Bankroll Question

Ok I do realise this question is massively theoretical due to the abundance of variables involved but hey what the hell..

What size bankroll would you estimate would be required to take a year or two off traveling the world playing bj,poker, etc. ?

Of course at the end of your travels you would need to be sure that you have more money than you start with.

Covering large expenses means that only a player with EXTREME skills can even attempt this.

The real problem is that a talented Card Counter has an overall edge that varies, but realistically speaking, tends to be near 1% of all monies wagered.

"Risk of Ruin" is not an issue as you are positing, by implication, a bottomless bankroll.

However, and here is the rub - The more you bet the tougher the game becomes as the casinos will strive ever harder to prevent you from profiting.

So, to answer your question in a pragmatic sense, not in terms of mathematics, there is no "size of bankroll" sufficient.

As the casino's manifest opposition to your attempts to make money is directly proportional to the stakes that you play.

To draw an analogy, as one gets closer to the speed of light time slows to zero and mass approaches infinity. (I think that I got that correct) L.O.L.

So ... in conclusion, reifying your fantasy is virtually impossible; although I suppose if you travel in steerage, live on stale bread, sleep under bridges, and accept a high probability that you will simply fail to win anything, then perhaps $50,000 will suffice --- presuming that you are VERY skilled of course..

There are many differences between foreign and US casinos:
A. Hole Card
I have played over 50 countries. Most foreign casinos don't have a hole card. American counters need making some adjustments on their BS and counting indexes. For example, one should surrender 14 versus 10, off-the-top, when early surrender is offered.
B. Limits
Most foreign casinos have smaller limits like $200.
C. Surrender
More casinos offer surrender. Many offer ES10 or even ESA.
D. BR
FX control prevent international APs bringing too big a BR.
I was jailed 76 days at Nepal for foreign exchange issues and paid $3,000 bribe
once on money exceeding declared amount. I was also stolen several
hundreds $ keeping money at hotel's safe which resulted further
loss from a robbery later.
E. Game Information
The bad news is there are no good information sources about non-USA games such as CBJN. Some non-USA trip reports scattered among internet and books such as this book and Jesse May's "Gambler's Guide to the World". This good news is good games are preserved longer.
F. Different Rules
Many different rules are offered abroad US. Noteworthy are:
* Early Surrender
Macau, Philipine, Malaysia... offer ES10, many Russian casinos offer full ES.
* ENHC
When no hole card, some casinos take double and splits when dealer's second card make blackjack, some don't. Players' basic strategy changes with the different rules... hit 11, surrender 8/8 against dealer 10 etc. Even dealer does not take double/splits with blackjack, players should still surrender 8/8 versus dealer 10.
* 5 cards early half win
Macau Lisboa offered 5 cards early half win. Some Vietnam and North Korea casinos follow suit offer this rules.
* D9 or D11
Malaysia and some Australia casinos offer D9. Macau Lisboa has some tables offer D11 and 5 cards early half win.
* 6 cards automatic win
* 777 pays 3 to 1
* Same suit BJ paid 2 to 1
* Same suit 678 pays 3 to 1
There were too many variations, don't leave home without Stanford Wong's "Professional Blackjack"!
G. Procedure Errors
Non-USA casinos tend to be less experienced than American casinos with more trackable shuffles. I didn't know the existence of shuffle tracking for the first 5 years of my full time CC life. I realized later I missed many opportunities. I learned shufflee tracking from Snyder's 3 articles at BJ Forum which were compiled into Shuffle Traker's Cook Book. ST is important not only as a profitable skill but also help greatly in playing life at the smaller foreign casinos allowing trakers betting bigger off-the-top. There weren't many trackable shuffles. I came across good sequential trackable shuffles, at my skill level, only about 10 times among the 600 casinos I played. There were more block trackable shuffles and many cuttable games.
H. Expenses
There are also higher travelling expenses.
I. Risk
There are higher risk carrying money around and higher risk playing abroad which may be partially off-set by better games abroad.
Conclusion:
How much you need depend on who you are and how much you know. I and my partner bought round-the-world tickets for about $3,000 each left Taiwan on Dec 14, 2004. We went back home twice during the trip with two seperate return tickets. Total travelling days 320... returned Taiwan exact Dec 14, 2005. We went to 9 countries and 12 cities.
Initial Bankroll $ 20,000
Won 181,000
Travelling Expenses 15,000
Hotel and Food 29,000
Been robbed 24,000... at Venezuella
Information Fee 10,000
BUT THIS WAS ME!

Thanks for the information and warnings BJTraveller.

Interesting to see your non living expenses were almost as big as your living expenses. Thats quite surprising.

Glad your ok after being robbed and other stuff too.

Cheers,
L4C

... go the entire year without winning a cent. Then you'd be out 100% of your expenses.

You could even lose a few thousand. So go from there. Depends on how far you want to travel and what hotels you prefer.

Of course it's more likely you'll win, but it's pretty unlikely you'll come out ahead after expenses. Not today. Not in the U.S. with simple counting.

Counting is a nice hobby; counting works. But it's not a way of life.
BJT would know better outside the U.S. But of course he doesn't stick to counting alone.

