Yeah it's just bizarre.

Ok he blew any extra cash on hookers and blow. Are you happy?

Like who the hell cares?

So he never got "solid employment"? If he couldn't get hours dealing, then use those hours to play and earn $11/hr plus food comps. But he said that he only played 300-some hours all year. Do you know how adding works, champ?

There have only been two threads where I've called out the OP for being a liar. Two. In the months I've been on this site. Don't know why you guys are so butthurt about me pushing back against people posting lies, or why you have such fulsome praise for someone saying they went to Vegas and inexplicably lost over the course of ten years despite being a winning player and are now going home. "Huge nuts to post this!" "Great job at life, OP!" This place is a clown world.

Well if you need to know how I spent money:

1) Uber or Lyft to and from work or the strip to play - generally $20-30 a day

2) A $10 a day Starbucks habit WHEN AT THE STRIP.

3) if I had money I generally tried to eat well. That doesn't mean healthy.

4) No drugs. No alcohol. Maybe 1 or 2 massages per year.

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Lol if you think this is butthurt...
Look, I've met, hung out, and played poker with Chip. I'm not at all saying he made great decisions in Vegas, but to **** with him like he's lying about how he plays or how he spent his money when it's not that ****ing hard to lose your life roll by being an idiot is just being a shitty human. You don't have to applaud him, but calling him out like he's lying is unnecessary.

This is clearly the major problem. Your expenses are huge compared to your income. In any form of professional gambling you have to treat it like a business.
When you have a small bankroll you have to super nit it up in expenses at the start.
You might have saved $1000-$2000 a month just by taking cheaper transport like a bus,(or even buying a cheap car on payments) eating at home, buying cheap food at the supermarket using coupons. Bringing sandwiches with you to work and poker. Bringing a refill bottle/coffee flask to drink.
Imagine adding $1000-$2000 a month to your BR, you would be up and running with a healthy 1-2 BR within 3-6 months. This would help you play better as you don't have to worry about individual session results.
The positive news is you are probably a decent player if you have won $11 an hour over this small/medium sample.
My advice is to find a job that allows you to play poker on Fri and Sat nights which tends to be generally the best games everywhere in the country.
Look at every expense you have going forward and think how you can cut back on anything that allows you to build a BR quicker.

Here are some more numbers to crunch:

My rent was $600 a month. That is $7200 per year. If I had it all to do over again I'd be at $400 a month. But ... It's over.

I made $4,000 at Sam's Town. I made $400 at Venetian. I made a little under $4,000 as stated above at poker. That's $8,400. That leaves $1,200 unaccounted for.

How do you go broke? You are unable to increase your BR past a certain point but maintain it. You have a crappy weekend and suddenly pfft. It's gone. Yeah I said weekend.

If someone in my shoes asked for my advice I would say:

1) Hit and run. If you are buying in for $100 or $120 (as I did) if you double up, leave. I never did this. You can start at Planet Hollywood. Hit Ballys. Hit Flamingo. Finish at Harrah's. You get it.

2) Chase free money. When I first arrived in 2017 I enjoyed playing at Harrah's. They had a weekly freeoll. They stopped it about six weeks after I arrived. It was pretty much easy money. They brought them back. Every one od the 4 properties I mentioned above offer some kind of bonus money to chase. I had a regular tell me Tuesday night he made $30,000 in 2019 just from the freerolls. I didn't ask how many hours he put in to do that but most rooms the minimum is only around 10 hours per week. And sometimes you can even double dip those hours.

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1. hit and running would not have stopped you from going broke. you didn't get enough hours in, that's why you went broke.


2. assuming you made $20/hr dealing at Sams town/Venetian that means you worked 220 hours dealing last year, you mentioned you played around 300 hours of poker, what were you doing the other 1500 hours? you only worked an average of 2-3 hours a day?

If you had 1 bad weekend wipe you out. Did you have any kind of stop loss limit. If only buying in for $100 or so, you must have fired a whole bunch of bullets when you should have cut your loss and tried another day.

How many hours did you work dealing?

Ok I get it now.

This 100%......Why didnt you take on another job locally. It seemed like you hardly worked.

I was assuming you were making 2-3K a month dealing not 350 a month.
You went broke because you were not working.
Some tough love. If this is your work ethic you are probably better off working a 9-5 rather than being self employed.

The above is great advice but the guy making 30K just from free rolls and promos was probably playing 30-50 hours a week.
You played 350 Hours the whole year which is just under 7 hours per week.
Also playing 60BB is not optimal. If you are the best player or one of the best at the table you want to buy in for the max to maximize your expectation.
Often with a shallow stack you have insufficient odds to set mine and call raises, getting the incorrect price.
Just being honest so others can learn from your mistakes but its great you don't have life leaks like drugs and drink but lack of work ethic and playing sub-optimally are also pretty big leaks.

So far itt you gave 4 whole words to OP and you've spent the rest of your time criticizing other posters, either for being too negative or (apparently in my case) too positive. Why do you spend so much time trying to police other people?

FWIW I am fine with someone trying to get rid of the negativity around here, but that doesn't seem to be your schitck. Adding to it, now that seems to be your thing.

