You can say what you want about the handle thing Bob21, but using different handles gets confusing and I believe that is your intent. As I said, most AP's use the same handle or a very similar version of throughout sites in the community. The people that have completely different handles, and you later find out so-and-so on one site is joe-bob shit face on another are almost always the trollish type guys, stirring the pot.
I also think you just mis-characterized my position on the "joe story (from GWAE). Yes, when you asked me my opinion, I hadn't put together who you were. I don't want to have to go around trying to figure out who different people are and what handles they post under on different forums. So, I took the time to listen to half of the Joe-GWAE interview because I didn't know it was YOU asking. Had I know it was you I wouldn't have bothered because I think for the most part you are playing games (trolling).
Now, I don't think I issued a definitive opinion that I believed Joe's story based on half an interview that I listened to. I might have said something to the effect that I found some things credible. There is a big difference. When you listen to or read these stories, it is much easier to spot 'red flags' that raise questions than anything else. A number of these red flags and you might find the person NOT credible. But the absence of any red flags or just one or two doesn't prove that they ARE credible. That is a higher standard.
The fact is that there are quite a number of these guys running around with similar stories over the last 10-15 years. That is the time frame that casinos exploded in the US to where there were new casinos and jurisdictions popping up every month or so and that is the period that all these similar slash-and-burn stories have appeared with both individual players and teams taking advantage of all these new venues with this slash-and-burn routine, traveling around, playing high stakes until you are 86ed and then move on to a new crop of casinos. It seemed like a good approach with all the new venues, but it could never be anything but a very short-term deal as technology today is working against players. Those 86ings and the info on you arrive at the next destination before the players do.
So it ended up all these guys....all these different stories run the same way. They get in some play, sometimes a year or two (early on), sometimes only months playing these high stakes. And if variance is with them, maybe they make hundreds of thousands, maybe a million or two (divided up among team members), before they are burned out everywhere. And then they are writing books and running boot camps and telling their story on GWAE.
And if it just so happens that variance is against them they could dig a big hole to start out as several of these guys and teams did and be lucky to get back on the plus side before the rug is permanently pulled out from under them. (where is the Yikes emoji). This slash and burn style just isn't what professional blackjack is to me. Professional blackjack play, especially via card counting is a grind. You are grinding out a very small edge. Any kind of game plan that is short-term and the gig could be up in months or a year, just doesn't work. You could end up on the wrong side of the variance bellcurve. Blackjack play is a longterm deal.
It isn't really my place to offer my opinion on these individual stories. I have said that I get the feeling at least some of them, the project was more about the movie or book that was going to follow than about a money making blackjack experience.
So I don't think I said "I believe" this Joe's story. I tend to believe the stories where I find no red flags AND that I know players or members of the community that personally know the person and vouch for them (preferably more than just 1 member of the community). I don't know "joe". I don't recall anyone that I do communicate with vouching for him and I only listened to half of an interview. So I don't think I said "I believe his story. I may have said I don't see any red flags that would lead me to not believe him. (this is back to the lower standard).
700 rounds per hour.That seems slightly high to me. But do-able I suppose. If you are lucky enough to find a heads up game with a dealer that is willing to work with you and understands that you want to play fast, you can easily 300-400, maybe 500 rounds per hour. BUT that situation occurs very infrequently.