The Texas games look ridiculously juicy. Go there for a month first, see how it goes. If you win, keep going. Think of it as a vacation before moving to Vegas.

Ive been in vegas for the last month and change and theyve had short deck at the wynn a couple of times, ive gone to the wynn maybe 5 times total and theyve had it running at least twice.

Thanks! Its become pretty evident to me that the Texas games are really good.
Will definitely go there, but I think I want to stay in Vegas for WSOP. Not sure yet.

Oooo Thanks so much!

Geez, this should NOT catch on for live poker, certainly not at low stakes. It's too vulnerable to trivial fingernail card marking. Leave it online.

I keep hearing this, but how do we know it's accurate? Of course, every player who frequents a given poker venue/area says that the games are really soft and all the players are fish---with the attendant implication of "I'm a studly poker genius and can destroy all those suckers." Otherwise, why would he be there?

Is it supposedly that Texas players are inexperienced? Or that they're morons with money and want to gambool rather than play poker?

I'm thinking about going down there in a few months when the weather is decent (is the weather ever decent in Texas?). However, a day spent in Texas subtracts five days from your lifespan, and no matter what, you have to interact with Texans and one or two of them may even touch you (ecch). So the games would have to truly be weak to make the trip worth it.

If you watch vlogs or live streams you can see a lot of bad and loose play, which happens at most casinos in the low stakes. The difference is in Texas they all play match the stack or uncapped buy ins, so many times you are seeing 1,000 bb pots between hands that should not be stacking off. You see guys like Rampage bluffing off 10k in 5/5 game on one hand. He can punt in his normal 2/5 game and lose 1k on a hand, in Texas he can punt 10x that amount on one hand.

I've heard that the players in the livestreams play looser so they get invited back.
The games may be much tougher when they're not being streamed. Or they may not

I have a friend who went to Houston in April. She was playing in Johnny Chan's club. $1/3 NLHE match the stack game. She said there was a guy in her game buying in $2K a pop. He was into the game for $22K.

Well, more importantly, how did the friend do?

Can't imagine everyone who goes down there to play there is lying about the action.

Is Texas basically in a phase of poker where there was a ton of pent up demand, so now it's crazy. Some amount of years will pass and the super crazy bad players will go busto, and it will revert to something more "normal", like Northern California or LA poker?

The other thing that might happen is pros will move there to play, and it will balance out the crazy, and also hasten the bad players going bust.

You rented a whole house for $500/month ? Stay there.

Buy a car for basic transportation asap. Uber adds up quickly, public transportation is not reliable or readily available.

(You have a wife and kids and ran off to Las Vegas to grind poker ? wtf were you thinking ?)

Very interesting point.
I’m not too sure about how frequently cheating occurs in the live games but yes card marking will give players an extremely large edge in short deck… thanks for the advice

Yeah it’s a close friends house that he bought for retirement.

I don’t have kids and my wife is very independent. We mutually agreed that we want to move to the states but both understand that playing poker for 5+ years won’t be very realistic (given that I can only make it up to 5/10)so we have other options in mind.

We’ve thought this through for the last year and understand the risks we are taking.

Think of the most obvious answer and you have it. Texas is absolutely booming at the moment. In Dallas, the local economy is bursting at the seams. Several major corporate HQ's relocating here due to COL and tax relief. There is a 10 year backlog of construction projects and thousands more out of state folks flocking here daily.

What does all this mean? Money is everywhere. I've never seen a state with more non-college educated people making money hand over fist. The reason I mentioned construction above? I know several people in the construction business that break a sweat trying spelling the word 'cat', that are making mid 6 figures a month, and spend it like water. Guy I recommended TCH to was going to Winstar every weekend with $30k and didn't care if he came back with any of it.

TLDR: Vegas is for suckers, Texas is where the easy (and big) money is.

Ah, so the poker players there reflect the intellect of the state in general? That would make the average game about as hard to beat as if all the players were toddlers.

I can barely stomach the idea of going to that hot, barren, dusty, ugly wasteland--America's toilet--and interacting with--ugh--Texans, but if there's money to be made, that won't be the case for long. I can probably be there in the winter without vomiting every hour. So strike while the iron is hot and the players are dumb, I guess.

The cost of living in Texas, of course, must include factoring in the occasional $10,000 electric bill, but I would just live in a hotel for the duration. I'm sure Governor Abbott will continue to take every precaution to keep us all safe from the coronavirus

In my experience it's a big problem in lowball tournaments (which have a similar marking problem). HS games where most of the players are familiar with lowball draw it's not tolerated.

Strip deck poker died out in the US once due to excessive cheating. It's just a bad idea.

Good to read of a boom like that. Still, I expect most guys at the tables do not mask up.

Don't be one of those guys.

6 figures a month playing 1/3 in TCH? Danggg...but why?

Six figures if you count the two after the decimal point.

Few comments/questions:

1) 60k life roll sounds really low without a ripcord.

2) They wont let any foreigners into Japan right now, so if you leave, are you exiled for the time being? I dont know if thats the case with japanese citizens who are in the US. Is that a problem in case this doesnt work out for you?

3) Vegas poker competition is pretty fierce at the moment. It's definitely still good, but meh.

4) There's a group of Japanese pro players who frequent the Aria just as a FYI. Maybe around 30 yrs old.

Dallas poker isnt that great TBH esp if your a pro. I have a small sample set, but while there was a ton of action, expect a ton of swings.

You also have to change your ranges accordingly, which is lol to do sometimes. Since its match the stack at TCH, you'll have to be ok with a 5k+ flip making or breaking the session at specific tables.

Perhaps if you’re a 5/10+ crusher, these games might be good, not to mention being able to play deep is a prerequisite.

These games sound like potential nightmares for most “pros.”

I would say 5/10 NL at Bellagio/Aria problem arent the best games, but they arent the worse either. A lot of intermediate players that arent throwing tons of money in the pot with bad hands but play ABC predictable as well. Definitely a higher number of regs. The game can play overly tight at times.

I think 2/5 is going to have a lot more pure recreational players and people giving lots of action, but its half the stakes..

Theres also two vloggers (Brad Owen and Andrew Neeme) that play mostly 5/10 NL in Vegas so if you watch their channels on youtube you can get a very good idea how the games play and what sort of decisions youre going to get put to.