I have been playing live for 5 years, the last three of which poker has been my main source of income. Because of the economy my job produces much less income than it used to, and I recently took a shot at moving to Vegas to become a full-time pro. It has been five months and I wanted to share some observations in this forum.
1-average stack sizes have more to do with win rate than the size of the blinds. Most live casinos have increased their max buy-in at 1/2 and 2/5 (to 300 and 1k, respectively), which certainly has an effect on the amount of money you can win in a NL game. Most of the discussion thus far in this thread has not focused on this fact.
2-The quality of the hours you play is far more important to your winrate than the number of hours you play. It is much better to take days like Monday and Tuesday for relaxation and study, because the games are noticeably more nitty during those times. Just think Local=Nit and you'll be in the ballpark. Notice that study time is included. Don't skip it, even if you're on a heater.
3-Know your leaks! Everyone has them. Mine are playing too long, playing to get even (usually reason for leak #1), and not giving bad players respect for a good hand in a weird spot. Even though they are infrequent, plugging these leaks completely would boost my winrate pretty dramatically. One way I'm attacking the problem of getting quality hours without playing too long is to break up my sessions into either 2 or 3 2 hour blocks (so 4 or 6 hours with breaks)
4-The vampire schedule that most live players like to keep is pretty bogus imo. First of all, all live players like to keep it, which means that there is little/no reciprocality there. Second, having balance in your life (and possibly other people to talk to, eat with, exchange bodily fluids, etc.) is very important in keeping one's sanity. Unless the people in your life also keep this schedule, finding ways to spend time with them will be difficult. My solution is to look for casinos hosting afternoon tourneys and play there starting around 2pm. I find that most players at this time are either tourists, tourney donks, stuck, or all three. Very good action at those times imo. Not to say that I don't play late on the weekends, but I want to balance my life so it includes time for things besides poker.
5-There are a lot of delusional live players out there who use selective memory to justify tons of -EV actions. Do not under any circumstances listen to them or allow yourself to become one. To combat this I carry a Voice Recorder that i used to save the EXACT details of key hands I play throughout my sessions. Then I can use PokerStove or w/e to determine whether I actually did what I think I did. This goes for both winning and losing hands, obv. Takes discipline, but well worth it.
So, that's out there. Flame away