[tongni]

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tongni im not really sure if i agree with this. if youre good enough to beat 100/200 then you should be good enough to make $250-$300/hr playing 15/30 or 20/40. at that rate you should have a bankroll for 100/200 in only a few months. i think living off ramen noodles just so you get a chance to play in the big game is kinda silly. besides, for most people 30/60 is going to be far more profitable then 100/200 anyway. id rather live well and play 30/60 then be poor playing 100/200 hoping im good enough at that level to make money. to each his own though, but i think recommending that people live this way is poor advice.

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I couldn't disagree more. They say that like 90% of people who experience some significant financial windfall lose it within 3 years, or something. This is just a random statistic, but it relates to poker quite well.

If you're a young college kid with what seems like unlimited money when you were just scraping by before, things totally change. No matter how mature you are, no matter how financially savvy you are, it's very difficult to not inadvertently screw yourself over. Where do you draw the line on taking money out? Well, you need new clothes, that will be $800. You have to take this girl out on a date and impress her, another $200, etc. If you pretend like you're just playing some computer game all day and at the end of the day nothing has changed, money accumulates so much quicker.

Don't believe me? Think about all the mid stakes players you know who are capable of playing much higher but due to poor decision making aren't. Probably around half will say "running bad when taking shots." This always makes me laugh, especially when I know they just spent a ton of money on other stuff they didn't need. The other half can usually admit their own bankroll management inefficencies.

For me, no amount of money is ever enough, and no stakes will be too high to play eventually. All I care about is winning. In a sense, I think that's helped me the most because it's just a game to me. The money doesn't enhance my life very much. I live underneath a laundromat, in an almost completely unfurnished apartment shared by me and a friend for $275 a month, and drive a 91' toyota. My life would be almost exactly the same if I didn't play poker.

If you want to live well, at least wait till you've made it. Thinking you're the man because you just made 100k last year is a joke.

I have two friends under 25 who play similar limits. Either one of them could have wrote the above post.