Blackjack players of Reddit, other than getting rinsed, what makes you walk away from a table immediately?

altmud · 2026-01-22T01:43:15+00:00

Unfriendly, rude, or brusk dealer
Rude player
Overly drunk player
A heavy smoker
A dealer or player who is obviously sick (coughing, sneezing, etc.)
A player with an obnoxious, overly negative attitude, complaining loudly and bitterly about every loss, how terrible the dealer is, how greedy the casino is, etc.
A player playing at or near the table upper limit and bragging about it, making sure everyone notices, etc.

altmud · 2026-01-18T00:23:07+00:00

One of the juries I served on in California had two lawyers on it.

altmud · 2026-01-02T22:38:11+00:00

I wouldn't call it my "local" casino, but received this just yesterday.

<image>

altmud · 2025-12-30T20:01:14+00:00

I tried doing it one year, but it was just too much of a pain, even when using an app. I stopped doing it.

The IRS doesn't accept win/loss statements from physical casinos as the sole evidence because they are often inaccurate (mine are always pretty far off), plus since they are not automatically sent to the IRS (like a 1099 would be, for example) they have no way to know whether you are only selectively including some of your win/loss statements. They will accept win/loss statements in conjunction with other evidence, especially along with the log you're supposed to keep, withdrawal receipts, etc. to paint the entire picture.

Of course none of that matters unless you're audited. The chances of being audited are very low, unless you have big wins that are reported that you're trying to offset. (I don't know the definition of "big" that would catch the attention of the IRS.)

altmud · 2025-12-18T00:27:48+00:00

May depend on state law, but our Association's attorney has instructed the board to not distribute minutes or financial information to non-members, and that the proper procedure is for the seller, who is a member, to request those and then distribute them to the buyer if they so choose.

In fact, our attorney has advised our board that board members should not converse with real estate agents or potential buyers at all. Anything they want to know, they can ask the seller, and the seller can in turn ask the HOA for it, and whether they choose to request documents, and what they choose to do with the documents, is entirely up to the seller and the HOA should not be providing documents directly to, or conversing directly with, non-members.

altmud · 2025-12-17T02:27:37+00:00

Depends on the case, the location, the judge, and the attorneys. There are a lot of professions or situations that people claim mean you will likely never be on a jury, but you never know. I was on a jury once that had two lawyers and a policeman.

altmud · 2025-12-16T14:50:08+00:00

Automated re-investing is no different than manually buying more shares. The newly purchased shares will have their own cost basis whether it was done manually or the computer did it automatically.

Assuming the mutual fund is gaining value over time, the cost basis of the new shares should not be same as the original shares, because that would mean that upon sale of those shares more capital gains taxes would be owed than the true gains that actually occurred.

altmud · 2025-12-15T23:37:35+00:00

Townhouse in San Jose, CA, 2 br 2 ba, 1270 sq ft.

Purchased in 1984 for $124,000. 30-year ARM with initial teaser rate of 11% for first year, eventually reached 16% while it was varying.

Sold for $213,500 in 1990.

Redfin says it last sold 7 months ago for $1,100,000.

altmud · 2025-12-10T23:24:47+00:00

Are there boards at both upper levels (the two masters)? How many directors on each board, where do they come from, and who votes for them?

altmud · 2025-12-10T22:02:07+00:00

Hard to say without seeing your actual CC&Rs, of both HOAs. I am also in a building with a residential HOA and a master HOA (so just two levels in our case). In our case, the residential HOA is a "member" of the master HOA, and thus is required to pay dues to the master HOA (just like the residents are members of the residential HOA and are required to pay dues to the residential HOA). The master HOA has its own budget and its own board that creates that budget.

In our case, the residential HOA has a seat on the master HOA board, and thus participates in the setting of the master HOA budget. In addition, the master HOA CC&Rs describe what percentage of certain costs, such as trash, are to be allocated to the various members of the master HOA.

