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Originally Posted by KerryCoder
[*]What is the best time for me to be "working?" The local poker room is open from 10am to 4am daily, 7 days a week. (Rivers Casino in Portsmouth, VA)
The best time is when the most people who are playing the worst are there. Offhand, I would guess if you show up at 6pm and play until close (or you're too tired), that would be optimal, but every room is different.
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[*]How often should I be taking breaks? I was thinking about taking a 1/2 hr break every 3 hours.
No need to be so structured, unless that's something that helps you mentally.
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[*]I have a stop-loss of 2 buy-ins *per day.* Just personal experience, but if I lose 2 buy-ins, even if I'm playing well, I'm going to lose the third through frustration/tilt, and having the daily stop loss plugs that expensive "leak". Should I have a 'stop-gain'? That is - is there a point where I've got too much money on the table in front of me? I'm thinking that if there's more than 15% of my bankroll on the table, no matter how soft the game is, I need to get up and walk away, book the win. [/LIST]
If you feel you're going to tilt if you're up too much and start playing too loose, that's probably a mental hurdle you should consider trying to figure out and get over instead of using it as a way to leave early.
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Mainly what concerns me though is the things I just haven't thought of or considered, and I'd love to hear from anyone that has "been there" and tried to have a go of it - succeeding or failing.
1. If you have no job you shouldn't be paying $400/month for insurance, check to see when the next open enrollment for the ACA is
2. If you have 20k at your disposal and at least 500 hours on record of being profitable at 2/5, there's no reason to start at 1/2
3. Your biggest "test" is going to be stamina. In a residential area, you've pretty much got to put in 10 hour sifts on Friday and Saturday, in addition to probably 2-3 8-10 hour grinds during the week. If that's not something you're used to, it's something you need to work at and not beat yourself up over if you can't do it to start with. The goal is to figure out what allows you to stay focused and engaged for a long period of time, several times a week.
4. The way to study isn't taking one random hand you played and asking people what they think, it's studying solved ranges and then paying attention to the play and figuring out how your meta derivates from correct play and exploiting those tendencies. If your running commentary isn't "That guy 3b to 15bb, and they should do that with _____, but the average player here does that with _____ and this guy is better/worse/the same/a specific derivation of average, so he should have ______", you should work to get yourself to that point which honestly a lot of the time just takes hours and hours of play where you are paying attention to everything
5. Have fun, be nice. We're playing a children's game, and the people who are bad at it are the people paying your bills. Just because someone doesn't know sizing or ranges well doesn't mean they are dumb/rude, and if they lost 100% of the time they'd leave and never come back