This is a great response!

You hit it on the nail, I do have an addictive personality. Everything I do I get stuck in. When I work for example on a web project, sometimes i won't sleep for days cause I can't stand not having a project completed.

Thanks for the compliment on my design skills.

Actually I did work for a local firm called "Makespace Design" in Louisville. They used me to get there backwork caught up. I finished it within a week, then they said I didn't fit in with the crowd after offering me a full time gig. Whatever happened to getting the job cause you showed that you could do it and do it well?

It is difficult to hold down a job for me sometimes. I hate working for other people and if I don't enjoy what I'm doing, I won't put in the effort and get canned anyway.

I would love to talk with someone. I know I have problems contributed from my past and at least I can admit them but that's not enough. Poker is a very psychological game and my head gets in the way a lot.

Some of us weren't born with silver spoons and have been dealt bad hands in life. Unfortunately I had to be one of them but wouldn't take it back cause it's all been a learning experience and street knowledge has saved my @$$ many times where otherwise I would've been screwed had I had everything handed to me.

LMAO! You're right and I know table games are stupid and I rarely play them. I was just acknowledging that bj can be beat with good card counting ability and yes, best against 1 deck.

I made a comment about Texas Holdem Bonus and I shouldn't have. I just started playing live consistently and won a few times so I jumped the gun. We were all noobs at one time and it's been a learning process, now I know that game sucks.

[QUOTE]
Regarding your analogy of losing $8,000 as being no different than spending $20,000 on college tuition? Are you serious? Going to college is a far superior investment than playing poker for a living with no backup plan. [QUOTE]

Man college is such a waste of time and money unless you go for a doctorate. The average debt to salary ratio is so crazy, no wonder people live paycheck to paycheck after graduation.

I agree college is a great investment... if it were affordable. Used to be you could work your way through college with ease, now your drained in massive debt.

You have no sense of the shape of our economy, politics, or the currency crisis if you think college is a good investment these days.

I have no interest in going into debt for the rest of my life thank you very much.

Only thing I would go to college for is engineering, computers to be exact.

OP, the only people who say college isn't worth it are people who've never been to college. Not to say people can't be successful without college... But the data is irrefutable, if you go to college, you will on average make a million dollars more over your lifetime vs if you didn't.

That is not an opinion, that is statistical fact.

In any event, you are getting good advice, everything you need to.succeed is in this thread. Only question really is are you going to follow the advice of those whom have already traveled down the road you are on, or are you going to listen to your id and inner child and do whatever the hell it is you really wanna do?

Lastly, I will say that most often in life, the correct.choice is the hard choice.

Good luck

[QUOTE=KingHubbard;32403512]LMAO! You're right and I know table games are stupid and I rarely play them. I was just acknowledging that bj can be beat with good card counting ability and yes, best against 1 deck.

I made a comment about Texas Holdem Bonus and I shouldn't have. I just started playing live consistently and won a few times so I jumped the gun. We were all noobs at one time and it's been a learning process, now I know that game sucks.

[QUOTE]
Regarding your analogy of losing $8,000 as being no different than spending $20,000 on college tuition? Are you serious? Going to college is a far superior investment than playing poker for a living with no backup plan.
If you work hard, college can be a gateway to a promising future. Without my college degree, it would have been difficult for me to get a Masters and subsequent PhD. I now have a very comfortable job and have easily paid off my debt. It certainly beats living from paycheck to paycheck (or even worse in your case).

I'm a college drop out FWIW digi.

You saw it here first, folks. SeaUlater and PokahBlows on the same side of an argument.

Seriously, no offense, but you're probably not the person to be giving advice about the relative worth of college.

There are affordable options. You won't get in with one of the big three investment houses via a college geared toward working adults, but a degree from an accredited university will open the door for many different jobs. As the economy gets worse, college education is going to be more and more of a prerequisite if you don't want to work at a fast food place your entire life.

Stop whining about your life/past....

We all face adversity and have had to experience unpleasent events in our life.

You're a grown man.

You shouldn't be living in your parent's basement while you wife is the only one holding a real job. That's pathetic.

Go out, get a job, carry your own weight, and be somebody.

Your parents would be disgusted if they read this thread.

1) *Philosophy :/
1b) I think you mean "theory" not philosophy, anyways minor point hahaha
2) It's easy to pinpoint fish at live games. Do they have a casino card? Are they tipping when they just win the blinds (or even not at all)? How much are they buying in for? etc. etc.
3) I'm not saying variance doesn't play a role in live poker, but after 250 hours it's pretty clear who is a winning player and who isn't. Sure, maybe someone can be winning more than they should, but there is no way a total fish will be a winner at live poker after 250 hours due to the high rake/tips/etc.

