Yeah it's banned but there's still plenty of bitcoin sites and apps.

The home games are usually 10% rake capped at $7-$10 instead of 10% rake capped at $15, and they don't have a $5 seating charge either, and the max buyin is usually 130-200bbs instead of 100bbs, so they're slightly better in all of those senses.

BUT the competition is waaaaay tougher at home games. Full of nit regs that don't want to give action. I swear 80% of the people only play because they're friends with the owner and they get some kind of rakeback deal for keeping the games running.

Unless you're actually one of the guys that helps organise the game and gets a good rakeback deal, then I just don't think it's worth it. You'll make a much higher hourly at the casino.

Nah you can make $50+/hr playing live games no higher than 5/10, where the competition is still relatively soft. That doesn't suck at all.

Is that $50/hour playing just 2 hours a week when a whale shows up, or is it 40 hours/week for the whole year?

really funny when someone who doesn't know his own hourly spouts off about possible win rates

Yeah NL1000 online is super soft, guaranteed 5/100 wr. This is op’s fall back plan when he recks the casino so hard that no one will play him live.

OP have you actually been profitable online at stakes high enough to live off? Don't give me the "imma study yo no biggie" nonsense, have you actually got any data to support you being able to beat these games?

Please don't question OP_Redbaron's credentials.

I think he said he's lost about 1k online this year and before that was maybe up like $400, so it doesn't sound like he can beat what I assume was either 25 or 50NL.

OP lives in a fantasy world. Once you realize that everything makes sense.

You know that the quality of life for a poker player is pretty poor, right? Particularly if that poker player is an under-rolled player with questionable bankroll management skills and a penchant for buying nice things?

"It's better than the quality of life for a pizza delivery guy/dishwasher."

When you're running good, that's probably true. For a while, anyway. How will that quality of life feel when you go through a 10-15 session downswing at a level that is too high for your bankroll?

"That's impossible. Doesn't happen to good players, especially crushers with great game selection."

You do realize that having a steady, full-time job, even if a lousy job making minimum wage or slightly over, at least provides recurring, guaranteed cash flow? That will allow you to prepare a budget and see where you need to cut back or whether you need to find an alternate source of income.

"Budget? Why are you acting like I'm some old guy with a family? I'm young, carefree and have a great fallback plan if this doesn't pan out!"

Sounds good. I'm staying subscribed.

Best thread ever.

I think OP has been sucked into the illusion that poker pros have great lives because most of them overspend and pay for it later down the line. Also he doesn't understand many of them are sponsored, staked or have income coming in from elsewhere. Virtually no one these days has a great quality of life solely from poker.

Drunk at 5/5/10. Huge f**kup.

I don't like to post too many degen stories because there is a sense of shame. I already receive enough hate as it is, even when I'm sober and making fairly responsible decisions, so I don't need to fuel the fire by posting stories of me f**king up massively and making extremely irresponsible decisions.

I want to post this though for two reasons: firstly, to be completely transparent about my journey. To show the good and the bad, the responsible and the degeneracy. Secondly, to hold myself accountable for my own mistakes. As much as I want to just brush this under the rug and pretend the whole night never happened, I'll never get anywhere in life with that attitude. I need to be honest with myself and take steps to ensure that this never happens again. So here goes:

Yesterday, I was having drinks with mates from pretty much the moment I woke up and had breakfast and beers at the bar. I got fairly drunk and then had to leave them for a few hours. I went to the casino alone and started playing 2/5. The table was fairly nitty and I was craving action and disappointed that I wasn't getting it. At least my bluffs were getting through though and I was slightly up.

Then I saw the 5/5 NL game getting up. I jumped at the opportunity to sit down there and gamble at the high stakes. From what I noticed, there was one whale at the table who was about half as drunk as I was, and he was playing something like a 50/0 over the last 30 hands. He never raised a single hand preflop and he would do a tonne of limp-calling, even with hands like 64o. He also tended to donk bet whenever he flopped top pair and check every other time, although I learnt this the hard way after paying him off with 99 after he limp-called pre and donked 3 streets into me on a Q327Q board.

He was a nice guy though. He stacked me for a 2k pot when he limp-called with 64o then we stacked off on a 5423 board when I had AJo. Immediately after that, he apologised for the suckout and bought me a free drink (alcohol is damn expensive in Australia - something like $13 for a Jack and Coke). I then proceeded to spill that drink all over the table and over my clothes.

I actually only left $250 down at the 5/5/10. Even though I'd donated almost 2k to the whale, I won most of it back against the regs when I managed to hit hands at the right moments, like getting a J978x runout when I had TT and getting a 864Q7 runout when I had 55.

So then my mates come to the casino and we're having more beers at the poker room bar. We're just having a conversation and everything is good, but we decide we want to play some 1/2 together. We figured that the max buyin is only $100 and nothing can really go wrong. We'll mainly just be sitting there socialising and folding.

The problem is that they're not able to get us all on the same table at 1/2 NL, but they can do that for 1/3 PLO. We figure that we can each just buy in for the $100 minimum and fold most hands. One of my friends is dirt poor and I had to stake him $100 for 50% profits, so I figured that I'm only risking $200.

What do you know, one of my mates goes bust within 5 minutes and asks me to lend him $200. He transfers the cash straight away and everything is good. Then he busts again and again, playing like a maniac and 3betting about 50% of hands, and each time asks me to lend him another $100. Only this time, he says that he passed some transfer limit and it won't let him transfer anymore, so he says he'll have to transfer the rest tomorrow. He managed to accumulate a $700 debt to me that night and tbh I'm not sure I'll be getting that money back, which is why I've decided to add it to my own losses.

