It's been a few years since I've posted on this forum. Before I was almost exclusively in the live low stakes forum where I knew very little about poker strategy (just a few books and articles and free YouTube videos) but thought I knew a lot, and I probably spewed off a lot of arrogant and stupid comments as well as chips at the tables. Hopefully no one remembers me as too big of a loud-mouthed idiot! But then I was a single guy making $90K a year as a military engineer and playing poker for fun/competition (emphasis on competition), and surely I'm not the first newbie to experience severe Dunning-Kruger.

Now I've been medically discharged from the miliary for chronic psychiatric issues (knew this was coming up for a while, totally fair assessment and I accept it fully) and I'm also partnered and a step-dad! And also a lot more humble about my poker knowledge.

While I do have a medical pension from the military, lifelong medical and dental coverage as a pensioner, and some investment income built throughout my career (mainly index funds), I'm not quite able to make ends meet with my new financial obligations. But I also dread the idea of more full-time office work which will have be at a level and pay significantly below my previous because my skillset isn't very relevant to the civilian world; the only usable part is the generic office admin experience.

Luckily I was productive this past year as a member of Upswing Poker and more recently a user of GTO Wizard, and wow, they really opened my eyes to how rich and deep this strategy game is, and I've found that I enjoy thinking about and studying poker more and more as I dig into the strategy. I'm far far away from being able to beat online poker for a livable income (currently beating Zoom 5 for 6BB/100 and unsure about Zoom 10 yet because I only have a few K hands there) but professional live poker, which I enjoy more than online anyways, is probably within reach.

I hadn't played live at all since COVID started, and just getting back to the casino this month. My plan is to play at least 40 hours of live 1/3 a week, aiming for 1000 hours by year end, and evaluate at that time if this is a viable path for me, or if I do need to get a "real" job again. Eventual goal is to beat 2/5 for $50 an hour and play only 30 hours a week for a weekly EV of $1500 - that's more than enough income for my family's lifestyle, and I have way enough bankroll to absorb the variance just as long as I manage the emotional downswings. Not super ambitious, but I don't need to be at this life stage. Just want to earn a decent income for my family playing a game I enjoy for reasonable hours.

Good luck me!

Anyone else here taking on the challenge of starting a professional live low stakes career? Why are you choosing this very unorthodox career path?

GL, Mang. Sorry to hear about the mental trouble, and I hope the stress of poker doesn't exacerbate it.

Pretty horrendous week 1. Only played 30 hours of 1/3 and down $1360.

Some laughable gutpunch hands:

3-bet pot, hero squeezes from SB to 75 with AQs, 3 callers. Flop (300) is 8 5 2 two-tone, hero has nut flush draw. Not sure about this SPR, but deeper we're checking range here OOP on a monotone flop so that's what I did, 1 villain jams, hero rejams for chump change more, everyone else folds, he has 85o and it holds up.

3-bet pot, hero reraises opener to 45 with JJ on the BTN, SB and BB both cold call, initial raiser calls. Flop (180) is 7 4 2 rainbow, opener donks 100, hero calls. Can't do much else - potential setminers behind but we're never folding an overpair to a single 60% pot bet. SB and BB fold. Turn is a 4 and also brings a flush draw. Opener checks, hero jams bit over pot, potentially getting value from flush draws and 88 - TT. Shouldn't be any AA - QQ in villain's range. Gets called by opener with the 83s combo draw. A on the river makes him the wheel.

This one's potentially a punt. 3-bet pot, hero squeezes 3 players from SB to 75 with ATs, laggy rec calls. Flop (180) is 8 7 6 rainbow, X/X. Turn is a K, we bet 50, villain calls. Figured the K hits us well, and we want AQ, AJ, 55 - 22 to fold. River (280) is a J. We bet 200, repping AK+ and potentially getting more folds from 99, TT, T8s, 98s, 97s, 75s, 65s. Villain calls with 63o for bottom pair. I probably theory-owned myself here. A5s/A4s are my only worse hands in this spot, and I definitely don't squeeze those 100%. So if we're not bluffing AT then we have no bluffs, which is probably how I should play this spot versus this player. I did think there were enough marginal hands in villain's range that would fold once the pot got so big, and we're completely uncapped. Did not see the 63o call.

3-bet pot, hero is IP with AQs, 2 callers. Flop (150) is A A 4 two-toned. Initial raiser open ships 2X pot, shortstacked player in between us calls, we call. $1000+ pot, open-jammer completes his flush on the river with the JTs. This guy then proceeds to light his entire 1200 stack on fire within an hour playing like a total maniac, and rebuys for 400.

