Hello All. Sorry to bore you all with yet another story of a delusional player with dreams of making it big. Being around poker my entire life it was quite easy for me to fall into the "Chris Moneymaker" craze. I started playing in middle school daily, and here I am at 25 and still cant seem to pull myself away from the god forsaken tables. At times I've told myself I will literally cut off my pinky if I ever play again....funny how that works isn't it?? I would like to consider myself a decent player but have never up until this year really put in a full 100% effort to keep track of my earnings , try to stay disciplined and away from tilt and make money consistently over a period of time. I don't get into many high limit cash games, the highest I will go to is 1/2. But my tournament range does vary, but I've been trying to be better this year seeing as how I am counting every dollar to remain profitable. In May of this year I started with a 1,000 dollar bankroll and playing nothing other than 1/2 hold'em and some tourneys I told myself I'm going to Vegas to play full time when I reach 5,000. (Side note I don't really need any posts describing different basic necessities of the human body , for example what am I going to do for a place to stay, what am I going to do for food, 5,000 will never be enough yata yata. I have a strict budget already in place for my trip which by my calculation should be sometime early December. I'm Sitting at 4,200 now and am just looking for some tips from people who have tried before me and have been either successful or unsuccessful. Where are the best weekly room deals, Where are the best food deals, and where are the best poker perks such as bad bead jackpots or player rewards. Any info would be helpful and I will continue to update this thread with pics and other updates. Looking forward to hearing your advice. Heading to MGM Detroit now for a nice 4 hour grind session.

1st GL sir http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEAHi-xb35E will follow

sigh

4 hours is not a grind session, 4 hours is a bottle of water and a bathroom break. 40 hours is a grind session.

QFT. (quills from thursday)

being Professional is over rated

How about having a profession, and playing poker casually? I had my dreams, but never got anything going, so now I just play recreationally.

IMHO, there is nothing wrong with being a semi pro or even a casual player... it makes much more sense for the majority of the people in the game.

it also makes you a more well rounded person when you have a life and interests outside of poker.

as long as you stay sharp and can deliver the goods when you do show up to play, that's all that matters.

You need more than 5k to give yourself a decent shot of making it. You see when you say you have a 5k bankroll you really don't. If you have a downswing of 1500 and then have to pay living expenses you will be on a 2.5k and the stress of needing to win to pay off next months bills will make you play worse. If you want to do this right I'd say you need 20k then you will have enough to play comfortably and not worry about expenses. Most people who go broke do so because they aren't as good as they think they are, they have a stressful day and go off for a large amount, when they go on a big rush they are naive enough to think it will continue and don't save money, and the biggest of all they are under-capitalized.

I don't know you but I can deduce from your post that you were never a high volume online grinder, have never tracked your results on a consistent basis, and have never attempted anything of this nature. It sounds like you went on a good run and could possibly be fooled by randomness. I am not insulting you, I am giving you good advice. You should continue to keep your job and play in the local casino until you have 20k saved up and know for sure that you can beat the game for 18-20$/hr over a thousand hour sample size. That is the smart play and what you should do if you want to make it in the game.

yeah. poker is like sex. Its not as much fun when you do it to pay the bills.

that said, a 5K roll is fine for 1/2, provided he can keep his expenses reasonably low and he gives up the notion of playing donkaments.

It's fine if it's kept separate from expenses. But if you are cashing out from it and have a break even (or losing) month or two you are screwed.

Contemplated cutting off pinky over poker now playing professionally in Las Vegas on a 5k roll, seems like things are going to go excellent!

Yeah, a losing month or two would be pretty bad given a 5k roll that youre paying living expenses out of. Especially since youre not able to drop down in stakes.
The real issue is the likelihood of that happening, which is mainly dependent on winrate.

stringing together 2 b/e months is about 2SD from the mean, which means it should happen about 15% of the time, given a $200 SD/hr, 200 hours a month, and a $20/hr winrate, and he could probably even recover from that, if his expenses are reasonable. Im assuming hes living off around 1200 a month.

So basically, if hes good enough to beat the game for a significant amount, then 5K is sufficient to get him a <15% ror, which most people would call acceptable. It certainly gives a player who can beat the game a "decent shot".

If you need a 20K roll to play 1/2, then you shouldnt be playing professionally in the first place. You either have major life leaks or are a losing or b/e player.

if you're only playing 1/2 why would you move to vegas

No it doesn't mean you are a losing or break even player. It means you are a professional. To a true professional a 15% risk of ruin is unacceptable. Also there are so many unexpected life events that can cripple you. The 20k gives you the ability to not worry about bills and to just focus on playing your A game. With that kind of money the day to day fluctuation will not bother you. When you say he could recover from 2 break even months that is true if he is a buddhist monk but most people will be tilting and feeling severe emotional distress at the possibility of going broke. This certainly would increase the risk of ruin. If you are playing for a living you need to treat it like a business.

If I blew threw the first 5k I'd be done. Matter a fact 2k probably do it.

QUESTION:

So does this mean you are missing a pinky?

Tip 1) stay away from tourney's high variance and top heavy means you can go broke fast

Tip 2) having another source of income probably a good idea

Yes when people say they have 5k to their name and want to play pro live they really only have a 2-3k bankroll. They will need to keep the other money to get home and look for a job or they will end up homeless begging parents for a western union transfer.

5K for a bankroll...IMHO a bad idea. Even Mike McD needed 3 stacks of high society (30K) to chase his dreams in Vegas..

best question asked so far ITT.

those numbers are absurdly high.

Everyone seems to assume that they or others will beat 1/2 for 20$/hr when only a top regular is capable of doing that in the long run. I bet most decent winning players will be lucky to make 10$/hr after tips and rake.

Another reason to not play 1/2 for a living is the rising cost of living/inflation. 10-20$/hr now might be acceptable but in 10+ years it could be minimum waige. And it is very hard to move up in stakes while cashing out expenses. If you take a shot at 2/5 its easy to lose 1-2 k in a single session because they tend to play big. That can also be devastating mentally.

Scared money doesnt make money. With a 5k bankroll=suicide at high limits....1/2 is just for pure entertainment and not worth grinding for your rent and such.

im not sure what particular numbers youre talking about, but if you look at the WBF thread in llnl i think youll find theyre pretty typical of reported results. Though a SD of 200/hr is on the low end of normal probably.