Hi All

This forum is full of stories of 20 somethings taking their shot at Vegas. Now here comes the old guy!

Background

Im a 40 yo male who likes to play poker. Started when I was a kid, played off and on up through college and grad school. Caught the Holdem bug around 2003 and have dabbled since then.

I played online as a "career" for about a year. Made a few bucks at the micro limits but nothing to get too excited about. Fortunately I had a sugar momma GF who supported me during this time.

I transitioned to live cash games about 2 years ago. Started out playing in the local card rooms. Poker for money is illegal here in NC so the games are a little shady by nature. Rakes are high as well ($10 a pot). Still it was poker and there was no way I could resist.

Finally made the first of several trips to Harrahs Cherokee. Its about 3.5 hours from me but believe it or not its the closest casino. The PokerTek tables have been good to me as I booked wins each of my 6 trips there. The play is pretty bad from the regs and the tourists so its not hard to win there.

Still I had not made the trip I really wanted to make in my poker playing career...Vegas!!

I have several trips planned and something happened every damn time! Finally about a month ago I made it out there for the first time. What can I say?

Its VEGAS!!

It overwhelmed me with its absurdity and awesomeness all at the same time.

Being it was a first trip I only got to play about 20 hours as there was much to see and do. I had a profitable poker trip (not so much in blackjack) and ran up several hundred dollars despite a $300 meltdown at Ballys. I played at the $1/$2 tables, nowhere near rolled enough for 2/5.

I honestly didnt want to leave.

Coming back home was really hard on me. I started taking stock of lots of things in my life that were good and not so good. I felt I was at a crossroads.

I have been married twice. I have also been in a recent 7 year relationship with my now ex-gf. After 3 big failures like that you start to realize "Hey Im the common denominator here." I am not really relationship material.

I knew I needed to make a change. Something drastic. I took stock of my abilities.

Education: B.A and M.A in Political Science
Work History: 8 years of Retail Management, 4 years of teaching at a local community college

Well there arent really many jobs in teaching these days. States are short of money and may be for years. I do love teaching but honestly the prospects of becoming a full time professor at a community college are slim. A 4 year school would be even tougher as virtually all of them require a PHD. Strike ONE!

Retail is a young mans game. I can do it. I have a certain level of competence in the field but its very boring. It doesnt light a fire inside me. There are only so many times you can move a rack of tshirts or tell a customer "have a nice day" until you are ready to stab yourself in the face. Its just not me. Strike TWO

That leaves poker.

I have had a decent run with live poker. About 150 hours, $22 per hour. I am a nit (which I am working on). People at that level play bad and overall I have what I think are decent results. Yes its a small sample but so what? What am I supp to do? Play 500 hours, play 1000, 2000? People are never satisifed on this site with how long someone plays at a given level. Yes its math but I dont have the time nor the desire to wait on the math to tell me I have a high degree of confidence in my results.

SOOOOO

I decided Im moving to Vegas. To take my shot.

Ill be playing $1/$2 to start with an eye towards eventually settling at $2/$5

I might get busted. I might make a go of it. The only failure would be failing to try. I feel I have failed at many things in life and most of them are because I didnt really try hard enough or even try at all. Im not going to make that mistake here. If I fail it wont be due to lack of effort.

RESOURCES

BR: $4000. Not ideal but it is what it is
LE (Living Expenses) 3-4 months, 2 months on credit if needed

PLAN

1) Find a place. Cheap. Safe. I have a friend or two out there who might be able to hook me up somewhere cheap. Still working on that.
2) Move out. Ship car (clunker but it runs). Take minimal items with me.
3) Find part time job. If I can find a part time job on the days Im not playing poker I can offset many of my expenses from living.
4) Put in Study time each week. No Exceptions
5) Exercise. No exceptions
6) Eat Cheap. Travel cheap.
7) No table games, strip clubs ,etc

TIMEFRAME

Hope to move by middle of September

This thread will serve as my blog for random musings, hands, sessions ,progress, etc

I always have a place to come back to if this fails .My parents are older and need my help. They have a nice home back east if I need to come there.

This will either be a new beginning or else a 3-6 month vacation in Vegas. Either way Ill know. Ill know if I can do this or not and what it takes.

