and that we had made the right decision.
The big bet scared us, though. I don’t remember exactly how we modified our strategy, but we somehow changed it so that after some point we would cut our losses and start the progression over.
But then something happened… instead of steady winning, we started losing. Soon we were down to only $800, but our resolve remained. We WOULD make this work. I was exhausted from staying up so late so I went to sleep while Adam continued to play.
When I woke up, it was like a kid on Christmas. l couldn’t wait to see the small fortune he had surely amassed. I logged in and checked the balance :
$310
What? I expected an extra zero on the end - at least. I called Adam and woke him up.
“We need to get to playing. We need to make our money back.”
Equally foolishly, he agreed. By the time he got to my room we were down to $150. Soon that $150 had turned to $77. Our hopes had been dashed. We failed, and all of my money was gone.
But then something strange happened. It was as if fate didn’t wanted to avoid the imminent promises to never gamble again, and we started winning.
And winning. And winning. Soon we had recovered all of our money and then some! Our balance hit $2000. Every time we’d lose money we’d reevaluate the bizarre flowchart that described our strategy and add another branch to it.
Soon our friends were recruited, and a 24 hour playing schedule was implemented. We had a high score sheet where we’d write down our hourly profit and try to outdo each other.
We kept our lips shut about our winnings, but everyone in our dorm knew that we were gambling. More importantly, they knew that we had serious gambling problems. Random aquaintances would come up and try to explain the dangers of gambling. I’d keep a straight face, but inside I was dancing. I was going to be rich, and I wasn’t going to work for it.
Soon we were up to $5000 or so and felt invincible. But the rumors around the dorm were increasing - everyone thought we were pouring all of our money down the drain like idiots. We had to change their minds.
We declared that we were big winners and offered a chance to invest with us. Give us your money on friday and on monday we would return it, reflecting our win. So cocky we were, that we guaranteed against losses. No one wanted to take it. Finally we found one person and took his $100.
On monday we proudly returned $200. Everyone was amazed, and we were happy because we’d just topped $10,000. The money went to our heads and we started spending it. We spent some in real life and even more future profits in our heads. We’d buy boats, an island, planes, or whatever else we wanted. I never had a cell phone before, but I went and bought the most expensive one available at the time that only high powered executives could afford.
Soon we split into two teams and kept playing. We’d go to the business building at UT and play side by side, smirking at the business students who were cranking out their term papers. Within a few more days we reached $15,000.
I thought we were unstoppable. But Hayden, eternally more cautious than I, managed to unravel our strategy and do the math. We were getting lucky… the odds weren’t in our favor - they were just temporarily skewed and would catch up with us. As if on cue, Adam called to report a $5000 loss.
My whole world was crashing around me. The past couple weeks had me completely convinced I was on the fast track to wealth, and I didn’t want to let go of that dream. Reluctantly we cashed out and split the profits.
Adam spent his $5000 on cello camp that year, leaving him broke again the next.
My $5000 sat in the bank for a while until I decided to try again. More thorough this time I worked and worked to try to come up with a winning strategy. By some fate, one hit me. It couldn’t be that easy, could it?
Sure enough, the next few months proved that it could be that easy. I wasn’t making much, but $100 per day for just an hour or two of work became my routine. Some of the casinos would pay me like that first one did, others would stiff me. Some seemed to have the games rigged and I couldn’t win no matter what. As time passed I figured out which to trust and which to avoid.
I took my first job the next year. I wanted a car, but didn’t want to spend all my money on one, so I decided to get a job and pay myself back before quitting. Using most of the money I didn’t have in casinos I bought a 1985 Mercedes 380SE. It was my first Mercedes, and I was loved it.
My job was delivering pizzas, and I only needed to work for two months to recover the money spent on the car. Every day delivering in my Mercedes I would make $100, and then I would go home and make about that much gambling in just a few minutes. As pizza delivering became more boring, the gambling thing looked more attractive.
