Low stake "pros" ???

[TheHip41]

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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.

[sternroolz]

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i couldn't see someone support more than just himself without making at least $75k a year

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Really? You do understand that the average household income in the US is MUCH lower than this, right?

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It depends. The best current conditions for low limit NL are in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Those cities are more expensive than the average US city, with Los Angeles being MUCH more expensive.

The monthly nut of a player in Los Angeles:

Rent: $600-1500 a month($600 if you have a roommate on a 2 bedroom apartment). Rent in Vegas for a single is roughly $800 a month. I assume you don't want to live in a total craphole.
Car: $200-300 a month
Car insurance: $100 a month
Health care: ?....maybe $150 a month...I dunno.
Gas: $30-50 a month if you don't drive too much
taxes: ? No way you can hold this much money on you, and no way you can keep putting this much in the bank w/o getting reported or found out eventually. Tax evasion charges suck.
Cell phone: $50 a month
Food: $200-300 a month...depends how often you eat free at casino on comp dollars.
Entertainment: girlfriend? hooker? hanging out with friends?

So you see, $75K a year in cities where you pay a higher than average rent, a higher than average car insurance, a higher than average health insurance, etc does not go all that far. Its enough to live comfortably, but not extravegantly. If you live reasonably frugal and underreport income for tax purposes, you should be able to afford one luxury(nicer car or nicer apartment or increased entertainment expenses) and also save $15-20K per year.

As a demonstration of where you live matters, if I lived in a no tax state, and a city with reasonable home prices, I would own a new home(instead of renting with roommates) and also make appx $5000 a year more because thats what I pay in state income tax.

[jjshabado]

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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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I thought it was pretty commonly accepted that you could make 1-2BB/HOUR playing 3/6 and 5/10. I only have 175 hours or so of 3/6 but I'm at 1.8BB/hour after tips/tokes/rake.

At 3/6 I think its easily possible to make $10/hour. You can live off that.

[jjshabado]

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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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Well when you put it that way...

Of course the reality is you're doing a mindless robotic job (which is what low-limit play would become) for 40+ hours a week for not very much money. You're probably working all weekend because thats when the best games are and you can make the most money. You don't really make any friends at 'work'. You meet some new interesting people, but you meet a lot of focking [censored]. You have to be able to handle weeks where you make nothing, and have the discipline to save money when you run extremely hot. Your health suffers because you're spending so much time at the table, drinking and eating crap.

I'll take my intellectually stimulating, rewarding, higher paying job any day of the week.

[sevencard2003]

i never drank, i tried to stay away from video poker and pit games, and if i had, i would have a decent bankroll of $10,000 or so today instead of still being around that same $1400. of course i dont own a car, ive never reported my income or paid taxes, and this is more fun that working for min wage at mcdonalds where id have a hard time finding someone willing to hire me for the 80 hrs a week i put in at the poker tables. and my rent in vegas was like $140 a week at a motel on bldr hwy and $125 a week at the south cove apts downtown. nowhere near $800 a month, and had i had the money to pay upfront i couldve found me something for $350-500 a month. but yeah i played $1-5 stud, and that dont make a lot and the game in vegas died out, now i gotta go to evansville in or the east coast. but had i been playing $4-8 fixed limit holdem or $1-2 or $2-5 NL holdem, im sure my income wouldve been more like $2000-3000 a month instead of $750-1200. anyone who claims a single person cant live on $25,000-35,000 a year in most cities is crazy, considering how many millions live on minimum wage and only get like $10-20k a year for a family of 4.many older retired people live on only $600 a month in social security.

[ckmo]

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At 3/6 I think its easily possible to make $10/hour. You can live off that.

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I wouldnt really call it living more of maybe getting by. You have to remember that making $10/hr playing cards doesn't translate into making $10/hr at some crappy ft job. There are other benefits that the ft job will provide that are extras with poker mainly health insurance. By the time you factor those things in, you'll basically be making minimum wage if that.

If you are deadset on playing limit for a living you'd be much better off building up a roll until you could comfortably play 10/20.

It's possible to do I guess, but I'd guess it is a pretty depressing lifestyle.

[bav]

Every discussion about money and whether you can retire or make a living becomes a debate over standards of living. Someone will post saying they would be happy with $24K/yr and someone else will post saying they don't see how they could survive on anything less than $200K/yr.

Which is why asking "can one make a living playing low limit poker" is sorta pointless. The answer to that is a simple "yes"--there are lotsa people who can make "a living" playing 4/8. 7card2003 would be an example of the ragged edge of this, working 80 hour weeks for $1000/mo. Your standards may differ (not everyone is happy making $3/hr) and your skillz may differ.

[pig4bill]

Another part of the "quality of life" aspect that many people are forgetting is that over half of your waking hours during the week are spent at work, lunch, and commuting to and from work. I don't get home until 12 hours after I leave for work every morning. The "quality of life" during those 12 hours leaves something to be desired. I think younger people that have only been on the job for 5 or 10 years haven't yet gotten sick of the traditional job.

After a couple three decades of being "in the workforce", the independence of a poker playing profession has a lot of appeal. Your income is solely dependent on your success in your profession(also the main appeal of trading stocks for a living BTW). No office politics, no boss taking credit for your successes, etc, etc.

[Assani Fisher]

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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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How long have you been playing poker? If I had to support myself on live poker and was playing 5-10 limit I'd go nuts, you're better off being a waiter or something. Seriously, it would be so stressful.

[/ QUOTE ]How is live poker stressful? I've played online poker for 3 years for a living, and I can understand how 12 tabling 8 hours a day can be VERY stressful. However, I'm just now making the transition to live game pro and I've noticed no stress at all. Obviously it sucks to lose money at times, but you're basically just sitting around, drinking, watching tv, talking, folding a bunch of hands, and playing one hand that requires a litte thought every 15 minutes or so.

[Assani Fisher]

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This type of thread pops up every few months and I have never, ever, seen a post from someone who has actually made a living solely from red chip games for a long period of time (~4-5 years). It's obviously theoreticaly possible but anyone capable of it is going to be smart enough realize it's not a very good long term idea.

People playing low limits to supplement retirement or other fixed income makes a lot more sense.

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It seems likely that someone who plays 2/5 for a year either flames out and moves on to a normal job, or has a proficiency for poker and moves up the ladder. If you're good enough to beat 2/5 for $40/hour, then you are probably good enough to beat 5/10 for $50+ so you move up.

[/ QUOTE ]exactly....right now I'm playing $2/5 NL live, but I'd be very disappointed if I wasn't playing higher in a few months.