On 'Salary' Strategies (Off Topic, PB-ish)

[Kilillan]

I'm a professional and have been living off poker for nearly 2 years now

I take out 2k every 2 weeks, simple as that. I try to keep my living expenses under 4k a month.

[SEABEAST]

I have a set amount I keep in various places and cashout my surplus whenever there's an appropriate amount to clear.

It is truly a great feeling every time I go to the bank and deposit a chunk of money into an investment account that I never, ever touch... knowing that this money is going into the vault, and will never be gambled with again...

Personally I keep about 20K online spread around, 5K in the cage at local casino, 2-3K in a savings account for spending money, 1K in a CC account for online spendings, and then every time I have 5K or so spare in any of these places I cash it out into the vault. Works very well for me (I play for a living and am vastly overrolled)

[Ra_]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm shooting for LASIK this year.

[/ QUOTE ]

My contacts were bugging me as I read this. I think this is a great idea.

[2Paul2]

I've been playing pro. for ~5 months now taking out ~50% of my winnings each month. Rest goes towards br. Even w/ an extra big cashout in dec. to pay off my student loan and fairly nitty br management I've managed to go from 200-600nl and work up a vry healthy savings account in that time. I do put in a decent amount of hours each month though.

Paul

[Tjorriemorrie]

Wow. reading this is so cool. i JUST started playing poker, ~65 days. i deposit 50 and has doubled it so far on 5NL. Yeah, you're laughing, but everyone starts at the bottom.

I don't know at what level i will start to withdraw, but I'm looking forward to it. My goal is to turn pro within a decade. I love this. I will enjoy playing poker 24/7/365

[DJ Sensei]

From a professional standpoint:

The optimal strategy is to build your bankroll to an adequate amount for whatever stakes you have the highest return at, and then cash out periodically whatever is above that level. This excess is your "salary" and you use it like you would with any other salary: it pays the bills and taxes, and then is either invested or saved or you use it on luxuries. (Spend it now, or spend it later). Of course one man's Rolex is another man's ability to eat nice dinners and sushi whenever he likes, fly across the country to visit friends, or go snowboarding in the middle of the week. We aren't all shipitholla ballas!

In addition to this strategy, the wise player would play both above and below his normal stakes periodically to ensure that he is in fact at the optimal stakes. The variance in poker related to sample size makes this more difficult, but you can at least get an idea if you look at your play and results objectively.

Also, no gambling, and no playing off of your A game whether it be 'for fun' or while drinking, unless you are spending your "luxury" money and can accept that potential loss. Thats probably good advice for any player. In poker you shouldn't mix business and pleasure.

[KLJ]

play your normal stakes with a bankroll that you won't go bust, withdrawing whatever you don't need whenever you feel like it. if you'd rather use the money to move up, do so.

keep the rakeback to buy things IMO. it encourages you to put in more hands

[BearHustler]

I've built a bankroll in the last two years, and only took out some money for PT and some books and stuff. I never took out money for anything else than poker-related "investments" and never paid for pokerbooks or whatever with my own money.

However, around last christmas, I suddenly became good at this game (god knows why) and I've been running at 9PTBB/100 over 38k hands with almost no variance. Needless to say, money has been pouring in. I've made about 15k in the last 2.5 months, and I'm really confused as to what to do with it.

I don't wanna leave it online, because 200NL is my regular game, with shots at 400 or 500NL, so I really don't need the bankroll. But I've been working at building my roll for two years now, and it just feels strange to start taking out big chunks.

Anyway, I don't know how long this heater is gonna last, but I suppose I better start planning these cashouts too.

Edit: I've been thinking about keeping 20 buyins online for the level I wanna play (8k in my example, because I wanna move up to 400NL soon), and 20 buyins in a savings account, that I keep as "backup" if should somehow blow the money I have online. Don't know if it makes sense though.

Also, there is no way I would go through a 10 buyin downswing and not move down until I've rebuilt my roll and confidence, so I don't really know how big my online roll should be at 400NL.

[brutalBeater]

Wow very nice OP.

I'm playing 100NL plus some occasional 200NL right now and decided to not cash out anymore until I have at least 25 buyins for 400NL. I'm not a big winner and don't play a lot so this will take some time. I hope to have the descipline for it.
I cashed out a lot in the past (made a couple of nice cashes in mtt's and was running hot playing above my roll) and sometimes regret it, because I could have the roll to play higher limits right now.

[skegvegaspoker]

I do the same as original poster. Take out 25% of profits each week from poker into bank account. Spend what I need/want to spend and put the rest into savings. If I have a losing week, I take the hit. All rakeback goes into bank account. Working well so far...