greetings and salutations

[rerun12]

although ive posted and traded with quite a few of you on here i wanted to formally introduce myself as i just happened to notice this thread today.

my name is ken, im 31 years old and have been interested in lockpicking ever since i was a kid. i can remember picking a lockbox my father bought for my sister and i with a couple of bent paper clips back when i was in elementary school. and thus began my lockpicking journey...

a couple of years ago a girlfriend of mine at the time bought me a lockpick set on the internet. i was surprised to find out that these tools were available to citizens without any sort of license or certification. i would have never gotten into picking as a hobby if it wasnt for that soulless, spiteful, sexy whore of a bitch whom ,now that i think about it, suppose i owe a debt of gratitude to. but fuck that.

so when im not picking any lock i can get my hands on i enjoy reading, playing the occasional video game, watching/playing sports, reading, skiing, and a bunch of other stuff i cant think of at the moment.

ive made my living playing poker mostly, over the past 7 years, and have done pretty well for myself. but ever since the good 'ole DOJ decided to shut down online poker in the US, and in the process completely kneecapping the biggest running poker site in america at the time to pave the way for the mobbed up, big corporate casinos to corner the market, my free time has allowed to venture into other money making schemes such as playing the energy deregulation game here in connecticut. it helps keep me busy and will eventually(hopefully rather) lead to some passive income so i can once again put all my focus into playing cards once online poker re enters the US market once again. ive been thinking about applying for my locksmithing license here, but after speaking with a local locksmith, a really nice fellow, he has somewhat convinced me that it might not be worth my time, considering where i live and the abundance of established locksmiths that are already in my area. so for now i am just picking for fun.

i have great adoration for the precision and engineering that goes into creating locks, and being able to make my own tools and learn new skills through these great forums has kept my interest during the vast amount of downtime ive had ever since april 15, 2011.

and so thats that. just wanted to make a formal introduction and say thank you to everybody on here who ive met and exchanged words with ever since signing up on keypicking.com. its a really great online community you guys have created and i look forward to honing my skills and sharing/laughing/debating with all of you! and so ill end with some guy with a machine gun shooting some jerk giving me the finger

[easy-e]

*Generic formal welcome statement*

Sorry to hear about your internet misfortune. I have some friends that play local tournaments and do pretty well. I think they only work a few shifts a week. Between bowling, pool, and cards tournaments they seem to do pretty well. I like to gamble for fun and I'm usually that dumb kid at the bar who will bet money on just about anything. I'm generally more sober and even if I don't know how to play I can usually hold my own. I hadn't played backgammon since i was little and after watching 2 games I hopped in and made 40 bucks that night. A few weeks later I was playing pitch and toss, pool, and backgammon and got $320 up on a good friend of mine (who also will bet on anything for fun) so I ended up going back to his house and drank his beer until 3am so he could win some of it back. I ended up 20 dollars up after I got gammond when were were betting $100 a game. I normally only bet $1 a game just for fun and bragging rights but sometimes it get out of hand

*edit* now that I think about it I also had a night of pool and bowling turn into an all nighter playing texas hold'm and drinking my friends beer until they won their money back.

Why don't you just apply for some part time work at one of those locksmith's shops?

[rerun12]

Why don't you just apply for some part time work at one of those locksmith's shops?

thanks for the condolences easy, but the way i look at it the interent/US provided me with a living and i was able to be my own boss for many years, even today, so i try not to get too hung up on the negative side of it all (although i do have a pretty hefty amount of money still stuck on one of the sites.

ive been giving more and more thought to applying to one of the local locksmiths shops. this guy bud who has been in the business for 30+ years, mostly just does safe work now, a really great guy who broke down the whole business for me, gave me a few numbers to call but told me if i wanted to do it to just start my own thing. im a little worried my passion for picking locks with fade once it becomes a mandatory thing everyday, i.e, work. im generally a pretty lazy person lol. im curious to hear from some people who started picking as a hobby and then moved into the business side of things....

thanks for your welcome and sharing your gambling stories. i once had a pretty well known poker player tell me that i have no gamble in me, for a poker player. despite all my vices over the years gambling has never really been one of them. i rarely play in a game/make a bet where i dont perceive myself as having enough of an edge for it to be profitable. that and i dont really have much of a regard for money. well, money ive won gambling anyway

[easy-e]

thanks for the condolences easy, but the way i look at it the interent/US provided me with a living and i was able to be my own boss for many years, even today, so i try not to get too hung up on the negative side of it all (although i do have a pretty hefty amount of money still stuck on one of the sites.

I work for my dad right now. He's been in and out of work for Chemotherapy so I've been doing a lot more. I've had the entrepreneurial bug for a long time and I've been looking at doing my own thing...maybe buying a local tavern who's owner is getting ready to retire. I'd hate to give a good thing though. I love my customers and my job is easy. Working with family isn't always, but I enjoy it. My mom always worried I'd end up working for my dad because I liked riding on the forklift when I was little. He also tried to buy a bar when they first got together so maybe the apple doesn't really fall too far from the tree.

ive been giving more and more thought to applying to one of the local locksmiths shops. this guy bud who has been in the business for 30+ years, mostly just does safe work now, a really great guy who broke down the whole business for me, gave me a few numbers to call but told me if i wanted to do it to just start my own thing. im a little worried my passion for picking locks with fade once it becomes a mandatory thing everyday, i.e, work. im generally a pretty lazy person lol. im curious to hear from some people who started picking as a hobby and then moved into the business side of things....

