Top Professional Gamblers
Posted : admin On 4/12/2022Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. Our Las Vegas guide brings you the best discounts on hotels and show tickets, plus honest reviews for every budget and taste. The GBC is one of Las Vegas's most trusted institutions—we're referenced in over 1,000 books, magazines and web sites. Our exclusive top 10 Vegas hotel picks and top 10 Vegas shows make planning your Las Vegas vacation. NBC Sports will produce a second-screen broadcast geared specifically to gamblers and broadcasted on Peacock Premium, in partnership with PointsBet, an official betting operator of the PGA Tour.
Starting a music career is not just a sure way to disappoint your parents: it’s a huge risk. Naturally, many people who do decide to dedicate their lives to pursuing a career in music are risk-takers. The exact type of people who you’d find in a casino.
It’s no wonder that plenty of influential people in the metal and rock scene are avid gamblers. So if you too are a fan of reading a Playamo review and spending the evening trying to win big, here are the eight rockstars that enjoyed taking a few bets in a casino.
Lemmy Kilmister
Lemmy is probably the first person in metal you think about when it comes to gambling. After all, the man is known for authoring the greatest gambling song of all time, “Ace of Spades.” If you’ve always suspected this, you were right! It’s been rumored that Lemmy hung around slot machines in the venues Motorhead played at, and he was known to sit for hours in front of the same at the infamous Rainbow Bar & Grill in Los Angeles.
Documentaries that talk about his life and career claim Lemmy wasn’t big on card games, preferring to bet on one-armed bandits. We suspect the legend was also quite pumped on booze while he did that and remind readers that it’s not a good idea to follow in his footsteps in such a way.
Some claim that Ian’s nickname even came from his hobby. Lemmy was supposed to stand for “lend me a fiver.” Even though he denied knowing about the origin of the name and that could just be rumors, the legend did go as far in his passion as to own his own slot. He kept one where he would get the coins out of it and start betting again, saying that it was “just another device to keep the boredom off.”
Scott Ian
Professional Gambler For Tax Purposes
Even though he didn’t plan to, Anthrax’s Scott Ian became a poker star for a couple of years. He explains this story in one of the podcasts he did to promote his book. Scott wasn’t previously a gambler and didn’t even play poker before the life of a rockstar took him on a ride.
Ian took part in a celebrity Texas Hold’em tournament on VH1, and, to quote the man himself, won it “by total fluke.” It’s not clear whether it was his nature as a risk-taker or the financial interest that took off, but he jumped on the bandwagon to play poker soon after. The online gambling company that sponsored the tournament saw potential in teaming up with the rockstar and offered a partnership deal that included training. Scott did not refuse.
After taking lessons with professional gamblers, Scott admitted to going “head-first” into the poker scene and taking it seriously. Scott even took part in a tournament in 2009, the Annual World Series of Poker. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t topple the pros, walking out with a 600-something place ranking and $20,000 in cash. As far as we know, that was the end of Scott’s gambling career.
Sully Erna
Godsmack’s Sully Erna is a man of multiple talents. Apart from starring in many cameo roles, Sully took a break from his music career to play poker professionally. He first joined the scene in 2006 when poker was gaining prominence in mainstream culture. After taking part in a public tournament full of celebrities and walking out with $17,000 in cash, Sully set his mind on it.
The rockstar continued his career well into the 2010s, although his biggest cashout came in 2007. He took part in a World Poker Classic tournament with a buy-in of $5,000 and walked out of that tournament with a second place ranking and $300,000 in his bank account.
After some time, he returned to music to the content of his fans.
Ace Frehley
The Spaceman from Kiss appears to be a fan of poker as well. The extent to which he loves his hobby is mostly in the realm of fan speculation, however. What we do know is that he attended a celebrity poker tournament back in 2006, the same one that Scott Ian went to.
However, unlike Scott, Ace walked out of the tournament empty-handed. Perhaps this is why he’s never made gambling a big topic in his interviews ever since.
