Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

I have recently started playing cash games on a full time basis. I basically plan on doing this for the next few months.

I have been going over a lot of the hand advice posted on this site, rarely posting.

I would really like to chat with people who have been playing (mainly) cash games as their primary source of income. I have lots of questions like :

- How many hours of cash game play do you guys (and gals) try to log every week ?

- How has playing cash games affected your sleeping cycles ? How has it affected the social aspect of your life?

- What kind of $ / hour are some of you maintaining ? (please mention stake and # of tables played)

- How do you guys pay yourself? Do you do a fix amount of $ per week ? Do you tell yourselves '' i will withdraw X$ when my bankroll reaches X$ ''


Im sure i will come up with more questions and would love to chat 1on1 with some of you if you guys dont feel comfy posting the answers in public.

Thanks

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

[censored] with my sleeping schedules and i've had like no social life the last couple of months because im a bum in a city i don't know. I put in a decent amount of hours. I don't "pay" myself. I spend what I want when I want. Right now I don't have a bank account (long story) so most of my money is online, but when I get all that [censored] figured out I'm going to try to take out as much as possible at the end of every month while growing my online bankroll.

but in reality, the answer is truly what you make of it. If you keep a good sleep schedule that lines up with other things you would like to do with your life (I think this is very crucial) then it doesn't have to [censored] with your schedule. For poker playing at night is obviously best but when you find yourself needing to do something or buy something at a store and you get up at 8pm, you gotta do something about it. This causes you to move your schedule, or if you are visiting someone you have to flip right around. Constantly changing your schedule leads to lost days and many days of being tired and adjusting.

One thing that I think is that finding some kind of compromise between day and night is crucial because when im awake during the day I feel I'm less inclined to sit at home, I stay on a schedule, and I do more things other than poker.

I'd advice making some commitments, be it meeting with a personal trainer at a certain time, taking a class, meeting someone for dinner every day or something just to keep you from drifting on some random schedule. Sure, that's not complete freedom, and maybe you can do it without it, but for me, something other than plans to play poker for the day seem like they would help.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

- 10-20 hours a week
- I sleep at 2-4am and wake up at 11-1 every day. I go out twice a week and spend a lot of time with my wife.
- 5/10nl 2-4 tables with 7BB/100 hands
- I withdraw 10k every month. I play with a 30-50 buy in bankroll.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

25-30hrs a week including session review, watching videos, etc. I have no excuse to not be putting in 40 though.

Doesn't affect sleep, doesn't affect social; I could improve both if I wanted to, independent of playing poker.

A LOT more than any job; 3-4 tables of 400/600

I cash out whenever I feel I have a surplus on my bankroll, usually a grand or two here and there



How about you? What do you play, etc?

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

Thanks for the answers so far.

I am just wondering if i will be able to keep up the sleep schedule that I put myself through this week. Wondering is this is sustainable.

Basically, starting sunday, i played poker at night from 11pm - 6am , sleeping all day, waking up around 4pm-5pm , going out for a social activity from 7-11pm , then playing poker all night.

Now, im going snowboarding tomorow and planned on doing things with some lady friends on saturday so I had to switch back my sleeping cycle. Basically, woke up at 7pm tuesday night (then went out to see the new Warren Miller snowboarding movie called PLAYGROUND), played poker all night and morning until noon wednesday. Then fought and struggled to stay up until 7pm wednesday, then crashed, and woke up this morning at 4am. I plan on staying up until my ultimate frisbee game tonight at 8pm and going to bed at 10pm, which would allow me to wake up at 6am to go snowboarding.

Im hoping that I can do that on a regular basis, basically playing poker at night and then switching up my sleep cycle come weekend to that it matches up with my social circle.

Thoughts on the sustainability of this plan?

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

So here is my story:

I had a cushy govt job which cleared me 1.1k / 2weeks. The work was boring, the people I work with are very nice, but also very boring. I hated the cubicle lifestyle, then went through a rough patch in my life. Ended up breaking up with my girlfriend (of 4months, no biggie) and then went on a online blackjack binge... lost like 10k over the course of 2weeks, 7k of which I did not have (aka credit card dept now). After these binges, i hated myself for it and missed a lot of days of work in a short span of time, causing me to lose my job on top of accumulate a pretty massive dept.

