Between 1973 and 1991, I spent probably 25,000 hours blackjack gambling at the Cavendish West, located in the Los Angeles area where West Hollywood touches Beverly Hills. The Cavendish was not a casino; officially it was a bridge club. In fact, bridge, gin rummy, and backgammon were played there, for stakes ranging from small to considerable, between noon and 2 a.m. daily. The club closed sometime between 1991 and 1992. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it has been reestablished again under another name. I moved to Las Vegas in 1993 and know nothing about the current gambling scene in the Los Angeles area.
About Backgammon Gambling
In 1973 I was 26 years old. I knew something Black Jack - Read Craps Rules about backgammon, but nothing about gambling. For the next 18 years I spent way too much time learning about gambling. Although my game of choice has changed more than once, many of the lessons that prepared me for being a successful professional gambler today were learned the hard way at the Cavendish. Let me share some of those lessons with you.
It's possible to make a living gambling. It's not easy, but it's possible. For every 100 "wannabes" there's probably one "will be" and "99"won't bets." Not a very good chance of success. But good enough if you have some talent, can learn from your mistakes, and have a tremendous amount of drive. When you reach a position about which you're unsure, your chances are better when you're grounded in the basics. No one knows everything about every game although perfection is attainable in some of the easier video poker, taxes lottery games, such as Jacks or Better. Even in that game, progressives and promotions will come along that will change the correct strategy slightly. The longer you've been involved in the learning process, the more likely you are to have encountered such a situation before.
Backgammon Players
As players learn more about the casino games, the games get tougher to beat. Players study and talk to each other. Players write about their experiences. I've heard many players complain that the games were better in the "good old days." Players like the fantasy that they'll be able to improve while all their opponents (including casinos) remain sitting ducks. This, of course, would be the path to Easy Street. But such is not the way of the world. The best backgammon players today have considerably more knowledge about the game than the players who played twenty years ago. The same is true in blackjack, poker, sports betting, and video poker. You can piss and moan that things just aren't the same or you can buckle down and keep up.
The best players continue to study. I knew three backgammon world champions well and three others casually. I also knew several of the top money players. These players would frequently make note of positions to study later. Most would play "propositions," which entails Black Jack - Tips For Play taking a real-life position about which players disagree on the best way to play, and playing it out for money, over and over again, until there's a lot more certainty about the intricacies of that position. Some of the players were computer programmers who would devise ways to analyze the game. When I was playing backgammon, personal computers were not common. Today a variety of programs are available that make computerized learning and analysis affordable and within the grasp of everyone.There were some players who stopped studying and just kept playing. These players generally found their skills deteriorating while their opponents got better.