Poker is a deep and complex game of strategy.

Poker never stops. Its very difficult/impossible to ever *really* know where you stand in the big scheme of things. Hourly win/loss rates are all temporary.

Becoming a long term [proven] winning player is a great achievement!

I don't recommend becoming a "grinder". That's not to say its "wrong", because there can be some enjoyment, at least for awhile.

Here's the brief version of my story:

After many years of great success in nearly everything I did in life, poker struck me as a new challenge. At the time I lived in a location where Casino's weren't common, I played online. After just a few weeks I started to do some winning. After a few months I was doing better. After 6 months I was playing as many tables as my screen would fit. Two years later I built an addition on my house as an office work station - well equiped, and had upgraded my computer and monitor's to a top-of-the-line system and quit "working" to play poker full time online. I wasn't getting rich, but making a very, VERY nice income. In fact it was so "easy" I felt guilty sometimes for making so much money w/ such little effort...all from the comforts of my own home, life is good! It was so easy in fact that I didn't really talk about it much to my friends....I was afraid to let the cat outta da bag for fear they'd catch on and make my easy life harder. The money poured in!

The CRASH! As we all know now, internet poker in the United States was and is illegal. Along with plenty of other people, a large chunk of my operating capital (bank roll) was frozen.

Las Vegas here I come!

It all started off w/ a "vacation" trip to test the waters of live play at a real poker table. I'm a middle aged guy who started off at the kitchen table playing for pennies. Then through highschool and college the games got more serious as we played for real money. Our local underground game was really serious where you could win/lose several thousand on Sat night.
But now I'm sitting in a real casino in Las Vegas Nevada! I play low stakes at a simple tourist filled table at Bally's. After several days of grinding some long hours I figured I was making $270 - $300 per day...after accounting for my time and figuring expenses this didn't look so good, but nonetheless it was better than "losing"....or so I *thought* at the time. I had been tearing up the virtual felt, this transition to live play wasn't going to be soo difficult afterall......so I *thought*. I wasn't the stereo- type "young internet player", I'm a mature middle aged guy, I had everyone fooled! Including myself.

Over the next few months I kept making trips to Vegas. After a year I was on a normal "work" schedule of 2 weeks on, and 2 weeks off. I'm still playing some 1/2 or 3, but mostly $2/5 and some $5/10 & occasionally larger.
I started playing some tournaments, the first major tournament I played was the WPT Legends tournament over in LA. Of course everyone I had watched on TV was there. To my amazement I made a really deep run in this tournament finishing at the 2nd table.
I'm working 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off at home. My very understanding wife is cool w/ this for now, but some signs of strain are starting to show. The money is decent, the tournament money was awesome! I guess I'm a grinder now. Looking back at my records I'm traveling back and forth a LOT and have 900-1,000 hours per year "logged in" at the poker table. It really appears that I've turned into a grinder. Now what............

What is the point of your thread? Are you asking whether or not you should keep grinding?

UTR used to be a big contributor in LVL. He's catching us up on his life.

Wait, to be clear, you live in Not Vegas, but you've logged 1,000 hours/year in Vegas? Or you have a local place you play as well?

So now its 2010, the real estate market has been on a downward spiral in the Las Vegas area for sometime. I start looking around. Bingo! I find a modest, but nice and comfy 3 bed/2 bed in Henderson, just under $100k...score!

My new investment is located in a quite, sleepy, mature, working class neighborhood. I can come and go all hours of the day and night, carry as much cash as I want, and never worry about a thing. It is a bit of a commute that takes me about 25 minutes from my home garage to the parking garage at the Bellagio.

The competitive edge inside me is in full swing. Like most things in life, I strive to be "better-than-average", or "work harder than other people", "put in more hours", "make more money", "achieve a higher level of success", ect. I'm playing monster hours and an animal at the table. The rest of 2010 blows by like blurr........

Half way through 2011 and life is great, so I think -I'm such an idiot! I'm playing LOTS, and making decent money - so I think. Next thing I know I wake up one day and start reviewing my records, sure enough I have played a LOT of hours, but my win rate isn't what it used to be. I need to work "harder", I need to study more, review my hands better, identify weak area's and leaks in my game, I need to bla, bla, bla..........

Keep going, please. I'm interested where this is headed based on the title.

in 4 later... UTR is a good guy for those of us that have met him.

That being said, I did get him to fold a set of 5's on a 3 spade board with complete air

good to have you back buddy.

Weird thread.

And then you slowly begin to start to degrade the players around you when you lose pots because you feel entitled to win and are sure you're successful until one day you end up making this post.

Keep going . . . I'm interested in where this is going to end up.

listen to ur wife.

grow up and get a proper job, whats she supposed to tell her friends when u go vegas 2x monthly for 2 weeks, they'll all be talking about you and speculating how many hookers ur banging behind ur wifes back.

she must be so proud

Can't wait to read the rest, you got this fish hooked

Been following you in LVL for years, nice to see the backstory.

Ya got me hooked too.

Welp time to search his username I guess, main thread I should look out for?

I'm intrigued, please continue!

+1 I'm sure you have great insights to playing poker full/part time

I am not trying to be disrespectful, or to distract from your poker life tale, but if 'Black Friday' occurred in, ~04-15-2011, and you were playing online until that point, when you went 'live in LV', then how is your timeline for purchasing your house in Henderson 2010?
Just asking for accuracy sake.

how much did you make per hour?

would also love to hear more about artificial success

I call it too much money syndrome... having unlimited rebuys for small buy in games when your way over rolled for the game...

What happened Byron?

folks are waiting.

IDK. He failed at his thread like he failed in poker?

OP?

What a tease!

Is this thread a parallel to your poker career?

What next sir?! Appreciate you sharing your experience, helps to answer some question that many of us share.

Keep going if you don't mind..