I really really really hated myself for allowing me to lose money at blackjack, it has always been a weakness of mine , but I had never played online before until now. (and when i went to the casino, only played myabe 100-200 a night).

I decided that I would make back that money via poker. I decided to apply myself and play poker full time. I figured if i can maintain a withdrawal rate of 1.1k/2weeks I would continue with poker, if i could not maintain that win rate, i would go back to find a regular job (*puke*). For 1month , i grinded turbo rebuy sattelites (selling the seats) and 12$ 180man turbos on pokerstars. I was able to withdraw 1.1k per 2weeks and had enough to build small roll to take a shot at cash games, which was were I wanted to be at to begin with.

I was very solid at push/fold turbo poker, having played a lot of that over the last few years. I had given cash games a shot in the past, but did not have the skillset, discipline and emotional fortitude to be successful (aka i tilted way too easily/too much and always ended up busto-ing my rolls online ).

So now its been 1month that I am grinding 1-2nl (mainly) and 2-4nl , both 6max and 10max. I have been doing very good, withdrawing more then my target 1.1k/2weeks which has helped a lot towards the BJ dept.

I have also met a guy who also plays poker as main source of income as he finishes hes MBA. He has helped me a lot, he has taught me a lot about cash games, and we play at the same times which is great for moral support and just having someone in the same boat as me (playing poker as sole income).

So, thats about me, thats what i play, etc [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


If all goes well, I will do this for the next 4-6months over winter, then re-asses to see how it went. This is going to be a sweeeeeeeet winter, filled with poker, snowboarding and (hopefully) girls [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

Wish you the best luck. I think you got to find your own path. Personaly, I just turned pro 2weeks ago and my sleeping schedule is different every days but I can handle it with ease.

As for the financial question, Id sugest you investing your 'sleeping roll'. Theres some 3.5% bank with 100% return.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

ThePLux, what do you mean exactly by sleeping roll and 100% return? You mean ING where they give 4% on savings and you have access to your cash without fees?

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

beat up midstakes for the last few years while blowing a lot of money and going to school....

moved to cali a couple months ago...now play 50 hours a week 2-4 to 10-20 heads up, 6 max, full ring online and 10-20, and hopefully some 20-40 nl at commerce...........going to grind for next few years insane hours.... i too moved to a town where i know no one plan on investing everything after my roll hits 400k

best of luck man

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

thx for the reply mattaasen

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

i don't know you at all but the blackjack thing makes me think you're probably not cut out for playing poker professionally. take your shot i guess, but definitely do not go into debt for poker.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

After reading the first part of your history my advice would have been quit as fast as possible.

After reading the 2nd part i would like to know which sample sizes you have by now?

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

Yes for ING.

What do I mean by 'sleeping bankroll'. Lets say you play 1-2. You dont need more than 10k to play that, and even 8k is fine. If you've 20k roll, then theres 10k at least that is 'sleeping' and could be profitable somewhere else.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

I keep a some what normal sleep cycle: bed at 1-3 up at 9-2 (depending on classes). I played poker full time about a year ago but found out it wasn't for me and I needed to go back to school. Now that I am back in school I play about 50k hands a month.

I play 1/2 - 3/6 6max and 2-9 table with an hourly rate of about 80/hr. (not near my db but that sounds about right)

I just buy things when I want them. I usually cash out about 2k per month for a down payments on real estate and about 1k per month for stock market. Other then that I just run up credit card bills (mostly drinking tabs and food) and pay that off at the end of the month.

The reason I got back into school because it messed with my social life too much and I didn't want that to happen. I am only 21 and was starting to become a loner.

My advice:
Keep social event planned and go out with friends a lot .
and try and keep a good sleep cycle because if you don't, you will find yourself get sick a lot easier.