Less than 1 hour later, hero iso-raises 2 limpers in straddled pot to 30, same laggy rec from previous hand calls IP, 1 other caller IP to both of us. Flop (110) is A 9 2 rainbow, hero checks planning to check-raise - we're way ahead of villain's ranges and flop is safe enough to allow free card in case it checks through. It checks through. Turn is a 5 bringing a flush draw. Hero bets 80, lag rec raises to 200, other player folds, we're never folding here and SPR is less than 0.5, so 3-bet all-in, call, river is a 7 and this guy has 97o.

I did cooler full house over full house in 1 full buy-in+ all-in pot, but I think every single other all-in pot of that size this week, I lost. Won a few short-stacked all-ins; lost a few short-stacked all-ins. Not even sure how many of each to be honest. I feel I generally played well except for 2 obvious mistakes: I called an extra $45 with KK on an A high flop in a 3-bet pot - theoretical call but most likely 100% fold in practice. And I paid off an extra $60 on the river with a set to a flush to a very loose-passive player, but it was 1/3 pot and I just couldn't find the fold button for that amount. I'm certain there were other mistakes in my play that I haven't identified, but I don't think there were any major blunders.

I would like to think that if I maintain my strategy, this will turn around. I can't even remember the last time I lost so much so fast as a recreational player who had barely studied. Now I'm playing proper ranges, never out of line pre-flop except very ocassionally overlimping in position with speculative hands which isn't even really out-of-line just solver unapproved, using GTO style betsizes, and so far getting absolutely stomped.

I have a stop-loss of $10K for this experiment - an amount that hurts sure, but not an amount that affects my finances, so I'd consider this a fairly low-risk venture in my life. Losing any more than that would prove to me that even studied, I'm no pro and I should find a real job again instead of attempting to turn this hobby into a career. That would definitely hurt knowing that even after seriously studying and working on this game and giving it my best shot, I'm just not good enough. I truly do want live poker to be my next career. We'll see what happens. Negative 1360 in week 1 sucks, but I still have 86% of my "bankroll."

Hey gl sir. As a fellow psych patient who found poker to be a nice way to pass the time and earn a side income, I hope you do well, too! Just keep mental health a priority! I find a lot of my pre-session routine also compliments my mental health care (sleep diet exercise). Gogogo!

Try to get your job back .

Changes of getting to a routine that is healthy and staying there without someone kicking your ass are very slim .

Can you keep the pension from military and get another job?

Would be also awesome.

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Hardest thing for a poker player is to have the discipline to wake up at same time every day , (have a routine) , eat reasonable diet , and stay social .

If these conditions are not being met enough often then we go insane , fall to depressions / drink ourselves to mania .

Yes I can, but that's plan B for now; I still hope I can make poker my 2nd career. But I'm in no rush - I have 2 years of disability payments, which gets clawed back if I get a job, so I really do not want to have a job during this 2 year period.

Live poker is going like #&$*@ so far though. We're down $1930 now. I'm sure I'm making some mistakes and losing more than I should, but holy hell I've ran horrendously in my all-in pots, including a $1600 doozy in my last session, set of TT vs set of AA. Not $1600 loss; $800 loss in a $1600 pot, but still, on top of all the other runbad, ouch. Anyway, after that day I decided I needed a good break from the live grind and went back to studying GTO Wizard daily and playing Zoom 10 just to rebuild confidence and also improve my game technically.



Not bad, considering Zoom 10 players are far stronger than live 1/3 players, so I'm confident that technically I have the skills to beat live 1/3 for a decent winrate. I've definitely still got a lot to learn for properly adjusting to live dynamics, playing most pots multi-way, etc. But I don't think my goal of grinding 1/3 and eventually 2/5 for income is that ridiculous, especially if I keep studying as much as I am now.

I used to strongly prefer live over online as a rec playing 4 - 6 hour sessions on some evenings and weekends, but after just a few weeks of high volume live play, I'm finding I enjoy the pace of 1-tabling Zoom a lot more than the frequent multi-hour card-deadness of live poker, and the ability to break up the daily grind into several 1 or 2 hour sessions. I think I'm going to make a goal of beating Zoom 50 before heading back to the casino.

Live grinder friend of mine says it's basically impossible and that he knows winners at 25/50 live who can't beat Zoom 50. We'll see about that!

Good luck!

Sorry to hear about the health issues OP! Poker isn't a great game for anyone's mental health. Lot's of tilt/gambling addiction issues present, although I'm sure you're already aware of that. Best of luck regardless! Hopefully the cards are kind to you!