Heheh, I love the "drug dealer" buy-in

Gotta make sure you put a hundo on the outside of that roll for when you pull it out too

I tried a couple of other methods of dealing with cash outs too. Mingling all my money and using my session log to track BR, leaving non-hundred increments in chips when at my regular room, cashing out whenever but keeping the small bills with my poker BR large bills. They all have some pros and cons and won't work for everybody.

+1000 on tipping the dealers/floor the last few chips. I've gotten invites to home games and texts about whales/juicy games by being chummy with the floor people. I don't think it's ever factored into a ruling going in my favor, but it can't hurt.

Not needling/digging at you, but what does a "$9k upswing" even mean? Up 9k since your last breakeven stretch, or...? The way I think of it, only losing players have "upswings" (because losing players have a budget not a BR), and only winning players have "downswings." (And btw, I don't care if you're a winning or losing player - I'm probably damn close to breakeven in most non-fish fests anyway ) Though tbh personally I'm trying to throw the whole notion of swings out the window in my own mind. Obv it's not working so well =/

Also, I know I'm a few days late to the party, but with talk about BR separation: Whoever said that something being "imaginary" made it not real/relevant? I don't think Angelo's point on all that was that the imaginary walls aren't real, but rather that thinking about them in the first place is the important part.

Hey guys!

For awhile now i've been toying with the idea of taking shots at the $5 dollar blind level. poker is my main source of income so bankroll managment is of the upmost importance. If I go broke, im F'd which is why i've prolonged it.

Some things about me:

11k roll

aprox 20/hr winrate at 1/2 400 hr sample

low monthly nut

What im asking for:

Any references to good material regarding shots

tips/advice

anecdotal tales

Thanks!

If you have a separate life roll and living expenses saved up then I would take a 2-3 buy in shot. If you don't have the savings then I would wait and probably get a part time job to help you save money quicker

Sent from my SCH-I535 using 2+2 Forums

I do not have a seperate "life roll" per say. however my monthly nut is less then 400 dollars or so. so i have always just transferred some money into my working checking account monthly. My total networth is aprox 12k with some belongings i could sell if things ever get nasty.

I would be waiting until upon have about 15-16k and then MAYBE take a 3-4 buyin shot. 400 hours still isn't a real big sample size, and your bankroll is literally your lifeline.

poker is your main source of income - 400 hour sample - thinking about taking a shot at a bigger game for a while now.

These statements do not compute my man.
If you are in fact playing "full time" 400 hrs should be under 3 months of poker.

400 hours is not a very big sample as most will tell u

Advice:Start cranking out the hours and I mean cranking. With a nut as small as yours you should be able to build a roll in no time. Then shots can happen organically and be relatively stress free

I agree 100% with regards on sample size. one of my biggest leaks is getting in hours at the table. FWIW i've only been "pro" the last 6 months due to necessity.

ok my friend you need to be honest with yourself here. You are NOT "pro". a "pro" does not log 400 hrs in 6 months. You are a "serious" rec player. 400 hours in 6 months is not even part time.

I am not trying to belittle you or anything like that. I am simply trying to help you get some perspective. Again before you take any shots you need to get your shyt together and actually treat this like a job if you consider yourself to be a pro. Why is that Squid?

Here is the deal. At some point you are going to have some major expense. Trust me. Your car will break down, you will get injured, your girl will get pregnant - LIFE HAPPENS

Meanwhile you have been dicking around logging under 20 hrs/wk and not building a roll. Suddenly your stress levels are a little higher, you are "running bad", BOOM BUSTO.

So what do I do?

Set some serious goals - act like a pro - crank out hours - do work away from the table - build a roll - then think about taking shots

+1 to squid face's post.

Squid you're an inspiration! Can't wait to grind it out today wahoo!

what would be an achievable winrate at a 1/1 game with a 10% rake caped at 5bb (if beatable)? And at a 1/2 game with a 5% rake capped at 5bb? I have heard alot of different answers and was interested to hear what you guys thought about this.

ps: the level of play is obv pretty bad, and min buy in is 40bb and max is half of biggest stack at the table

Not sure about the 1/1 game, but the 1/2 game likely caps out around 15bb/hour.

That rake structure is pretty close to any other 1/2 game in the country and that's the effective limit.
Your game may differ based on how often people get deep and how often those deep stacked players are really bad.

April 360hrs +18.7k
May 220-240hrs +2k
June 200-220hrs -1k
July 120hrs +2.5k

May and June are close estimates as I purged my stats and started fresh on Jun 27 out of frustration. Aside from being incredibly burnt out from putting in so many hours in April, I am also burnt from the incredibly long downswing/breakeven stretch. I was surprised to see just how low my volume is this month and it needs to change.

I'm going for 400 hours in August, and seeing as there are 31 days that month it should be doable. One of the main things that has killed my volume is the fact that I'm putting in a lot of 3-4hr sessions, compared to the standard benders in the past. Even if I continue to run very bad and squeeze out $20/hr, that would still be 8 grand, so that is my motivation. I want to have a 10k+ month again, and I want it bad...

