| David Sklansky | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Mathematician |
| Residence | Reno, Nevada, U.S. |
| Born | December 22, 1947 (age 72) Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S. |
| World Series of Poker | |
| Bracelet(s) | 3 |
| Money finish(es) | 23 |
| Highest ITM Main Event finish | 27th, 1988 |
| World Poker Tour | |
| Title(s) | None |
| Final table(s) | 1 |
| Money finish(es) | 3 |
Jan 07, 2010 Nobody 'Gambles' for a living. There are skilled poker players that know how to play poker well enough to make a living at it. Playing a skilled and DISCIPLINED game of poker is not gambling. There are sports bettors that spend hours and hours each week to come up with a small handful of profitable sports bets.
- Buy Gambling for a Living by David Sklansky, Mason Malmuth, Mason Malmuthy (ISBN: 167) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.
- Sklansky is a top authority on gambling. He has written and contributed to fourteen books on poker, blackjack, and general gambling. Sklansky has won three World Series of Poker bracelets, two in 1982 ($800 Mixed Doubles with Dani Kelly, and $1,000 Draw Hi) and one in 1983 ($1,000 Limit Omaha Hi).
David Sklansky (born December 22, 1947)[1] is an American professional poker player and author.
- 2Poker career
Early years[edit]
Sklansky was born and raised in Teaneck, New Jersey, where he graduated from Teaneck High School in 1966.[2] He attended the University of Pennsylvania, but dropped out before graduation. He returned to Teaneck and passed multiple Society of Actuaries exams by the time at the age of 20, and worked for an actuarial firm.[3]
Poker career[edit]
Sklansky is a top authority on gambling. He has written and contributed to fourteen books on poker, blackjack, and general gambling.
Sklansky has won three World Series of Pokerbracelets, two in 1982 ($800 Mixed Doubles with Dani Kelly, and $1,000 Draw Hi) and one in 1983 ($1,000 Limit Omaha Hi). He also won the Poker By The Book invitational event on the 2004 World Poker Tour, outlasting a table full of poker legends, which included Phil Hellmuth Jr, Mike Caro, T. J. Cloutier, and Mike Sexton, and then finally overcoming Doyle Brunson.[4]
Sklansky attended the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania for a year before leaving to become a professional gambler.[5] He briefly took on a job as an actuary before embarking into poker. While on the job, he discovered a faster way to do some of the calculations and took that discovery to his boss. The boss told him he could go ahead and do it that way if he wanted but wouldn’t pass on the information to the other workers. 'In other words, I knew something no one else knew, but I got no recognition for it,' Sklansky is quoted as saying in Al Alvarez's 1983 work The Biggest Game in Town. 'In poker, if you're better than anyone else, you make immediate money. If there's something I know about the game that the other person doesn't, and if he's not willing to learn or can't understand, then I take his money.'
As of 2015, his live tournament winnings exceed $1,350,000.[6] He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.
World Series of Poker bracelets[edit]
| Year | Tournament | Prize (US$) |
|---|---|---|
| 1982 | $1,000 Draw High | $15,500 |
| 1982 | $800 Mixed Doubles (with Dani Kelly) | $8,800 |
| 1983 | $1,000 Limit Omaha | $25,500 |
Publications[edit]
Sklansky has authored or co-authored 13 books on gambling theory and poker. His books are published by Two Plus Two Publishing. His book cover art often features hand guns. His 1976 book Hold'em Poker was the first book widely available on the subject of poker.[7]
- Sklansky on Razz. 1983. ISBN0-87019-050-4.
- Sklansky on Poker: Including a Special Section on Tournament Play, and Sklansky on Razz. 1994. ISBN1-880685-06-X.
- Hold'em Poker. 1996. ISBN1-880685-08-6.
- Sklansky, David; Malmuth, Mason (1997). How to Make $100,000 a Year Gambling for a Living. ISBN1-880685-16-7.
- Getting the Best of It. 1997. ISBN1-880685-04-3.
- Poker, Gaming, & Life. 1997. ISBN1-880685-17-5.
Collection of articles that have appeared in Card Player and similar specialist magazines during the 1990s
- Sklansky, David; Malmuth, Mason (1999). Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players, 21st Century Edition. ISBN1-880685-22-1.
- Sklansky, David; Malmuth, Mason; Zee, Ray (1999). Seven Card Stud for Advanced Players. ISBN1-880685-23-X.
- Sklansky Talks Blackjack. 1999. ISBN1-880685-21-3.
- Theory of Poker: A Professional Poker Player Teaches You How To Think Like One. 1999. ISBN1-880685-00-0.
- Tournament Poker for Advanced Players. 2002. ISBN1-880685-28-0.
- Miller, Ed; Sklansky, David; Malmuth, Mason (2004). Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big with Expert Play. ISBN1-880685-32-9.
- Sklansky, David; Miller, Ed (2006). No Limit Hold 'em: Theory and Practice. ISBN1-880685-37-X.