In a fit of irony my car actually broke on the way home when I was one day away from earning enough to pay myself back for it. The timing chain was broken and the car was totalled.
So much for a real job. I needed to focus on gambling and buy another Mercedes.
Shortly after, I decided to drop out of school. Class was getting in the way of gambling and thanks to Papa Johns Pizza, I knew I would never get a real job again - the money isn’t good enough to justify giving up my precious time. With gambling I could play whenever I wanted, take time off when I wanted, and play from anywhere in the world.
I gleefully marched into the UT counselor’s office.
“What can I help you with today?”
“I’d like to drop out”
“Oh… ok. Well.. why would you want to do that?”
“Because I don’t like doing this, so I’m not going to”
“I’ll just mark it as a semester off so that you can come back”
“No. I’m done.”
And I was done. It felt surprisingly good.
Calling my mother didn’t feel quite as good. In her life priority list, school is a clear number one. And possibly numbers two and three too. The conversation ended when she hung up on me :
“… Fine Tynan. Go play some poker. *click* ”
It seemed like a good enough idea to me. She was convinced for a long time that I wasn’t making any money. I’ll never forget the quote : “Tynan, if you took a second and actually added up how much you won and lost, you’d find out that you were actually losing.”
She was wrong, though. My monthly income doubled within a few months of dropping out. After a few months she began speaking with me again, and eventually gave me some of the money they had saved up for college to use in my gambling business. After that my income hit six figures and stayed there.
The next six years, peppered with a few stressful disasters, was pretty smooth sailing. I never worked more than 20 hours a week, and often less than 10. I hired employees, got an office, and had custom accounting software written. I even paid my taxes.
Finally I burnt out, though. It occured to me that although it was easy enough to make a huge salary every year, I was never going to become a multi millionaire from gambling. It has a limit. Also, after playing millions of dollars of hands every year, I just got sick of seeing casinos.
Yesterday after a business partner reneged on a deal that we made, I decided it’s finally time to quit and move on to bigger and better things. I’ll still deal with my existing cashouts, but within a month or two I’ll probably be done with gambling for life. It’s a bittersweet goodbye, since gambling was so incredibly profitable and fun for me.
It seems like a dumb idea to forfeit so much easy money, but the fact is that I don’t enjoy it anymore. I really believe that it’s important to enjoy what one does, so I’m going to work on becoming a rapper.
If you want to try gambling, there’s one casino that is head and shoulders above the rest : Casino-on-Net. During my six years, I have never had a bad experience with them or heard of them ripping someone off. This is very rare : almost every other casino has ripped someone off at some point. I’ve also seen Casino-on-Net pay out over $100k in one time, so if you win big you can rest assured you will get paid. Many casinos will never pay you if you win a lot. Best of all, they still give you $200 if you deposit $200 of your own money. With a head start like that, the odds are stacked in your favor (just don’t go playing keno or something like that). They also have some of the best Blackjack rules around. To give it a try, visit the casino now. You can also sign up for a demo account there if you want to try the double Martingale system and see how gut wrenching it is without risking money.
Two gambling related books that I love are : Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions and
Busting Vegas : The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees.
Good luck!
(4 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
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February 18th, 2006 at 11:23 am
This is fairly new in Croatia, only recently did I acctually see a casion in RL. I did won a few bucks on those rotary machines…. nice to hear the cash dingling down there
Small profit, big fun!
February 18th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
What’s with that query string in the link to the casino? Part of the affiliate program? Are you making money off the people you send there?
February 18th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
Sean, yes I am. It is one of the lower paying affiliate programs - but I recommend it because it is the most trustworthy casino by far. Before I had earned commissions from them I recommended it for free.
February 19th, 2006 at 12:04 am
Why not just keep the existing cashflow and use it to buy a business that you’re seriously interested in if the casino business doesn’t require your constant supervision and attention?
