The concept of becoming a professional gambler appeals to many amateur gamblers. Many of them are taking it seriously, relocating to Las Vegas or Atlantic City and spending their days around the blackjack or poker tables or at the sportsbook or race book. Most of them return home broke and disappointed, few of them actually make it.
Becoming a professional gambler is not as easy as it seem. Being a talented poker or blackjack player with a background of notable winning is not always enough. Having unlimited funding is always an advantage, but cannot assure you a successful gambling career, the same goes for luck. In order to become a professional gambler, you must have different qualities such as high tolerance, ability to focus, realistic but positive perspective, high level of self discipline, and more.
For starters, in order to become a professional gambler, you must have a big enough bankroll that will be able to cover up your losses. At one point or the other, you will find yourself losing. Every professional gambler, as skilled and talented as he might be, is going through losing periods. You cannot avoid losing but the least you can do is be prepared in advance.
Many of the people who give up their professional gambling career aspiration do it because they did not take care of a sufficient bankroll to cover up their unexpected losses. A realistic bankroll is estimated as a minimum of 100,000 dollars. Realism, by the way, is a key word. Although gambling for a living may sound like a dream job, you must wake up and be aware to all the realistic aspects of it.
Whether you intend to be a professional blackjack or poker player, sports bettor or horse racing handicapper, you should learn to master your gambling field. It means reading every book available on the market, learning every strategy and betting system, practicing your play and writing notes after each playing session. If you want to become a professional blackjack player, learn all about card counting, shuffle tracking and the optimal blackjack strategy. If poker is the field of your experts, become a master in poker strategy, poker tells, etc.
How to Make 100,000 Dollars a Year Gambling for a Living authored by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth is a good book to start. It is one of the most comprehensive books ever written about the subject and it covers most of the ways to gamble for a living including professional poker, blackjack, video poker, sports betting, horse racing betting, casinos promotions and more. For further information on the subject, you can pick up tips from the internet and/or even attend gambling conferences.
However, as I mentioned in the beginning of the article, becoming a professional gambler requires much more than a gaming skill. First, it requires a strong character and even stronger will to gamble professionally. It will not be easy. You are about to face tough competition, lose huge amounts of money, criticized by the society that will look at you as a parasite and a bum, and these are only few of the problems you are heading. Can you handle this? If you are keen about trying, and you can afford it financially, I say go for it.
Eden Katz is an amateur gambler who had gained vast experience in casino gambling and online casino gambling. She is the editor of an online casino portal that provides information on casinos for American players, poker, craps, baccarat and other casino games.
