Hi everyone! I'm 33, have a 7 year old son, on my second marriage. My first poker game in a casino/cardroom was in 2021. Ran pretty good. In August 2023, I decided to leave public accounting after 9 years to play live poker. My main game is 5/5, usually with a 10/20 double straddle.

My journey in professional poker so far:



Currently up $71,167 after 456 hours, $156/hour.

Didn't play much in December as I got married. Yesterday, I played an insane 1/3 semi private game that had double straddles going to 1/3/10/20, sometimes up to 40 and 80. One hand a tilted recreational player went all in blind for 200, action went call (pro), call (rec), hero with AcTc jams 2.2k effective, pro folds, rec TANK CALLS WITH AKo. Run it twice and I get scooped. Down 4.5k at one point in 1/3. Climb up to being down 1.5k, switch to 2/5 after game breaks (smaller game than the 1/3). Up and down, but about even after a few hours (still stuck 1.5k).

Meanwhile, a private 10/25/50 game has also been running all day. At one point it was 5 pros and 3 recs with several 20k+ stacks. I could have hopped in, but honestly it was too many pros and I didn't feel like losing 5k in one hand. Well, game turned into 1 pro and 3 recs. I hop into the 10/25/50 game after getting tilted over silly antics at the 2/5 table like the **** reg that I am. Immediately run like a god with a ton of bluffs either getting through or getting there, hitting set after set, trips after trips, etc, and at one point I am up 22k for the day.

After 14 hours in total including the 1/3 and 2/5, but maybe 4 hours of the big game, I am up 20k. Ask if anyone wants to flip. Rec wants to flip for 5k. Brings up last time I flipped for stacks it was for 2.7k and I won to get unstuck and now he needs 5k to get unstuck. It has to be 5k, and it has to be from me! I reluctantly agree. Lose the 5k flip, but still up 15k and call it a night at 12:45am, so still feeling good.

Pro tip: when you're stuck and tilted from losing in 1/3, go play 10/25/50.

2 weeks since last post after going on a mini downswing and I am now at a new high. Last time I posted I was at $71k, and went on to c6.4k over the next two sessions. Then at one point in today's session I was down $3.2k. Lost $1.5k at 1/2 and 2/5 sessions today and $1.7k playing 3/6 short handed with 2 other pros in an app game who were also playing in the 1/2 and 2/5 games. Had a couple of rough beats including losing to KQo with AJs in a weird all in pre scenario for about 500 effective. Lost flopped middle set to turned broadway for about 2k effective. Lost QQ vs KK pre in app game and also bluffed off another buyin on the app game.

And then played 10/25/50 when seats opened up and managed to win $4.5k for the day after all of those losses. Playing okay, running like a god.

Mid-day, it was a discouraging feeling to be down $3.2k, knowing I hadn't won money over the past two weeks. It is also a little nerve wracking to know that my $3.2k loss can easily turn into a $10k+ loss playing the big game. But with bigger risks come bigger rewards.

In total I am now up $74,365 over 517 hours since playing full time for an hourly of $144. For 2024 so far, up $13,555 over 87 hours for an hourly of $155.

I know public accounting can be a drain but why would you quit now (especially after getting through the shittiest early years) when there's so much demand for accountants and boomers retiring left, right, and early ?!
I majored in Accounting and then later taught myself to code and seeing how even remote Accounting jobs have a ton of demand kind of regretting putting myself through pain of learning code lol.

The short of it is in accounting I would be working harder, longer, getting paid less, and I don't like it as much.

To expand, I was an auditor. If I was auditing right now at my old job, I would be working 50-55 hours per week minimum January until the end of April and 40 hours per week minimum for the rest of the year. I would have 5 weeks combined to take off for PTO/sick/vacation (it is all from the same pool). I would be making a lot less than I am making from poker even if I play 30 hours per week and take 6 weeks off during the year.

I love poker. I lost all drive and passion for public accounting. I would be thinking about poker all day from waking up until going to sleep, including throughout my work day. So them I am trying to fit in time to play poker after working crazy hours in a soul sucking job, and then I am still trying to spend time with my wife and kid? My wife tells me life is so much better now that we get to spend much more time together and overall I am less stressed. I have swapped some of the old stress with the stress of the volatility of poker, but overall I am happier.