P.S. WM PLAYGROUND was awesome. I saw it here in MN. [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Cheers

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

I know you guys will all think that I cant do the poker thing professionally because of my weakness for BJ. Feel free to tell me you dont think i can make it, it only makes me want to prove you guys wrong [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

And im not going in dept for poker, you must of read my store wrong, im getting out of dept via poker [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]



As for sample size, since I started playing cash games on november 7th, I have played 25,000 hands. Before this, I have accumulated another 50,000 hands on various other sites when I was playing poker but not professionaly. The 50k hands were tracked in pokertracker and I had a postive BB/100 although I cant give you the exact number because I had no discipline and was playing at levels ranging form .5-1 to 3-6 .... 1-2 and 2-4 were profitable, while i was a loser at .5-1 and 3-6.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

alright, thats what I thought. THanks.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

thx for your input cheers

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

cool thread. i'm kind of gearing towards cash game semi pro-dom myself, with aspirations to make a modest living at 6max 200NL and 400NL. haven't really been able to get the ball rolling too much, though i have enough to live off of for a while from some donkament cashes. for a long time tournaments were sort of my security blanket, 'cause i always felt like any day now i was going to go on a massive downswing. i think i play cash well, though

lately school has me swamped and i've been reading 2+2 and studying the game a lot more than actually playing, since it's something i can do more sporadically than buckling down and putting in a session

anyone else make their living off of poker while still a full time student at a university? i find it hard to focus on both (although i am pretty lazy)

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

a couple of things: first you've got a lot of flexibility with social life and time spent playing. After trying alot of schedules I've been working 9-5 and it seems to be the best, but you can chose what you want.

Its the same with your social life. There is very few mandatory functions (God fishes at 25/50 and the like), so you make your own.

As for your decision to go pro, I would suggest moving down. You don't have alot of sample size at 5/10 and the games are tough, only the best players maintain 7BB/100. You are going to go broke.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
cool thread. i'm kind of gearing towards cash game semi pro-dom myself, with aspirations to make a modest living at 6max 200NL and 400NL. haven't really been able to get the ball rolling too much, though i have enough to live off of for a while from some donkament cashes. for a long time tournaments were sort of my security blanket, 'cause i always felt like any day going to go on a massive downswing in cash. i think i play cash well, though

lately school has me swamped and i've been reading 2+2 and studying the game a lot more than actually playing, since it's something i can do more sporadically than buckling down and putting in a session

anyone else make their living off of poker while still a full time student at a university? i find it hard to focus on both (although i am pretty lazy)

[/ QUOTE ]

Focusing on school and poker is something that I have always struggled at. I do well at school but sometimes I will just get into these poker binges and not go to classes for days at a time, sometimes weeks. Next semester I am just doing college part time because of this. I feel if you want to be successful at both you need to set very strict rules about when to play poker and when to study.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
cool thread. i'm kind of gearing towards cash game semi pro-dom myself, with aspirations to make a modest living at 6max 200NL and 400NL. haven't really been able to get the ball rolling too much, though i have enough to live off of for a while from some donkament cashes. for a long time tournaments were sort of my security blanket, 'cause i always felt like any day going to go on a massive downswing in cash. i think i play cash well, though

lately school has me swamped and i've been reading 2+2 and studying the game a lot more than actually playing, since it's something i can do more sporadically than buckling down and putting in a session

anyone else make their living off of poker while still a full time student at a university? i find it hard to focus on both (although i am pretty lazy)

[/ QUOTE ]

Focusing on school and poker is something that I have always struggled at. I do well at school but sometimes I will just get into these poker binges and not go to classes for days at a time, sometimes weeks. Next semester I am just doing college part time because of this. I feel if you want to be successful at both you need to set very strict rules about when to play poker and when to study.

[/ QUOTE ]

myself and all of my friends at school that play semi pro or w/e have this same problem...its all about priorities and all of ours are poker over school

i really havnt gone to many classes at all this semester but i think if your class meets twice a week going to one of those is ok if you can really cram before finals which i think works best for me

anyway gl op and i could be wrong i would guess that moving up above 1,2 (almost definitely 2,4) is a bad idea...over a frew k hands you may think wow-no biggie, but the games really are much different, i would try and get in about 100k hands + at mostly 1,2 and some 2,4 before i played much 3,6 or 5-10 at all (*there isnt that much difference skill wise between 3,6 and 2,4 just more variance $$ bc of bigger buyin)

anyway, gl man

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

You should not worry about your sleeping cycle. I am playing as a pro for over a year now and what I found out is that I play much better when I am rested and the strength of other players does not affect my winrate. So you should keep up your regular sleep schedule and play only when you feel good. Playing at night is not much better than playing in the morning to catch fish.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

Little bit off topic, but I play to finance education as well.
However Im not playing 6-12 tables at the time, but rather 2 or 3.
Im never getting 100k+ hands in a month or two.
Even tho I feel comfertable playing at theese stakes I get alot advice that says you cant read anything from a sample that is 30-50k.