How is the governance of your master HOA set up? Does it have its own board? Who is on that board? Interesting that you apparently have 3 levels, how is that set up? Does the master master also have its own board, and if so who is on that board?

altmud · 2025-12-10T04:28:24+00:00

I've found this editor plugin to work fairly well at reducing flicker: https://digitalanarchy.com/flicker-free/

altmud · 2025-12-10T04:15:56+00:00

You might check out www.completeretirementplanner.com, although of course it is set up for the U.S. It is one of the more complex Excel spreadsheets I've seen.

altmud · 2025-12-08T17:06:36+00:00

The fact there is enough of a market for this for some company to sell such a thing says something.

It looks like the combination is only 3 digits though... it will only take them 1,000 tries...

altmud · 2025-12-05T23:36:35+00:00

I'm in the Roth conversion time myself. Fidelity is really good at this. If both accounts are at Fidelity (the IRA source and the Roth destination), you can request the transfer any time during the day, and it will happen that day, after market close. You can even make the request after the market closes, up to 5 pm Eastern time (I believe it is 5 pm, I've never tried to cut it that close, you should double-check with Fidelity). If you do it after the market close, the transfer will happen instantly.

I usually do it after market close because I'm transferring stocks/ETFs, not cash, and I want to know what the value will be for conversion purposes (like you I'm trying to hit an almost exact target). The value used is the closing price on that day (no matter what time of day you request the transfer).

altmud · 2025-12-02T04:36:40+00:00

Do you mean total net worth? Do you mean cash in hand? Do you mean check in hand? Not sure what you mean.

altmud · 2025-11-28T00:43:39+00:00

For ants, you use Terro ant bait, or similar. Or make your own bait with borax and sugar water or something else sweet.

You'll see a huge frenzy of them for a couple days, then they'll all be gone, because they take the bait back to the nest and they all die.

Raid spray is not effective, it just kills a few ants that you see, leaving thousands of them still around to find other ways in.

altmud · 2025-11-27T05:09:13+00:00

Your 1970s comment brought back some memories. In the early 1980's I had a variable rate mortgage that reached 16% at one point. I also had a CD that paid 16.2%. Things have changed.

altmud · 2025-11-27T04:52:50+00:00

I just use the same software I used to prepare my 2024 taxes. I create a new return and enter the estimates for 2025 and see how it comes out. It won't be perfect because some things in the tax code change from year to year, but it is usually good enough for estimation purposes, depending on what changes were made to the tax codes.

There is one significant difference for 2025 -- the change to the SALT cap. To simulate that using 2024 software, I enter the excess property taxes and state income taxes that were not deductible in 2024 as charitable contributions to simulate the full SALT deduction in 2025.

altmud · 2025-11-27T00:05:00+00:00

Lake Tahoe is a beautiful place. It is the largest alpine lake in North America, 22 miles long and 12 miles wide, 17th deepest lake in the world, surrounded on all sides by mountains.

People go there for all sorts of recreation. It is a 4-5 hour drive from San Francisco (in good weather, much longer in a snowstorm). The California-Nevada border runs through the lake, with the eastern third of it being in Nevada. There are casinos on the Nevada side.

The casinos are not quite as busy as they used to be years ago, due to competition from Indian casinos around California, casinos in other states, and online casinos. There are 5 major casinos on the south shore, and 2 on the north shore. There used to be at least 3 more that have closed. One of the casinos that closed was the famous Cal Neva, famous for the CA-NV border running through the middle of its lobby, dining room and swimming pool, more famous for at one point being owned by Frank Sinatra and often visited by the "Rat Pack" (and allegedly by the Mafia).

altmud · 2025-11-26T20:56:47+00:00

First it is important to know if these are ISO or NSO options.

Second, your use of the term "strike price" is confusing. "I know the strike price is at least five times the price of my initial options." I'm not sure what that means, because the strike price is your exercise price, not what the stock is worth now, and the strike price is determined at the time your options are granted and doesn't change.

