Cash game pros - lifestyle (and numbers) questions

[Phase2]

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

[skier_5]

[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.

[bokla]

- 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.

[raze]

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?

[Phase2]

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?

[Phase2]

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]

[theplux]

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.

[Phase2]

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?

[mattaasen]

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

[Phase2]

thx for the reply mattaasen