Rex Brown
It appears Pantera’s Rex Brown was really big on gambling back in the day. He even goes as far as saying that gambling while on the road with the band was “a big part of Pantera’s deal” in a book on the band’s history, Official Truth.
Rex and Vinnie would often hit up casinos together, and one time in the late ’90s it went wrong in every possible way. After a booze-filled night in a Vegas casino, Rex recalls in the book, he woke up hungover and received a $20,000 gambling bill. Obviously, he didn’t have that much cash on him, so all he could do is win that money back.
Rex did just that. He teamed up with the bus driver and executive assistant to play blackjack in every casino that they passed on the tour. They played it very safe and even created cheat sheets that told them what to do in any situation (the bus driver was an experienced player). Thanks to that strategy, at least one of them managed to win something most nights. By the end, Rex had $27,000 on his hands — enough to pay back his debt and get a brand new bike!
Vinnie Paul
Vinnie was a bombastic, lovable man. He wasn’t the type of guy who enjoyed spending his evenings alone in front of a TV; partying was his cup of tea. And since he lived in Las Vegas for quite a long period of time, it’s safe to say gambling was too.
Vinnie took part in the same poker tournament in 2006 as many other rock and metal celebs, but unlike Scott Ian, who hadn’t played before, Vinnie had plenty of experience, as he and both Rex Brown and Sully Erna would often go out to play blackjack together whenever they were in Vegas. It probably was even more surprising for him to see Scott win that tournament.
Dusty Hill
Another contender of that 2006 poker tournament (who didn’t play there?), ZZ Top’s Dusty Hill also appears to have been an avid gambler. However, it’s safe to assume he wasn’t let down by his defeat in poker. The man’s passion was, to quote one of the band’s songs, “drinking whiskey and throwing dice.”
Tom Stephen recalls in his 2018 book, Best Seat in the House, that Dusty would often barge through a casino, puffing at a huge cigar sticking out from his enormous beard, to throw dice at every table. Later on, he asked Jeff Healy to throw the dice for him, though Tom doesn’t mention whether that was a gesture of friendship and trust or Dusty just had too much whiskey in him.
The irony, in Tom’s eyes, was that he previously spotted ZZ Top members making their way to economy seats on a flight, mocking him for wasting money on business class.
Elvis Presley
While the gambling habit did little bad to the other rockstars mentioned on this list, it appears to have really hurt this one. At first, despite basically writing promotional songs for Las Vegas, Elvis refused to gamble, saying it was against his beliefs. That was despite casinos giving him huge sums for free just to join the table.
But the tide finally turned against him. Life took Elvis for a ride, and when it started to crash, he had a long way to fall. Being deeply depressed in Vegas with a lot of money and fame turned out to be a recipe for disaster.
Instead of handling his problems, he started getting his hands on every vice in the book. Drug abuse, gambling, gluttony, you name it. Granted, he didn’t die due to a bad poker hand or an unlucky roulette bet, but it’s hard to say his gambling habit was a healthy one.
So take it as a cautionary tale — gambling isn’t always about fun touring stories from Rex and Vinnie with huge cashouts. Sometimes it’s a toxic way to ruin yourself, just like other vices we enjoy. If you ever find yourself in that kind of situation, remember Elvis’s example and get some help before it’s too late.
The life of a professional gambler is perhaps not as glamorous as it might seem to some.
Almost everything in this world is possible, including the possibility of becoming a professional gambler. By definition, a professional gambler is a person who skillfully knows how to gamble with real money in casino, sportsbook, poker and other gambling departments and makes a living out of it. Being a pro gambler is one of the toughest jobs in the world. Most people view gamblers as degenerates that gamble and eat pizza all day and by the end of the day they get lucky. However, this is not the real picture of being a pro gambler. In fact, being a pro in gambling takes a lot more like self control, excellent money management etc. If you believe you have what it takes to become a professional in gambling, you should know the following fact: it is generally estimated that only 0.01% of the gamblers who actually want to become pros are able to do it.