No one goes into the real estate because they absolutely LOVE apartment buildings and houses, they go in for the cashflow & appreciation which can be leveraged for bigger and better things.
February 19th, 2006 at 1:31 am
AsianPlayboy, I assume it also has to do with the time. As they say time is money, and Tynan thinks he can invest his time better.
But Tynan you said there was a flaw in the system, and that you developed a better strategy, but you aren’t revealing it.
Now first of all, the The Double Martingale System looks solid, but you say there’s a flaw. So I’ll think about it, I’m sure i can find it. But is the flaw there in the theory or only in the application of it?
Also do you think it’s possible to figure out a winning system without first playing a hand?
Also is casino-on-net US only?
I would never have thought it was actually possible to ever consistently top the house, but this has me intrigued so I’ll take a look into it.
February 19th, 2006 at 1:38 am
Asian Playboy :
The problem is that it does require my intermittent involvement, and when it does require my involvement, it usually means that there’s a huge fire I need to deal with. I’m thinking about continuing at a smaller scale, mainly because my brother needs a job.
Vierstein :
There’s a lot of debate over whether or not the Double Martingale System has a flaw or not. I believe, as do most people, that it does. The practical problem is that eventually you will need to do huge bets, so it requires an infinite bankroll.
I think it might be possible to figure out a winning system without playing if you understand every subtlety of the game already. I would at least play for fake money to see how it works.
Casino on Net is international. I’m pretty sure they accept registration from any country.
It is very possible to top the house. You may want to check out those MIT books to see how they did it. It’s pretty fascinating stuff.
Tynan
February 19th, 2006 at 1:45 am
Vierstein:
Also, to full answer your question - Yes, I have a better system. I can’t share it because of existing obligations to colleagues, but honestly I wouldn’t share it even if I could. If too many people do it, it will end, and who knows if I might need it in the future.
Dedicated people may figure it out. Casino on Net is actually particularly vulnerable to my strategy (though there are a few shadier casinos which are even more vulnerable).
Tynan
February 19th, 2006 at 5:33 am
How about roullete? Yesterday on Casino on net I went from 1000$ to 6000$ in a few hours, but then lost it all cos I was playing and reading help at the same time :). At first I was loosing big, and come to conclusion that they arent very smart or are really honest letting me lose FAKE money. Im seriously thinking of spending 200$ on this… it will make an interesting story though :))))
February 19th, 2006 at 6:42 am
So far so good on the practice. I can totally see how you would get bored with this and want to move on though. It’s hard to concentrate and remember betting/winning after a while.
February 19th, 2006 at 7:25 am
[...] When I became a professional gambler things got interesting. If I won I would be ecstatic and in a great mood for the rest of the day. If I lost I would be detached and moody. After a few months of this it became obvious that something had to change. But what was also obvious is that I COULD be happy almost any time I wanted. [...]
February 19th, 2006 at 9:00 am
Ahhh you are a bad influence! I just wiered 50$ in casino, real money man, money I bleeded for and worked phisically! Well I got 70$ gift and won additionall 30$. Now I have cashed out my initiall bloody real 50$, so now im just playing along with the rest 100$. NICE!! Shit… im sick whit all the excitement, this is a LOT of money for me.
February 19th, 2006 at 9:42 am
Bender : Awesome! Congrats on your win… now maybe less bleeding and working physically this month?
Tynan
February 20th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Is your formula mathamatically sound?
Or have you just got lucky?
I only know one formula that is mathamatically sound, and thats the dealers!!!!
ps Do you count cards in your formula?
February 20th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
It’s mathematically sound. It would have to be for near daily playing over 6 years. Unfortunately I can’t talk about the strategy…
February 22nd, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Just out of curiosity, what types of gambling where you doing? Blackjack? Poker? Anything else?
And which one provided most of your income?