So what are the opinions on this?

Sqeeze my french.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
a couple of things: first you've got a lot of flexibility with social life and time spent playing. After trying alot of schedules I've been working 9-5 and it seems to be the best, but you can chose what you want.

Its the same with your social life. There is very few mandatory functions (God fishes at 25/50 and the like), so you make your own.

As for your decision to go pro, I would suggest moving down. You don't have alot of sample size at 5/10 and the games are tough, only the best players maintain 7BB/100. You are going to go broke.

[/ QUOTE ]

7bb/100 was some other guy, not OP.

I do my best to balance everything, school and poker are pretty difficult to do together, a lot of the times i have to sacrifice one for the other.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

i play 1-2 almost exclusively now, with some 2-4 when the games are soft.

THe time i tried 3-6 and 5-10 was when i was not relying on poker for income, now that i have gone pro i have not played anything above 2-4 ... its all 1-2 and sometimes 2-4. I plan on staying at this level for a few months. My goal is 1.1k profit per 2weeks, which is more then attainable if i stick to 1-2.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

I am planning on going pro in 1.5 years when I have finished my master degree. I'm moving to France in a month, and will learn French there before going back to Norway (probably) to finish up the degree. I play 2/4 headsup now, but am fairly certain I'll manage to get to 10/20 before my degree is finished. Then I'll move to Barcelona and spend a year grinding it up there, in addition to taking Spanish lessons. This way it won't look bad on my resumé and I'll get to experience a new culture and learn another language.

If this goes well, I hope to switch countries and do another year of grinding in either Italy or Germany and learn that language as well. I'll try to keep this up for a couple of years while grinding up enough money to get good capital started for investing.

I think it's important to do it this way; I don't want to rot away in some apartment in Norway and [censored] up my resumé by having "empty years in it".

As for the OP, I think you need a larger samplesize, and that you need to give it more time before you make your decision to go pro, but I wish you a lot of luck and hope you make it [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

Balancing school and poker is tough. Thing holding me back from going pro, I would probably become more alienated and lose a lot of important social interaction. It does frustrate me that dumber people are doing better then me in school. I am still doing okay, but I realize a mediocre 3.0-3.5 gpa, from a [censored] university is never going to land me anything ideal in the future.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

I really believe that self-discipline in all aspects of your life is critical to success as a poker player. If people are returning to school in order to artificially force a social life, I think this is a road to eventual failure.

Be pro-active in your attempts to broaden and diversify your life. Go out with friends, go to dinners, spend some of your poker money on enjoying life (not frivolously) so that you create a real link in your mind to poker discipline/success and positive real life experiences.

Find a hobby that allows you to interract with people, be out of the house, and ideally has alot of adrenaline/seratonin release - for me that's racecar driving [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

That's my $0.02 after a number of years of being involved in the poker world.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

I really think the sample size issue that always comes up is somewhat trivial. 30-50K hands is enough of a sample to evaluate your style of play and it's pros/cons=> which is what you always try to improve upon

That 100k<<< benchmark is more useful in determining staying power (i.e. playing professionally/primary source of income).

Playing 6-12 tables is great if you can do it, but it will inevitably hurt your ability to improve/develop whereas 2-3 tabling and concentrating may improve LT skill development.

OP if you analyze your play routinely, and avoid chasing losses, read 2+2 posts (worthy ones), adjust your stakes as your BR as it +/- , you'll be fine (not groundbreaking advice obv, but easier said than done).

Sure I have like 10 posts, lol, but take it FWIW.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

What are you doing for health insurance or do you live somewhere that the gov provides it?

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

- How many hours of cash game play do you guys (and gals) try to log every week ?

I avg about 20hrs a week, but it's very polarized to like 10 or 40hrs/wk. This is because I tend to play a ton when I'm not doing well, and quit easily when I'm up. Not recommended, but I think it's pretty common.

- How has playing cash games affected your sleeping cycles ? How has it affected the social aspect of your life?

