Don't work, gamble. (Jobs whilst you are a student)

Name: AdvocatusDiaboli

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Product:	Jobs whilst you are a student
Date:	07/11/01 (100 review reads)
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~ Intoduction ~

The 3 or 4 years at University are going to be the best years of your life. I graduated in July 2001 and wish I could have made it last longer. If there are any first years reading this I strongly recommend that you fail part of your first year, when you repeat it the following year you will have one of the easiest years of your life.

~ How do live the high life without working? ~

The answer is gambling.

When I say gambling I am not talking roulette or scratch cards, I am taking about games where you can be a favourite. My choices were Poker and Blackjack.

If you want to read more about poker I have written the top-rated opinion on dooyoo about it. The key fact to remember about poker is that you are not playing against the casino (the house) you are playing against other players, if you are a better player than them then in the long run you will win.

Blackjack is very different, for starters you are playing against the house and they would not offer the game unless they have an advantage. This advantage can be neutralised.
I'm sure everyone has heard of card counting and dismissed it as a system purely for mathematicians and the Rain Man, many also assume that if a casino catches you you will take a beating. These are myths.

Card counting does not involve memorising every card in the shoe it merely involves finding out whether there are more high cards or low cards in the deck, high cards favour the player/ high cards favour the casino. If you raise your stakes when the cards are high you gain a positive expectation of between 2-10%. This may not seem like much but it can earn you a lot more than any student job will. A good blackjack book can be bought on the Internet for $10-20 and you earn that back within minutes. Good poker books are also available and I have suggested some in my opinion on poker.

~ Getting your stake ~

Firstly get a student loan, you don&#
39;t have to pay them back until you are earning a good wage and once you are earning that wage the repayments seem tiny. I covered all my student loans within two months of starting work.

Secondly, ask your parents. Surely you can some off them (tell them it is for books). I made a point of paying my parents back but many don't.

Thirdly, Hardship funds. Trash your room, wear scruffy clothes to the interview and you could grab yourself and extra £500 here and there.

With all that you should be able to get about £3000 in your first term. A good stake.

~ Targets ~

I aimed to make about £200 a week whilst at Uni. This can take anywhere from an hour to 6 hours a night 5 nights a week. You will have the odd dry patch, never chase your losses (if you know what you are doing the winnings will come). The advantage of adding Poker into the mix is that you can grind your money out in cash games and once in a while you may do well in a tournament. There are tournaments most nights in major cities and first prize is rarely below £1000.

~ Conclusion ~

I'm not saying this approach is for everybody, some of you may enjoy being a typical student. If you take this route you have to be prepared for the swings that will occur, when you win save some, when you lose walk away - never start reaching further into you winnings than you expected to. I usually set myself a maximum loss for the week (eg £250), once I had lost this much I would walk away and start again on Monday.

If you want an exciting ride through Uni and want money to burn then give it a try. I'll be writing an opinion soon on how to get a degree without any effort, it's easy if you know how.

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