Where I play, it's 10% rake up to $10 per hand and a $5 hr time charge. I'm still beating it 19bb hr since last jan at 1:2 and 2:3. And I'm a mile away from being a great player

Anybody who is any good can crush 1:2 for 10bb hr or more. If they can't, they should never go pro

I think the softness of my 1/2 games will make up for the 10% up to $6 rake. I've only played around 200 hours in that casino and the other 200 hours were in various AC and Delaware casinos which usually have a $5 total rake. I'm at $21/hr total winrate, so I guess it's possible it dips down to $10/hr but I don't think it's likely based on the players in my games. (I understand the small sample size meaning less than a full sample)

Plus, my monthly expenses are covered by my job. So it's not like I'm going pro at 1/2, I'll just be playing it to build a roll for 2/5 and gain more experience at live poker. I really don't see the point in working a second job (to build a roll for 2/5) for, likely, less than what I could make grinding 1/2.

If you are beating 1/2 NL and 2/3 NL games for 19bb/hour, why don't you move up to 2/5 NL and 5/10 NL where you can be making some real money?

Personally, I would never bother playing poker again if I didn't expect to have at least a $75 hourly win rate, so I really don't understand you guys who are so happy to keep grinding 1/2 NL and 2/3 NL.

If it is so easy to have such high win rates at those levels, it should also be easy to grind up enough money toove up to serious stakes like 2/5 NL and 5/10 NL quickly. I can guarantee you that 2/5 NL is the very bare minimum stakes on which a poker pro can make a decent living. Everything else below that level is really just "play money" stakes.

Don't forget that poker can be fun.

I haven't had a real job for the last 2 years and last year is when I started playing a ton of 1/2. I do supplement my pokers by buying and selling different goods online.

20k (which wasnt even close to playing full time) is what i made last year from 1/2, it is enough to live meagerly while still growing my BR(one comfortable enough to fall back on for a while if I go busto at poker) albeit slowly while still paying for school. Granted I live in the Midwest where everything is dirt cheap.
I would rather play poker x1000 making $30hr than bust my ass trying to find a job at that rate(not going to happen around here with no special training) let alone working two jobs at 10/hr trying to save 10k

some people hate having "real jobs"

for those people, playing and earning is much better than any other work option

A larger percentage of these people don't have the discipline to be long term winners. Poker is their excuse for living in their parents basement.

I'm not saying no one does this, just that it's not really like, wow, there's poker, and I'm guaranteed to be so good at it and at managing my money so that I don't need another job ever!

The life leaks that make someone hate work/be a bad employee often manifest as poker leaks.

I think that's quite reasonable for you, especially as a student. Is that a long-term plan, though?

A lot of people don't start out at your winrate or living a meager lifestyle.

yeah, giving life advice is pretty meaningless if you don't know the person's circumstances.

Amen. Even with the run bad, my life right now as a 1/2 grinder is so much more enjoyable than when I was making lawyer money that i can't even describe it.

Money isn't everything. i'm happier scraping by playing poker than i was before by a long shot. If the run bad ever ends I'll be happy as a pig in ****.

discipline is learned

I wish I would have been more disciplined to play poker when I was in college. That was back in the days when you could literally *crush* on Party Poker. I made $11k my Senior year and that was mainly though bonus whoring and that sick $1k win (maybe more?) when Joey Porter of the Dolphins picked off a pass from the Steelers in the NFL opener. Some sportsbook offered a sick free bet on that game.

I could have paid off all my student loans and saved up enough to have nice nest egg. It was golden back then.

Because in many markets this isn't as attractive an option as you LA people think it is.

There are a lot of casinos where the $2/5 game doesn't run all the time, or when it does there's a single table. Even in rooms where there are a couple of tables, they can be completely reg infested. Thats not to say that all regs are good (they're not), but the $2/5 has a smaller player pool that is on average better than that at the $1/2 game. So you're not easily able to jump in and beat $2/5 for 19bb/hr,maybe you get 10 and it's a wash.

The same goes for $5/10 NL. As far as I know there's only one room that spreads that in the Detroit area, and it doesn't run every day.


