The problem with those is they start attracting guys you've seen on tv before. Doesn't mean you can't succeed, it'll just be harder.

Were you surrounded by dickheads and drunks? Or any one of a dozen things that might annoy you enough to interfere with your performance? You need to take a scouting trip or two.

It won't be long before the tax man notices you are getting by with no tangible source of income. Then your $3200 won't be $3200.

DC, is there only one casino on the gulf side of Florida? Tampa HR? Have you played there much? Are all of the poker rooms in FL open 24 hours?

Pig makes a good point about being surrounded by dickheads and drunks, and major degens. They become your new friends by default, or associates may be a better word.

How much have you played live? You only mentioned you played online. I would think there would be some good home games around Baylor. They may be "underground" but the good ones are run just like casinos and it would give you some live experience. Rake will probably be higher where you are but games are typically softer and rake pays for food and drinks.

I'm interested in what you decide and how it goes. I've always liked Florida but I fish and prefer to be close to the water. Good luck man.

As I mentioned, all of the casinos take the same amount of money ($5 + $2); the only difference is in when they take it and how they distribute the promo money. I don't think you'll find a compendium online anywhere, but if you ask in the SoFla community thread, I'm sure the regs from the various rooms can explain exactly how it is done in the various rooms in which they play.


I find the games to be much softer in SoFla as opposed to LV, but please note that I'm not a 40 hr/week grinder; in fact, I play about 40-50 hrs/month, so I may not be the best person to ask what it's like to grind down here as compared to LV. Again, I think you'll get better responses about the SoFla poker scene in the SoFla community forum.

BTW, one thing that hasn't been mentioned is that the poker comps are much better in Vegas. I believe that the absolute minimum is $1/hr, and sometimes rooms run promos where you get paid extra for putting in X amount of hours over a week or month. You also have the advantage of using those comps for meals at some very good restaurants if you so desire.

In SoFla, there are only a couple of places that have decent food in which to spend your comps, and that's assuming you earn much if anything to spend. Gulfstream Park has just started a program whereby comps are based on "tiered" play in the casino itself, so if you don't play slots (as I'm sure you don't), you'll be at the lowest tier (bronze) which is 60 cents/hr.

http://www.gulfstreampark.com/casino/vip-member-benfits
http://www.gulfstreampark.com/casino...ember-benefits

Hialeah used to be $1/hr for $2/$5NL and above, but I believe the rate has now been reduced to 60 cents/hr as well. Magic City gives you absolutely nothing other than an entry into some daily drawing at 2:00pm & 11:00pm if you happen to be playing then.

http://www.magiccitycasino.com/poker-promotions

Those are the three poker rooms I play at most frequently, so they are the ones with which I'm most familiar. I've played some at Hard Rock, Coconut Creek, and the Isle, but not enough to keep track of the comp situation there, but I believe that they're better than the ones in the Miami area. I'm sure others in the SoFla community thread can provide the details on those and others.

No there are quite a few rooms on the gulf as well, but that's really a different poker "community" and I've never played at any of the rooms there. Some of the one's I've heard about in addition to Hard Rock are Silks at Tampa Bay Downs, Derby Lane in St. Pete, and One-Eyed Jacks at the Sarasota Kennel Club. I'm also positive that there is one in Naples at the dog track there.


The casinos run by the two Indian tribes down here, Seminole and Miccossuke, are open 24/7. I believe all of the state-run casinos are 24/7 on weekends and holidays, but are only open from either 9am - 3am or 10am - 4am from Mon-Thur. (varies by casino).


If you love to fish and prefer to be close to the water, keep an eye on the new poker room in Florida City that is tentatively scheduled to open this summer. It will be less than 30 miles from Key Largo and the rest of the Florida Keys. A fisherman's paradise.

Thanks DC. Man I gotta get out to Florida soon.

Glad you brought up comps. That's definitely another thing to consider OP. I didn't think about it, but you're talking about covering ~50% of meal costs there.

Played poker in LA for about 2 years. I'll give you couple notes.

1. Good games pretty much any day of week, especially after 5pm.
2. Regs in LA are filthy disgusting people
3. The players are horrible but also have big gamble.
4. LA is expensive but if you have roommates it's manageable.
5. Commerce is a pain in ass to get to for the grind.