I sleep from like 5am to 2pm (give or take two hours) usually - but honestly this is pretty close to my ideal sleep schedule (I was doing this in college long before I got into poker). The biggest problem I have w/ playing pro online is that I don't get an automatic, in town group of friends like many people do at their jobs.

- How do you guys pay yourself? Do you do a fix amount of $ per week ? Do you tell yourselves '' i will withdraw X$ when my bankroll reaches X$ ''

I withdraw whenever I have more than enough to play the stakes I want to. Make sure you have a large cushion in your bank account. A bad day/week/month should never affect your ability to pay your bills, etc for a fairly long period of time.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
- How many hours of cash game play do you guys (and gals) try to log every week ?

[/ QUOTE ]

about eight hours a day devoted to playing/posting/watching vids

[ QUOTE ]
- How has playing cash games affected your sleeping cycles ? How has it affected the social aspect of your life?

[/ QUOTE ]

at first i just played whenever i wanted so my sleeping cycle got all screwy and social life things got out of whack because of that. things like missing phone calls cause im sleeping at weird times or playing instead of going out which sucks. it's similar to an opportunity cost. devote your time to what you care about. if all you care about is making money then that's what type of person you'll be. on the other side if you go out every night that's who you'll be too, balance is important imo.

[ QUOTE ]
- What kind of $ / hour are some of you maintaining ? (please mention stake and # of tables played)

[/ QUOTE ]

this is a tough question to answer specifically because if you're at a stage where you are really taking off in your understanding and making fewer and fewer mistakes while also opening up your game in the right spots and continuing to learn your winrate will be growing and you may move up stakes where you then may go through another learning curve period where your win rate fluctuates while you adjust etc., so it will vary and one general rate won't really tell you much.

But as a basic guideline, if you're not making around $200-$400 an hour net, playing, for example, like 4 tables of 1/2 or 2/4 you're probably still at a stage where you're plugging a lot of leaks rather than implementing your style, if that makes sense.

[ QUOTE ]
- How do you guys pay yourself? Do you do a fix amount of $ per week ? Do you tell yourselves '' i will withdraw X$ when my bankroll reaches X$ ''

[/ QUOTE ]

this is more difficult when you don't feel comfortable about sustaining a winrate. when you're confident that you can win and feel that it's just a matter of time you can plan out expenses a little better which is why some people advocate like 100 buy ins for a level. that seems rele high to me but it's just a big safety net really. basically what i'm saying is that if you're a winning player you'll be smart enough to find a mix of taking money out that will not jeopardize you're roll and that you can sustain yourself on.

gl and if you have any more questions or want to bs on AIM about hands or whatever give 'chalupahpuhol' a shout. hollerrrrr.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
But as a basic guideline, if you're not making around $200-$400 an hour net , playing, for example, like 4 tables of 1/2 or 2/4 you're probably still at a stage where you're plugging a lot of leaks rather than implementing your style, if that makes sense.

[/ QUOTE ]

typo , i assume. 4tabling 2/4 at 5ptbb/100 would be $160/hr.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

Canada For-The-Win !

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

- How many hours of cash game play do you guys (and gals) try to log every week ?

about 30hrs a week average sounds right.

- How has playing cash games affected your sleeping cycles ? How has it affected the social aspect of your life?

my sleeping cycles have always been a bit weird ever since high school. i just focus better at night when there arent many distractions around and i am not tired, it might be weird but i dont give a [censored].

i feel like it has definitely affected my social life. its hard to relate to your college friends when you are making a lot of money and dont really have any commitments, its very unusual to say the least. i try to hang out with friends from time to time, but i feel like i just get along better with poker players who can relate to my own situation.

- What kind of $ / hour are some of you maintaining ? (please mention stake and # of tables played)

~$4-500 3 tabling.

- How do you guys pay yourself? Do you do a fix amount of $ per week ? Do you tell yourselves '' i will withdraw X$ when my bankroll reaches X$ ''

my bankroll = all my money.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

I feel incredibly old-school coming up on my 4th year of playing poker for a living. I also am starting to feel old as well. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Anyway, I'll answer your questions.

[ QUOTE ]
- How many hours of cash game play do you guys (and gals) try to log every week ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Target is ideally 25. Reality is more like 20.

