Hi,

I'm a 28 year old japanese guy currently live in tokyo working for a global fmcg company making around 80K plus good benefits. Im seeing this will be equivalent to around 120K living in LA.

I was born and grew up in california and got hooked on poker in my high school days. tbh all of the games i played in (home games, 2/5 in bay area/vegas, south korea 1/2/5 games) until now I always won and during my college years although I focused mostly on the academic studying still played online (50nl) and went on live poker trips to vegas and korea (2/5) and was winning most of the time. ( i dont have the win rates/ hrs played data from back then, but I was beating 50nl for more than 3BB/100 and probably around 1000-1500hrs live with 5-7BBs/hr)

I live with my fiance in Tokyo.
We talked about what is lying ahead in our lives and we both concluded that we wanted to take a shot to live back in California.
For her its always been her dream to live in the states and for me, well, i always dreamed of playing cards for a living.

So were discussing to move to Los Angeles, me playing 2/5 5/10 cash games and her going to school for first year and working after that.

Although i said the current job is wonderful, as some of you may know the japanese working culture is pretty depressing. you always have to listen to your bosses/ there is this "mood" in which the individual has to sacrifice itself for the whole. Constant pings 24/7. If you succeed in a project there are always people trying to bring you down ( i guess this is common to all corporations). All of this kinda caused me to have a mid-life crisis and i feel like im in a long term depression(past two years); my motivation for my job is gone and never really feel enjoyment out of anything, sleeping a lot more than i used to.

I havent played much poker recently but started to grind on pokerstars (25nl) again and working with a few others on the new strategies/concepts.
My current bankroll is $70,000 minus 6months living expenses ($20,000) minus emergency cash ($20,000) =$30,000. Im planning on giving myself a one year prep time to at least reach the 100nl stakes on PS and be a winning player.

I would like to hear some opinions on whether the move is a go or no go (on the premise that I will be able to beat 100nl); and also what the average LA cash game grinder is making hourly.

I'm anticipating a lot of negative comments as even I feel like this is me just trying to avoid work and running away. But then again I want to be happy and if my fiance and I can make a living in LA, I think i will be.

Sorry if this was too long. But honestly there arent many people who I can consult about this in Japan (I asked a "senpai" who became an entrepreneur leaving my company a few years back and he said "might as well become a youtuber").

Thanks for reading.

that Senpai is whack, YT is a WAY more competitive space, especially in the 50k+/year income range. There's no barriers to entry.

As long as you make sure you're giving yourself a year buffer to prove you're a winning player, I think it's worth a shot.

I've always been very interested in visiting South Korea. What don't you like about it other than work? Whats the poker scene like there?

@YGOchamp

Thanks for checking in!

Sorry I didnt write my best intro.
Ive lived in Japan for the past 10 years (5 in Kyoto 5 in Tokyo). Because there arent any casinos here we cant play live poker which is the reason why I traveled to South Korea from time to time. That being said poker is becoming a thing now in Japan and there are several youtube channels creating hypes and I think there are 10x more Japanese players now than 5-6 years ago who play online.

As for South Korea what I can say, I think its pretty similar to Japan, culturally and economically. Very nice people, extremely clean, infrastructure probably one of the best in world, not as expensive as ex)California. One of the best places to travel, but probably not the best places to work because of the culture. The poker in Korea used to be very easy but I think now its become a lot tougher because of the poker boom in Asia.

not sure if im answering your question but if theres anything specific you want to know about southeast asia Id be a pretty good candidate to ask since Ive lived half my life in the states and half in japan.