I am semi professional online poker player who used to make around 15-20 usd per hour , while it was good income in my country nothing hilarious if we consider how competitive online games become and it takes a lot of studying time to keep up .I am not going to give up online but it seems trying to make living on live poker and also to get in and study psychology degree(long time dream) in one of North Cyprus university will give me more satisfaction in life . I would like to share my journey here , post some hands and give info about poker here in general. Wish me good luck

Hey, Animum!

I wish you good luck!

Good luck, interested to hear what poker is like in North Cyprus!

glgl in

Thank you guys. I find hotel with good promotion( if you play 5 hours a day stay and all meals and amenities free) . The game here starting from 5/10 usd which is higher thank expected. My bankroll not that much for 5/10 so I need to play very cautiously . I will write in detail how things play out

First day in Island- I had extremely hard and tiring flight, got transferred to hotel and waited in line to start my first session live. Poker room not that big 1-2 tables at most , i had opportunity to observe other table while waiting. There was crazy action , 3-4 people cold calling 3 bets , almost no one folding to first raise and etc. Only thing concerned me to play at that table was mandatory straddles if someone calls ''round straddle'' everyone needs to do it. I thought it would be better to play short stacked(50bb) first to get feel for the table.

Second table opened after 30 minutes or so. This one was not as crazy and aggressive as other but still there were few clueless people playing. Here I learned new thing, they are doing bomb pots every half an hour or so (it is not mandatory but I thought it would not be nice to oppose). Overall, I had fun and had a break even night. If we consider high rake and free all inclusive hotel stay it was not bad start at all

I need few things to sort out to become better in live poker
1.Very few people folding to small cbet especially in multiway pots(which I made online around 80% with around 50%success). I got called at one instance all the way to SD with King high. It is good thing but I have online poker tendencies. My bluffs not working here or maybe I am giving tells unknowingly in live poker.
2.Boredooooommmm , I do not know yet how to fight it haha. Too few hands to play
3.Limp pots and Multiway pots- Because I did not encounter much of them online , I am newbie and looking ways to adjust

If you have any suggestion and help , I would appreciate

Short stacking and playing extremely tight aggro is the way to go in those games when you aren't rolled. Don't call preflop too much with speculative hands because you'll leak too fast and won't get the odds even if you double up. If you call pre with JTs and get it in w a FD multiway you'll run into people's random K2 Q7 FD dominating your draw.

How does live poker work over there? Is there constant action 7 days a week or is there just some event going on right now? How do they give out free rooms, do you give pit action?

Gl

Thanks for info, I am getting amazed how people here play . I got all in yesterday one with AQs from BB against raiser(4bb) and two callers . I had around 500$(50bb) and all them snap called . One had AQo other had 910s and other guy had 44 .
It is very hard to see any flop because of straddles very high raises and too many callers . It seems to me very high variance but profitable game.

There are a lot of poker rooms , I am new here but asked around and found at least 3-4 rooms . In regard to free hotel stay every Casino have their own terms , one where I stay wants me to play at least 5 hour a day for free accommodation and food and all other hotel amenities and if I play 3hours they take half of charge. I talked to other agent here and they have similar arrangement but you need to deposit 1000 usd for 5 days of stay and you get your money back if you meet their hourly demand.

If you play at Merit Poker, let me know how you like it.

I was looking at their website under cash games. I wonder if that's USD or EUR currency for cash games. I was also wondering the same thing for tournaments, if it's USD or EUR.

What has the rake been at the games you've played?

I was just emailing with a PR person at Merit.
Cash games and tournaments are USD
Rake is 3% and capped at $300
Food is complementary, if staying at the hotel.

I played in several Casinos including Merit, rake was 3 % uncapped for 5/10 5/15 games and as you go higher it is 2 % uncapped. In return they provide almost everything including all kind of drinks, cigarettes , daily food , hotel stay and etc.
I am here for more than 20 days, running awful but still slightly winning. I am online player and almost had no live experience I hope can do better with experience . The games seems beatable to me despite high rake

Hey, I want to check out Merit soon. Can you tell me a little bit about the games in general? What times do they start? How many tables on weekdays and weekends? Player pool? Do they have PLO as well? Would really appreciate it, thanks

Hey animum can you tell me more about your experience in cyprus ?

I will go there next fews days.

Wich casino was the one with the promotions you talking about ?

Hello people, I was off the forum for a while did not have much time . I am now playing more comfortable stakes for my bankroll . There are multiple casinos where the games running , Merit Lefkosa , Merit Liman , Concordia and Chamada . One thing I noticed is when you in with free stay promotion it can take toll on your well being because you need to play everyday at least 6 hours or you need to pay for hotel stay which is quite high. I rented short term apartment to solve that problem and now doing very well and can take sometime off when not feeling it.
Overall, games good on weekends and okayish on other days. There are very nitty regulars that still annoy me sometimes but I enjoy the games and my stay here

Hey, could you share more details about the hotel room comp. like the list of hotels and how to contact them or something.

Thanks and good luck

Hey guys, a pro friend of mine tells me that the rake in Cyprus is around 10% uncapped.
Is that true ???