Hello 2+2'ers! I have recently made the decision to give playing poker full time in the Las Vegas area the green light. I've supported myself playing full time before but due to poor bankroll and liferoll management I went broke. This was 12 years ago now and after a bit of a break have been more of a rec player the last few years. After going broke I sucked it up got a solid job, got married, and moved to AZ. Have been living out here for the last 8 years and believe that this was the best thing I could have ever done. After being at my job for 7 years I've reached a point where I want to give poker another shot. I say shot because I'm not afraid to call it what it is. I've set aside 6 months worth of money for bills and have a BR of 10k. I plan on playing cash games mainly with some tournaments mixed in. I hope to meet some of you guys and plan to keep you all posted as I go along on my poker playing adventure. I look forward to the questions, comments, and concerns.

Well you've certainly set yourself up well financially enough to be able to at least give it a shot. My question is: do you have any statistics which would help to support the decision? Hourly winrate, etc? Does the wife support the decision?

Then why would you ever want to go back?

Good luck anyway!

Wife totally supports the decision and is 100% on board. As far as statistics go, I've never really tracked anything and since I have not played more than a few times a month the last few years, I just didn't bother with it since moving out here. When I played full time before I supported myself with it for 2 years playing 1-2/2-5/ and some tournaments. I plan on tracking everything this time around as well taking hand notes for later review.

Because me going broke wasn't a product of my playing it was because of my poor bankroll management and partying too much. I was also in my early 20s and not thinking about the future. I've grown considerably as a person and made a plan to do it the right way when I could again, so here we are. Also going back means moving back to Memphis and that's not happening. I love it out here and plan on staying for awhile.

I don't know if I would define quitting your job to play poker as "thinking about the future". Hopefully you earn enough to support your family, provide health/life insurance and contribute to a retirement account.

But life is all about being happy. Enjoy and good luck!

I’ve got back up plans if this fails if that’s what you mean. I still have my 401k.
My wife works the same job I just quit so I’m still insured and I am not opposed to getting a part time job to help with some living expenses. Just to be clear this isn’t some half- assed effort to “make it big”. I’ve been planning this out for the last year or so. If I fail I can go back to work where I was or go work for my sister-in-laws real estate agency.

Thank you!

Thank you for the well wishes

Not sure where you are/were in AZ but if you haven't moved to LV yet I'd suggest at least starting your shot with a few months at Talking Stick if you're in that area.

Everyone thinks they need to move to LV to take their shot (myself included) but it really isn't this poker oasis like many think it is. As long as you can find games at your desired stakes, the games in your area are almost certainly better than in LV.

This has the added benefit of not dealing with a location change and all the hassle that goes with that alongside the lifestyle change of now playing poker full time.

Then again I think there were some benefits to throwing myself into the deep end so-to-speak. There's also a possibility that had I stayed for a while I might have talked myself out of it and regretted it. But then there's also an argument that this would have been better for me long term anyway. **** who knows, nevermind OP, do what you want haha, gl

Hahahaha thank you man. I actually live closer to LV than Phoenix plus I have a lot of friends up there so if I have a crazy long session for some reason I have a free place to lay my head. I'm familiar enough with games in Vegas so its no real big adjustment. The commute kinda sucks but it will work for now. Thanks for the feedback!

Thinking about hitting up the Aria 7pm nightly. If you're around please come say whats up!

Where do you live in Arizona that you plan on commuting to Vegas for poker? How long is your commute gonna be? It's got to be over 1hr each way. What stakes do you plan on playing where it makes sense to drive that long for a game?

What shift does your wife work? How do you plan on keeping your relationship going if you're gonna be commuting to Vegas for over 2hrs a day? I hope she works weekends and Fri and Sat night for your sake or else you're gonna be driving forever to get into bad midweek day games in Vegas.

Definitely take a shot but figure out 2-3 steps down the road. If you are successful, what's the next step. Can you move for your job and if your wife planning on finding a new job where ever you move to?

Good luck. It's always good to have a backup job lined up. At least you have that going for you.

Most of my co-workers who work in NYC commute more than an hour each way each day, so a one-hour drive doesn't seem bad at all. However, the hour of the day does matter -- on how safe it is to drive and the relationship. That said, my husband travels every week, and I'm fine with it. I actually love my time alone and it makes our time together even better.

Good luck, OP.