[ QUOTE ]
- How has playing cash games affected your sleeping cycles ? How has it affected the social aspect of your life?

[/ QUOTE ]

It affects my sleeping schedule way more than it should. I try to go to bed by midnight and wake up around 8-9 AM. I've been good about it for about the last week, but I can go weeks at a time being completely screwed up and I tend to play horrible poker when I do.

As far as social life, I don't think it has negatively affected me at all, though perhaps when I first started it was hard to get over the "wow I'm losing so much money by not working right now" thing. That passed fairly quickly though.

[ QUOTE ]
- What kind of $ / hour are some of you maintaining ? (please mention stake and # of tables played)

[/ QUOTE ]

Hard to say given I play higher now then I did a few months ago (therefore sample size is small). Over the last quarter million hands or so at $2/4-$5/10 I was making around $400/hr. Playing $5/10-$25/50 like I do now, it seems to be more like double that at around $700-800/hr. This is 4-8 tabling.

[ QUOTE ]
- How do you guys pay yourself? Do you do a fix amount of $ per week ? Do you tell yourselves '' i will withdraw X$ when my bankroll reaches X$ ''

[/ QUOTE ]

I have to do wire transfers for the most part to get my money off so I usually only do it once a month to keep fees down. I take off everything beyond 20-30 buy-ins and keep a few thousand for expenses, put money I'll need for taxes into my segregated account for that, and invest the rest in my SEP-IRA and taxable mutual funds.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

Thank you for all the responses!

As for all of you who are saying to wait before going pro, a bit too late for that. I was playing part time for the last year, and was able to clear a decent profit. Only thing is i couldnt play nearly as much as I wanted to, due to the girlfriend and job. Now that i got rid of those 2 dead-weights (hehe) I get to play much more. It just never seemed to make sens for me to need to go to bed after a winning session of 400-1000$ in a night, even though i was playing solid poker against donkeys, because i needed sleep to go to my 8hour day job that made me 110$...

I am giving it a shot for this winter, and i have absolutely LOVED the last 2months!! Reading all these posts (and some on 2plus2 where i posted the same thing) has really given me some hope. I woke up early this morning and i just couldnt sleep anymore because I was too excited to get on the virtual felt (and obv i get rewarded with some sick sick -var coolers lol; however on the positive side it did not affect my play negatively and it did not put me on tilt at all, so im happy about that!)


And to all of you worried about me and my BJ problem, I positive that is in the past and will not resurface. I realize the cost now (which is like 2months of intense pokering to recopu my losses on top of paying for my living expenses ..)

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

--- How many hours of cash game play do you guys (and gals) try to log every week ?

30-50

---How has playing cash games affected your sleeping cycles?

i sleep too much and wake up later and later every day cuz i dont have to wake up

---How has it affected the social aspect of your life?

i wake up in time to pregame

---How do you guys pay yourself?

i like to withdraw as much as possible while slowly building my roll

im gonna try to start getting up at like 1:00 pm consistently and also start going to the gym. i would also like to have some sort or loose playing schedule instead of just waking up and playing all day/night once the coffee wakes me up. somethin like 4-6 hours/day 5-7 days a week.

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

these days i'm on a pretty normal sleep schedule, have been seeing my friends at college a ton, have had a few girlfriends this semester, and am spending a little less time on poker. my game has been much better lately because of it i think, and i'm enjoying life more than ever. i've gone through phases where i didn't play at all (usually after a huge downswing) as well as phases where i played nonstop severely hurting my social life, it's definitely important to find a happy medium and i'm getting much better at this.

that said, the past few months i've still averaged probably 40k hands which is a lot considering most of the time i'm just sitting around waiting for action. also i've been focusing on making my money work better for me and other nonplaying poker ventures (cardrunners etc).

i used to just cash out whenever i needed money in my bank account, with the occasional big cashout when i just had way too much online and wanted to put it in esavings or index funds. but lately i've changed this and have been cashing out more frequently just because it makes me feel a little safer about life in general i guess considering most of my friends are graduating right now and are getting ready to hit the real world.

i also reenrolled in school and am starting classes up next semester. it's going to take me three more semesters to get my degree i think, meh, we'll see if i make it

Re: Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions
 

play 100k hands at 1/2, report back.