I just wanted to ask this, and thought I'd give a little bit of information about myself as well, as introduction.
I've always been gifted, especially at math and language; math always seemed to come easy to me, not instantly, but generallY I seemed to learn more quickly than anyone else. Unfortunately, perhaps, I never pursued it any higher than Trig. Which, in the wide world, is very low on the mathmatic totem poll. With English, I'm just good at it because I read.
I'm not trying to talk myself up too much, I have complete faith in myself althogh I'm not an ego-maniac; I just wanted to put some of my experiences up here. When I was 14, I won the state scholastic championship of chess, about 1800 strength; and then had a very good tournament at the Denker, with a performance of 2100 something. No incredible feat or anything. . .but for 3 years I studied chess every day, because I was in love with the game. It wasn't a very amazing feat, but it taught me how something is really learned well: one has to be in love with the subject, or topic, and become immersed in it, studying it every day. As Bobby Baldwin said: "I became immersed in poker, livin,g breathing, eating and drinking it." He says, that's the way to become truly good. Grandmaster Gufeld of chess said, if one person played 23 hours a day for 6 months, and then had a match with someone who had studied 1 hour a day for the same six months, the second player would crush the first - and experience bears it out. The way to master a subject is simply this approach. And I figured out also that it involved being in love with the subject, or at least deeply fascinated with it.
As Arnold Snyder put it; you have to love winning.
I also grew up in the country with my brother and dad. We had no phone or television, and I think this played the biggest role in my personal development. When I was 10, about to turn 11, we had to move into my dad's place of business. . . It was a small-town, Greyhound bus station. Not the kind where you have dozens or more people in every day - but the small Southern-state, slowly trickle of customers, usually the place empty and quiet. . . My dad had a game-room, he started up a little before that time, and so for a summer I spent all of my nights playing Starcraft 'til dawn, and then sleeping and starting again... This is when I got to meet people like college people, etc.,
So the game-room was the for a few years, and when I was 11 or 12 I started chess, and that took up the biggest part of my life for a while. .
I was very good at playing games, and I learned how to type, and I learned some things about construction of maps, but I didn't learn very much in the way of programming, although I certainly still have a greater common and working knowledge of computers than most people.
There's nothing else interesting about my background, except that I read a lot of books.
Most of the people who think they are brilliant are probably *******s; and, while a lot of people probably may say that about me, I've always tried to be the opposite, and I think I can genuinely say I've never not given someone a chance.
So I would really like to ask, does anyone have any information about joining a blackjack team?
I should give a bit of background of my qualifications, and I'll be more brief than above...
First, I started with poker - after playing briefly online, I didn't pick it up again until a few years later, when I began studying the game. First I read Hold'em for Advanced Players, and the Theory of Poker, and 2 or 3 other books, and then I read a ton of Mike Caro's articles online. Pretty soon I bought a decent-sized library largely based off Mason Malmuth's recommendations in Gambling Theory and Other Topics; including Bob Ciaffone, and most every good poker book, or at least 50 or 60 of them.
I loved them and I've read most of the good ones twice or more. I've had some good success at poker. . . I won't go into it because it's not. . I don't know it's not important, or it doesn't really matter. . . I mean it matters - every hand we play matters, but spending any more time on it than any other memory - or studying the game in a theoretical or purely training way - is probably not useful.
So - I've had some good successes, but I have not succeeded yet in taking off with a bankroll.
Part-way through my poker book marathon I got into blackjack, starting with Ed Thorpe and getting the best books, by Snyder, Wong, Griffin, et. al.
The first time I saw blackjack I was deeply fascinated by it immediately, the beautiful, simple and crisp and clear nature of it: $5, plus or minus $5 at the result. . .
I've only read 8 or 9 books on Blackjack, but I've also read a few/lot of articles, and, equally important is I've practiced. . . It's utterably non-boring to me to practice at it, and I've spent literally hundreds of hours practicing on
http://www.blackjackinfo.com/aftergame.php . . I guess because, it's fun.
