got 10 minutes so here goes

do you separate poker bankroll and liferoll? how strict is your brm?

Used to be all the same and I would rarely take money out, at this point it is strict poker roll/life roll. I will move down stacks as needed if I only have around 30 bi's.

do you see yourself as a poker pro still 5 years from now?

100% no, looking for job right now.

what is your daily schedule like? grind all night, sleep all day?

Go to bed at 1am, wake up at 9-10am, grind before class, grind after class, relax before bed.

how much time do you spend studying the game vs grinding?

Probably like 95% grind vs study, wish it was more study, but I don't get a lot out of studying and would rather take $$$ now.

do you regret dropping out of university for poker (in case you did drop out)?

Graduating in May, degree gunna degree.

do you think working a normal job would be more rewarding overall?

Yes, definitely more rewarding, seeing hard work come out as something other than someone else's money.

if you are going for sne, how do you organize yourself so that you make sure you won't fail?

Not trying that again, ever.

did you have a "aha!" moment when you realized you wanna play poker for living?

Have had a few aha moments, but none that involved playing for a living, and I kind of only halfway play for a living considering I'm still a student.

what is the minimum requirement to start as a pro? certain hourly rate over xxxk hands? how did you define it for yourself?

I don't think you can really set this at all because it depends so much on where you live, lifestyle, etc. But if when you really get into the numbers it's either very close or you have to look at it very optimistically for it to work then it probably isn't a good idea.

I'm a PLO8 grinder without a ton of experience playing PLO so not many folks here likely to know me here (but I've been reading this forum for years due to the transition I'm likely to have to make when high-low dies out) I've been an on/off pro for the last 3 years and have played cash through to PL400 although much of my profit has come from sngs/mtts. I guess I'm a small stakes guy - and obviously from the wrong side of Omaha- but wft here's my $0.02:

added these questions to op.

i plan to try out the plo pro life for 6-12 monhts starting september and see how it is (while finishing my studies).

planning to grind about 125 hrs per month to begin with.

do you think your educational background has helped you with poker? yre you a feel player or more mathematical?

I'm a math player online and I tend to play around 15-20 tables so feel doesn't come into it much. That said I've played enough live to able to use 'feel' in that context - I mean sometimes you just know your beaten even if you can't say exactly why. In those rare cases I do think you gotta go with your gut.

Yeah I think my education has helped with my poker. Its not easy to formulate strategy and examine lines etc (although its not rocket science) and having a logical background must be beneficial. That said I don't think mathematics is all that applicable to cash game poker (bar odds / ranges etc) and I doubt that gives me an edge against solid pros. The place where its really useful is with SNG's. In particular omaha8 sngs since they have not been solved by SNG wizard and you have to do the maths yourself. I have spent a lot of time working on this - formulating equations and examining shoving / calling ranges etc which has undoubtedly improved my edge in those games.

awesome reads so far, highly appreciate you guys taking the time to do this.

so more questions (moving the discussion here from goals thread):

40hours at the tables/ week. 4-10 hours off tables/week. Usually 7-10 hours of poker related content during the day. Wake up at 8-10 and grinding is the first priority after checking email and watching an episode of some random TV show.
-what would you do with your life if online poker was right now made illegal?

I save as much as i can but poker is short term ie bout 5 years tops.. more focused on making as much as possible. FWIW i have like 100bi onnline and offline. make money buy a house F RRSPs n what have you till other job.
I dont keep one but I have personal goals for sure. I set goals trying to reach bankroll milestones or hand # milestones... maybe break a personal day record or be up 10bi then take a break and tell myself another 4k hands later in the day.... random stuff to keep you motivated i find is best. Plo can be stressful so short term goals IMO i think are very important to feel self improvement n stuff.
Grinding a steady income for a while at midstakes is an OK living. nothing spectacular though you will have fun. after 3 years of being a pro I really do hope to be playing at least 5/10 plo very comfortably. No point drivin a ford focus and being a poker pro imo.

Good luck sir !

lol

thats exactly what i think

Hope its interesting

as i mentioned earlier in the thread i was making the transition from live PLO every day to live holdem every day

the bad is that it really is terribly boring, i play super nitty so im almost never in a hand

the good is that bad players actually sit in the live holdem games, and no matter how few hands you play they dont notice and still pay you off

also the minimal variance compared to PLO is a huge plus and makes things a lot less stressful

i wish i could have the last 10 months of my life back

PLO is more fun, holdem is more profitable, at least as far as playing live and not getting 4,500 hands a day goes

Interesting reading.

I am a micro player, so playing pro is a long way off. But i have always asked myself "Would i, if i was good enough and had the BR?"

I'm not sure, one problem i have is if i don't want to play i don't (Although its something that not helping me progress at poker currently), but if you have to play to pay bills etc. How do you play poker when you have to force yourself to do so?

I seem to notice that most people have a good/decent education that are Pro players

1) I usually put in somewhere between 100 and 120 hours a month, which is pretty marginal and I should get in more. The last 6 months have been awful and I have been averaging something ******ed like 60 hours. I dont have any set way to divide the time up, its usually just jump on and play a couple hours a day with some days off.

