I was first drawn to PFA for a thread on gambling scammer, Christopher Mitchell. It was something about the ridiculousness of him compared to other gambling scammers. I have been on several other AP type forums prior to this, but PFA was the first under the name "Positive Variance". If you are not familiar with PFA, this is a group of guys that have followed each other between at least 3 different forums, for the better part of 20 years.Originally Posted by kewlJ
I was not familiar with you until you showed up here, with your forensic take apart of the Rob Singer jackpot picture. Since then I have read everything you post here and find myself agreeing with 99%. Again this probably won't help you make friends here.
And as someone, I guess AccountinQuestion surmised, I like your handle. That right there tells me a lot about how you think. But I would like to know more about your gambling history. Maybe you don't share that and that would be ok. Maybe you have shared it at the poker forum, which I don't read.
What is your history? Obviously an AP. Is that how you make a living? Is it poker related....is that why you are on the poker forum? Has anybody ever met you because you know, according to the haters here, you can't be here if you won't meet people and actually want to be anonymous on an anonymous forum.
As far as the forums I was on, I don't believe on any one forum I had more than a couple hundred post, but I was a very active reader of anything gambling related, since I was 13 or 14.
As far as AP:
Here I'm California, outside of Indian Casinos, it is illegal for a casino to "Bank their own games". As a 'work around' of the law, table games are allowed in California as long as they are 'Player Banked'. The issue is no players want to bank, therefore "3rd Party Banking Groups" were born. This is a business that operates inside the casino, that provides the casino with 'Bankers' at each table. The dealers function is still the same, except they take/give chips from the Bankers. The banker is essentially a 'chip sitter'. The card rooms and the Indian Casinos are always going after each other. There is actually a piece of legislation that will allow the Indian Casinos the right to challenge the legality of "3rd party bankers" as the Indian Casinos lose Hundreds of Millions annually to the CA card rooms. Law allows it since the local municipalities earn huge tax revenue from it.
How does the card room/casino make money? They collect a flat fee from the banking group per round. That fee is structured by the amount wagered for that round.
How does the banking group make money? The natural house edge built into the game, minus the fee they pay the card room per hand. The difference is the profit. On top of what they pay the card room per round, they also have to pay a monthly fee to the card room for the right to bank. I am familiar with one of these agreements, for a small 12 table room, it is now up to $90,000 per MONTH. This is on top of the collection fee they pay the house per round. A place like Commerce Casino is LA has to be close to $500k.
These 3rd party banking groups are only there for when no players want to bank. This is what I do, I "Player Bank". There is a lot that goes into this, I have to be careful as to what details I give away.
This has been discussed, 4 times in total very briefly on "Gambling with an Edge", most notably by "SmallCapGrowth". The info he gave was accurate. He could of had an extremely lucrative career, if he didnt give it up to -EV stuff, when he wasn't playing +EV. Something Richard Munchkin once said, "It is the Wild, Wild, West." This may have been true in the 90's, but is NOT the case today. Games are as safe as any Vegas Casino.
I believe this is a form of AP, some would disagree, which is fine. The money is important, not the title lol.
Years ago (8-10), I briefly posted on a couple forums about banking games (under another user name). I have never met any AP's in person. I think because what I currently do isn't traditional AP type stuff.
I don't believe I have mentioned it on PFA, Most of what I posted in the past on other gambling forums as well as here isn't going to give much away. Believe it or not there is a lot of strategy that goes into it. Game selection, time selection, player selection, dealer, location, ect.
Everyone that is playing in these casinos/cardroom is aware that they are not playing "against the house", and they have the right to "bank". It is no secret.
The most well known card room in California is Commerce Casino and Hustler, where Hustler Live takes place (Poker Podcast). I would prefer not to get into the "hours", as there is a lot of strategy involved, but I do "Just Fine" :-). Variance can get wicked at times. High edge games can often bring high variance.
In closing, on the very last episode of Gambling with an Edge (Mailbag) Richard and Bob shared their missed gambling opportunities and Regrets. Want to guess what Richards regret/ missed opportunity was???
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