SF is insanely expensive and I bet games aren't even that good, I'm sure the tech guys are decent at poker. LA has tons of clueless players especially on weekends. But of course if you play 1/2 the buy in sucks.

1. It always boggles my mind how people will believe **** that their friends tell them. Go visit SF or LA for a week and find out for yourself.

2. Both of these stories are patently false as a general rule, although I'm sure that someone somewhere is making 250k and living in a cargo container. But yes, if you choose to live in a predominantly white, gated community within SF proper, or an upper middle class, detached house within 30 minutes of Commerce, your options will be limited (and you will pay a lot). Many people in the SF Bay Area and LA Area will trade one of price, location, and niceness for the other two. For example, you can live in Oakland and commute to San Francisco; this option is so popular that the better parts of Oakland are pretty competitive now.

3. Online cost of living calculators are widely available and companies use them all the time for out of town hires. This is something you don't need to take peoples' words for.

If you plan to play a lot of 1/2 LA sucks for that. You will need to start with 2/5 or 5/5 or 5/10 or whatever, as others have brought up.

What would make you think this? Las Vegas has the toughest 2/5 and 5/10 games in the country.

Consider how many others out there have had the same exact idea you're having right now (hmmmm....I want to become a poker pro, Vegas is cheap, tons of poker, great weather, low cost of living...I'm moving to Vegas!) and you might begin to have an inkling of how many regs/grinders there are at every 2/5 and 5/10 table (and even some 1/3 tables) there.

If by SF you mean San Francisco, there is no poker there. It's in the surrounding cities, but the steadiest, biggest games are in San Jose. As for tech guys, not a lot of them play, but for the ones that do - tech guy is what they do, but degen is what they are.

Op was talking about South Florida and decided that SF was a good abbreviation. While I enjoy learning about the bay area scene , it's not really relevant to Miami.

but for the ones that do - tech guy is what they do, but degen is what they are.

Love this line

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Thanks again for the replies. Sorry if I missed anyone--in some cases it was hard to tell if the post was directed to me. For the record, I have made this post in the South Florida section as suggested to me by D2CLV, and gotten one really good response so far, but awaiting more.

I am looking into multiple trips, but at the moment the only one where I've pulled the trigger is a 7 day trip to Las Vegas in late April/early May

Okay. Well I figure a lot of television pros are just regular pros who got lucky at various points in their careers, while others are world class. It would be intimidating though. Regardless, I think I'll put off such tournaments for a time.

Does my ex-wife account? Or swarms of students yelling at me with unwarranted accusations of unfair grading? Granted most weren't drunk, but I figure quite a few were high as this was in Boulder CO. But I am going to take a scouting trip to Vegas by end of month at latest.

I figure if it's just building bankroll and my living expenses are set out for a year, then it's not actually income. I doubt the IRS would agree, but it's a short term situation. My liability this year would be limited regardless, and NV in particular has no income tax right?
Maybe this would bother me, but I'm introverted and generally just let other people do their thing.

I have played live very little. Maybe a dozen donkaments, and a couple days worth of 1/2 at a local cardroom I didn't realize existed until my last few months there. I have never heard of any underground Baylor games. They may well exist, but I don't know anyone at Baylor--unsure how I would find these underground games. As said, I'm pretty much a loner/introvert.

I don't like fishing but boating, waterskiiing, etc., are a lot of fun. Of course I won't be able to afford such things for a long time (possibly never), but it won't stop me from trying. I know there's not a ton of outdoor stuff to do in Vegas, but it's a short flight from Tahoe and I've always wanted to skii there. Regardless where I end up, thank you for the good luck wishes.

Thanks for the notes. It's in line with what I discerned from previous research, aside from points 2 and 5. I'd guess 2 is probably true everywhere, depending on standards. Unfortunate if the biggest club is hard to get to.

Yeah I looked up the Bicycle and Commerce cash games and the combination of bad rake structure and low buyins for everything below 5/5 would seem to make those games very tough to make much money in.

@callipygian

Thanks for the clarifications about SF and COL. I need to make an Excel chart or something to adjust actual expenses for COL, then I can estimate yearly winning differences.