I really don't see the benefit of convicting or defending OP here.
the post seems like a cautionary tale of the risk of taking a shot at living poker in Vegas. it didn't work for him and he left "a broken man."
who cares about the math?
thanks for sharing, sorry it didn't work out, could have done things differently, some unnecessary risks, be careful to others looking at doing the same, good luck in the future.
most of the rest of the responses are moot.

Figuring out the reasons why he went bust is helpful to him in the future and to anyone else wanting to try to play for a living.

It's pretty clear the transportation expense was insane, along with spending too much on food and Starbucks, mixed with not playing enough.

1) I only WORKED about 15-20 hours a week. I only WORKED at Sam's Town from June-September. Like 3 months.

2) You're right. I should have gotten a crappy job but I have an ego and I am an elitist and I don't wanna work at Wal-Mart.

3) I only played the hours I played because I didn't have a BR. When I had a job I was working and playing. I never wanted to put in 40 hours a week playing. I wanted to work 24 and play 16. That would be my dream.

I believe it was Deadmoney who asked about the playing style I got from my coach: in one word 'exploitative.' I had played one style live - and profitably - for 7 years. Doing something that goes against a successful formula you have established is difficult. I think his style was fine. I just didn't adapt well.



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Makes sense. From what I've been told it's difficult to get a job as a dealer in Vegas outside of WSOP. So it makes sense that you went long periods without a contract. Getting a job at Walmart would've tied up your time for the minimum. And if you quit that job to deal when demand is high, they may not hire you back. The job at Walmart only makes sense if you want to keep it over the long term. F**k that. Walmart is a dead trap.

If your BR was limited it all, then it also makes sense that you didn't put in many hours. Hard to play with a small BR and no secured income. And you can only put so many hours while you work as a temp dealer.

You did have crazy transportation expenses. Even I used the Deuce when I first started traveling to Vegas as a tourist. I now Uber exclusively since getting here takes me more time and Uber is faster. But if I were living in Vegas, I'd learn the bus routes, get the monthly pass, and schedule my trips while I save for a car.

I appreciate the information you are posting, you actually don't owe an explanation to anyone here. You decided to share your story and that's it. As long as you learn and improve from this, who cares how you spent your money?

I do suggest that you learn new skills that help you make money. You're never too old for that. You can translate documents online, do math tutoring, or even learn to code (I'm good at this, I currently work as a Software Developer). Obviously the examples I gave you are based on my experience, but you get the idea.

Good luck, and I wish you success!

But you have to understand you were broke.
**** your ego. Your ego is wrong.
The only way you could play more hours was building a BR.
These are things normally guys in their 20s run into.
Normally by the the time you hit 50 you have certain life experiences that knock the ego out of you.
The crazy thing is if you would have taken a job you might have built a decent roll and may have made it even with your expenses.

I'm going to be blunt. You have some issues but not the normal ones such as drink and drugs.
There is hope. You should take a job, cut back on expenses and build a BR.
I would advise getting some poker training from a solid site like crush Live poker or Red Chip poker. Understand how to play full stack poker. Having a BR will allow you to play when you like BUT more importantly will allow you the freedom to pass on poor games with a lower win rate and higher variance.
My other worry is having an ego about your job could lead to problems at the table. Ego can get you in trouble against opponents who are A holes.
You will sometimes make sub optimal decisions.
Its a business, its about making the correct decisions to make the most money.

Another thing is there are Professional gamblers in Vegas who are often looking for help. I believe you were actually offered such a job in this thread.
Its a shame you didn't ask earlier as I'm sure you could have found something.

Was a little surprised to read this.
Yeah, if you spend 10 bucks a day at Starbucks, that's 300 a month. Think about that.
But you lived, even if only for a short time, the life you wanted to live
For that I salute you dude. Try it again down the line. Next time you'll do things better.

Ok, I guess you were "too positive" if that's how you perceive your advice. I happen to think you were so intent on being positive you actually argued with OP that he should not say he had "failed" because he DID try"

Apparently, in your glow of positivity, no one who "tries" actually "fails". Keep your participation trophy spiel. You spout nonsense, of course some of those who try, fail.

Don't be so afraid of the term "fail". It can be the key to learning and improving. People can learn from their failure and "try" differently in the future. Respect their efforts but don't whitewash the results.

I imagine a lot of the Ubers were related to your health?

I understand all this talk. Obviously eating out and getting $10 worth of coffee each day when funemployed is never going to lead well but I'm assuming a lot of the spending had to do with old habits from back when fully employed.

Like I said earlier, it takes a lot of guts to come out and post like this. Most people would just ghost or say they went back to be with family etc etc.

While it's important to recognize what went wrong along the way, I'm pretty sure OP knows that already. I don't see him making excuses, he was pretty clear in the OP that he spent too much on food and coffee.

OP I hope you made it safely back to Philly and found a place to stay.

Just so we are clear the Starbucks habit was not every day. Just when I had an 8 hour session planned. So maybe 12 times a month.

Venti iced tea lemonade.
Brownie

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I can imagine riding the bus, walking from and to bus stops and waiting for buses in LV weather can suck. That being said did you have a health related condition that prevented you from riding the bus?

If I was in a similar spot and even with a bankroll well into six figures I’d mostly avoid ubers and would ride the bus to save money. At over 50 a monthly bus pass in Nevada is I think less than one Uber ride.

Yes. I can't really walk long distances. The bus stop from my house was about 3/4 of a mile. If I made it is be sweating like a pig in the Vegas heat.

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