Tl;dr Old guy moves to Vegas. Prob goes bust but so what

Let the flames begin

I wish you the best. Stay focused and be honest with yourself in evaluating your situation as you go. If after 2-3 months you find that things just aren't going well, be willing to cut your losses and change courses. It sounds like you have enough life experience to do this wisely. Spend some time on that part time job too, it'll slightly smooth out variance, keep you on a schedule, and most importantly let you meet a few friends automatically. Cheers.

40 is the new 30... you're a puppy

you can clearly see a mature mans approach to this despite it being not much different than a 20 something wanting to do the same move.

Employment should be at the top of your list... after that stability, you can do the other things.

FYI, having a clunker is a good thing... I RARELY take my nice car to the casinos when I am working.

Don't start taking shots at 2/5 until your game improves and you get above 10k

I wish you the best of luck OP and hope you go on a heater of epic proportions.

That's a quote you should remind yourself of every time you have a less than stellar session. Whatever happens, you're giving it a go and many of us on here no doubt wish we were brave enough to at least try and live our dream. Instead, we'll have to vicariously live it through you.

good luck, keep us posted!

Best of luck, dude.

A lot more risk for a 40 something to try this then a 20 something. If the young guy goes broke, he has plenty of time to build his life back up, but if you go broke it might be much harder. Best of luck though dude!

broke from $4k?

one thing that always gets left out is that a mature person usually always has more earning potential than some newbie at 20 years old... therefore it may be quicker for them to build a bank roll again.

Vegas is a young person's town. 40 is way over the hill. 40 is an old geezer in Vegas. You might find a part-time job at a quick-stop. $8.25/hr. In case you haven't been paying attention, the unemployment lines are overflowing in Vegas.

Vegas is VERY expensive. If you don't run bad in the $1/$2 games and actually manage to break even, you might last two months with that mighty bankroll.

Doesn't having a net equity of 4K at age 40 tell you something about how the world perceives you?

You will likely go broke pretty quickly, but the reality is that you have nothing to lose.

So go for the gusto.

good luck, I'm pulling for you!!

Old guys rule.

Kinda funny how the world perceives M8ludi now after just one sentence?

Knock'em dead OP, never know until you try

It sounds like a well thought out plan to me, I don't see anything in your post that doesn't seem reasonable.

I would encorage you play lots of hours and just as soon as posible train yourself to be excellent at table/game selection. Just as you're a proclaimed nit, especially at the lower levels a portion of your profits can be directly attributed to game selection. There is a huge difference between playing every day and depending on the money, versus playing a a rec or tourist player...you'll be back tomorrow, the next day, day after that, ect, ect.

In short time you'll have your favorite places to play and can start making freinds w/ some of the dealers, floor people and other players. Poker in Vegas certainly is a social atmosphere, the more you can network and make feinds the more opportunites will come your way.

Best wishes to you, have fun! Us "old" guys might see each other at the tables sometime.

I wish you the best of luck. You might want to try grinding the 1/3NL @ TI if they still have their rakeback promo going in Sept. If you can grind 60hrs/week, they'll give you roughly $2400/month in cash and another $480 in food comps. That'll help with expenses and take care of eating cheaply.

My only question about your plan is why you want to pay to ship your car and then have to pay to get yourself to Vegas as well. If your goal is to travel cheaply and keep expenses down, why not just drive cross-country yourself?

Why? I have a new $80k Jag (sick brag) and I have no qualms about driving it daily to various casinos. I see no purpose in buying a nice car and then keeping it parked at home in the garage and driving a clunker around town instead.

GTFO. As long as one is not trying to lead a balla lifestyle and hitting the clubs nightly, Vegas is one of the least expensive metropolitan areas in the country in which to live. Housing is cheap. Taxes are cheap. Groceries are cheap. Etc.

I think the OP's relatively low net worth probably has more to do with his two divorces than it has to do with his personal abilities.

[QUOTE=DC2LV;33687869]

GTFO. As long as one is not trying to lead a balla lifestyle and hitting the clubs nightly, Vegas is one of the least expensive metropolitan areas in the country in which to live. Housing is cheap. Taxes are cheap. Groceries are cheap. Etc.


Do you live with Mommy and Daddy? Groceries are not cheap anywhere in Las Vegas.

A man with a plan?

For over two hundred years, America had a simple algorithm for its success. Vast natural resources and a risk-taking, hardscrabble, energetic immigrant class to develop those resources.

The resources have been largely depleted and the hard-working immigrants have been replaced by the ladyboy gamer generation nurtured in the bubble-wrapped suburbs on time outs.

You sir, are a charter member of that utterly useless, ladyboy gamer generation.