Why Gambling is Also a Career Choice?
Most people don’t consider gambling as a real job. However, there are a few people that can really call themselves professional gamblers and live the gambler’s lifestyle. However, there are pretty big downsides. Therefore, before making a decision to become a professional gambler, you should consider all the facts and really think about it.
The reason why gambling can be a career choice is that people can really earn money from gambling. Gambling is not entirely based on luck; there are sports or games that are based on skill as well. This is why most professional gamblers don’t play slots; instead they turn to the blackjack tables or play poker because these games combine the element of skill and luck. Therefore, with appropriate strategies they can reduce the house edge and/or read their opponents and make the right choice.
Working as a professional gambler can be very profitable, but you should know that it is not an easy way to make a living. First and foremost, you need to be better than your opponents and this requires a lot of practice. You should also be aware that you can lose every time you place a bet. Therefore, you can easily make a mistake and suffer serious financial loss and this puts a lot of pressure.
Professional Gambler Definition
Why It Is Hard to Be a Pro Gambler?
First and most importantly, there is a lot of stress involved. Playing poker, betting on sports or playing casino games from time to time can be fun, but not if you are working as a pro gambler and your next meal depends on whether or not you will win the pot. In addition, there are many pitfalls. A lot of gamblers have ended up becoming addicted to alcohol and/or drugs.
Furthermore, as a pro player you need to have good money management skills. After all you are betting with real money and you should be fully aware of how much and on what games or sports you are spending them. To be able to win real money, you have to bet real money and sometimes you can simply break even rather than win more on top of your bet. Last but not least, you should carefully approach the different types of gambling. You should closely consider the types of games that could make you a profit and choose where to play them.
What Type of People Can Become Professional Gamblers?
According to Mr. Lem Banker, a professional gambler, pros in gambling recognize the lure that gambling can have on people. “It’s like quicksand,” he says. He has seen too many people losing their heads and getting into trouble because of this practice. Therefore, for pro gamblers, it is important to look at situations and results objectively and analytically. They approach gambling as a job not as a fulfillment of their own addiction of gambling. They also never go over the line. Every bet they place is meticulously calculated. They know exactly when they have an advantage. Last but not least, pros in gambling keep a low profile, according to J. R. Miller, another professional gambler.
Pros and Cons of the Job
Poker pro Christatos Aristad points out “the rush of slowly coming to control the game” as the best part of being a professional gambler in poker. He says that pros know when they are in control and ride the rush, but, eventually, know when to stop. This separates them from hustlers.
The worst part of the job, according to Aristad is betting on sports. He believes that in sports betting you control nothing. You can only pay the odds and they are based on luck. And luck is the worst enemy for pro gamblers.
Advice and Tips from Pro Gamblers
There are a lot of stories from professional gamblers that may or may not motivate you to become a pro in gambling. But if you want to try and becoming one, you should consider the following advices and tips from pros.
Aristad advices never bet a penny more than you can afford to lose. He also says that it is always better to pocket your winnings and don’t “ride the rush”.
According to Mr. Miller, you can win at house track if you are good handicapper and you can win at poker if you read players carefully. Furthermore, to win at sports you need to beat the spread. On the other hand, he doesn’t like to play casino games because he believes that you cannot beat them on the long run due to the house edge of games.
Summary
Top Professional Gamblers
All in all, being a professional gambler is very risky, but not impossible. You should keep in mind that only very few people can call themselves a professional gambler. Moreover, these people don’t live a glamorous life and are quite smart when it comes to gambling and choosing the best games to play or sports to bet on. In addition, you need to be fully aware of the “fictional things” that surround the subject of becoming a pro gambler and that only very small percent of gamblers can actually make it and become pros.
Top Professional Sports Gamblers
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