- DUCY? Exploits, Advice, and Ideas of the Renowned Strategist. 2010. ISBN978-1880685488.
References[edit]
- ^[1] pokerolymp.de Interview, german
- ^Staff. 'David Sklansky', Current Biography Yearbook 2007, Volume 68. H. W. Wilson Co., 2007. Accessed August 31, 2011. 'Sklansky attended Teaneck High School, graduating in 1966.'
- ^Schwarz, Marc. 'He wrote the book on Hold 'em; Teaneck native a poker authority.', The Record (Bergen County), July 12, 2005.
- ^WPT Poker by the Book synopsis Retrieved September 11, 2006.
- ^Michael Konik Bets for LifeArchived April 15, 2009, at the Wayback MachineCigar Aficionado, May/June 1998. Retrieved September 11, 2006.
- ^'David Sklansky's profile on The Hendon Mob'. The Hendon Mob Poker Database. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
- ^Colby, Ann (May 14, 2001). 'Pythagoras, Pi and Poker'. Los Angeles Times.
Chris Ferguson is the new breed of player who uses math calculations, game theory and Internet resources to gain an edge over old-style, instinctive gamblers... 'Hold 'Em Poker, written by Sklansky in 1976, was the first book on a type of poker that today dominates play in California card rooms...'
External links[edit]
- Two Plus Two, publisher
- David Sklansky at World Poker Tour
- David Sklansky at Poker Listings
- 'David Sklansky'. Interview. Le Poker TV. Archived from the original on May 20, 2010.
About twenty years ago, David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth wrote a book titled How to Make $100,000 a Year Gambling for a Living. I've never read the book. It's panned by many as a pretty fluffy piece of literature and I've always thought a good idea for a book would be a reboot of this concept.
First, I'd say that $50k/year is hobby level income. Even $100k/year is barely making a living depending on where you live and how you live. As others have mentioned, this is a filthy, tiring, stressful way to make a living. Stanford Wong has always said if you are able to be successful as an AP, you're probably the type of person that can be successful in other careers. Is being an advantage player ('AP') the best use of your time and intelligence? Before I went pro I had a stable comfortable career with a salary over $100k and good benefits. However, I also had a hellish commute and a growing distaste for upper management. I opted to go fulltime because it would allow me to work from home and make more. It wasn't the easier career of the two, but it was the choice that was the best use of my time and intelligence. The average US worker works about 2000 hours/year. So any amount of time over 2000 hours/yr that you spend in pursuit of AP income should be considered opportunity cost against what you could make working less in the real world.
So how does one make $100k/yr counting cards? Well, first you need to plan to make $200k in EV. Planning more EV than what you need is critical because almost all AP's overstate their EV. They fail to properly estimate game speed, minor mistakes, travel expenses, or something as trivial as a backoff being more likely to come in a high count when raising a bet. If we assume you are making $250/hr in EV (after expenses), the formula becomes clear. You'd need to play 800 hours a year to equal $200k in EV. If you've got a higher hourly than that then adjust accordingly. Are there enough places left for you to log the hours necessary to hit that number? How much travel will you need to put in to reach that number? Playing 800 hours leaves you only 1200 hours of travel and prep time before you pass over the 2000 hour mark.
However, there is an even bigger opportunity cost that needs to be factored in. It's an equation that I don't have the exact numbers for, but essentially it goes like this:
For every (x) hours you spend counting cards you effectively kill off (y) future hours of your career.
If x is low enough or y is high enough, then there is definite opportunity cost to making a living counting cards. Card counting is an effective form of advantage play. It's relatively low variance and mathematically proven. However, it's also ridiculously easy for the casino to pick off. There's not a lot about straight counting that hasn't already been theorized, written about, and read by the masses. Database systems like OSN and Biometrica greatly shorten the career of an AP. Once your name is tainted, it's very tough to get the hours for the levels you need to make a living. By counting cards aggressively, you need to accept that you may never be able to practice some other forms of AP because card counting got you 86'd or burnt your name out severely. There are ways around this...but they require more travel (since heat is generally regional and casinos are more collegiate than we tend to believe), more anonymity, and a willingness to legally change your name.
Covers
So where do you go from here? Well, fortunately, not all forms of advantage play are easy for a casino to spot. Not all forms of advantage play require extensive travel. Not all forms of advantage play are frowned on by the casino. I guess I could make a Part II to this post in which I describe what it takes to make $100k/yr doing other well-known forms of advantage play like poker, sports betting, video poker, etc. However, the tone of the post would be similar to this one...make a plan for more EV than you need and then execute that plan. Each discipline has upsides and downsides. Nobody is going to want to give you 6-figures for beating them. Learning how to extract money from a casino is only half the battle...executing that strategy is equally as difficult. This leads me to my final point, and what I would make the central theorem of my reboot of Sklansky/Malmuth's book:
Gambling For A Living Sklansky Free
Instead of finding one way to make $100k/year...focus on finding four ways to make $25k/year, or even better, eight ways to make $12.5k/year.
Sports Gambling For A Living
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