How It All Began

I have recently written an article for a blog on the 888casino online gaming site:  http://blog.888casino.com/how-i-made-a-million-dollars-on-video-poker.  You might want to check out some of the other blog entries on the site, discussing blackjack, craps, and other gambling topics.

Since I do not play online personally and know little about the subject, I don’t endorse any particular online gaming site. But I do know that 888 legally offers real money gaming in the US only for players  physically in the state of New Jersey.

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4 Responses to How It All Began

  1. Janis Sampson says:

    I have read several articles referring to you and another couple winning $500,000. The articles always say that you won it in a slot machine contest. Am I to understand that you won this on a slot machine and not a video poker machine ? It doesn’t seem to me that you would be willing to risk even what the entry fee would have been on a slot machine. Am I wrong?

  2. Denis says:

    Great article Jean. Did not realize how much gambling experience you have accumulated. Amazing.
    Been playing FPDW for years at home using the training software. Also read your books.
    When we go to Vegas , every 2 years or so, i will play the right machine, Palms or Green Valley Ranch. Next time will play in other off strip casinos recommended on LVA. Nothing that pays well up here in Canada.
    Your article on 888 has reinforced my need for the gambling partner. A long time friend has shown interest recently. I will send him your article.
    Again thanks, keep writing and sharing, Denis

  3. Kevin Lewis says:

    Great article (the blog), Jean! I sense a common thread in yours and others’ “how I did it” stories–family support. Your parents had a bizarre view that dice were inherently evil but that spinning a spinner was OK (they are the exact same thing!)–and that a deck of cards was the spawn of the devil! That fanatic attitude obviously failed to rub off on you; nowadays, gambling doesn’t have the stigma attached to it that it did when we were growing up. But still, we face the issue of approval or disapproval from our families and friends when we tell them what we do (for a living, or for fun). I’m fortunate in that I didn’t have a family of fundamentalist crazies who would expect me to be struck by lightning every time I put a $20 in a video poker machine. That probably had a lot to do with the fact that my father made over $10,000 playing poker during the war and used it to start his first business, while my mom used to slaughter her friends at nickel-stakes gin rummy and used the money to go shopping.
    Spousal support is sooooo important. You and Brad have a fantastic partnership. If one had wanted to live the life you’ve had but the other didn’t, you never could have done it. I remember when I was married, I used to play poker at public cardrooms every Friday night. I didn’t play for fun–I played to make a little extra money. One Friday night, I brought home a $700 profit (a LOT of money back then). I retained my original $100 stake, and lost it next Friday night. My wife then berated me for “losing all that money” (!!!). If you’re married and want to be successful, your spouse simply MUST understand how the roller-coaster works and the fundamental concept that EV and results are not the same things at all. Bob Dancer has mentioned multiple times in his column the tribulations of trying to convince his various significant others of the realities of being a successful gambler. Strangely, though he’s obviously an intelligent man, the mates he chooses, according to his reports, lack the intellectual acumen to fully understand what he does. You and Brad, thankfully, have never had that problem, and though you mention other factors, I think that having a spouse who is fully on the same page as you has been the primary reason for your success.

  4. George Bauslaugh says:

    What amazed me, in your book Frugal Gambling, is that you lived in hotels, year round, for literally years. This was just based on mail offers, before you used hosts. Boy have times changed. But back then 1990’s, there was much more competition, among low-middle of the road properties.

    So Jean, how was living at casino hotels for a decade. What was it like, every day a new buffet and each week a different hotel?

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