But I love casino Blackjack and - I wouldn't probably be writing this, except recently I became more comfortable, completely comfortable just playing. .
I'm a fairly extremely disciplined person. . . long ago in life I learned how important it is, and spent a lot of my life just working on self-mastery or self-control. I've been too disciplined at times, although like everyone else, the majority probably has been too little.
I went through a period of my life, however, which helped me in a lot of ways. When I was 15, after the chess thing, and after moving a couple of times, I suddenly got struck with anxiety. I put it that way because there's no better way to put it. I don't remember having much of it before, but suddenly I could barely function in many scenarios. In school, in public, especially in a store, I was nearly paralyzed by anxiety. And I was fine alone, or with my family. It lasted almost 4 years, and after time it gradually became a rather distant past. I believe now, besides other factors, it was due to a higher than normal sensitivity. . of the senses, of incoming sense data, of whatever you might call it.
During this time, especially the first couple years, it was tough - going to the store or something like this was a great act of willpower. . . I tried everything to overcome it. Exercise, sports, meditating, playing guitar. . . Ultimately nothing overcame it except time; and I am also sure all of the time I spent trying to hone my skills such as sitting still, or keeping calm when my physiology wanted to shoot through the roof, helped. It was strange because whenever I was alone, I was fine. But when I was with other people in public, I literally could not sit still because of anxiety, I once or twice got tunnel vision in a store or something; and one of the worst things is I would flinch a lot, when someone moved, it startled me and I would flinch, or the other one is I would swallow - gulp.
These last two were common and very annoying.
The thing is - perhaps not very many people think about this often - but the thing is is that we're all connected, we're all interchanging information and data and affecting each others' brain waves and brain chemistry; all the time, this is going on, nearly instantly. Give and take, to and fro - I smile and your endorphins go up, you touch my hand and my serotonin rises. But it's there with every single look and subtle movement.
So the thing is, when you gulp or something, you're immediately setting up a reaction. . . events that are connected. You change the atmosphere. And how do you change it? Exactly the opposite of how you would change it if you smiled, laughed, or did something else to relieve the tension appropriately.
Instead it increases tension . . I won't go into how so, it's really not important. . .
There's no big point to all this except it took me several years to get to where I could have no anxiety at all talking to people I didn't know well, or had just met, or being okay in any social situation. I had gone from where I was so extremely anxious around people that I would simply sit by the wall at school, when there were a hundred people in the halls, and try to read, and feel the pressure almost physically on my head, to being able to be okay talking to anyone.
It took a lot of time, effort, and discipline - but it left me with, I think, a greater appreciation for the way interactions between humans affect us.
Anyway - okay, I don't know why I told so much of my life story on here, I wasn't really intending to. I once wrote Tommy Angelo a while back about lessions, and he said to write out my poker history so maybe I had that in mind. Btw, Mike Caro is an amazing guy who will write back to you if you write him. I don't know if he'll want me to advertise that.
So, I've done good at both poker and blackjack in my past, but I don't have any bankroll to show for it, and I'm currently starting again. I've always been cautious with gambling games, reading 15 or 20 poker books before even starting that, but, I've done that even though I feel I have a very strong instinctual understanding of the game.
I've been studying both games for about 6 years now; I'm 26, and, I have training and perserverence and dedication, but no bankroll right now - so if anyone knows of how I could join a team, a blackjack team would be fantastic, I would be very grateful.
Poker and Blackjack, together have been my passion for a few years now; I take it very seriously. I would also be a completely honest player on the team; and a good teammate. I would be/am enthusiastic and encouraging as to taking on new challenges, and getting the best out of our advantage - while aware of the dangers of over-extending. Ok, I'm not perfect or anything and I don't think I am; I'm very dedicated though, and I am definitely capable and talented, and most of all serious enough to do some good...
Thanks, all