March 7th, 2006 at 5:56 am
Vierstein, here’s the flaw:
With the double martingale, if the betting unit is $1, and your bankroll is $255, and your win chance is approx 47%, you’d have a 99.7% chance of winning an average of $1.68, but everytime you do lose, you lose your entire bankroll of $255.
If you, at those times, manage to hustle together the additional $511 needed to try one more round, you have a 47% percent chance of winning and walking away with a measly $9 dollar profit, once all your debts are paid of. You have a %53 chance of losing AGAIN, this time needing $1023 (really time to harass friends and family) and if you (and you still have a less than %50-percent chance, depending on the game, of course) manage to win, you’ll only walk away with a $10 profit — that’s popcorn and a movie for putting your life on the line!
Everytime you double+one your maximum bankroll (your bankroll is never better than the highest martingale number it contains: $500 still has as much chance of losing as $255; you’d need to have $511 to make a difference) you still only increase your average winnings by a couple of cents, while actually also increasing your average losses (because even though you’d lose half as often, you’d lose more than twice as much each time!).
So your total wins are always, no matter how you adjust the numbers, less than your total losses. It might take a while to actually run into a loss, but as you start to play hundreds of times, they WILL happen, and you will lose EVERYTHING those times.
I thought this blog entry was intended as a parody on Steve Pavlina’s “How I became a card counter”-article, much like many other entries on this blog are hilarious Pavlina parodies (If Steve posts about making money of his blog, you can be sure that Ty will post about that, too). The referral link to a casino last gives it a sour aftertaste, though, as Ty will make a profit from everyone who gets their hopes up from the article.
Making money without working is appealing, and I’m all for not working, but it’s a shame when it is done by scamming average, hard-working people. Ty’s affiliate-laden marketing of The Skinny Snob feels similarly dishonest.
Good luck with your further endeavours!
March 7th, 2006 at 10:39 am
Sunnan,
It is not a mathematically sound strategy, of course.
“We were getting lucky… the odds weren’t in our favor - they were just temporarily skewed and would catch up with us. As if on cue, Adam called to report a $5000 loss.”
However, the post is no parody. I really was a professional gambler for the past six years, and casino on net really is the best casino to play at. Do I get paid when people go there? Yes. What’s wrong with that?
I actually don’t like the way I have to market The Skinny Snob, but the fact is that it is the healthiest and best way to lose weight (except maybe raw foods, which no one will do), and I’m happy to market aggressively to get it in the hands of people who need it.
March 9th, 2006 at 3:45 am
“Do I get paid when people go there? Yes. What’s wrong with that?”
I’ve been trying to think less in terms of absolute right and wrong, lately, but I’m usually a bit wary of profiting on telling people to do things they don’t need and that might actually be harmful to them, you know?
It’s a semi-dishonesty that kind of sours the relationship.
I live in a town where one of the biggest employers is a betting corporation, and at school we were several people who declined working with this corporation for ethical reasons. One of us had worked with poverty outreach, and had met enough people who’ve lost their houses and families to gambling to ever want to work for a place like that. As for me, just the fact that they market their game with “you can be a winner”, “you can win thousands” felt so dishonest, because the house wins the lottery every week.
Working for the lottery corporation just didn’t feel like a worthwhile endeavor.
Personally, and I’m speaking strictly for myself, I feel less like a leech when I’m on welfare than if I were working for a gambling or marketing corporation, or if I were in production of something that still would end up on the dump (we’re throwing away so many unsold goods! that’s market forces for you).
I might not contribute to society in any way that counts in the eyes of The Man, (although I do try to help out my friends as much as I can,) but at least I’m not actively harming society, our planet or other people.
As for The Skinny Snob, the way its marketed right now really makes lowers the credibility of both it and its author; I’m sure the thought has crossed more minds than mine that you didn’t actually write it. Your link to it is not an explicit referral URI, as many other sites that market this books similarly has, but maybe (I occasionally, but not always, think) you have some other deal with them — maybe as simple as them checking their logs for the referral. Or maybe you’re behind the entire operation.
