Cost of living is crazy though. Although, I guess I could look for a roomie. Not sure how trusty worthy Craigslist is out there?

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

Yeah it definitely is. Though depends what your needs are and where specifically you want to stay. I'm in the Bay area which is highest in the state. So would not recommend here. Places like Sacramento ared more affordable. There are affordable places in LA as well, but usually in a ghetto area.

I don’t think anyone stated or even suggested that gto was necessary or best to beat 1/3 donks.

I wouldn't even play close to GTO against 1/3 regs. They have such big leaks imo. For example, a lot of regs would cbet too much on the flop and when they check turn they fold too much (easy to pick up leak if you come from an online background).

I have no idea how some of you play that many hours at $2/5. Even $5/10 is way too small for me and completely bores me. I'm far from rich but I moved my way up.

That said, I can see how crazy winrates are possible at $2/5. I played 1 session of $2/5 2 weeks ago when I passed by a relatively new casino and $2/5 was the biggest game.

There was a spot where I turned the nuts as the PFR on a board of K548 and two people got all in with me. A $500 stack who claimed to have 2 pair and an $800 stack who was drawing completely dead (he showed an ace so best he could have was AK or AA, he did not have a flush draw). You never see that at higher stakes.

Why wouldn't someone play a lot of hours at 2/5 making $50 an hour? You make it sound like drudgery when it is a relatively low stress way to make 100k a year.

Where do you play where you can consistently find bigger NL games than 5/10 that are soft? Also, how many hours are you putting in?

You already answered that yourself.

What the hell are you talking about? Stop being a troll.

It's good money and no boss but it's for sure drudgery spending so many hours around degens. A legitimate career is 100x lower stress than life as a live pro. I love poker and do well but there's no way I could be a live pro.

For u...

Yeah. I have ran businesses that are usually underfunded which absolutely sucks compared to dealing with a little variance at low stakes. And honestly if you're bothered by degens then maybe you're dealing with some insecurities of your own that you need to deal with if you can't laugh them off.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

Degens are the best, it's like somebody sent in free entertainment

Well yeah. Pretty sure most white collar 100k+ jobs with benefits is lower stress than live poker.

Yeah running this kind of business does sound worse than being a live pro. Also thanks for your concern. I should learn to love foul mouthed degens swearing and drinking Maybe I've been harassed and threatened too many times, idk. I actually love my job so there's that.

90%+ of all people are degens, you spend time with them outside of the casino just as well, the only difference is that in a gambling environment you see all of their worst sides, while in the real world they mask it fairly well.

Unless the dealer's hot or there's a hot girl at the table. Then they mask it instantly. But even then the whining about bad beats doesn't end. Nothing can stop that.

I remember during the WSOP I was playing at the Rio. One of the dealers sat down and played after his shift ended. He was drinking nonstop. Last hand he got sucked out on and he stood up and swore like fifteen times before storming out. I don't get how you can work there and be that unprofessional in the place you work but I guess since it's just a temporary job no one gives a ****.

Bolded is a stretch but I do agree people can behave their worst in a poker room.

When is a good time to move up in stakes?

I started playing 1/2 for 20 hours a week a few weeks back. I currently have 89 hours logged and around 2.3k profit.

I'm probably just going to move up because it's not enough money for my effort.

I have a good job so bankroll isn't an issue at 2/5

What are your thoughts?

Usually once I bag a $500+ profit, I move up to a nicer steak joint. Let us know the vicinity you live in and we can scope out some nice steak restaurants for you.

Oh you mean stakes?

Stakes: You can move up whenever you want, just don't be afraid to move down if you start losing.

if bankroll isn't an issue that's great , but be prepared to make adjustments if the situation calls for it which it most likely will

If you have a good job and can replenish your bank/life roll easily just do it.

Somethings to think about: the quality of 2/5 games I've played (midwest especially) vary greatly depending on the hours you play where as 1/2 games are pretty much always soft. Can you play late night? weekends?

Get ready to swing 10-15 buyins (at least) either way. Seems like you have limited live poker experience so be aware of how these swings (both directions but esp downswings) effect your play, attitude and overall mindset/health. Live downswings are soul crushing, its a slow game so when your buried for the week/month/quarter it can seem like its never going to turn.


If 2-5 is the biggest game at the place you play be prepared for a wider range of skill levels. Even if its not the biggest game the regs will be better and more aggressive but if its the biggest game spread in your area you will have "the best" live poker players in your area which is basically never true at 1/2.

This is hopefully partially mitigated by the fact the the fish/whales have much deeper pockets.

If its a small player pool develop/apply opponent specific strategies quickly. Don't deviate to far from your "standard game" at first but adjust/exploit to people's tendencies as much as possible. This is obviously harder to accomplish quickly in larger player pools but still important.

Other than that, play well and run hot.

GL

~$26/h isn't worth your time? Just quit poker then, IMO, because you're likely running hot and won't sustain that.

If money is not an issue then try both games and play whichever one is more fun. If you're hoping to make more than $26/h then good luck because not a lot of people can do that long term.

I once saw somebody call a river shove and a call on 10 9 9 6 10 with 22

pot was already 1800 and the shove was only 400 more but still...

play whatever stakes you feel comfortable playing, enjoy playing and can afford to play at, just don't make any decisions or assumptions about your future expectation based around playing profitably for 89 hours at 1/2

it's too short of a sample size to have proven anything about your ability to win at either 1/2 or higher

I personally find it most helpful not to think of my self as a player of a certain stake...it's not like one day I moved up to 2/5 or 5/10 and stayed there. I play where the game looks best

This year, I have played every stake from 1/2 to 5/10/20 and just yesterday I moved from a boring 2/5/10 to a noisy, gambly 2/3 because it looked more profitable

Was this a drunk black dude at Maryland Live? Pretty sure I saw this hand lol