2-5NL Games in Vegas: Can you make a living?

[JohnnyQuad]

I think your kidding yourself if you think that $10k will be enough.

I have just completed my first year playing mainly $2-5 NLHE for a living. My bankroll is $40k, in 2005 I earned $53501.00 playing 1354 hours. That is a win rate of $39.51 per hour. My daily win pct is 73.37% and my Coefficient of Variation is 0.11. I have been playing PL and NL for more than 15 years.

Durring 2005 I had a plateau that lasted 278hours(almost 3 months) and my largest down swing was -$5306.

Now granted it was harder at the beginning of 2005 because of the limited games selection in town.(no MGM until end of march and no Wynn until end of April.).

The games are also not as good on the weekdays. So expect to be playing poker every Friday and Saturday night.

In the begining you will also have to be able to deal with the stress. Playing for a living with no backup income will really increase those knots in the neck and shoulders.

In the past year I have seen many young players come to town to try and make their living playing. I have not seen many of them last more than a month. There are very few players at the Wynn making it on poker alone. I know this for a fact because I talk to all of the regulars there. Most of them have some other income and do not rely on poker alone. If you would like to ask me any specific questions please feel free to contact me.

Good luck
See you when you get here.

[cwsiggy]

Not bad - only 26 hours per week on average. Sounds though just like you said, lots of weekend nights with some time off during the week. Just curious - why not multitable online??
Do you do better live?

[TheMetetron]

Why would someone grind it out live for $35/hr?

If my online winrate starts dipping below $200/hr I start to get worried... I feel really bad for you guys doing this live.

Not only that, but I almost never play Fri/Sat nights anymore... there is just so much better stuff to be doing besides working.

[betgo]

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Why would someone grind it out live for $35/hr?

If my online winrate starts dipping below $200/hr I start to get worried... I feel really bad for you guys doing this live.

Not only that, but I almost never play Fri/Sat nights anymore... there is just so much better stuff to be doing besides working.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey, good for you, but the peons have to start somewhere.

[MTBlue]

Ok, so even if the games are soft enough to make 24K a year, what's the game plan 5 years or 10 years from now? On 24K you certainly can live but trying to put away decent savings or bankroll building is going to be near impossible. Without a bigger bankroll you don't have any hope of moving up to Meteron's $200/hr. If you decide to stop playing poker, what skills are you going to put on your resume?

I'm not trying to be a killjoy, but I think you need to take a longterm view of going pro. It's a tough, gutsy way to make a buck and best of luck to you.

[betgo]

[ QUOTE ]
Ok, so even if the games are soft enough to make 24K a year, what's the game plan 5 years or 10 years from now? On 24K you certainly can live but trying to put away decent savings or bankroll building is going to be near impossible. Without a bigger bankroll you don't have any hope of moving up to Meteron's $200/hr. If you decide to stop playing poker, what skills are you going to put on your resume?

I'm not trying to be a killjoy, but I think you need to take a longterm view of going pro. It's a tough, gutsy way to make a buck and best of luck to you.

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He is probably some young guy who wants to get started. He is probably not planning on making $24K for ever. In 10 years, he probably hopes he will be playing high stakes and major tournaments.

[betgo]

First of all, if you realy only want to make $2K/month, you should be able to do it very easily at 1/2NL. If you can't make that much at 1/2 NL, you have no business being a no limit pro. Your variance should also be lower at 1/2 and you don't need a huge bankroll. I don't really recommend 1/2 for a pro, but it might be an easy way to start if you don't need to make a lot.

2/5 NL is a reasonable place to start as a no limit grider. However, you might think more in terms of starting at 1/2 and working your way to 2/5 and then maybe 5/10. Also, you can play 2/5 but switch sometimes to 1/2 or 5/10 if there is a good game with those blinds.

Also, you may consider playing some online. It might also be good to have something you can make decent money at part time, so you can ease your way into being a poker pro gradually. That's how I did it.

You need to be confident that you can beat certain games. It is better to either gradually become a pro or know that you can make a more than adequate rate for a pro as a hobbyist player before going pro.

Going to Vegas without a lot of money and without confidence that you can beat the games with the intention of making as a pro will put you under a lot of pressure and you may not be successful with this approach.

[roundest]

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Playing any NL or PL game the variance will be much greater so your won/loss swings will be larger than if you were playing LHE. (one of the math genuises on this forum can help you work out the numbers).

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this statement alone pretty much disqualifies your whole post. there are tons of other inaccuracies in this post as well, OP ignore this one.

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Exactly. It seems like everyday I see someone state as fact that NL/PL has more variance than limit. This should be included in the FAQ in every forum on this site. LIMIT HAS MORE VARIANCE.

[lefty rosen]

NL has very little variance if you know what you are doing. The variance is the highest the fastest and loosest you play. Ie the Party 25NL games from 2 years ago. I used to auto push or bet pot with JJ or better on brick flops and invariably got called by ace high guys every time. If I nutpeddaled I would have had almost no variance. These days when I play live I stick to rock styles as I don't really have a live roll and just withdraw cash from a savings account to play 1/2 NL(100max) live.....

[Unabridged]

i'd say play live 2/5 a few nites a week, then spend the rest of time 8tabling 100NL(or higher) online.