If you believe that raw foods are the healthiest (personally, I’m more of a grains and beans kind of vegan, but I’ve been eating a lot of fruit as I’ve been transitioning to polyphasic) then tell people that! Some will listen.
Just like when I tell people about what I subjectively perceive as horrible flaws in our society’s current model for dividing/distributing tasks and resources, many people will just believe that I’m some sort of “smug, naive commie”, especially since it’s a topic I like to talk about without irony, and people are used to irony when it comes to that matter. But some will listen.
March 9th, 2006 at 10:52 am
The book is, in fact, written entirely by me. As you know, I’ve only been eating raw for one month, so it would be irresponsible for me to push that as the tried and true healthiest diet. I wrote the Skinny Snob not because I wanted to write a diet book, but because I ate like that for 8 months and saw great results.
March 9th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
Right, I guess I agree about not pushing the raw diet; however, it’s the marketing that’s the problem.
March 15th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
I am interested in learning which games you were playing as well.
I don’t really feel like slaving away for the rest of my life while someone else above me in the food chain gets rich off of my sweat and time!
I suppose finding a way to break the cycle is the key…I’m not saying gambling is the way. It is called gambling for a reason. I see it as an option I have not given serious, analytical thought to.
I would love to work only 10 hours a day…that way I could work on writing my books and movie scripts that are swimming through my head!!! I could do that now, but the worries of life and debt are large interferences.
Maybe I will look into it!
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:01 pm
I’d also like to know which games you played and which offered you the best return on your investment. Was it: Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat, Poker, Craps? Slots and Keno are just luck, but the previously mentioned ones have decent odds of winning. If it was blackjack, did you count cards like how the MIT students did?
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:03 pm
I’ve played most games in different circumstances. However, 70% of my play or more was on Video Poker. It offers the best odds consistently.
March 27th, 2006 at 7:58 pm
Ty,
Thanks for the interesting read. Did you ever get that second Mercedes?
You mentioned that you were making six figures a year but was that low, mid, or high? Couldn’t you have become that multi-millionaire if you expanded your work force or the time you spent on it?
May 19th, 2006 at 1:59 am
[...] There is an article in Better Than Your Boyfriend about Tynan’s online gambling history. He played with a 70% edge over the house on video poker using a system he didn’t reveal, of course. A 70% gambling edge is a fucking hell of an edge and I drooled at the idea of that. But I have no system like that. [...]
May 21st, 2006 at 5:39 pm
Tynan never said he had a 70% edge over the house; he said he played video poker 70% of the time.
But I do have a question: If video poker is the game he made his money on, why would he have “huge fires” to put out? It’s not like one can bet $5k, $10k, $25k on a single video poker hand and blow your fortune in a single day. It’s a slow war of attrition, not a sudden fire. Something smells fishy here.
May 31st, 2006 at 12:11 am
OK, I’ve been thinking about this every now and then. And I’m gonna take a look around the demo and see if i can find a winning strategy. but tell me this. You say you figured out one strategy, and yet you say that you played different games. so was this strategy applicable to many games? like the double martingale?
I can’t think of anything of the top of my head, but I’ll check out the odds and see if i can work out anything mathematically, i was always a whiz in maths, should come in handy.
June 12th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
There’s always the strategy of Bonus stealing. Sign up at different casinos or at the same casino but with different accounts, get the $200 bonus, and play something with very low house odds, like Ty’s Video poker, and you’ll walk away with a good portion of that free bonus. Repeat 3 times a day and make about $100k a year.
Sounds good, but by now most casinos have ways to combat such tactics.
June 17th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
It’s probably reckless to suggest that the most enjoyment you get out of gambling is actually to play the fun games like poker for their own sake, and steer clear of the totally random ones like Roulette.
The idea of a mathematically sound gambling model, however, is appealing to all. I pretty much understand why Ty is keeping it to his chest, even without his obligations. If you’re smart, go figure one out yourself. I can’t!
