I've been playing online for about 4 years now. Unfortunately, at Cake Poker (one of the only sites that still allows a HUD), all the games dried up. It seems like most of the players who still play take the game just as seriously as I do; the play isn't very soft anymore.

However, I recently moved to where I can get to Vegas in about 3 hours.

So here's my question:

Should I take out all my money from my online account and go play the $1/$2 games in Vegas or should I stick it out online? I'm assuming the massive tourism brings in a lot of recreational players? Does anyone know if the games in Las Vegas are easier to play than those on Cake Poker?

Please offer any suggestions or experience that may help me.

Thanks!

I was 98% online 2% live pre BF. Now I'm 80% live. I just use online for sit n gos. The level of competiton and 1-2 nl in vegas is laughable. They just don't care. They just want some action. Until I can play 12 multi table sngs at once live is my bread and butter.

It depends...

You are a winning player after 500K hands within a reasonable confidence interval?
Will this be your sole earnings?--1/2 is not going to earn much of a living
Have you played much live before?
You have the BR for 1/2 live?

Live games are going to be softer than online for sure, but you have to account for bigger rake and tips and gasoline etc. If you haven't played much live or are not sure of your winnings, you could take some money offline and take some shots and see.

I am not going to pretend like i have a good answer, but someone who might will likely want to know:


What was your winrate online?

How much is your monthly nut?

How big is your br?

Do you have living expenses seperate from your br?

Do you have any vices like alcohol or pit games?

How old are you?

Do you have any kids?

Are you married?

Will you be able to get back home if you go busto?

Will you be able to get a decent job if you go busto?

OP, the WSOP is going on right now in Vegas. There is no better time than now to visit and have excellent table selection options.

Other than your bottom line ($$$), think about whether you'd want to grind live for a bunch of hours. Do you like casinos? Are you a patient person? Would you mind driving in the car back and forth? These are important questions that should be given consideration.

Of course, the only way to know is to try. No better time to soak in the atmosphere than right now

Greetings Mr. Clubs,

Cute name BTW.

Playing live low stakes is tough. You can't really make a living doing it, although you may get by for awhile until you get burned out. Vegas is a good place to try. There are many pitfalls to the live poker player lifestyle, they vary from bank roll managment issues, emotional up & down swings, some people spend their money on partying and good times, drugs, whiskey, women, and the list goes on.....
As an honest appraisal, the best I can figure, there are probably several hundred -less than a thousand, full-time low stakes players in Vegas all the time. You'll have plenty of company. These players cycle through, some last a month or so, some last a year, a few last longer.
Your question comes up on this site on a fairly regular basis. It truly is a tough life. Best wishes.....

If you really want to play live, then stick it out online until you can move out enough money that will give you a roll for at least $2-$5 NL. If you've had a winning rate on cake at the micros, you should probably kill this game in Vegas. Good luck.

Just do it !

who cares ?

Whats the worst that can happen ?

You loose all your money and then you go make some more by working a real job. (how likely is this ? In all honesty I should imagine very ! If you were offering odds id take 7-1 on all these types of threads and I think I would do very nicely !! )

Whats the best that can happen ?

you forge a living making $8 - $20 an hour.

With all this said I would just do it ! cus you know its gonna be fun in a sickly disgusting kind of way !

400nl or 500nl would be the minimum you should play; particularly because of rake, tips, and other expenses. Long term, 200nl will not net enough $ to survive on.

If online play was more viable, I'd keep doing it, but I believe that leaving your BR on a site these days is about as risky as you can get. I'm currently playing micros at Lock, not because I can't afford bigger games, but because Lock and the others that allow US players have not yet proven to me that they're fully competent. Why risk any more of my money?

If you have the BR for it, play live. - Personally, I enjoy live play and don't feel the desire to kill myself every time I go in to play...just sometimes.

+1 go out there and play see how you do. You're either outplaying your competition or you're not. I suspect you'll do fine. Whether you can do it long term or not is the real question.

$1/2 live is so much softer than online it's a joke. But you can only play 1 table of course.

This is a really interesting question. I used to say the same, but depending what your monthly budget requires I think it's possible. In Australia (where I live) this statement is definitely true, where the rake and time charge is prohibitive. But in Vegas, in think a reasonable player can comfortably average $1k weekly profit playing a mixture of 1/2, 1/3 (and occasional 2/5) nlhe games.

The burnout question however is a genuine issue.

I don't think there's anything comfortable about making a steady income of 30BB/100, especially when you consider changing tables can take all day. It's not like there are hundreds of 1/2 tables as far as the eye can see.

I'm giving a generous estimate of 1500 hands a week. In reality I think it's difficult to achieve this on a regular basis.

Poker was a hard way to make an easy living BEFORE the collective wisdom of the field shot up five years ago. It's even worse now.

You're forgetting that many vegas rooms allow deep buyins, which advantage the better players and increase winrate vs bbs. Also I don't think the increase in collective wisdom applies necessarily to everybody at LV low limit tables. As I'm sure you're aware the place is packed with recreational businessmen.