Quitting my crap job to grind 2/5+ live??

[IgorSmiles]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Horrible environment surrounded by unhealthy conditions and scummy humans

[/ QUOTE ]

People always say this in these threads but it hasn't been my experience at all

[/ QUOTE ]

Second hand smoke and greasy food arent particularly healthy. Pretty much every cardroom in America features these two things.

[/ QUOTE ]

No smoke in Vegas or California. And I've never been in a card room where someone shoves food down your throat. What I eat is my choice. As for your other whines, well boo hoo, those are attributes of every self-employed career.

[/ QUOTE ]

So the smog from the Bellagio bar and the racebook doesnt get into the poker room?

And who's whining. The guy asked for opinions, I offered mine.

[FireStorm]

I'm just curious.

"Burger and fries diet, futon, jeans, t-shirts, some extras and that's it" with "3 or 4 college buddies"

Is this supposed to be some sort of glamourous benefit of living the poker lifestyle, kind of makes the answer to stick with real work obvious, doesn't it? This is the exact kind of thing we're talking about - avoiding a boring job, and having to live a grimy lifestyle as a result.

[daveT]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Horrible environment surrounded by unhealthy conditions and scummy humans

[/ QUOTE ]

People always say this in these threads but it hasn't been my experience at all

[/ QUOTE ]

Second hand smoke and greasy food arent particularly healthy. Pretty much every cardroom in America features these two things.

[/ QUOTE ]

No smoke in Vegas or California. And I've never been in a card room where someone shoves food down your throat. What I eat is my choice. As for your other whines, well boo hoo, those are attributes of every self-employed career.

[/ QUOTE ]

So the smog from the Bellagio bar and the racebook doesnt get into the poker room?

And who's whining. The guy asked for opinions, I offered mine.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, it doesn't. Over the past 40 years or so, advances in technology created "fans." Some dude thought, "Hey, I will put these here thingies in tubes. Hmmmmm..

They are called vents. So, no, the smoke does not go from table to table. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[IgorSmiles]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Horrible environment surrounded by unhealthy conditions and scummy humans

[/ QUOTE ]

People always say this in these threads but it hasn't been my experience at all

[/ QUOTE ]

Second hand smoke and greasy food arent particularly healthy. Pretty much every cardroom in America features these two things.

[/ QUOTE ]

No smoke in Vegas or California. And I've never been in a card room where someone shoves food down your throat. What I eat is my choice. As for your other whines, well boo hoo, those are attributes of every self-employed career.

[/ QUOTE ]

So the smog from the Bellagio bar and the racebook doesnt get into the poker room?

And who's whining. The guy asked for opinions, I offered mine.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, it doesn't. Over the past 40 years or so, advances in technology created "fans." Some dude thought, "Hey, I will put these here thingies in tubes. Hmmmmm..

They are called vents. So, no, the smoke does not go from table to table. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

My bad...I also fell for that whole "The Earth is round thing." I'm such a sucker.

[PrimogenitoX]

[ QUOTE ]
I've never seen a 5/10 no-limit game played with primarily red ($5) chips. I think spreading such a game would be legitimate reason for homicide.

[/ QUOTE ]

To see such an aberrance you can visit our lovely "Winstar Casino" outside of Dallas on the Oklahoma border. Yes..all red chips...lovely

[Rottersod]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Horrible environment surrounded by unhealthy conditions and scummy humans

[/ QUOTE ]

People always say this in these threads but it hasn't been my experience at all

[/ QUOTE ]

Second hand smoke and greasy food arent particularly healthy. Pretty much every cardroom in America features these two things.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't know where you play or what part of America you're in but here in LA there is no smoking in the rooms and the food is pretty decent - and free at the levels OP will be playing at.

[Rottersod]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm just curious.

"Burger and fries diet, futon, jeans, t-shirts, some extras and that's it" with "3 or 4 college buddies"

Is this supposed to be some sort of glamourous benefit of living the poker lifestyle, kind of makes the answer to stick with real work obvious, doesn't it? This is the exact kind of thing we're talking about - avoiding a boring job, and having to live a grimy lifestyle as a result.