June 19th, 2006 at 1:35 am
[...] The essence of the speech is that EV is king. EV is expected value, a term used commonly in the gambling world. I would explain what it is, but if you listen to the lecture you will have a better understanding and then I won’t have to type as much. [...]
July 11th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
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October 29th, 2006 at 1:15 am
Diesel Mercedes W123 models are notoriously endurant cars, lasting well into the hundreds of thousands of miles. If it’s the classic Mercedes look you seek, I’d recommend one. They’re most commonly found in models: 200, 240, 280, 300, 350, etc. If you find one in good enough physical shape with around 150,000 miles or less it makes a great initial purchase. But if you don’t plan on disposing of it when something breaks, the price will catch up to you very quickly. A twenty year old Mercedes is still a Mercedes so maintenance costs are still high as they were in 1981.
November 3rd, 2006 at 5:50 pm
Tynan, your gambling secret is STILL on my mind! I even took a trip to Vegas this year and I couldn’t stop thinking about it while I was there. Take pity on a poor chap and at least answer this question: Would your strategy work equally well in real-life casinos, or is it more limited to the realm of the internet? By the way, I believe internet gambling was recently made illegal by congress. Not 100% sure on that, though.
November 15th, 2006 at 6:55 am
I’ve played a similar strategy, and it did work for me. The key was to always start low, and work it up, bit by bit. I believe you always took the total amount you had lost and bet it plus some, or doubled it, depending on where you were. No matter when you did win, you always won all you had lost and then some, exponentially to the number of times you had lost.
The flaw I found:
You’re playing with statistics.
There’s a 50% chance you will win $1 when you play one “set”.
75% Chance at $3
87.5% chance at ….?
etc etc etc.
The more rounds you can make, the larger percent chance you have to win.
The value I calculated was based on the amount you would win multiplied by the percent chance you have to win it.
If you take the value of 6 rounds, you have $XX, a good deal of money, but if you subtract that percent total from 100, you get the percent chance you will lose all in 6 rounds. (0.0156%) When you multiply that percentage times the amount you would lose if you passed 6 rounds, I believe it exceedes the amount you would have won in 6 rounds, statistically.
Sure it’s a very small percentage, and it gets smaller and smaller the more rounds you are able to cover, (that’s why you stay SMALL, don’t get greedy or you cut your number of rounds rapidly) but there’s always that chance you will lose it because you can’t afford the last of a set. In reality, many patterns will earn you money at a steady rate for the most part, for hours on end possibly because you have not had the ill luck of a losing streak of 15 losses, but in theory it will happen. True, if you play for a couple days, 100 games or so, you should be safe, but you end up multiplying that small chance you will lose by the number of times you play a set. Play a week, you should be alright. Play a couple months? 0.0156% * 5000 games (random est.) gives you 78% chance of losing all if I am correct. (saying you quite at 6 rounds) But…the more rounds you can play, the safer you are, and if you keep adding the money so you can go more and more rounds, you may just be fine. (make sure there is no max bet. That just SUCKS.)
In the real world, you should be able to pull this off if you can start out with enough to cover 6-8 rounds. The key to not getting screwed by statistics is to take a steady wage out as time goes by, and you won’t lose it. Believe me, if you are at 9, 10 rounds of losing in a row, you *know* you have to win the next time, no matter the cost, but at that point you still have a 50-50 chance of winning or losing all your money.
So yes, it can work, and yes it can be risky as well.
Bid:
1
4
8
15
30
60
120
240
480
960
Something of that sort should work if you have enough to cover.
Be safe if anyone tries it….I just may go for real money some time now that I think of it. Using strategies such as this I would be able to take $100 and play for an hour or two and earn a couple hundred more. It’s always tempting to start out with 5 or 10 though, but that really kills you fast. Stick with the slow and steady because flukes do happen.
