Why do you do this stuff

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irish
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Re: Why do you do this stuff?

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Unread postby irish » Mon May 23, 2016 10:43 am

The interesting thing about this question is that many of the answers will be similar, but the order will be different. The money is less important to me than the challenge itself. In the grand scheme of things, the annual income (13 of 16 years in the black that I've been doing this) amounts on average to an extra two or three paychecks per year and the years that I've been in the red (3 times) it's amounted to less than a paycheck each year. The largest single session loss I've experienced was equivalent to one days pay and my worst weekend's loss was less than two days pay.

I like the challenge of doing something that others say can't be done. However, I have absolutely no interest in doing it more regularly. Sure, I'd like to get to play a bit more frequently, but not at the expense of seeing my daughters play soccer, or hanging out in the backyard pool, or playing board games with the family on Saturday night (although I'm no longer permitted to roll dice in any game in my household). It's a fallacious argument to say "If you can do this, you would do it full time." First, the minute throwing dice became a "job," it would no longer be fun. I also believe that to play at levels that are lifestyle sustaining would be far more difficult and perhaps impossible to sustain. Also, as far as I know, the casinos don't provide full medical/dental if you play regularly nor do they contribute to a 401K for you. Craps is but a small sliver of a full and satisfying life.

I'm actually a fairly talented painter. But I don't want to do it for a living. I'm pretty good at restoring old cars. But I don't want to do it for a living.

The fact is, I don't like the casino environment. It's the antithesis to my introverted nature. I don't have much in common with a good portion of casino clientele and most of the music played in casinos makes my skin crawl. And by most accounts, those that claim to play "regularly" in Vegas, suffer from delusions of grandeur despite being innumerate, paranoia, and a habit of mistaking a person's disagreement with them as persecution (sound much like the shortbussers?). Is there a correlation between living in Vegas and being a paranoid dumbass? Not a direct correlation, and there are certainly exceptions like the dice coach, but it appears that a large number of dumbasses move to Vegas. Thanks, but I'll stick to living in a world-class city and playing craps when I choose to.
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SHOOTITALL
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Re: Why do you do this stuff?

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Unread postby SHOOTITALL » Mon May 23, 2016 2:22 pm

I am with Irish here. My biggest weekend loss over the years was $500 bucks, where I entered a dice tournament and had no clue what I was doing. As those familiar with my playing know, I am cheap. I am thrilled to beat the bastards out of a buck and give that away. Since I had my first class in 2002 with PARR, where I met Irish, RR, Heavy, Carrol, et al. We still be friends. Now, as my mobility deteriorates, I go less and less to a casino. With Irish, the atmosphere is horrible. I also hate seeing old, young middle age degenerate gamblers as that makes me really sad that these scumbag casinos take advantage of their weakness and addiction. LV is the worse where you see old folks that should be playing with their grandchildren working minimum wage jobs in the middle of the night. But, I do enjoy matching wits with the craps pit. Oh, BTW: that loss was in 1978. sia
"It is unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've played all your life."
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