This was posted by Count Zero at www.xxxxxxxxxx.com. on Sept 25, 2002.
The title of the post is "Are You A Gambler Or A Handicapper?"
IMO, posts like these are simply too valuable too ignore.
Enjoy.
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Back when I was a blackjack player, there were two kinds of card-counters: the academic types, who were focused on the intricacies of the game itself, and the more pragmatic types, who were focused on the money. The first group, mostly loner types, would spend endless hours evaluating the best counting systems and calculating things like expected win rates, the cost of toking, the value of sitting at 3rd base, etc. They were generally uninterested in other ways of winning like playing tells or hole-carding. The second group -- more gregarious, better adjusted, and less intellectually inclined -- tended to spend their time developing a good act, trying to suborn pit personnel, and vigorously engaging in the squalid behaviors that define human beings the world over, i.e., lying, cheating, and borrowing money they don't intend to pay back.
It strikes me that there's a similar division among sportsbettors. There are the handicappers, who are focused on finding winning methods, and there are the gamblers, who are focused on winning money. A handicapper can do his thing without gambling: I personally played on paper for the first 5 or 6 years of my 30 years as a handicapper, and at least one of us here at TT (KOTS) is 'capping but not betting this year, yet these people still enjoy the intellectual challenge and even sweat the results, to the extent that they're excited by the prospect of seeing their theories confirmed (or blown out of the water). Similarly, gamblers often don't bother to handicap: they play NASCAR, or some obscure soccer league, just looking to get the best of the line in some way, a middle, a scalp, even just a better price than the next guy got. Like their card-counting brethren, they tend to be schmoozers, tough guys, extroverts -- generally happy to be swimming in the human soup, cheerfully willing to mix it up with anyone. They think of gambling as a way of relating to other people -- in the best cases, relating to them by taking advantage of them. Handicappers tend to be less interested in people; they think of gambling as a way of relating to mathematics.
It often struck me, back in the blackjack days, that I could make a lot more money if I could acquire some of the qualities of a gambler. But not only could I not do so, I couldn't even really bring myself to try. It just wasn't me. I'd rather set myself on fire than pretend to enjoy the company of a LV pit boss; I'd rather be buried in a fire-ant mound than join a team of counters (most of whom, in any case, spent the better part of their time trying to figure out how to steal from each other). And similarly, here at MW, I see so many people with much greater knowledge about how to maximize their profit than I have, and I wonder why nothing ever rubs off on me. I even know some of what to do, but when the time comes, I just can't get my heart into it and go back to depending entirely on being able to pick winners.
So -- what's your type? Are you a gambler or a handicapper at heart?
And if you're a gambler, can you help get me pointed in the right direction?
The title of the post is "Are You A Gambler Or A Handicapper?"
IMO, posts like these are simply too valuable too ignore.
Enjoy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back when I was a blackjack player, there were two kinds of card-counters: the academic types, who were focused on the intricacies of the game itself, and the more pragmatic types, who were focused on the money. The first group, mostly loner types, would spend endless hours evaluating the best counting systems and calculating things like expected win rates, the cost of toking, the value of sitting at 3rd base, etc. They were generally uninterested in other ways of winning like playing tells or hole-carding. The second group -- more gregarious, better adjusted, and less intellectually inclined -- tended to spend their time developing a good act, trying to suborn pit personnel, and vigorously engaging in the squalid behaviors that define human beings the world over, i.e., lying, cheating, and borrowing money they don't intend to pay back.
It strikes me that there's a similar division among sportsbettors. There are the handicappers, who are focused on finding winning methods, and there are the gamblers, who are focused on winning money. A handicapper can do his thing without gambling: I personally played on paper for the first 5 or 6 years of my 30 years as a handicapper, and at least one of us here at TT (KOTS) is 'capping but not betting this year, yet these people still enjoy the intellectual challenge and even sweat the results, to the extent that they're excited by the prospect of seeing their theories confirmed (or blown out of the water). Similarly, gamblers often don't bother to handicap: they play NASCAR, or some obscure soccer league, just looking to get the best of the line in some way, a middle, a scalp, even just a better price than the next guy got. Like their card-counting brethren, they tend to be schmoozers, tough guys, extroverts -- generally happy to be swimming in the human soup, cheerfully willing to mix it up with anyone. They think of gambling as a way of relating to other people -- in the best cases, relating to them by taking advantage of them. Handicappers tend to be less interested in people; they think of gambling as a way of relating to mathematics.
It often struck me, back in the blackjack days, that I could make a lot more money if I could acquire some of the qualities of a gambler. But not only could I not do so, I couldn't even really bring myself to try. It just wasn't me. I'd rather set myself on fire than pretend to enjoy the company of a LV pit boss; I'd rather be buried in a fire-ant mound than join a team of counters (most of whom, in any case, spent the better part of their time trying to figure out how to steal from each other). And similarly, here at MW, I see so many people with much greater knowledge about how to maximize their profit than I have, and I wonder why nothing ever rubs off on me. I even know some of what to do, but when the time comes, I just can't get my heart into it and go back to depending entirely on being able to pick winners.
So -- what's your type? Are you a gambler or a handicapper at heart?
And if you're a gambler, can you help get me pointed in the right direction?
