*sigh*
So this thread has deteriorated into experienced poster bitching about another experienced poster quoting...
2plus2 has really gone downhill

If you're doing well in other aspects of your life, and poker has the *potential* to possibly derail that, then you'll really have to ask yourself whether the reward of playing poker (which should probably mostly be measured from a recreational social interaction viewpoint) is worth the risk (i.e. there might be other options that are better in this regards without the possible downside).

GgoodluckG

I have been fortunate enough to put in ~1000 hours of poker every year for the past 10 years. I will probably miss that mark this year at only 650 today.

Poker has been great for me as part of social interactions and I have made some good friends that I would not otherwise have met outside of poker.

FWIW, I have a very flexible FT salary position that allows me to set my own schedule, so I probably average anywhere between 10 to 30 hours a week during weekday afternoons.

People say a lot of things. Most of the time they arent well informed. Whether the games are better than Vegas or not depends on what you are looking for I guess. S. Florida has a high percentage of retirees. They are very passive and dont put you in tough spots so that aspect makes the games easy, but the avg pot size is also probably smaller than anywhere else you'll find. You're not going to be winning large pots very often. You wont see large pots played very often at all. Especially during the daytime.

If you get good at bluffing and barrelling you can do really well. You have to be able to win money with marginal hands (not the best hand) because you wont be winning stacks with sets and straights very often like you will other places.

I played 4 hours today and there wasn't a single pot over $1000. There was probably 3-4 between $800-$1000.

other than west palm
a $800 pot is huge in $2-5 in Fl

+1 for most of Fl

$1/$3 results after a long break from poker and a few months studying the game with the new tools available



chart:

Well played on your return Leo!

+1

Also impressive volume (for I'm assuming a recreational player?).

Any reason for the break? How'd you do before the break? If this is a great improvement over before did you make any major adjustments?

Ggogogo,imoG

Finally managed to get some halfway decent volume in for October.
Only 27 hours of $1/2, but I'll take the $22.67/hr

One session in Sept Basically no volume other than a Vegas Trip for a week since the end of March.

Losing our crazy home game has sucked.

Angrist, if you're not careful I'm going to catch you hours-wise!

I wonder what the average number of hours put in by a typical recreational player is? I only get ~550 hours a year, but fear I'm lagging well behind most other recreational players who play in my room. Although I guess if you "average" it out to include all the once-every-three-monthers it looks better.

GcluelessvolumenoobG

What new tools exactly? What have you changed in your game and in your studying?

I'm a rec and only get 200-250 hours a year playing once a week with a once a year trip to Vegas.

In one session today at a random airport casino in Korea there were over a dozen pots over 300bb

This game is particularly juicy, but nevertheless, this thread just helps reinforce how much Florida sucks

I have a bunch of family in Tampa, they don't come North because they think it's cold, we don't go to Florida because it's Florida

This was me last year, but this year I'm knocking on 400 hrs at the moment. Likely to finish just shy of 450 for the year may even hit that depending on how the holidays go.

I picked up poker as a legit hobby again in the middle of 2016, so ~3.5 years ago. I have 1120 hours since then, so ~320 hours/year.

With that being said, every year has been more than the last.

2016: 125 hours from June 1-Dec 31
2017: 274 hours
2018: 336 hours
2019: 385 hours and counting

2020 I have my first Vegas trip planned since 2009, should rack up 40-70 hours in that alone. Goal for 2020 is 450 hours.

I'm a pretty "serious" rec player in terms of volume. Used to go to the casino twice a week without fail for 6-8 hour sessions, switched to some of the charity rooms for shorter 3-4 x a week sessions, also with some home games in there. Rarely take more than a week off playing, at least until the last couple of months.

I started tracking as soon as I started playing live, and over the past decade have this for hourly volume:

2008 175.2 (Started in July)
2009 460.2
2010 617.3
2011 647.4
2012 561.9
2013 401.6 (Run up to Graduation/Defense)
2014 594.9
2015 547.6
2016 707.6
2017 630.3
2018 659.6
2019 309.4

I'd be shocked if I hit 400 this year. Next year should be significantly better with the way work and my other hobbies are looking.

This is probably on the high end for most recreational player's volumes. Unless you're playing 4 hours a night 5 nights a week because there's a card room down the street.

People not from Florida talk about how soft they heard the games are. People who play in Florida know the real deal. The games aren't super tough aggro type games. There's not lots of 3 betting preflop and you wont be in lots of weird tough spots. You wont be sitting there wondering if your TT is good on a Q96 flop in a 3 bet pot when you get raised post flop. The games are tough in the sense that its hard to get paid off without coolering someone.

Now, I know lots of guys who ***** and moan about that but what Ive done is really learned when and how to bluff these nits. Its made my game better overall. These games turned me into a LAG and I do now get paid off much better than the ABC TAGs that moan and groan all day about the nits.

PS...4 hours today and there was one single pot where 2 guys got 80BBs+ into the pot.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

If someone was making $50/hr at 2/5, do you think a T/20 game with 4 average pros, two crushers, and 2 average loose passive recs would be a more profitable game for them? Can we squeeze 3 bb/hr out of that kind of lineup?

I don't think it translates that linearly. Some people that can beat a certain 2/5 game even for a good amount don't do well when they move up. It really depends on the person and how well they are able to adjust. Some people's games are great for weaker opposition, but terrible in a tough game environment.

I could be naive here, but this sounds like a pretty apt description for most tables once you go above 1-2, it's certaintly the case out in Asia, if you sit down at lowest stakes in Asia you're dealing with at least 6+ players who would identify as a professional poker player

+1 I've seen a lot of guys who have highly tailored and exploitative strategies against the low stakes that utterly dominates those guys but when they move up in stakes and play competent players they get demolished because they are so accustomed to if x then y, followed by z and against tougher competition it's so transparent that ironically, those lower stakes donks that this guy beats up on would be more successful at the higher levels than the low stakes all star

last year this british guy who utterly dominated this weekly bar game would challenge everyone heads up as the tables were breaking because he was so confident. I always took him up on it and he got incredibly frustrated i always owned him heads up because his win rate was significantly higher than mine and he couldn't understand why he did so much better against the field than i did yet couldn't beat me

he simply didn't understand that his style was so incredibly transparent and lacked imagination or creativity, like he was so accustomed to people calling preflop regardless of sizing that he was never aware how easily I was able to narrow his hand range simply by his preflop sizings

a lot of success is villian specific and unless you have the awareness to understand how that biased your play at each level then you could struggle adapting to playing competent players

Well finally stating to get back on the grind. Running pretty well this month.

Grats, pony. What level(s)? And does it include you HU adventures, or is it all full-ring?

This is all 1/2. Full ring but I'd say (complete guess) 15ish of those hours are with 4-6 players. I have maybe 10 hours of 1/3 (plays more like a 1/3/5) where I ran pretty well too but those aren't in there. Try to keep my stats as separated as I can.