Yeah, I figured this was the case, but wanted to know about LA in case my research was wrong or I can relocate sooner than expected.

My reasoning in this point is suspect. I figured SF 2/5 was relatively tough because it runs more rarely. I assumed this means more regs, whereas Vegas has lots of 5/10 and some 10/20 for the regs to fill up. As far as LA, the buy-ins and rake structures form an unfavorable combination. So I guess Vegas was better for that stake than LA or SF, because even if the games are as tough or a little tougher, this is ameliorated by game selection.

Of course you are right that many people have thought like I have and moved to Vegas to grind. I look forward to playing them and hopefully surpassing them. If I can't do that, I can avoid the worst of it by playing something like 10PM-5AM, which is actually very easy for me to do.

How many regs/table do you estimate at these Vegas 1/2, 1/3, and 2/5 games? I'm guessing something like 33%, 40%, and 50%? Maybe totally off. Anyway, if I can't beat low stakes regs in Vegas my poker career is going to be pretty limited anywhere.

One poster suggested the Tampa area as an affordable alternative with 4 casinos with soft games within driving action, which I am investigating. I'm not attached to Vegas. I just need somewhere affordable with lots of access to weakish games while building my bankroll.

You can live and play 5/5 in LA for a living but you have to keep your expenses very low and find a great deal. If you're willing to have roommates you can do it for a slightly higher cost than Vegas. I'm one of the lucky ones. If I had to pay twice as much to live here I would snap move to Vegas. Vegas 2/5 is still super soft to me and the lower rake makes a huge difference. But given my situation I love living in SoCal. As for Florida, I've been there twice and it's a hot and humid ****hole with a lot of shady characters and corrupt law enforcement. JMO. West up.

You do not want anything to do with Tampa,

The incredible amount of low lifes everywhere outweighs the low cost of living.

I have been to all 3 places for several months, years.

If you plan on grinding and learning, it's Las Vegas.

The close proximity of one casino to another, plus fresh weekly tourist will round out your live game quickly at $1/2, $1/3.

You can find a furnished monthly, safer neighborhood, for $1300, no lease.

Figure things out from there.

I'm a rec player in SoFla. I've also played plenty in Vegas. I can't imagine a softer field than SoFla. A lot of retirees, a lot of degens, a big cultural mix that include some overly aggressive gamblers (not players). I couldn't recommend SoFla more, and if you live in the Broward suburbs the prices aren't bad at all.

But I'd recommend you go to Vegas for the WSOP and play out there. Rent a room over three weekends in June and give the Vegas living a try. The Vegas poker games from July-April aren't like what they are during the WSOP, but it's still the poker epicenter and if you're halfway decent you'll turn a profit. Just do Vegas then to live in Vegas, see if you like it.

From there, either spend the summer in Maryland before going to Florida or just go right to Florida.

Some of them are just good. You often see their names over and over as high finishers.

I don't know - how often do they threaten to kill you in the parking lot? Or call you swear words you never knew existed for five minutes straight? Or are guys that try to kiss you?

The one you can't escape is Federal self-employment tax, aka Social Security. Approx 13-14%.

The 1/3 and 1/2 tables in vegas a re about 65% regs/grinders. I know because ive roamed the city being one of them a few months every year. Its been getting worse every year.

Youll never play with so many people that care so m7ch about each measly dollar anywhere else.

When you talk about a big cultural mix, would your recommendation change based on if a person is white or not?

No. South Florida is actually home to a huge melting pot. Tons of latin people, caribbean people, all races, all nationalities, and they're all represented in the poker room. Plenty of women players too. It's like the UN of degens. Some are feistier than others and will gamble it up more.

It's worse right now because a bunch of poker rooms are running promotions where X number of hours qualify for freerolls, free buffets, WSOP entries, etc.

That makes it worse?

I'm talking about the region in general, not just the poker tables. Should a black man with 10K in cash in his pocket be more nervous about being pulled over by cops in south Florida vs Las Vegas?

Derail. There's no way anyone could give an objective, 100% answer to that.

So. Florida is huge !! The answer is very community and neighborhood dependant.