game selection

I have a ten thousand dollar bankroll, and will be moving to vegas in three weeks. I plan to play blackjack full time. How picky should I be concerning which games I choose to play? I have read that it isn't wise to play for more than one hour at any one casino. In order to have any chance of making enough money to survive I will need to play several hours a day. Also can anyone tell me when shifts generally begin and end
in a casino.

I have been doing this for a long time but never full time. That said, not knowing you or how much talent you might have, if I read your post correctly, you have little live time on the tables.
Learning to count, even quickly without errors is in my opinion the base for advantage play, but also about the simpliest part. Once you can count, now in order to make it effective you must choose good games, not fall into the superstitious traps of ploppies, have the guts to put out the big bets even if the casino is beating the heck out of you, and know that somedays you will loose a ton of money. Then you probably need the ability to have a jovial conversation with the pit while not loosing the count and using indices. It is late here, there are probably dozens of other things but I am sure others will add to this.
Also, I think your bankroll would prove way too small. Not too small to play red chips but to make a living playing red chip sounds unlikely. Also, if you are making money, you will probably need that money to live and will not be able to make your bankroll grow so you could increase your level of play.

As you mentioned, you'll want to keep your sessions short. (Personally, I wouldn't stay in one casino for more than half-an-hour). That means you'll be moving around a lot, which takes time. That will reduce your true hourly earnings and extend the length of your "work-day". If you lose big, you'll be welcomed back to that casino with open arms. If you win big, you'll quickly find yourself running out of places to play.

Your girlfriend will kick you to the curb, too. (Trust me; I know these things.) It sounds like a great plan now, but she'll get tired of humping ass to pay the bills while you take a year or longer to become self-sufficient at sitting on your ass playing a game, drinking at work and flirting with the cocktail waitresses. Your 10% bankroll ROR carries with it a 99% relationship ROR. You'll find yourself lying to her about your losses after you've had a particularly "bad day at the office". And there will plenty of days like that. Variance is funny that way.

It's a rare thing to find someone who shares your dream. It's even rarer to find someone who'll share your pipe-dream.

Hopefully, DD' will jump in here, if he's still around. I'd listen to him before I'd listen to anyone else.

O.K. Great stuff everybody. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to respond. Maybe I have more balls then brains, but time will tell if my BR will hold or not. I am not afraid of failure, or my girlfriend. (Well maybe a little afraid of my girlfriend.)

Does anyone know when shifts generally begin and end in a casino?

I want to comment on something you said:

If you lose big, you'll be welcomed back to that casino with open arms. If you win big, you'll quickly find yourself running out of places to play.

At some casinos in the boondocks, loosing will buy some longevity. However, more and more casinos will ignore losses in evaluating and rejecting a player. Paradoxically, sometimes a big loss will call attention to the player, which will lead to a tape review, and then Hasta La Vista.

This is especially true in Nevada. I would say that in Vegas casinos, a loosing record gets you almost nothing. It might help with some comps, but it doesn�t prevent back-offs. Many of my rejections have come from places where I have had a loosing record.

Now a second we need to mention is Risk of Ruin. The RoR equations are based on the premise that all winnings are re-invested in the bank. Here we are talking about taking some of those winnings and spending them on living expenses. This greatly increases the RoR.
Let us take an example. Suppose our player starts with his 10K bank, and makes 7K the first quarter. But he takes 5K out for expenses.

Next quarter he makes 3K, and takes another 5K out. The next quarter he loses 6K, and he can no longer take 5K out for expenses. After he spends 4K, he is bust.

Now as far as the RoR equations go, he has not tapped out. Indeed, the RoR equations think he his bankroll is now 14K. (The original 10K, plus 7K+3K-6K). But he is broke he has squandered that 14K on things like rent money and clothing.

This is a very good point. The way I see it, there are only two ways to accumulate money. Earn more, spend less. I'm sure I can live on less then twenty tousand dollars a year. While putting together my bankroll, I lived in Brooklyn this last year on 12k. As far as earning more, well a part time job isn't totally out of the question.

Concerning your question about shift changes. A reasonable time for dealer shift changes is (9:00 am, 5:00 pm, 1:00 am). However lots of casinos differ on their shifts. Most of the time the pit crew does not have the same shifts as the dealers. They stagger the shifts so there is some overlap. The surveillance crew will be on yet another schedule.

It is best to scout out your targets and make note of these subtleties.