Forgot the U.S. Open was going on at Aria so my nightly

It really depends on if your friends are taking mass transportation or driving. Two hours driving each day especially if there is traffic is exhausting. 2 hours on a train each day isn't nearly that bad if you can rest/multi-task.

NVM

I've commuted just under an hour working in NYC personally and several major differences come to mind between that and what the OP is considering doing.

1. Driving for a commute and taking public transit are completely separate things. Most people in NYC use the subway, railway, bus, or a combination of those. When you use public transit you can read, sleep, and actually do work. Not the case behind the wheel.

2. I would assume, people commuting 1hr+ in NYC are doing this because the pay for that job is so much higher in NYC than a similar job next to where they live. Or, cost of living is so much less 1hr away from their job than living 10 minutes away. So in that 2hr+ roundtrip daily, they are actually making a decent hourly.

3. Most people commute in the morning to work and home in the afternoon. They are not sleepy on the way home and still have hours of awake time so they are still alert driving back home after straining their brains for 8+ hours at work.

Driving back home behind the wheel for over an hour after focusing on poker for 8hrs+ is gonna be difficult when it's pitch dark outside and 3am-6am in the morning. Even if the sun is coming up, OP would have to be on a crazy sleep schedule to not be heading straight to bed after getting home from work.

4. Most people in NYC have a guaranteed salary (or partially guaranteed) with benefits that they get daily. Playing poker would result in days when you drive 1+hrs to work, lose several hundred dollars, and then have to drive 1+hrs home knowing that it would have been way better to just stay at home that day and spend time with the wife.

Going to work the next day will be very psychologically difficult. Not impossible, but the long commute will be very psychologically challenging for someone grinding out poker.

5. A key measure of success with poker is your hourly. It's not the end all, be all, but when it comes to pay the bills every month and deciding whether to take a day off to spend with the wife or drive to Vegas for a Friday night of poker, it will be the top consideration (believe me!)

If OP is making $40 an hour at 2/5 over an 8 hour shift. His hourly just dropped to $32 an hour just because of the commute. And that is with 2hrs round trip. Where does he live? I think we are looking at 1.5hrs each way in reality, or possibly 2hr if he's in Kingman. At 1.5hrs each way (assuming he speeds like a maniac from Kingman, AZ) his hourly drops to under $30. That's a 25%+ penalty. When it's your own business, 25% is a huge penalty to pay.

I would recommend OP finds a cheap room to rent monthly in Vegas. Drive in on Friday mid-day. Grind crazy hours (sleeping in the cheap room rental) till late Sunday night/early Monday morning. Sleep it off and drive home Monday afternoon. Then spend Monday thru Thursday with the wife. I hope his wife works over the weekend and has her weekend midweek.

So many questions! I like it hahaha! I’m an hour and some change south of Vegas in the middle of the desert. It’s only about 20 more minutes than my work commute was anyways so it’s not that big of a difference. Stakes wise still gonna play 1-2 or 2-5 depending on the action with tournaments mixed in lightly for now.
Relationship is rock solid man. Been with married for 4 years but togther for 11 so that’s not and issue. We worked with each at the same company for the last 6 1/2 years so honestly the break is not a bad thing. Schedule will work itself out.
As far as if we decide to move she has options, within the company that are nationwide so that will not be an issue. I’ve tried to cover all the bases that I could when planning for this. I plan on getting my real estate license at some point because that’s something I think I can really do well in. My wife’s sister already works for Keller Williams and can get me in when I am ready. Thank you for the well wishes!

Thank you for the well wishes! As I said in the above post, having worked with my wife for the last 6 1/2 years this change of pace will be good. Things would get stressful and sometimes carry over into home life so this I think will make us appreciate our time togther more.

Sounds like you are a dam worker.

I think Las Vegas has about a hundred thousand real estate agents, most left over from the last boom.

I’m not far from Kingman at all and I have a place that’s free that I can crash if I choose. As far as driving goes it’s not a big deal. I’ve played with bands in Vegas for the last 4-5 years and have had to pull some crazy hours doing that and the day job. This will not be bad.

Hahah yeah if I went the real estate route I would probably go to Phoenix

At least you have job options to fall back on.
Good luck. Keep us updated. When do you start?
Make sure you hit up Trooper Thursdays at the Westgate. Lol

Thank you! Probably gonna start Friday or Saturday! I'm unfamiliar with Trooper Thursdays?