Wow you're getting a ton of good advice (along with the expected trolls). First off don't look back and regret everything you've done. Just as in poker, we can only control what we do from this point forward. You are where you are and the goal is to make the best possible life choices in order to maximize your standing in life.

The first thing I'll say is that I think in 99% of cases playing 1/2 live for a living is a terrible choice. Even 2/5 you'll have trouble doing much more than covering expenses (assuming your plan is to move out of your parents' eventually) so ideally you want to be playing 5/10+ before you're playing professionally. That said, if you really want to get to the point where you can make a living from poker, get a part-time job. Your expenses are super low right now, use that. Be a life nit, get a part-time job and play 1/2 at the casino during the weekends, when the games are the best. Study, network, and do all you can to improve during this time. Hopefully at some point in the not so distant future you can move up to 2/5+ and start making real money. But at 1/2 the goal needs to simply be improving so you can beat higher and saving money so you can be rolled for higher.

It's gonna be rough, it's gonna be tough, and I'm not gonna lie you're probably going to fail. But I think this is your best course of action if you want to maximize your odds of making it as a poker pro in the long term at all.

A guy who has a long term track record of impulsively repeating his mistakes, who brought a limited roll to the table then went on a spending spree the second he hit a minor heater, who is inclined to believe he can play table games profitably, and who admits to having an addictive personality should not be pursuing poker as a profession. Pointing that out is not trolling, it's honesty.

KH, you sell yourself short when you say you have no life experience. In many ways you have more than your average person. It also sounds like in some ways you have a good head on your shoulders. However poker is a terrible, terrible fit for your character. Just get out, honestly.

I've been to college twice and both times cost me an arm and a leg. Don't tell me.

Ya I saw that commercial too that said u make 1 million more. Actually I agree you can make more but you also have a LOT more debt.

I am taking advice here before going forward. Although everything is speculative, I trust that many on here can relate so therefore I will take the advice that seems relevant.

This thread is cherry

college is a scam and anyone advocating is already victim to the scam.

only thing college is good for is when your young to network and meet new friends your age.

if i had 100k to go to college i would much rather put that towards a small business and grow from there

I have been trying to find out what fits my character for a long time. Aptitude tests, trying things here and there, etc and nothing has come to fruition.

Poker is very frustrating when playing full-time. As a hobby it's fun as heck but there's not much I'm qualified for, my resources are very limited, not excuses just barriers.

I have another problem. Every time I get good at something, I mean good enough where it becomes second nature, I get bored with it and move on to something new and challenging, something I would probably fail at in the beginning. Same with poker, if I just crushed every game I played, I would get bored with it and move on. It's a weird habit and a sure-fire way to have little to no success at anything particular thing. I mean everyone should specialize in something and not be a jack of all trades unless you're a carpenter. So I'm moderately good at a lot of things but I'm not great at anything because I've never allowed myself to get there or just lost interest after surpassing the intermediate-advanced level of something.

All of the advice in here is great except for the few trolls. I'm going to take it all and soke it in for a while. I'm very happy I started this thread as it has helped me from going and doing something stupid like blowing that $700 today at the casino.

I may go tomorrow during splash the pot and take about $100 because those pots are always $400-$700. Think I can risk $100 to try and win one of those.

I was also thinking of playing limit during the 2 Aces Cracked days. Just sit and wait, maybe they'll get cracked, maybe they won't and maybe I won't get any the whole day. I'm not risking much there anyway.

These are just some of the things I could do to rebuild as it relates to poker.

***Also let me clear up something. I'm not broke and never said I was. This $700 is the last of my poker bankroll. I have gigs teaching, writing blogs and doing freelance work. My wife and I also have a life-roll saved up, it's not much but we're not broke. If I need some money aside from poker, all I have to do is do a couple teaching lessons although they only pay about $350 per lesson, it's still an option and I'm allowed to do 3 per month.

Agreed, if you aren't going for a quick 2 year trades degree, it's a scam. Only reason to go to college is for the LAW degree or a PhD.

+100

This is very pleasing to hear.

The tendency you mention to stop trying once you become proficient at something is also very bad for poker btw, because the nature of the game is that you'll have heaters that trick you into thinking you're better than you are (consider your spending spree: I bet you felt like it was always going to be money for jam at that point, right?). The whole game is built around that artiface, and it's a trap I still fall into after almost a decade of playing profitably/professionally.

If you paid $100k out of your own pocket to go to college and graduated with 100k debt, then absolutely, you got scammed.