[/ QUOTE ]

How old are you Firestorm? I'm 45 and when I was 19-25 this was considered normal, typical life. That's what those years are for - enjoy things and if you like poker and want to go for it then do it.

[KyndGroove]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I've never seen a 5/10 no-limit game played with primarily red ($5) chips. I think spreading such a game would be legitimate reason for homicide.

[/ QUOTE ]

To see such an aberrance you can visit our lovely "Winstar Casino" outside of Dallas on the Oklahoma border. Yes..all red chips...lovely

[/ QUOTE ]

Probably the funniest thing I've ever seen in a card room was during the 4 days in July that the HR Tampa spread 10/25 NL before the state shut them down. Red chips were the largest denomination they had. When a hand got allin, there would be a pile of at least 1k in red with dozens of loose $100 bills sticking out. I'd be suprised if they got in 15 hands/hour in that game.

[whorasaurus]

Ok, allow me to address these responses:

“Why don’t you just play online?”

The simple answer is that I just don’t like playing online. It’s a completely different game, and one I never enjoyed. There’s no question that playing online gets more hands/hr and ultimately more cash, but I just don’t like it. I feel like PAHUD and other poker support software strip something from the game. I also don’t like the prospect of such an antisocial living. I am not a huge extrovert, but right now I’m not getting enough interaction w/ different people as it is; I don’t want to highlight that by playing online full time.

“Why not play more at FW before making such a gigantic shift?”

This is a great question. First of all, I have no plans to quit my job tomorrow. If I go through with something like this, it won’t be before 2008. In the meantime, I’ll continue to log hours at FW on weekends and such. I live a little over an hour from the casino, and that makes frequent trips hard. FWIW I have already had limited experience supporting myself with poker. Immediately after graduating, I had 3 months left on a lease in a town about 90 mins from Turning Stone. I grinded (ground?) 1-2NL there about 3 days a week and barely broke even after rent, food and bills. It was hard, but I found that the 3 hour round trip commute wore me out a lot more than playing. Hopefully by living near a real set of cardrooms I can play shorter, more frequent sessions.

“You are hurting your future job prospects by doing this.”

This seriously concerns me. I do not intend to maintain this life for more than a year (unless i go seriously ROBUSTO). Poker is great, and a fantastic way for a kid like me to earn decent cash, but I don’t think I’ll be satisfied with my accomplishments 20 years down the line if I’m still a Vegas hustler (again, unless I is ROBUSTO). I want to ask some of the older, respectable members of the B&M community, how much will a year of this hurt my resume? I plan on graduate school when I’m 25-26 in law, international relations, or something completely different. Is it going to be extremely hard to explain a year spent doing this? If this is the case, I may seriously reconsider this choice.

“Overseer55: LOL, I make 200k at 27, you didn’t study in skool AMIRITE?”

I worked pretty damn hard at college too. I double majored in chemistry and biology, but decided late that I didn’t want to pursue a doctorate in these fields. There are few juicy opportunities for those with a only bachelor’s in the sciences, hence the present spot, and the desire to go to grad school.

“Wait, 15k is barely enough.”

This is probably true. I will probably try to accumulate about 25k in living expenses+roll before attempting this. I’ve never had the pressure of playing to eat, and I agree that minimizing this pressure through conservative bankroll management is the best way to optimize your winrate. I would love to hear what other live pros have to say about this.

The point is, I need to get out of this. This job is killing me, and I think I could make this work. I am actually surprised that so few people mentioned how important it would be to find good roommates to support me through this. To me, I think its absolutely critical to have social, poker playing roomies that you can both discuss the game with, and go out drinking with. I could be wrong tho.

Thanks to all for the insightful feedback, this thread has been the best one I’ve created on 2+2.

[facialabuse]

[ QUOTE ]
Stupid question: Is a live 5/10 NL grinder considered a "red chip pro"? I mean 5/10 is also often played with all $5 dollar chips but I dont know if I would still consider them to be merely a "red chip pro" and only capable of making a marginal income? What do you guys think?

[/ QUOTE ]

aren't light-blue $10 chips standard now?