Hooligans Sportsbook

Wanted: Winning gambler

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durito
Did you ever meet Fishhead playing slots?
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I've wondered about that, actually. Possibly. My face blindness makes me really bad at recognizing other hustlers.

Anyway, probably not, he was mostly/entirely in Vegas, and I did very little with the machines in Vegas. He does, however, seem to know what he's talking about in that arena, shocking as that might be.
 
MrX
As an interesting side-note, Chris was married, even as a grad student when I met him. He had to ask his wife if it was okay with her for him to play some poker with their money. She said that he could play with $20, and if he lost that, that was it. He never lost the $20 and never added any outside money. That original $20 has grown into his current gambling bankroll, which I'm sure is over a million.
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this sounds apocryphal
 
MrX
Actually, I barely knew him when he brought up the idea of a poker game. It was the game, not him, that interested me. We were both mildly obsessed with pinball, and that was the only environment I knew him from. He became a partner in crime. We talked a lot about poker in the following year. We shared books and took trips to the riverboat casinos. As he progressed with his phd work, he played less and I started playing full time. We lost touch for a long time, but somewhere along the line he far surpassed me.

As an interesting side-note, Chris was married, even as a grad student when I met him. He had to ask his wife if it was okay with her for him to play some poker with their money. She said that he could play with $20, and if he lost that, that was it. He never lost the $20 and never added any outside money. That original $20 has grown into his current gambling bankroll, which I'm sure is over a million.





I transitioned out of poker several years before I began looking into sports. And I dabbled with modeling sports for a couple years before it became my main source of income. So, I'll treat it as two different questions.

After nine years, I was plenty sick of poker. I was lucky enough to be in a casino town that was really good place to be for some new types of banking slot machines, and I was lucky enough to notice them. They were a big bankroll booster and also a big eye-opener to the fact that there were many possibilities beyond poker. I spent the next few years playing various +EV machines and table games.

As far as sports goes, I had a friend who worked in the poker rooms who was good friends with a famous casino-security consultant. He was always talking about the various groups that were making a fortune doing this or that. He knew I liked to program, and had been telling me for a couple years that there was big money to be made modeling baseball.

Around this time, I ran into MrsX online. After a few months of writing and talking on the phone, I went to Detroit to visit her, and didn't leave. Being stuck in Detroit for awhile without much income potential, I decided to finally work on baseball. I only dabbled with it for a couple years before I got it right.



Good question. I generally do enjoy the little rush I get from having money on a game, but the cumulative effect is usually negative and I end up not watching the games. But even when not watching the games, I still like the excitement when checking the results. I like having what most people consider to be an interesting profession, so I guess there's some ego there, although I have no interest in aspiring to be "the best" or even "one of the best". I like the actual programming. Not all of the time, but when there's a nice elegant solution, it can be pretty satisfying.




I do, but I'm less sure about that than I used to be. I originally figured that I'd continue growing aggressively and retire as early as possible. The last couple of years, I've made a big shift towards optimizing my current quality of life instead of bankroll growth. I took an entire season off to go hiking, made my bet-staking less aggressive, and farmed out some of the more stressful aspects of my work. My expected growth is way down, but I'm much happier. I could proceed like this for a long time and be content. If I see an opportunity for big cash-grab, though, I'll gladly take it and quit altogether if I find myself with enough money.



I don't know. I think the thing about gambling is, as soon as you know you're supporting yourself gambling, and still leading a happy lifestyle, you're good.
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wow
 
MrX
Actually, I barely knew him when he brought up the idea of a poker game. It was the game, not him, that interested me. We were both mildly obsessed with pinball, and that was the only environment I knew him from. He became a partner in crime. We talked a lot about poker in the following year. We shared books and took trips to the riverboat casinos. As he progressed with his phd work, he played less and I started playing full time. We lost touch for a long time, but somewhere along the line he far surpassed me.
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If Tomato may, he is interested in this part.

You met this guy, he talked to you about poker. You were interested, so games developed. For a year you were partners, but then you grew apart.

At that point, you started doing the learning on your own part. Was this work largely independent, or were there new relationships formed?

If independent, where did you turn for resources? How did you know to look there? Was it by recommendation or intuition? Did anything you find really stimulate your interest and make you keep going? An example would be fantastic.

Also, was the learning that took place at this point what made you successful, or did you find it easier with your mentor/partner? Was there a situation where you had an epiphany or can point to as a turning point?

(You can probably tell it's an education class now)

Tomato promises he won't ask any more questions.
 
I would just like to add that I have seen Mr. X play and he is a pinball wizard. He actually had a crowd of people crowded around a pinball game that he was playing at Gameworks with people cheering. I overheard a guy on his phone to his friend say, "Dude, you've got to come see this!" referring to Mr. X's game play.

Also, he does this move where he slams the pinball machine with his hips to save the ball.....totally hot.
 
MrX be honest here. This guy who had such a profound impact on your career decisions....This is him, isn't it?

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