2) Actually live. Playing online at home and already being on the internet where hours fly by in minutes is not conducive to introvert semi-addicts being a part of the larger world. WRT work, I suspect I would get a job and try to buy storage lockers or something else that I could do for myself with the intention of quitting my job asap.

3) For years I just gambled it away on sports betting/table games or spent it doing dumb **** like renting places that were way too expensive for me to be renting and overpriced to boot, and flying places to meet friends/eat/go to shows, but the last year I have been much better about it, probably in large part because I have been pretty broke most of the year, but also because I just realize that I wouldnt be broke now if I didnt do that ****.

I have a savings plan set up for myself wrt what % of cashouts go towards saving based on how much I make in a month, but right now my savings acct is ~0. Sad panda is sad

4) Yes and no. I recently bought a little journal that I have put a couple things in, but basically in that regard, no. I have made multiple PG&C threads though, and failed miserably in all of them, and am on pace to fail harder in the one I have going now than in any before. Sad panda is sad

5) If I ever progress past SSPLO, I will definitely be shot taking into higher and higher games as much as possible after covering my monthly nut and some extra for savings/etc. I think I should be a 400-1k reg, but I just cant put in the performances at the table that I am capable of regularly. Sigh.

would love to hear more about the finances as a poker pro.

how do you decide how much to withdraw and when, when to move up in stakes etc...

i'll be in a situation where i won't be 100% relying on poker as my income, but i wanna pay my bills with it. i'm planning to start with about 150bi for my main game and use very conservative brm....i'm also thinking about withdrawing 50-75% of my rb every month, leaving the rest to the poker roll. does that make sense?

Regarding cashouts, I would never keep more than 50 buyins (per site in case you multisite) online for my highest stake. It's just sitting there not being used while at risk of being stolen.

Regarding BRM, playing a stake as low as e.g. .25/.50 with 150 buyins is far from optimal. Play higher but be very flexible about moving down.

nah i'll be playing 100 and higher and def won't have more than 50bi online...but i still wanna separate my poker roll from other money.

ty for the brm tip

I think 150BIs are good enuf but don't keep it online. I would leave only about 20BI or so online and that would prevent me to do **** or to be f***ed if the site goes down.

I am learning that I'm probably going to have to change professions. After being extremely profitable since 2005 (switched to PLO in '08), I am realizing that I am no longer cut out to be a professional PLO player. Whether the tables are more difficult or I am losing my competitive edge, I am a bit torn when I say scaling it back and moving on to real estate... I guess that is the way it goes.
PLO has been way more of a roller coaster ride than I could have possibly imagined. I have had more insane tilt days that I've had days where I destroyed the competition.
All in all I can't say whether I am happy I switched to PLO and honestly I always think about going back to Hold'Em...but then I think that I won't get to play 40%+ of hands. I guess that's the way it goes!

on march 1st i basically quit PLO cold turkey and have played holdem every day since (with a couple big 0 sessions mixed in)

in that time i have been stacked twice, once when i got more than 10% of my stack in pre and a guy flopped a set to crack my aces (had already lost half my stack through the night) and another time when i tried a 200 bb check call flop, check raise turn, shove riv bluff against a guy who called me down with one pair (JJ)

in PLO it takes all of an hour to get stacked twice some days

i was actually quite upset a week ago because i had two small losing days in a row and wasnt used to it anymore

PLO is more fun, but holdem is where the money is, and life is more fun when 40% of days you dont go home pissed off after getting it in with the best hand or right odds twice, running it twice both times, and losing all 4 run outs

not only that but at a holdem table (in vegas at least) there are always a few clueless players (if not get a table change)

for the most part the omaha players have a reasonable understanding of what they are doing and if they dont they still have 35% on an all in

lol try 30 seconds, not 30 minutes

Well that's just false

what

the ****

PLO is certainly not appropriate for the average Holdem player's mental capability. Every day, another one bites the dust.

Made 50k playing FR live PLO and holdem tourneys, thought I was the best player of all time. Lost the majority playing online with no tilt control.

Lost the rest playing drunk vs holdem_NL when i got it in with J789 on Kd6x7d Ax vs 3345 w/ diamonds after i limp/3b button, called flop pot donk & pot/called turn (***** fish durrr)

Rebuilt a bit but have never had a roll over 10k as I always cash out during runbad/tilt and actually have this thing I could only describe as cash-out tilt. Now play part-time and work FOR A LIVING.

Play .10-.20 up to 1-2 depending on how good the table is, and how good my mindset is. I will never play poker for a living full-time, not enough emotional control.

wow. nice.

I have been playing PLO4 - PLO25 (mostly PLO10) for ~5 months now and I think above statement is true. Added with huge rake, I doubt PLO is more profitable than NLHE

You are right sir

Not true. But what is true is that PLO requires more learning. It's a more skillfull game and harder to master.