You seem like a good player who's working hard and studying off the table ... but a lot of the above looks like a degenerate car crash of potential busto.

You are up ~75k in 3 months of playing ... do you think it's normal to say you can win ~300k a year?

At one point you were up 22k in a game ... what advice would you give someone who said they were playing with ~33% of their bankroll on the table?

What advice would you give someone who asked what their bankroll should be to play in a 1/3/10/20/40/80 game?

I feel like you've never had a real downswing, not only from the risks you are taking but also describing losing AJs to KQo as "a rough beat."


Wish you the best, and hope the downswing comes when you're up 500k.

It's not the worst thing to have a huge portion of BR on table if you are in an incredible game and aren't rebuying. It's kind of like a super plus ev shot take, and if you are mostly playing with money you've won on the day the tilt of busting won't be so devastating. The thing about being super deep live against fish is that it's generally wayyy more likely that when tons and tons of chips go in that you are stacking them and not the reverse. Assuming you aren't a regfish who will bomb in their 300bb stack with one pair because they don't understand deepstacked play. If you are playing high stakes at a table with a bunch of regs just for ego and not rolled then it's a totally different story.

Definitely agree that OP is running like a god and has yet to have a single downswing. Who wouldn't go pro and love the game when you win every hand? It will hurt bad when it comes. Then we will see if he is a real player. How will he manage tilt? BR management? It's all theoretical until it happens

300k would mean running very good and/or a lot of volume at bigger games. It's normal in that it could happen every once in a while, but not likely. 180-220k seems much more likely.

Don't do that. But I never said what my bankroll is. It's about 180k. My normal buy in is 2k-3k. In the 10/25/50 I still consider myself shot taking, and I can stop shot taking if my bankroll is hurt enough. I don't hop into the 10/25/50 game when the lineup is bad.

That depends on many things. Are we talking about a professional who has no outside income? Is every hand straddled to 80? How deep is the table and what is the normal buy in? Are we shot taking? Is that the normal game? What is our win rate and how good is the game? What are your expenses and what does your life roll look like? How high variance is the game?

If you have a good win rate and 6 months of living expenses, and the ability to move to a lower buy in game if your roll is too hurt, 50 buy ins for your standard game seems reasonable for live NLHE. Shot taking is different. Just make sure it's a good game and move back down in stakes if you suffer too much loss.

Definitely be ready to continue playing poker if you go on a 20 buy in downswing. If you can't, your bankroll is not big enough.

If you have outside income though it's all about what you are comfortable with.

Sure, I have never had a really bad downswing. I have had 3 12k downswings though which is only 6 buy ins, all before I started playing full time. I've lost a 15k pot to boat turned boat against rivered top boat. I've lost countless standard all in preflop flips for 2k-4k.

Losing AJs to KQo is just a dot somewhere on the graph. It's not a huge deal, I was just describing how my day was going.

So when I was down 3.2k that day, I had been down 6k over the last two weeks. YES that's a trivial downswing. But you sit there and think about working nearly 60 hours where your average rate is probably somewhere between 120 and 160 and you're down 6k. And you think that you are down just today what on average it will take you over 20 hours to earn.

And no one cares. I don't expect sympathy. I chose this. And I'm not even running bad. But for anyone who cares to read, I'm just sharing how it is going. And it is at times emotionally draining.

Thanks.


Find out next week. Stay tuned!

Up 3.8k today after 7 hours, first hour 1/2 and big O, rest of it in 1/3 (straddle almost always on to 10 or 15). Biggest hand was top set turned top boat as caller in 3bet pot with JJ, vs a turn shove against naked fut flush draw drawing dead. Also won a 950 pot where a guy back raised all in after limping in, AKs vs Q8s, hold 2 times.

1.5k-2k from a series of hands against a rec who would limp and cold call 3bets and had silly bluff lines that made no sense.

I didn't get a seat in the private game today, but it turned out alright.

lol Texas 1/3.

