I’ve always been fascinated that someone could make their living gambling, so I was wondering how changes over the past 25 years have affected the number of professional video poker players in Las Vegas. I would guess that professional play on the Strip has long become untenable, but has play off the Strip also tightened in any way to significantly reduce the number of people who make a living playing VP? If so, could anyone estimate how much of a % decrease there has been in that time frame?
Making a living as a professional video poker player has always been hard work and very few do or did it without having at least some other source of income, such as investments, pensions, trust funds, part-time employment, etc. You’re right that today, the numbers are smaller than ever.
You’re also right that very few, if any, pros can find positive plays on the Strip.
Off-Strip casinos can still provide profits, but you really have to scramble and the edge is getting smaller all the time. According to our sources, few VP players can earn a full-time living playing just at the Vegas locals casinos. A profit, yes, but no longer a big one. Those who are most successful tend to be in information-sharing networks with other players who don’t want to get another “job.”
The big full-time advantage players travel all over the country – even around the world – hunting for positive plays. Most of them network with other big players and share scouting duties. They look for casino mistakes and plays that take special skills, but those are often at the table games (such as Phil Ivey and Cheung Yin Sun’s edge-sorting techniques). These super-advantage players have supreme math skills (or hook up with someone who does), so they can analyze all kinds of games in all kinds of ways for potential methods in beating them.
As far as we know, there has never been even an estimated number of professional video poker players; a good gambler generally tries to fly under the radar. So there’s really no way to know how many there used to be and how many there are now.
Here’s what Jean Scott says about it. “I know and talk to a lot of gamblers. There’s lots of griping! Some advantage players are still scrambling and can make a small profit. Many pros are playing less, because they can’t find good opportunities with a decent edge. Some are just counting comps as their profit; out-of-towners, for example, can cobble together a profit with free rooms, but even that’s getting harder and harder. Some pros I know are giving up and becoming recreational gamblers. And some are quitting entirely.”
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Don the Dentist
Apr-14-2017
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