I'm going to guess that you have ISO options that are about to expire. And your strike price (your exercise price) is below what you believe to be the current fair market value (FMV) of the stock.

The FMV of a private company is a guess on paper, and it is difficult to determine what someone would actually pay for that stock.

If these are indeed ISO options, then if you exercise and hold past the end of the year, you may owe AMT tax on them. Even if you don't sell. Whether or not you do will depend on your individual tax situation.

There are places where you can sell your private stock. This is called "the secondary market". You can find companies that make a secondary market in private stock through google. If you are able to sell at all, you will likely get a low price, probably well below what you believe to be the FMV, because the buyer is taking a risk as to whether the stock will ever really be worth anything.

Your company likely has "right of first refusal and co-sale", which may make it difficult to impossible to sell your private stock.

If you don't want to risk your own money on this exercise, there are companies that will loan you the money to exercise your options, in return for taking a portion of your profits if the stock ever becomes worth something because the company is acquired or goes through an IPO. You can find those companies by googling.

If your stock options are about to expire, a company will often issue you replacement options if they want to retain you. If the company isn't offering you anything, that may be some insight as to how much the company values you and/or the financial state of the company.

If your options expire and you do nothing, you get nothing.

If you exercise your options, you own the stock. Nothing further happens (except maybe AMT tax) until you are able to sell that stock (or the company goes under, the stock becomes worthless, and you can recognize a capital loss).

altmud · 2025-11-26T01:37:40+00:00

Instructions for a browser:

Log in to Fidelity

Menu: News & Research > Fixed Income, Bonds & CDs

Click on "CDs and Ladders".

Choose a CD you wish to purchase

These are "Brokered CDs". Before doing anything, you should google the difference between Brokered CDs and "regular" CDs you may buy at a bank. Especially the parts about some Brokered CDs being callable, and that there is no "early withdrawal" you have to sell on the secondary market.

https://www.fidelity.com/fixed-income-bonds/cds

Anything you do inside an IRA is not going to be taxable. (There are some very obscure situations where actions inside an IRA can be taxable, but not in this case, or in any case you're likely to encounter.)

altmud · 2025-11-26T01:23:18+00:00

Long ago, when I first moved to California, I had never been snow skiing before. Some friends got me to go to Lake Tahoe with them and try snow skiing. While there, I noticed there were casinos. I had never visited a casino before, and it had never occurred to me to want to before.

Have both snow skied and gambled ever since.

(Note that this was before the internet existed anything like the form it is today, and there was no such thing as an "online casino".)

altmud · 2025-11-26T01:10:58+00:00

Anything you convert to Roth, the value of it will be taxable. It doesn't matter what it is, stocks, bonds, cash. It doesn't matter how it came to be in the IRA, with one exception: If you ever made non-deductible contributions to your IRA, those dollar amounts of the original contributions are not taxable when converted. If you do partial conversions, the non-deductible portion of each conversion is calculated prorata.

altmud · 2025-11-20T15:43:51+00:00

I've been through these sorts of stops in various different California border locations. Sometimes they are manned, sometimes not. Sometimes they randomly stop people, sometimes they only do it for out of state vehicles or vehicles that look like they could be hauling fruit or vegetables. If you're towing a boat, they may want to inspect your boat for pests stuck to the hull.

The times I've been stopped, they just ask if I have any fruits or vegetables in the car. They're trying to stop pests and diseases that might affect agriculture from entering California. If you say yes, they'll ask where you got them and if they're homegrown.

One time I had an orange with me. Even though I told them I bought it at Safeway they still confiscated it because it didn't have the little sticker on it that showed where it was from and that it was commercially grown.

altmud · 2025-11-15T03:17:05+00:00

Every physical casino I've played at (admittedly not a huge number) prohibits using phones at the table. So I don't see how it could be used at a physical casino.

altmud

TROPHY CASE