I think far too many people put way too much emphasis on their win-rate stats and especially on how their specific win-rate compares to other players who play similar stakes.

For aspiring professional poker players, you would be much better off with a weekly volume target and a monthly overall profit target. Why is that?

Well, volume (hours played) is the one of the most important factors that determine whether an aspiring pro will succeed or fail. So volume should be a serious Short-term target. Volume is also something that is almost 100% in the control of any poker player, so there is almost no excuse for poor volume.

Now, the end for all professional poker players is profit. Unfortunately, profit in the short run is highly dependent on variance. Therefore, professional poker players should focus on the long-run profits and try to ignore the "noise" of short-run upswings and downswings.

How does win-rate figure into all of this? It barely figures into the picture at all. So, all the questions about how whether $50/hour is sustainable at 2/5 NL or whether the top 1% of pros can make $75/hour at deep-stacked $5 big blind games...are all pretty much irrelevant navel-gazing.

Managers should worry about results, workers should worry about the process. Poker playing is a profession in the sense that you manage yourself but you should definitely be focused on putting in the time/work and the results will happen eventually

Yup completely agree. This is almost like a pep talk i give to myself because once you focus on hours as your goal, it helps you become immune to card-deadness/run bad during a session.

My only two focuses are making right plays and putting in hours. It has been really, really great for my mental game as I have been pretty tilt-prone and unbothered by big losing sessions.

Once upon a time I moved up, and I started taking shots at 2/5 with way less than 12k in my roll. The key is that you aren't using poker money for your life expenses. If you aren't, then yeah, absolutely, 12k is more than enough. I use 20 buy-ins as my benchmark, not 30. By that standard I would consider you to be fully rolled for 2/5 as long as you aren't taking money out of your roll for life expenses.

As for the buy-in, I'd say don't listen to the inevitable "only buy in full" responses. Buy in whatever you want as you get used to the higher stakes (just know how to adjust for playing a short stack though). Eventually you probably will want to work your way up to buying in $500 at a time though.

I built my 2/5 roll from $700. True story.

$400. Do I win something?

I built my entire life roll from a 40$ deposit on stars.

I built a house for $3.50

Some penny slots luck box out there has you all beat

Free roll ftw.

i sold play chips on ebay then worked my way up.

Seems like a pretty obvious concept but this was well said and worth reinforcing. Thanks for posting!

I need to adopt this mindset. Thanks for posting

Happy to help

I got comped 20$ recently.

Runidup! >


Sent from my DROID RAZR using 2+2 Forums

Smash the max bet button

Wadda ya think? Slow grind it up at .01?

Or take the leap of faith and do one spin on 1$?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using 2+2 Forums

What's everyones opinion on a $100-$300 capped 5-10NL game? How would you go about this?

I have a lot of experience short stacking, but never with anything less than 25BB buyin. I assume some people will be $1k+ at this sort of table. Would this game play like you would play late in a tourny?

Yeah I would pretty much just play it like a tourney. I guess you could maybe do some pre flop squeezing but that's about it.

IMHO that structure isn't worth it.


Sent from my DROID RAZR using 2+2 Forums

100-300 capped buyin 5/10 NL seems like a stupid structure, but it could obviously be very profitable if the right lineup was sitting...especially if they already had relatively deep stacks.

You should never have less than 30BB on the table, ducy?

How do you guys feel about investing a portion of your bankroll?

Should it be capped at a certain %?

Thoughts?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using 2+2 Forums

I would do that once my roll is really deep. Personally I'm planning to build a long-term nest egg by buying rental properties with my poker income. Eventually I might get into staking.

Well let me ask you this then, what would you consider deep?

Assuming one was playing fulltime with limited ability to reload.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using 2+2 Forums

Investing is a long term strategy, bankroll needs to be liquid.

Best "bankroll investment strategy" is to max your Roth IRA every year, beyond your existing retirement, because you can withdraw that initial amount without penalty. But you only want to do that with like the amount of money that's well in excess.