My other mate, who is being staked, drops a few minimum buyins too and I keep rebuying him another $100. I think I gave him $300 total. He was playing pretty snug though so I don't mind, like he x/folded KKxx on a Q95 flop when the SPR was 1 and it was multiway. It's fine to nit up and make these kind of folds if you want to reduce variance imo. He only stacked off preflop when he had either AAxx or a perfect rundown like T987.

Despite downing pint after pint of Carlton Draught, I actually think that I'm playing okay. I'm being somewhat disciplined preflop and generally putting my money in good. At one stage, I build up a $700 stack and my other mates are done with poker and ready to leave the table. I could leave at this stage, roughly 1k down, but I tell my mates to wait 2 more hands.

One hand I get something like AQJ5 double suited and throw in a 3bet squeeze. We get to the flop, I forget what it was but I had something like TPTK with a BDFD, so I went with my hand and lost about $350 there. Don't even know what my opponent showed up with.

But I do remember the second hand: I had AAxx and this annoying French guy who had previously stacked my mate was laughing and begging me to juice up the pot, so I naturally obliged. He calls a raise OOP with TT32r. The runout comes QT44x and I just pot pot pot get it in. Standard cooler.

On the way to the food court, we stop by a blackjack table and I punt off $200 there. I know basic strategy so this was just run bad. I was about to chuck down hundreds more but my mates stopped me. So we leave the blackjack table, get to the food court and witness a fight. A glass gets smashed and police get involved. I see a guy get punched in the face a few times and I almost wish I could take that punishment instead of the financial loss.

Then I realise I left my money in my casino account, so I tell my mates to wait at the food court whilst I withdraw some cash. My mates tell me sternly that I'm not to gamble and that if I'm not back in 5 mins then they're leaving. I agree to that and assure them that I won't gamble. I don't tell them this, but on the way back to the food court, I quickly play a few more hands of blackjack with substantially bigger bets this time, but leave about even when I realise that time is going fast and I need to be back at the food court before they walk off.

It's about 1am at this stage, we eat and I'm pretending that it was a great night and all, but secretly I'm only thinking about the money and the fear of not being paid back the $700. One of my mates trains it home and the other one walks me to my apartment. I had this tingling urge to return to the casino, but once I get into my apartment, I pass out drunk in the bed.

At 9am, I hear an alarm and wake up to my girlfriend laughing at how hungover I am. I try to calculate how much I lost last night but I'm not even sure. Somewhere around the 2k mark. Not a great start to a career as a professional poker player, but what can you do? Sh*t happens.

A+ troll

Not troll. Ask anyone that played the 5/5 yesterday if they saw a drunk guy spill his JD and coke. That guy was me.

She is laughing at your pain and stupidity. Not the sign of a compassionate woman who's in it for the long haul.

You staked your dirt poor friend in 1/3 PLO for 50% profits over the course of a night? I'd have just kept punting hoping to run it up huge on your dime. Either way that's such a terrible deal for you. You let people walk over you then you shouldn't expect any money back.

And getting stacked with ace on 2345 board vs a 6 is bad play. You are probably a losing player or slightly breakeven player who went on a heater. Maybe you were a good poker player and you aren't anymore.

Quit while you still have some money.

Nothing wrong with laughing at someone hung over. I guarantee she doesn't know about the 2k loss. That'll wipe the smile right off her face.

Also OP....if you don't have the discipline not to loan money to degen friends, the casino environment will kill you. Losing regs who you're friends with are going to constantly hit you up. Never bring your real friends to work with you. They definitely don't understand BRM.


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I disagree. It's symptomatic of an underlying lack of compassion.

all I could think of when I saw your post was all the gems started by this gimmick - https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/members/58671/

threads started by joyofpoker = https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...rchid=59205314

op aint even close to his level, it was just the bob ross image/avatar, but maybe this will give him something to strive for

OPs pro career self-destructing inside the first week. Who could have seen that coming?

I guess we just differ there. I'm happily married almost 17 yrs. 100% chance of ballbusting when someone is hungover. It's not an uncontrollable, unforeseen event.

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My girlfriend never laughs at me when I'm in genuine pain. She'll only laugh at minor things like a hangover.

The main reason I staked my friend was just so I had an excuse to play without ditching them. I knew it was extremely -EV.

Yeah I regret loaning so much to the other friend, but I was drunk at the time and we don't always make the best decisions when we've had 5 pints of beer and 2 JD and cokes.

I don't think I can get away from Ax on a 5432 board though. The guy limp-called pre, x/called the flop then x/jammed the turn. The turn brought a FD too. Am I supposed to just bet/fold the turn? We were slightly under 100bbs deep too.

Like I said earlier though, I'm not a quitter. Every mistake I make is an opportunity to learn and improve. These mistakes actually bring me closer towards my goal, not further away.

Dude.....chalk it up to lessons learned. I was the same way at your age. The people who need to borrow in those situations never grow out of that though.

You have to protect that money far differently than those with a 9-5. You have to learn to think of yourself in the casino as 6betme Inc. That's your place of business. What you did was essentially embezzlement from your company. Don't steal from your future to enjoy today.

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Thank you. I think you're right. That's a good way to think about it.

gotta be a troll, nobody can be this ******ed.