Recently on the videopoker.com internet forum there were some posters saying they would hate to hear such a phrase from their daughters. That forum is primarily frequented by recreational gamblers who don’t know any, or many, successful professional gamblers.
I happen to know a lot of successful professionals. As a thought exercise, I wondered how I would deal with such a situation. I don’t have any children, but my brother’s youngest is unmarried and in her mid-20s, so I’m going to pretend that she found such a guy and asked for my two cents worth.
First of all, I’d want to talk to the guy and hope that he would answer some questions about his profession. Questions such as: What game(s) do you play? Where do you play? Who are your gurus? Tell me about your biggest losing streak and how that affected the rest of life? How successful have you been over the past five years? May I see your records?
These are tough “none of my business” kind of questions, but gamblers talk to each other and I’m approaching “elder statesman” status among successful gamblers, especially because of the Gambling with an Edge radio show. I will assume this guy would talk to me.
The bottom line for any professional gambler requires affirmative responses to some combination of the following questions: Are you good enough to support yourself and your family? Do you have a track record that “proves” this? Have you been able to accumulate and keep a bankroll?
If he counts cards at blackjack, I’d ask him what else he does. Card counting is easily identified by casinos and counters are regularly backed off. If that’s the only game he plays, he’s very likely not going to last long. If this is only one game in his bag of tricks, but he has many other games as well, that’s better.
If he belongs to or runs a team, I’d ask him about the structure of the team and to tell me about his fellow workers. He doesn’t have to tell me their names. I’ll be able to tell just by the way they run things whether or not they’ve carefully thought through these things.
If he plays poker, I’d ask him what games he plays and whether he is planning on learning any more. Is he “self taught,” or has he read “everything,” or somewhere in between? What stakes does he usually play for? How has that gone for him?
And I’d listen to all of his answers. I’ve been around enough professionals so that I think I would have a pretty good feel whether this kid was the real McCoy or trying to put one over on me (or possibly on himself.) There are not a lot of people who can maintain a professional gambler lifestyle and keep a family along with it. But some of us do, more or less.
At the same time, if this young man was able to demonstrate his skill and knowledge and desire, why not? It’s his life to live. I don’t recommend it to anybody because so few can do it. The right combination of brains, discipline, willingness to undergo risk, lack of destructive habits, etc. is fairly rare. Plus, there are many downsides to it and, other than money and comps, few upsids. A number of people want to turn pro after one successful trip to Las Vegas. They, erroneously, believe that all trips in the future will be equally successful. But if he can “walk the walk” and he wants to pursue this career, far be it from me to stand in his way. He would have my complete blessing.
As long as we’re hypothetical here, let’s look at what would happen if he didn’t “pass my test.” I am, after all, rather anal in my preparation for success and it’s possible I would conclude that he isn’t going to make it. I assume that he and my niece would get married anyway. After all, they’re young and in love. I’d tell him why I thought he wasn’t going to make it and what he needed to do to get better. And then I’d help him any way I could. After all, that’s what family is all about.