I don't really care if you think $1/2 winnings are "play money". Many of us play for recreation as well as for some extra money. Sitting at a game for 8 hours on a Saturday is FUN, regardless of the money. The fact that I take away $10+/hr is enough to cover all of my other hobbies.

Long-term I have no idea what I want to do.
I'm getting a degree in computer sciences; albeit slowly. I'm 23 and still have 3-4 semesters left. Although I've never taken out a student loan, nor am I in any debt. I would hate my life working 9-5 unless I absolutely love my job, which will probably never happen. So honestly, no clue what I'm going to be doing in 5 years.

I've always been pretty frugal. As long as I have a working car, internet, a decent computer, and money to go out and do things every once and a while, I'm content.

And no, I don't live with my parents lol.

You're an intelligent person making a conscious choice. You're living the life you want. If someone has a problem with that, it's on them, not you.

But, there are many, many people who don't make such a conscious choice.

Live tables are still essentially like this, it's the hands per hour that hurts.

This is such a great attitude. When i was practicing law, my winnings amounted to a small fraction of my income, but I always thought, "lol, what other fun hobby can you make money at?" And we used the money to fund other indulgences--all kinds of stuff that was essentially 'free' because poker paid for it.

Have you had any internships/job shadows/experience? That could give you some insight into what you may or may not like.

Good call on no student loans.

Lol I did when I was your age. I had a real job by then, too. It was awesome being able to save for a down payment on my own place. You can't beat free.

Nope, I'm in a small-mid sized town in the Midwest, so those kind of things are few and far between. I think a lot of it for me comes down to motivation. I basically know I'm going to hate working at any job where I don't do what I want, when I want lol(which is what I've basically done since I was 16-weird because my parents never just gave me money-I've always had some sort of weird income since I was 16, with a few jobs in between- but they never lasted more than 3 months). But the sad truth is, I'm going to more than likely have to do that eventually. So there is really no reason for me to hurry up on my degree. (I guess the only reason to hurry would be to get the part I hate out of the way, and maybe hopefully eventually lead up to moving onto some sort of business I operate on my own)

I lived with rents as long as I could, but I've moved around a bit to a few different schools, then moved back in until I was 21. I have a 4BR house with 3 roomates and rent(utilities included) is usually only 500ish, so it's not too bad.

I think anyone thinking about playing for a living should finish their education. It always gives you options down the road, especially a STEM degree. It kind of goes hand and hand with poker as well.

I do the 9-5 grind, but I have a job that is low-stress and pays well. If I had a job that I absolutely hated, I would consider playing for a living. But I would probably just find another job. I really like the company I am at now though and hope to build a career here.

Everyone is different in that regard. But I think we all share a passion for poker. We just take different paths to get there.

I never knew home improvement was fun until I could do it for free. It used to be just a sunken cost on the ol' home and usually a last resort.

When I first started winning serious cash on party, I went jewelry shopping for my wife. Stocked up for the next few milestones, and for her next Xmas, anniversary, mother's day and birthday she always had a present addressed from "the fish at Party Poker." that was pretty awesome.

One day we were out shopping for a bedroom set, and she fell in love with one. She's standing there looking at it, and says "it's too expensive." it was about $600 less than I had on party at the moment, so I said, "no it's not--it's free."

tbh if you are playing poker it is better to QUIT college and GO BACK later.

Nobody is hiring you with an engineering degree if you took classes 10 years ago

Actually that is really good advice. Unluckily I found poker my last year of college so I stuck it out and finished my degree. If I had to do it over again I would do the poker thing in vegas in my early twenties then move on to a career.

Having a huge resume gap is a bad thing, yeah, your graduation should be timed around when you are entering the workforce.

Although lots of the time you should be doing things prior to graduation (i.e. getting work experience, taking tests for grad school, doing research) that should also be timed to maximize their impact on your ability to find a job/go to grad school/do whatever it is you want to do next.

yeah I wish I would have dropped out, grinded poker until Black Friday then go back to college and pay for it with my winnings in like South Florida