After high school I got a job working at an electronics manufacturing company. At the time robotics/electronics/programming were my favorite things so I felt like it was my dream job. After putting together other people's projects for 10 hours a day, mine weren't quite as fun anymore. Although I got to use my work's machine shop and other resources which was pretty awesome.

thanks for your welcome and sharing your gambling stories. i once had a pretty well known poker player tell me that i have no gamble in me, for a poker player. despite all my vices over the years gambling has never really been one of them. i rarely play in a game/make a bet where i dont perceive myself as having enough of an edge for it to be profitable. that and i dont really have much of a regard for money. well, money ive won gambling anyway

Yeah, I pick my battles. I use to bowl lots of tournaments but everyone was angry and miserable. I like to compete for fun. Making your friend fork of $1 for a side bet is more rewarding than winning $50 bucks from a tournament. Although one time I did win $1650. That was exciting but the buy in was $80.

[rerun12]

lol yea something about the combination of competition and money seems to bring out the worst in some people. the great thing about poker (and bowling for money or any other form of competitive gambling) is that it forces you to really put your ego aside...a big reason i become so involved in playing poker years ago is when i realized that much of what i had to do to transform myself into a more complete player also helped me become a better person. poker mirrors life in so many ways,i could go on and on...

thanks for sharing your experience with your electrical career and how it became less of a passion for you after HAVING to do it everyday, on other peoples schedule. some people are just more zen when it comes to finding peace with certain forms of work and ive found im not yet one of them lol. but then again i am not yet married with kids so im not sure my opinion on that comes from the right perspective. maybe one day though.

buying and running a tavern sounds like an awesome idea and something you seem pretty excited about. i say go for it! who wouldnt want to get paid to drink and play pool all day?

[xeo]

lol yea something about the combination of competition and money seems to bring out the worst in some people.

An accurate description of the world.

I heard something a 5-6 weeks ago on public radio about commercialized casinos opening online gambling sites. Sure sounds like a greedy powergrab through the political channels. I very rarely gamble, but when I do I go to a local video slots joint around here and burn $20-$40. I've never made more than $50 doing this. Then again I've rolled by elderly people who had $5000+ dumped into a machine. Tons of people burning their savings accounts. I call it the "money bonfire"... because that is precisely what you're doing.

[rerun12]

lol yea something about the combination of competition and money seems to bring out the worst in some people.

An accurate description of the world.

I heard something a 5-6 weeks ago on public radio about commercialized casinos opening online gambling sites. Sure sounds like a greedy powergrab through the political channels. I very rarely gamble, but when I do I go to a local video slots joint around here and burn $20-$40. I've never made more than $50 doing this. Then again I've rolled by elderly people who had $5000+ dumped into a machine. Tons of people burning their savings accounts. I call it the "money bonfire"... because that is precisely what you're doing.

indeed. i cant spend more than a few days in a casino, its sad to see people in the throws of gambling addiction..especially elderly people. i know here in ct slots generate something like >50% of their revenue. slots is pure gambling, an outside of a measly oh, idk... .0001%, they will all go broke eventually. it's the worst bet you can make in any casino.

i know new jersey has passed some legislation for online gaming (as far as the east coast is concerned), and more states will soon follow. i can go on quite the political rant but i wouldn't want to offend anybody.

ive read in vegas they have a simulated heads up limit holdem machine that, if played optimally, can be beaten. i never really play any slots/pit games but ive seen some close friends of mine dump ungodly amounts of money into those games. games where the house has a greater edge against you mathematically than most realize. unless you can count cards, pretty much every game game outside of poker offered at any casino has you at a huge disadvantage before you even sit down. but they do admit its gambling..i suppose that makes casinos less evil for doing what they do...idk. what i find puzzling is how my home state of connecticut is near broke when the money they generate from the lottery, scratch offs, and local casinos is ridiculous. youd think theyd have found economic equilibrium by now through those revenues alone, but apparently thats still not the case, nor prob ever will be. so it goes.

but yeah, watching old people dump their SS and pensions into a machine where you have <20% chance to win with every pull, it pretty disheartening. and knowing how low that % drops over the long term is borderline criminal imo...but hey, as long as the rich get richer who gives a fuck right? theyll do the right thing when needed..

[Oldfast]

.... my name is ken, im 31 years old ....

Good to meet ya Ken (with a little more detail this time) 31, me too
I like this age. It seems I've been around enough to know a LITTLE somethin',
yet still young enough that the whole world is still open to any direction I choose.

[rerun12]

.... my name is ken, im 31 years old ....

Good to meet ya Ken (with a little more detail this time) 31, me too
I like this age. It seems I've been around enough to know a LITTLE somethin',
yet still young enough that the whole world is still open to any direction I choose.

truer words are seldom spoken. i feel the same way, thank you for reminding me lol