You have nowhere near the volume nor the experience to extrapolate out you'd be making more.

Modern poker players do not factor in NEAR enough of the nonsense (intense studying, coaching, tools, etc..) that cuts into your actual hourly. When I dominated online poker pre 2012 you could learn on the fly and study/read while 1-3 tabling and still be printing ... them days are longgggg gone.

Subbed for the ride to demise though ...

I kinda hope this thread is a troll.

I'd give it a 50/50 chance you lose $70k in a day fairly soon.

Maybe take a step back and have a think about what you're doing. GL

Up 2.4k today in 3.6 hours at 1/3. Sad I didn't get into two private games today. Left to go work out and change my disposition.
Ok Debbie Downer.

Will do negative Nancy.

Looking forward to following along with this thread. I've always enjoyed reading your contributions to the live strategy subforum.

I played two short sessions of $1/$2 in Texas (TCH Dallas) last year and they were two of the best games I played in all year. Desperate to get back down there at some point to put in some more volume.

GL sorry if this was mentioned are you playing strictly in Texas? any focus on trying to play in LA/Vegas scene or anywhere else?

I am on the east coast and can see myself going to Texas for a poker trip before Vegas again games just seem so good.

Thanks man! Texas games really are something else.

No plans to play in Vegas or LA. I have a 7 year old son, so traveling a lot is difficult. Texas games are great. The only thing is depending on what city you are in it can be hard to find/get into the bigger games. I would love to be able to regularly play a 10/25 game or a 5/10 game with regular straddles.

The sun run continues



Played 5/5/15 today and up 1k after a little less than 6 hours. This brings my 2024 earnings to 24,636 over 124 hours for an hourly of 198. Since I went pro, I am up 85,446 over 554 hours for an hourly of 154.

I wish we could get a back story, like where you started. Did you start at 1/3, or did you jump? How were you handling playing poker, working, and doing the family thing?

Always remember to stay hydrated.

Other than $20 buy in home games, my first poker game was in 2021 at 1/3 in Vegas. I played for an hour and a half while my GF (now wife) played slots. I managed to get aces all in pre vs 33 and left with $300 profit.

I then started playing 1/2 back home, buying in for $500 at a time and doing really well mainly playing ABC poker. At some point in 2022 I started dabbling in solvers and worked also started taking shots at 1/2/5 that. I grinded my roll from 1/2 to about 15k and bought an engagement ring. I had to replenish my roll from my life roll few times. I remember having a roll of about 20k and losing 7k in one day off of 2k buy ins. In 2023 I really took off though, starting with around a 30k roll and managing to run it up to 6 figures, including 4 sessions where I took shots at 10/25 and won more than 10k in a session.

I had really terrible work life balance. My family and work life suffered from poker. At the same time, it became clear I was making more from poker than my day job and I loved poker much more, which started a negative feedback loop where work seems less and less rewarding. This eventually lead to me quitting.

This is motivating, especially since I'm trying to do something similar - building my bankroll to buy an engagement and, hopefully, one-day Quit corporate. Seeing how you did it gives me hope and a real push to keep at it. Keep Grinding and continue the rungood. I'm locked into your story!

even if poker doesnt work out in the long run, it seems like you would have no trouble getting a good paying job with your experience. good luck with ur journey!

Lackluster session today, lost 200 in a little over 7 hours playing 1/2 NLH, 5/5 Big O, and 1/3 NLH.

About six months ago when I still had my day job, I snapped back at another player after hearing is post hand criticism for the umpteenth time. On this occasion, I 5 bet him from the button straddle with KK against his EP 4bet and he folded. He told me 5 betting in the button straddle is not a thing. I told him half the **** he says isn't true. I apologized the same day. Granted, this guy has a habit of berating the way people play after the hand. This guy played 1,400 hours of poker last year and made 6 figures from poker, despite being a partner at a law firm.

Fast forward to today and now this player has a massive chokehold on the private and semi-private games and any time he wants to can make a game with all the higher stakes players just to ban me from the table even if it runs shorthanded. This really takes away from my earnings potential and it sucks.