ETF

I still make most money from counting and can do it 2,000 hours a year without a problem. I won't disclose how and where of course... BJ advantage plays is an information business and "where" is part of the skill nowadays.

are high spread, new face, and short time. There are dozens cities with dozens casinos allowing a short time traveller enough table time to cover his/her expenses. Penetration may be poor like 50% which can be overcome by high spread. Good rules such as ES10 and rebates help of course. I can easily identify 30-40 safe countries with good enough games for adequate skill players enjoy "free" trips.

You have claimed that you have won lots of money, and I respectfully question your credibility. You are an oversea celebrity in gambling world. You have written gambling articles twice per week for a casino owner's newspapers. Most casinos have pictures of you and know who you're. Hmmmmm why do the oversea casinos allow you to keep your winnings? As most APs know that oversea casinos can easily confiscate an AP's winnings when an AP cashes in at the cage [i.e., Blauvets vs Hollywood Casino].

By the way, casinos are not that stupid at all. Here's an example how sharp a casino can be. A gambler sat next to me at a Las Vegas casino. Within 5 minutes, a single security supervisor tapped that gambler on his shoulder and told him to cash out. Neither the pitboss, the floorperson, nor the dealer was needed to get involved in throwing out that gambler. The eye-in-the-sky directly ordered the execution with the help of its computerized facial recognition systems. In conclusion, it's hard for me to accept your winning claims over a decade as if the casinos were "Forrest Gump". On the other hand, I'll accept your claims easily if you have made big money from casinos thru your teams like the Teamowners such as DD', Bigplayer, Mathboy, Blaine, etc...

I am suprised this comment coming so late...
International casinos operate quite different from American's.
1. I made money using many people(more than 300) from rebate program in early years(1992-5). Munchkin interviewed me on this matter before. The largets HK magazine used me as the cover story in 1995 reporting about the insidence.
2. I arranged MIT's JohnnyC played with me at Panama during my 2005 trip. Fiesta Casino refused cashing our chips. I went to the Gaming Commission which ordered the casino cashing for me. The insidence was reported by a Panama newspaper. I can show you Panama Gaming Commision's ruling paper to you if you want... I couldn't read that Spanish paper anyway.
3. I wrote gambling column for Macau's Shimindaily. The newspaper is owned by Macau's Lisboa Casino. Since all Macau casinos use CSMs on BJ, Lisboa Casino doesn't bar players now. I and a friend made 6.6 Million HK$ in 2007 from Casino Lisboa's affiliate casinos. Casino Lisboa cancelled rebate program on BJ but I was not barred. I reported this insidence in the Lisboa-owned newspaper column laughing at those stupid Macau Bacarrat players and Lisboa's foolish reabtes on BJ with no problem. I was invited by the newspaper without any interference from the casino and seemed the casino had the integrity ignoring a professional gambler laughing to its face. In fact I was also a guest lecture of casino financed gambling institute lecturing on the difference between pro and regular players.
4. I lived and played Moscow one year. Though most casinos were mafia-related, I came across no problem. It seemed international casinos were operated in a different, higher, ethic standard than American's.
5. I lived at Las Vegas three years organizing a small team, Griffin put a flyer on my team and used my picture from a LA newspaper when I gave sppech at LA... Griffin was not as powerful as you think internationally. Griffin has my picture but not my real name so I played freely all over the world never been bothered by Griffin's list.
6. I wrote articles for Arnold Snyder's BJForum, been interviewed by Richard Munchkin, been a partner with JM(he was a teammate of Uston), Mark Dace and MIT's JohnnyC playing at several countries. Don't you think they, with combined pro BJ years of over 100, can better judge on player's creditablity than you?

"As most APs know that oversea casinos can easily confiscate an AP's winnings when an AP cashes in at the cage..."
I don't know where you got such an idea? Yes there were insidences of non-payment by casinos but I bet for one such insidence there are 100 been honored...
* A 3-player team won US$1,000,000 from Genting Casino BJ tables in 2006 in 8 months. They got the money with no problem.
* Three Japanese took US$260,000 from a "Cambodia" casino in 2003 in a week. They got their money with no problem.
* I and a player took HK$5,600,000 from a Macau casino in 2007 in 6 weeks... got money no problem.
* A Latvia player made $1 M mark at Colombia playing non-USA in 8 years.
I played about 500 non-USA casinos coming across about 10 cheatngs. Don't you think casinos which don't honoring winnings would opt for cheatings first?

BJT, How. I'm new here and I intend travelling soon. I like to hear about others' experiences in various countries. Thanks for your input. You mentioned Russia. Did you see any 'triple down' when you were there? Did they use ENHC? How about s17? Did you play UK? Thanks again.

When I played Moscow in 1996. There were all kinds of good rules... I understood not so good now... haven't been there for many years, last time early 2004. Triple I belive was cancelled mostly. ENHC definately. Many CSMs. I played London very late until late 2006. I believe good rules exist mainly at less developed countries. I played London only a week. It was playable but I have better games.

You can read my trip reports on Egypt, Ecuador, Prague and Nepal from blackjackforumonline.com's library.

and customs will let you go through simple counting.