If you have more questions, email me: webmaster (a t) aximilation.com
December 4th, 2006 at 4:02 am
So you gambled online for 6 years but couldn’t google for some math?
(wizardofodds.com has great information on gambling and odds)
There is not betting system that will beat a game with a house edge, negative expectation or whatever you prefer to call it. The Martingale system will make you lose more money than flat-betting. If anyone thinks otherwise he is welcome to put his money where his mouth is and I’ll take a bet of any size, that his betting system does not work.
There is a way to beat online casinos of course, since they give out 100% or higher bonuses. The house edge will only eat from your bonus as you play towards the wagering requirements.
January 5th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
CZ is correct- you got lucky. You can’t turn a -EV wager into a +EV wager by changing betting patterns. It’s not mathematically sound.
January 6th, 2007 at 2:42 am
Conclusion: bullshit.
March 2nd, 2007 at 3:16 pm
I think you’re playing on human emotions and greed in order to get people to click those links…. You’re a low life
March 2nd, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Just click the links, Rupert. Do it.
Tynan
March 6th, 2007 at 9:47 am
well i clicked the link, and they dont offer real money game to players in the us. I thought I heard that on the news somewhere. THanks for nothing. haha. Kidding.
Anyways, Ive always been interested in casino’s and cant wait to have moeny to go to a real one. Vegas for my 21st b-day in like 1 year. But everytime i play the casino games online or just video game verisons im alwasy stuck on roulette. It seems to give the best payout, and i think the stratgeys could vary aloT on this game.
March 6th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Yeah, it’s no longer possible to legally gamble in the US. Glad I’m already out…
Tynan
March 6th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Tynan,
Now that internet gambling is illegal, can you finally reveal what your secret method was? I have an idea of what it was, but don’t want to blurt it out without your permission. (I’ll make an acronym out of my explanation though, to keep it in code for now: YUMCWPBPTPVP2HADA1POTGASLTP).
March 7th, 2007 at 12:00 am
I’ll never tell… for a bunch of reasons.
March 7th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Not even if I waterboard ya?
March 7th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
wolfy ty won t tell so please explain your acronym so we can further this debate….
March 8th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
If Tynan’s not talking then I better not either.
April 15th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
There’s a reason why the Martingale system is also known as ‘the gamblers ruin’ - because that’s what it will do to you in the long run.
Any Professional Gambler will tell you that if you can’t show a profit using level stakes - then no other staking plan will work.
You are ‘chasing’ if you use Martingale, progressively betting that will prove destructive to your finances and to your wellbeing no doubt.
The odds are against you on every hand you play so you cannot win in the long term.
If there’s one thing to take from this whole page it should be this: THERE IS NO SECRET FORMULA TO MAKE MONEY FROM GAMBLING - END OF.
April 22nd, 2007 at 8:24 pm
rr
May 3rd, 2007 at 5:55 pm
I can’t believe that, with all the comments that are here, none of them address how utterly ridiculous is the notion that some kid plays online poker and calls himself a “professional gambler.”
May 14th, 2007 at 1:15 am
fuck u tynan idiot…i think u r promoting gambling website…fucking affliate
May 21st, 2007 at 9:08 am
Hello,
People the story above is obviously to trick you in to playing online casino’s! Don’t do it!
As far as professional gambling?
Daniel Negreanu and other braceletholders are profesional gamblers, they play POKER!
If you do play casino games, it’s all in the head. As long as you think long-term profits and don’t ‘Tilt’ while placing bets. U can call your self a Pro.
U can’t play for fun or entertainment if u wanna be like a pro. See a bet as an investment to make money.