At the time, I had no idea I would be playing professionally now and no idea this guy would be in the position he is in now. I really wish I had handled that situation differently. But at the same time, people can only take so much before you have to fire back.

I have tried to reconcile but to no avail.

I guess the moral is, avoid being rude at the poker table even when people are rude to you. You never know what doors you are shutting. On the flip side, sometimes players poke fun at you, but when you fire back, they will laugh it off and the table loves the banter. So every situation is different, but never forget that your actions at the poker table towards other players can have long-term consequences.

Agreed, with his past experience I'd be surprised if he wouldn't be able to get another accounting job. Life is short, if you have wife and kids make sure you have a stop loss. I'd imagine around 50-100k and if you hit that start looking for a job. You took your shot and it didn't work out, no need for your family to suffer. You have a nice bankroll, maybe hire a live coach now that you went pro so you can constantly keep improving, use the money you make and invest in yourself to become a better player. GL OP.

On a mini downswing, down $4.5k today playing 1/3/15/30 with the 60 on half the time, 6.4k over last 4 sessions, 28 hours.

Running pretty bad in my 0 EV prop bets. Lost 2 $1,000 flips today plus probably another $1.5k in a bomb pot prop bet game (300 ultimate best hand on 2 board PLO bomb pot, rabbit hunting allowed).

On the plus side, today was a really good public game, I got to play a pretty good private game yesterday, I get to play one that should be decent tomorrow, and maybe if I am lucky I will get to play some in a big private game a bit on Friday, although I don't have a seat from the start.

Up $18.6k for 2024 157 hours, 118 hourly. Since going pro, up $79.4k over 587 hours 135 hourly.

Lost 12.1k today playing 5/5/10/25, 50 on maybe 1/4 of the time. 18 6k downswing losing all 5 last sessions, 34 hours total. Lost KK to AA for 6.5k all in pre. Lost QQ to AK all in pre for 3.5k.

Lost a weird hand, about 7.5k. 6 players in standup game, 50 bucks a person. 5/5/10/25/50, 10 straddle has 1,500 and limps 50, 25 straddle limps, I made it 1,500 in the 50 straddle with A7o. Thinking is that I can put max pressure for 30 blinds with all dead money. 10 straddle calls, 25 straddle back raises all in for 7.5k effective. I tank call thinking maybe I have equity, both villains are known to spazz. The Villain who covered me had AKo trapping. I didn't see him trapping this hand when there was only me left to act. Feels like a punt but I have seen villain go all in pre with 52s for 7k and make similar moves with bad hands. So it's not 100% clear.

Bluffed off a 4.4k stack with nutflush blocker losing to second nutflush, raised all in on river to 3.9, 2.6k for villain to call a pot that would be 8.9k if he called, a bit under 75% pot. Not sure how I feel about my play here.

Feeling exhausted and frustrated. Know there isn't anything I can do to change the way the last 5 sessions have turned out. I know if I keep playing I should continue to win, but at the same time, it is daunting to think that the downswing could go on much longer and be much worse.

My hourly rate has tanked from these last few sessions. For the year currently, I have played 165 hours and won 6.4k, or 39/hr. Since I started full time, I have played 594 hours and won $67k, or 113/hr. Just yesterday my 2024 hourly was 118 and my hourly since starting full time was 135.

I know losing is a natural part of the game. Some of that is due to variance and some is bad play. I just need to learn from the mistakes, grow from them, and trust the process.

Overall feels bad, but I think writing about it helps to process it all.

You aren't doing yourself any favors constantly looking at your winnings/hourly over such small samples. 600 hours is not very meaningful when it comes to determining your long term hourly and honestly with how few hands you get in live poker by the time you have even a half way decent sample the makeup of the games will probably have changed substantially. With the crazy straddling/stand up games etc you are going to go through some crazy swings even with the games being very soft. Would try to put less focus on these short time frames and just focus on playing your best/game selecting well/and making sure you are properly rolled for the games you're in. With the wide range of stakes you play and the straddles etc a breakeven year probably occurs a non negligible % of the time. Can be a stressful way to make a living. Gl with the downer, hope you break out of it soon.

Live players just have no concept of variance or proper bankroll management.