Welcome home to Mommy and Daddy at age 40!

Go for it.

Re: poker, I'd encourage you not to nit it up. You'll make very little in most Vegas games, like barely a living wage, and you'll quickly grow to hate poker (have you ever played 50 hours of poker in a week? it gets boring really quickly when youre nitting it up).

Here's a thread I started on how to get out of the nit trap:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...ve-nl-1169750/

The reasoning behind shipping the car is it takes awhile going across the country. I estimate 3 days and at least $500 of expense plus wear and tear on my car. Thats also 3 days Im not working nor really doing anything (although the trip would be interesting from what I hear).

TO ship and fly would prob cost somewhere in the neighbordhood of $1000. Not cheap but doable.

Thanks for the input about TI .I didnt play there last time but I had heard it was decent.

Not since I was 18, 3+ decades ago. I have a very nice single family house in Spanish Trail that I paid for with cash when I moved to LV in 2010 because housing is just so ridiculously cheap here, but nice try on the sophomoric insult. I also have a six-figure retirement income and a seven-figure net worth, but that's besides the point. If you think groceries are expensive here, you must never have lived in any other major metropolitan city in the country. For the final 10 years I lived in the DC metro area, I never walked out of a grocery store without having spent a minimum of $100. For the 2+ years I've lived here, I've only hit that number once or twice. Big difference.

And you haven't addressed my statement about housing costs or taxes. If you think Las Vegas is expensive to live in, your financial situation must be pretty pathetic.

[QUOTE=M8Ludi;33689177] True but housing is cheap M8. Its quite below the national average and now may be a good time to find a place. Thanks for the input

The subject is groceries. I spent most of my adult life in the remote republic of Vermont where everything was, (and is) much cheaper the Vegas where I have been thawing out since 2007.

I think you're under-estimating the cost. I spent about $1,100 when I shipped my car from DC a couple of years ago because I was anxious to get to Vegas and had no interest in a cross-country trip at the time. Ironically, my wife and I are now in the midst of planning a cross-country trip to Florida because we just rented an oceanfront condo on Miami Beach for 3 months and we also want to take the time to spend a few days in Santa Fe, Dallas, New Orleans, and Gainesville along the way.

But getting back to your move....

I think you should look at driving cross-country as a way to save some money and perhaps use the savings to add to your br. But whatever you decide, I wish you the best of luck.

SCHEDULE

Im trying to put together a schedule of what my days will look like in Vegas. Obv this is heavily dependent on finding some type of part time employment. I would ideally like to have set days I work a pt job and set days I play poker. I would think Fri and Sat may be best for poker but that may be a false assumption.

I also plan on making sure my routine includes enough rest. When I dont get enough sleep (7 hours or so) I am in for a rough day the next day. I certainly dont play my best poker when dead tired. One of the disadvantages of not being 25 any longer!

Exercise will consist of some simple household equipment I already own. I also own p90x which is pretty good. Exercise relieves stress and obv puts me in better physical condition to stay at the table longer. I think this is one aspect of many players' games they overlook. Your physical well being is just as important as your mental well being. They go hand in hand.

Finally an eating schedule. This is one where I could use a little help. I am a big fan of CLiff bars and I plan on taking those with me to eat at the table. Water can be brought in so no tipping for the servers. I plan on a decent size breakfast which consists of bars ,some protein shakes, a piece of fruit and toast. Pretty cheap and not that bad for you. "Lunch" is the issue. What to eat when there? If I get on the tables in the early afternoon, a meal somewhere around 5:00 might be in order. What do you guys eat there to stay cheap and as healthy as possible?

Playing will be in no more than 8 hour shifts. I also like to get up and walk away from the table every couple hours. That seems to keep me more alert. I have played 14 hours in one stretch before and I was not playing my 'A' game for sure. I think 8 is plenty and I have done it numerous times.

Thanks for all the feedback. I hope I can make this an interesting journey for everyone to read about and hopefully one that works out well for me and my dreams.

Thanks DC. A friend had quoted me a price fo $800 to ship but that may be low now esp given fuel costs.

Perhaps driving is the best plan now that I think about it. thanks

As far as playing poker how is Vegas a young person’s town? What advantages would a player who is in their 20’s have over someone older? Im betting on the older player with more experience.

In case you have not been paying attention the economy has sucked for the last several years. Given its getting better, but there are a lot of reasons to not have a huge net worth at 40.