There is a difference between playing for fun and making money. Its al decided mentally.
maybe it’s bullshit, maybe not. You decide
June 29th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
gambling online, online gambling, gambling systems,gambling system, …
Hi, great read! I thoroughly enjoyed!, Hello, i loved reading, two thumbs up!,…
September 4th, 2007 at 8:31 am
After reading all this, if anyone is really truly interested in exploring the whole idea of becoming a professional gambler, they should check a book called “How to make $100,000 a year gambling for a living” by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth. The real key is to only play games where skillful play can result in a player advantage. The long and short of it is that games like: poker, blackjack (using card counting and a favorable situation–such as single deck games), sports betting and special promotions (such as internet casino bonuses). Then of course, you need to know how to manage money because even if you are playing “beatable” games as described above, your results can still vary tremendously (statistically speaking). Also, if you think about it, in poker you are not playing against the house–you simply need to be a better player than your competition! I lived in Vegas for 7 years and the most successful people I knew were poker players. This should tell us something. With sports betting, the whole world has changed in recent years. You can still get online at offshore sportsbooks (even with that stupid law Bush signed earlier)…and by the way, technically speaking internet gambling for US citizens is NOT and has NOT been made illegal. What the law did was make it illegal for the casino’s (and their banks) to accept the money specifically for the purpose of gambling. You can still find ways around these regulations.
Yes, sportsbooks. There are so many different ways to bet sports now that the traditional pointspread betting has to a large degree gone out the window. Just look at some offshore books and see the vast array of teasers (where you can actually move the spread in 2+ games…you do have to win both to win money, though), point buying opportunities, totals wagering, etc…. Sportsbooks will run promotions and advertise bets that they know they can be beaten at! Before the boards jumps all over me for saying this, understand that this is MARKETING. They know that most players will come on board, trying out their latest gimmick. Maybe they have some early success. However, then they start playing other games (maybe in the casino) or making other sports wagers that they not have the knowledge to bet profitably. This has the effect of eating away all their initial profits and maybe even giving back most of their original stake.
I know this post has been rambling a bit, but I hope I have given some useful information. Bottom line is that I think (heck, I KNOW) it’s possible to be successful at gambling, but it requires focusing on beatable games, and a large amount of discipline, self-control, and excellent money management (as well as a solid bankroll going in to weather short-term fluctuations).
November 8th, 2007 at 12:32 am
[...] How I Became a Famous Pickup Artist Breaking into the Tunnels under UT Living with Courtney Love What happens when you put a 3100 Gallon Swimming Pool in your Living Room? Why I Don’t Drink Exploring Airman’s Cave How to Have an Interesting Life Night Swimming Quintessential Man Trying to Pick Up Topanga (and Failed Miserably) How to ALWAYS Be Happy Buying and Converting a School Bus How I Became a Pro Gambler [...]
March 25th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
lets clear things up for you guys reading this.
-tynan will not post his money making system
-yes tynan is making money from people signing up to the casino
-and yes tynan was a profesional gambler
if you want to ask for his system, then just click the x on the top right hand corner. seriously just understand that he cares more about his friends then he ever will about you. so for this reason he will never tell any of you his winning formula. and if that makes him a bad person then so be it…
all of a sudden just because he put links up to the website, he is a cheat and a scumbag? wow you guys are morons, hes currently travelling the world, he needs to make a few extra bucks some how.
and to all those people doubting that tynan was even a gambler making tonnes of money, read “the game” written by Neil Strauss, who documented his journey becoming a PUA, he says “Herbal T (tynan) runs a shady gambling operation” or something along those lines. so thats proof right there.
i asked tynan on his forum about gambling, and he pointed me to the casino on net website, without the affiliate link, which just proves that he isnt all about scamming people. i mean jesus, if it offends you that much that he insterted the link, just fucking go to google and go to the casino on net from their and then try it out.
if you want to send me hate mail then go ahead, i couldnt care less, moose5@hotmail.co.uk
//im just saying it as it is.
and for all those who agree with me, thank god there are some sane people around here.
anyways regardless, have a nice day!
March 30th, 2008 at 12:18 am
the person that wrote this article is a bullshitting liar, don’t take any notice of it