Sup everyone, I could really use some help. I've started playing home cash games in the past few months and have had good success so far. I would rather not say where I live, but there are no casinos, the closest one is a few hours away. These games I play at are amazing, but honestly I'm not sure how normal they are. 1/2, no rake, tons of loose players, huge stacks (last week I played 9 handed and at one point the lowest stack was about $350). Lot's of straddles, massive over bets pre flop, I know a guy that occasionally bets hundreds pre flop blind.

Promise I'm not trying to turn this into a brag post (any solid player can beat these games) but right now I'm up $1,300 with roughly 35 hours played. Before this I had been playing free bar league games for a couple years, along with studying and watching on TV. The only problem I'm having is I'm scared to play with a big stack. I'm struggling a little financially and I can't dip into my life roll. It was quite a risk for me to even start playing these games. Luckily it's worked out so far. If I lose my bankroll then I'll probably just take it easy on poker for a while.

My dream is to one day pursue poker professionally, but I'm obviously no where close to being there right now. So I guess the advice I'm looking for is how should I play these games when I really can't afford to lose. I've been playing very tight, but occasionally mix it up because there are a few other good players too. Also, I'm guessing most home games aren't like this? I've never played poker anywhere outside my city except for a one time casino trip while on vacation, and it played nothing like these games. All advice and tips are welcome

Though soft, these games are extremely high variance, and you could easily go down 10 buy-ins before knowing what hit you, especially as a green player. If you're struggling financially, you're better off putting that $1300 toward real life needs/bills, etc. A nice math guy could tell you exactly what your risk of ruin is, or you could just look into that yourself, but short answer is you're extremely likely to lose that $1300, go on tilt, put more money into the game you shouldn't, and I think you see where it goes from here. . . .

I make enough to live off of, loans have caught up to me and I just don't have the money to blow away hundreds. I won't be putting any more of my personal money into the game until my loans are paid off.

You literally said you can't afford to lose in these games. Do you think a "poker professional" habitually plays stakes they can't afford? If you can afford to lose the $1300, what are you really asking? Emphasize being a realist in a poker, especially when starting out, not a dreamer/optimist.

Get your RL **** together & play when you have $3K-4K you can actually afford to lose. Then most of these insecurities/scared feelings you're having will go away. Read a lot & learn a lot of poker theory in your down time (away from the tables) and prepare yourself for a comeback when properly rolled. Use some of your $1300 to buy Poker Snowie -- you'll always having someone/something to grind against. Or just play $5NL online and get your fundamentals together. Whatever.

You say you won't put more of your own money into the game, but gamblers as a population do it all the time, so not sure why you're such a true believer in yourself when you're admittedly sort of a beginner, but OK.

Sounds like you answered your own question.

I thought I made it clear that I'm not struggling to live. I can't afford to lose what I've made, because then I won't have anything to play with. Not because I'll be homeless. These are the lowest stakes I can find and I've already admitted I'm not close to being a pro, I'm aware that realistically it probably won't happen. I'm a believer in myself because I'm not a gambling addict, some of us have self control. What I am asking for is strategy advice for playing deepstack with whale lags when I don't have many buy ins available.

If your only advice is for me to stop playing and take the money and run, I'll just be honest with you and tell you that's not happening.

My question was what is the best strategy to beat these types of games, and are most home games like this. I didn't answer my own question at all.

Ok, reading over my first post again, I guess I should have said that I can lose this money, but I REALLY do not want to because I'll just stop playing cash games if I do. The only reason I started is because I won a tournament a few months ago in the free league I play in, and a friend convinced me to take the money to a cash game. It's just kind of snow balled from there and now I'm up a lot compared to what I started with and I would really like to keep it going. Sorry if my intro was misleading.

I started out playing .5/1 live with a $300 roll.

My strategy was to buy in for 100BB and cash out if I ever got up past 200BB

I didn’t feel comfortable playing that deep, and I didn’t want to lose $200.

Of course I could have lost my first 3 sessions and been busto but lucky I ran well and never looked back

It worked out quite well would
recommend

Edit: the game was very loose and my strategy involved playing AQ+,TT+, and set mining 99-22. I would always play TPTK and sets for 100bb stacks

If there was a magic formula where one could guarantee that you wouldn't lose 7 buyins, everyone would do it. The reality is that there is no formula to do that. You will be down 7 buyins at some point of your career in poker. It is only a matter of time and/or luck.

You can extend the time you have by participating and learning in this forum. Good luck