Hey all, I finally WON at $2/5. It was a small win though, only 100, but it broke my losing streak.

My conclusion is 2/5 is quite a bit tougher than 1/2. Players are equally tight posflop or tighter than in 1/2, meaning if I flop a set in a multiway pot, I'm not more likely to get paid of at 2/5.

But the players at 2/5 bluff more, especially raising flop turn or river as a bluff, or betting large on the river as a bluff. I say this not because I've seen a lot of bluffs, but just based on frequency.

There are several different player types, but in general 2/5 players will play their made hands more aggressively and potentially their semi-bluffs more aggressively as well. I wouldn't just assume players are bluffing though....unless they are Asian.

I think this is on the money. I think there are a lot of very straightforward at 1/2 (game-dependent obviously). Although the 2/5 players are way more competent, my experience is that they make more expensive mistakes.

At 2/5, villains might put in a huge raise with air if they sense weakness. I see that far less frequently at 1/2. So it's very profitable if you can figure it out but harder to do.

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone can give me advice on paying off my credit card debt.

I currently work part-time and play 1/2 3-5 days a week. My bankroll currently at 3000. I usually buy-in for 300 but recently I've been buying in for 200 and top up to 300 when I feel comfortable enough with the table dynamics.

I make about 900 from my part-time job every month (if i dont miss work). My personal expenses are about 500. I have a debt of 4000. I also give some of my profit to my wife to help with expenses.

So my goals are to build my bankroll and to start paying off my debt. Is it possible to do both at the same time? Should I put use a % of my profit to start paying it off? If so, how much? Thanks in advance.

Um,

To be honest, you shouldn't be playing poker at all if you are in debt if you don't have a proven record (500+ hours) of beating the game for a reasonable sample size. You should really look to get your self a second part time job or a full time job instead of both of those.


Poker is fun, and sometimes it's easy. But it's very easy to lose a lot of money playing poker if you don't know what you are doing. It's easy to lose a lot of money if you do know what you are doing. It's call variance.

Also, how much do you have to give to your wife each month? It that part of your $500 a month in expenses?

To be honest, what you should do it to take your entire bankroll, every penny and pay off as much of the debt that you can. Then keep paying it off until you are out of debt. Which should only be 1 -2 months from now.

Then you can take the money on a month by month basis and put it back into your poker roll if you want. The same $3,000 and then play however you want from there. You will spend less on the interest on the debt, your credit will look better and it will give you some time to read and study up on cards. We all need more time to study up. Even the pros.

Good luck.

Another +1 for IRTM

The first thing I did before I even thought about playing fulltime was drew up what my financial situation was AFTER I eliminated all of my debt(although very little)

Im also a big fan of not being eaten alive in interest.

You are married, wow. You need to nut the **** up and get a 2nd and possibly 3rd job and support your family, not play poker. This is like the worst situation possible to try grinding poker.

As for your credit card debt, this can vary based on the state. In my state there is no way for the credit card company to get that money. So, it would hurt my credit to not pay it but that's about it. I had like $4k in credit card debt (much of it was fees) and the credit card company offered to settle for under $1k. I told them to go **** themselves. I bet they would settle regardless of what state you live in.

BTW, get rid of the credit cards. You should not spend another dime on them.

Thank you for the advice. We've had a crazy year since we got married and also bought a house. My bankroll got devoured. The debt is a student loan so the interest is not as high.

I have 1600 hours in live poker but you're right about variance. It makes my bankroll very very fragile. The only reason I don't work full-time is to look after the baby. My wife makes way more money than I do (and probably ever will). But I don't want her to pay for my student loan. My initial plan was to build the bankroll till I can pay off the debt completely. But the variance scares me.

I may take your advice and look for another night shift but as I experienced with my current graveyard job, I feel really exhausted the next couple of days due to the lack of sleep. I can't really sleep during the day because of baby. Imagine if I work 5 days a week graveyards, I don't think I'd be well enough to properly care for a baby.

Figured I'd finally get around to posting this.

I'm single with a stable full time job. Poker has always kind of been a hobby for me, but I would like to start taking it a bit more seriously.

Currently I have about $ 1900 set aside for a $ 1/2 roll, so just shy of 10 buyins. How high is my risk of losing it all ? It would not change my life if I lost this money, I just wanted to know what my chances of being successful were.

There's lots of great advice on here and I wanted to say thanks for all the great knowledge you guys share on here.

http://www.reviewpokerrooms.com/poke...uirements.html

http://pokerdope.com/poker-variance-calculator/

Student loan debt is different than credit card debt. Student loan debt never goes away and they are far less likely to negotiate.

It's very difficult to give advice without knowing your entire background (ie total household incomes and total expenses and total assets.) Really, your focus financially should be getting rid of the debt. You should probably take your entire bankroll and apply it towards the debt. Then rebuild your poker bankroll. This will likely involve getting a 2nd job for the time being and possibly stop paying your wife for expenses for a bit.

Poker does provide some flexibility which is nice for you, but it also has significant risks. There are other businesses that one can start with little to no money that require very little risk (mowing lawns as an example).