Low stake "pros" ???

[Kmon]

To add to your question, I would love it when I take my trip to vegas in april with a decent br for 3/6, 5/10, to be able to stay out there, has anyone done that, gone to vegas for a week and just stayed out there?

Great posts and a lot of things to think about.

And vdub, sounds like you put the effort into poker, I could imagine that most pro poker players are a different breed of person. There own rules, love the competition. I'm the same way in a lot of aspects, and I think it would be great, play live and online all the time. Sounds like the life sitting here, but u never know until u get there.

[Speedlimits]

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People survive on minimum wage and other low paying jobs. I think you could make a living playing 3/6 to 5/10 limit if you're willing to put in the hours. I think it would be a horrible job but possible. Maybe fun for a year of your life after school, but after that...

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Yeah, who would want a job where you sit on your ass all day, indoors, guzzle free beer all day, work flexible hours, watch tv if you want, get a free lunch included, have no boss to report to, have the ability to move to another workplace if you don't like your "co-workers", and can never be fired?

Sounds like pure hell.

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grinding out a living playing 5-10 limit live would be worse than hell.

40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year. so 2000 hours X 25 hands an hour = 50,000 hands.

Assuming at most 2BB/100 after rake and tips and gas and food and crap like that, you are looking at 20/100

so 200/1000 2000/10000 and finally 10,000/50,000

so yes, 40 hours a week, and 50 weeks, and you will make a whopping $10,000. good job.

this is assuming you are actually a good player, and you can actually run well during this said year.

So know, it's not possible ot make a living playing 5-10 LHE in a casino that rakes $4 a hand.

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its $20 an hour not $20 every 100 hands. Try like 30k a year chief.

[otter]

$20/hour at 40 hours a week is more than 30k/year. I don't think you'll be making $20/hour at many 5-10 games will you?

[RR]

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$20/hour at 40 hours a week is more than 30k/year. I don't think you'll be making $20/hour at many 5-10 games will you?

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As your hours played goes up your $/hr comes down (you don't get to pick your spots as much when you are putting in hour after hour). If I was going to try to play those stakes I would find some palce to play either 4-8 or 6-12 instead of 5-10. I would expect an hourly rate in 4-8 to be higher than the everage rate in 5-10 (or about the same, 5-10 is such a bad structure for a poker game).

[sternroolz]

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Recently, a friend of mine said he is moving to Vegas to take a shot at being a pro after he graduates in May. He needs a roomate and asked if I would go with him. I am also graduating in May with a worthless degree and a poor GPA. I was going to go back to school and get another degree but I am seriously giving his offer some thought.


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LOL that you think it matters what your grades are. The only time grades are important are 1.) Gettting your foot in the door....some companies won't interview you if you don't have a certain GPA. 2.) If you are going to an advanced school like law school.

Really, your work experience is far more important than grades. Frankly, anyone with a year or two part time experience in the field their degree is in will have a huge advantage over anyone else, regardless of grades.

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I have always been very different than other people and I have never really been motivated by anything other than competition. I have great difficulty studying anything for my classes but I read poker books regularly and work on my game constantly. It was the same way in highschool. I did enough to get by and then I hit the weight room or watched film. Thats what motivates me. I have been fighting myself my entire life doing things the conventional way. I went to college because my parents said that was what I was supposed to do.


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Ummmm, sales jobs are pretty competative environments.

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As bav mentioned all different types of people live on all different types of income. I really wouldn't have a problem living a simple lifestyle. I always have. All I need is my computer and an internet connection to be happy. I don't have a car because I really don't see spending money on them. I ride my bike around all day. People sometimes look at me funny but what do I care.


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Vegas without a car would suck so badly.

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Anyway, I would love to hear from more people who have taken this route, success or failure. I want to make an informed decision.


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What do you do during the inevitable horrible downswing and go busto? Or when inflation makes your $30K a year seem like poverty level wages? And after not having worked for the previous 10 years?

[AlienBoy]

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Seven,

"i'd be holding up a sign panhandling, (back when that still paid $50-100 a day instead of the $10 a day it pays now).

What?

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I did a documentary a few years ago.

In Santa Monica, Ca. (near Los Angeles) a panhandler can make roughly $14 an hour.

AB

[AlienBoy]

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I'm sure red chip pros realize it isn't a smart idea for the long run, thats why they eventually move up.

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Isn't "Redchip pro" an oxymoron?

AB

[brinks]

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How many real pros drink at the table? That's poor discipline and I know of a couple of otherwise good players that went broke because they couldn't handle their alcohol.

[/ QUOTE ]I drink nearly everytime I play live and have gotten hammered quite a few times. I honestly don't think it makes me play any worse.

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I can agree with this myself but I have to qualify it a bit. I dont drink when playing NLHE but if I am playing an Omaha H/L game I can get tanked, this is mainly because I could play O8 in my sleep as I have so many more hours playing it that I feel like im on auto-pilot and no amount of booze could change my decisions.

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Playing live 5/10limit, 1/2NL, Boozing is not even an issue as long as you dont get so drunk that you are beligerant. If anything it helps you to blend in with the fish that you should be cutting up, regardless of BAC.

[brinks]

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Ok, see I wasnt sure, thats why I asked. for some odd reason I thought you meant the blinds were 2/4, except during a killed pot, than they dropped to 1/2. But thats why your numbers were so high imo, at least bb/hr, its because back then the blinds were 1/2, and nowadays they are 2/4.

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I would expect the half sized blinds to make win rates lower, not higher. A lot less money is in the pot when it is $2 to call instead of $4 to call. I think this sort of structure can still be found in Las Vegas (I am guessing the Orleans and at least some of the Stations still use this structure, it is a favorite of the local nits).

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the good player, wants to play as many hands as possible preflop, the worse you are, the tighter you should play preflop, so you dont put yourself in really marginal positions postflop, so you should play less hands. With a 1/2 blind 4-8 game, mathematically, you are right to loosen up preflop compared to a game where the blinds would be 2/4. More hands you play = more money. That might account for the diff.

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I totally agree with the above quote, I have played in several of these live games with half the blinds, All of these games were with loose passive fish. I found this to be probobally the best structure to beat loose passive players, which are about 7/10 of the table in most of these games. Sacrifice preflop equity to exploit horrible post-flop mistakes = +EV.

[psandman]

I used to deal a $4/$8 with $1/$2 blinds. the differnce between the $1/$2 blinds and $2/$4 games is huge.

The $2/$4 blinds are much more action. Why well two reasons I think first. raising the blinds has driven away some of the tight assed nits. Second the players playing this game love to limp in with any two cards. The difference is that when you get 6 players pre-flop in the $1/$2 blind game the pot is $10 after the rake and JP. then someone bets $4 and there are a bunch of folds because all those limpers who missed don't want to put $4 in for a small pot. In the $2/$4 game you get the same 6 players but now the pot is $21 after rake and JP and lots of those limpers who would fold to a $4 bet for a smaller pot will call this bet for the larger pot.

I push a lot more large pots in the full blind game then I did in the half blind game.