Most 18 year olds with only a high school education would fail at business anyway.

My elementary school teacher used to tell me "only boring people get bored". There is a fair amount of truth to that tbh

KH, you are so screwed. Becoming a winning poker player requires a lot of determination and focus and those seem to be traits you are lacking man...


Not trying to be a dick, but you seem to be under the impression that you actually have to like something in order to do it.

That is the way a child thinks

Adults do what they need to do in order to live and provide for their family. My parents didn't work 4 jobs between themselves because they liked it, they did it to put food on the table, a roof over our heads, and pay their kids schooling.

I get the sense that you are a perpectual man-child.

If poker is just your flavor of the month you are so screwed man I don't even know where to begin.

The fact that you want to take $100 to the casino tomorrow for a short buy despite all the advice in this thread is just all kinds of bad.

BTW, you are risking a lot, you are risking 15% of your roll for a fish promotion.

If you were a pro, you would be able to calculate what the promotion would need to be in relation to your hourly rate to be worth it playing in a limit game.

Its all about having the proper "pro" mindset and I'm sorry you just don't have it.

Someone posted a question in the Poker Theory section about how big does the Bad Beat Jackpot have to be in order to justify playing a lower limit game chasing the jackpot. Read that thread, I calculate what the jackpot would have to be to be "worth it" and it all goes back to having the proper mindset about this whole poker thing....

Okay, so 3 x 350 = $1,050/month
Finding a part time job somewhere = $500/month
grinding micros online part time = $100/month
Study poker 10 - 15 hrs a week

Income = $1650/month x 6 months = $8,100

take the money and give this another shot in Sep/Oct time frame.

Do well, grind to $12K by February 2013, transition to 2/5nl, grind to $20K by May of 2013 and congratulations, you are an official poker "pro"

Or you can

eat your seed corn and bleed the rest of your bankroll away over the next couple of days/weeks (I still doubt you are a winning player)

Scrape another $300 - $400 together over the next month, take another shot, tread water for a month then bust out, scrape another $400 together over a month, take another shot, tread water for a month and bust out, rinse and repeat all the way till Apr 2013, lose a year of your life and be back where you started...

The choice is yours I guess.
but I get the sense you are one of those that have to learn the hard way.

best of luck to you.

Unfortunately, I've seen this movie many times and know how it ends

Your a cold dude, digi. I can agree with the above quote.

Let's say he did have the skills to be a winner and wanted to take that 700$ and run hot, what do you think about that?

I have heard of stories where guys turned 400$ into 20k. I myself turned 100$ into 13k bankroll that I live off of now 3 years later.

If OP was a winning player, then I could maybe support him just taking a shot and hoping for some run good.

But i've been going through some of his posts and reading between the lines...

I honestly, in my heart of hearts do not believe OP is a winning player. We tend to forget that poker is a hard game and that most players are not winning players.

This is why i'm pushing the online micros + poker studying so hard. I do not believe OP is a winning player and I think he has to learn the fundamental poker basics, completely dissect his game and build it up from scratch.

I think he not only needs to learn the mathematical aspects of the game, but the emotional and psychological aspects as well like discipline and patience...

I would almost be willing to lay odds that if OP takes a shot with his remaining $700 its gone... He'd be better served just playing blackjack or roulette with it.

he needs to take the $200, open a Merge account, get the part time jobs, study poker like a profession, and shoot for the Sep/Oct date to give this a go...

But I know he won't. I know he's gonna go take a shot tomorrow (or tonight) and then this weekend and I expect he will bust out and then grab whatever money he can and try again and again, busting out each time until he's spent all of his and his wife's money. Then there is the pawn shops and payday loan vultures and credit cards that will eat him up in $300 - $600 chunks as he goes bust bust bust... And when everything is said and done, he will be right back to where he started except he'll be buried in a $3K hole.

I've been there, done that, gotten the T-shirt so I know what i'm talking about. But hey, we all have to learn in our own way

QFMFT.

The paradox of poker is that it attracts those who are looking for easy money short term when the reality is that it is some of the most difficult money to earn long term.

TBH OP, if college isn't for you, get technical training. For example, 18 year old kids that are seniors in high school can easy land jobs paying $40k/year with full benefits. In fact, you can't hire them because by the time they are seniors, other companies have already signed them up. The reason is that they learned a trade like machining. A good machinist that shows up for work on time and is willing to work OT is never going to be out of work for long. On the downside, unless they move up to foreman and beyond, they aren't going to make a huge amount of money.

The reality is that you'll never take this advice, but rather bemoan that nobody will ever really understand how valuable/unlucky you really are.