I'm on it! Played a 4 hour session.. +108. Feeling better now. Going to get an oil change and gym membership tomorrow and get back on that volume.. too much time off.

Update: Played 3 short sessions. +187, +226, +50.

Two things I want to talk about:

1) Having trouble getting the volume in this week. Felt somewhat impatient tonight. It didn't affect my game but just felt irritated and made me just cash out and leave. What do you live grinders do to motivate yourself?

2) 2 limpers in EP. I am in the CO with KhKd. I open to 12, button calls along with both limpers. 4 players to the flop: 6d 2h 2d. Checks to me, I lead out 25. Button raises to 55. Limpers fold and I call. The raiser is an older gentleman whom I have never seen bluff or semi bluff.. his range is 77-QQ, 66, A2. Turn is 4d. I check, he checks. He is not slowplaying, so the flush concerns him. River Jh.. hero??


Paid insurance bill.

Roll: 5000.

How much more motivation could one have than "Not being homeless anymore"? =P

I'm not a live player, but some exercise usually helps burn out impatience for me in general. Get up, stretch, do some jumping jacks or some shadowboxing. If you want to leave the table for an extended period, go for a walk and clear your head. Movement well let you reset yourself.

I'm gonna try that. I know if I get at least 40 hours a week in I'm more likely to be successful than just doing these mini sessions. Yeah, having my own place would be sweet!

keep buildin steady

I actually think $30/hr is possible for 1/2. Like the best players at 2/5 should have no problem beating 1/2 for that hourly, except of course why would they?

Mohegan Sun sometimes have a 1/3 game, I dunno, maybe once or twice a week, you can try to check it on Bravo. Most of the times, its usually good I think, so when your roll is like 6k-7k and you are thoroughly crushing 1/2nl in foxwoods (you should know around the 400-500hr mark), you can put in 10-20% of your volume into 1/3 for an additional boost. Then grind 2/5 500cap foxwoods, then grind 2/5 800cap mohegan sun.

GL.

Certainly if you table select well. Today's session was pretty sick. Soul reads, etc..
6 hours, +1,113

Roll: 6100

I'm not saying you can't lose it. I'm saying 3 BIs is a lot more than you think at 1/2. If someone said to you "I only bring 20 buyins with me, that's my stop loss for the day," you'd think that was way too much and he should never be losing that. My number is a lot closer to 3. At 1/2 and 1/3 Vs' hands should be face up a ton of the time, you really shouldn't be losing 3 BIs that often. The only time it should be close is if you're topping off. I used to pull $1 chips out of my pocket and never be sitting with $299 or below. I don't do it anymore, sometimes against good Vs it's nice to more easily set up a low SPR. But w/o topping off, 3 is plenty very often.

I guess you'd lose then. Position. If I were forced to limp one of those hands, I'd gladly pay the extra $1 to have position on 2 people (even 1 person if the SB is smart and folds) than to save the $1 and have position on no one. I get dogged in LLSNL for saying I fold almost all SBs, it's because of position not how much more I need to put into the pot. I forgot who on LLSNL said it once, could have been Spikeraw, "Preflop pot odds isn't a thing."

Really? Over a solid sample I had about a $16.50 hourly at 1/2. I thought it was a little low also. A few months I wasn't practicing hurt my hourly, there were 4 hands from $500 to $1600 I could retell card by card where I was at least 85% and lost while only 1 hand I was way behind and won... Anyway, that $16.50 hourly, play 6 days a week, play 6 hours a day, that's $30,888 for the year. You can't live on that? When my job paid $60K my expenses were only about $22K. $30K is plenty to live on.

Could I live on it? Sure I could. Being young and not having a family yet would make it a lot easier. But would I want to? Definitely not. Take out almost 1/3 for taxes and we are looking at ~20k. Maybe can find a cheap room in a place for $500/mo. So ~14k left for the year to buy food/stuff I want/pay for car insurance/health insurance/car maintenance and gas/etc. And all of this is if you are actually one of the better 1/2 regs actually capable of pulling in $17/hr. And is also assuming you are going to play 6 hours 6 days a week every single week of the year while playing near the best of your abilities so that every hour at the table you are actually printing that theoretical $17/hr.

I already wrote most of this earlier and unfortunately it's just the harsh truth of the situation. Doesn't mean the op (or others) shouldn't chase their dream. It's just smart to think things through and know what you are up against. Unfortunately it's too easy for people to think "oh well I can just print $20/hr at 1/2 and I'll be doing fine". Unfortunately poker pros get raped by taxes, don't get health insurance as part of their employment, and many other downsides. And the amt of people that can beat 1/2 for greater than $10/hr is probably a lot less than you think. And if they can their time would be soooo much better spent grinding 2/5 where there are similarly soft games but a significantly higher hourly possible.

ive read the entire thread. Good luck mi amigo. As one can put themselves (or atleast I can), hope you go well

Goodluck, love thos all or nothing threads.

I understand it's not an amazing life. But it's not about choosing the difference between this and living in a castle. It's this or being homeless. I'd choose this.

You don't need to pay taxes on $30K poker winnings a year. Plenty of people owe 6 and 7 figures unpaid taxes, the IRS isn't sending out armored vehicles to collect $10K from someone.

This is like when people say $5k isn't enough of a br to play even 1/2, so stop playing. Well, if the guy had any other options, I don't think he'd be playing 1/2 for a living, so it's moot.

Go away

Pretty amazing 6 weeks I'd say. I remember driving to foxwoods with the $200 I had saying to myself, "I'm such a degenerate". $8,000 later... I actually have a bankroll now! Another 4k and I will consider shot taking 2/5 but I'm gonna play it safe and continue beating the game I know I can beat!

A lot of people think that you can't live off of 1/2. It's truly a matter of perspective. Most of my friends (including myself) have/had jobs that pay 10-15/hr.

Good luck OP. I'm attempting to do something similar except I play 2/5. It's tough but I also think it's incredibly rewarding. The money stuff is the biggest challenge. I'd make sure you're putting money aside for taxes. I don't know if anyone knows how much they charge a poker player. I'm assuming it's 40% or close to it.

Congrats on your success so far and keep kicking ass!

you once made 60k per year?

It has nothing to do with being a poker player. It applies to all self employed people. You have to both the employer portion and employee portion of social security and medicare tax. I think it equates to like an additional 6-7% of what a person with a job pays.

Sorry for the hijack OP, seems like you are on a good run so far, glgl hope it continues.

Good to see you're doing well bro! I always asked myself if it could ever be done...
Hope you run good after all! GL

Thanks bros. No worries. Table selection is really helping the winrate.

+1

So I got coolered a little tonight.. top two vs bottom set. Lost 200. Went against my plan of not playing 2/5 when I saw a juicy table. Made 360 there.. so +160 for the night. This is the hand I made the most money on:

JcJh in MP. . Two limps and I raise to 25, one caller in EP. Flop is 2c 4c 5c. He checks, I bet 35, he calls. Turn 2d. He checks, I bet 60, he calls. River 6h. He leads 140.. I tank and call.. he showed Kc Js.

Roll: 6250

What's your impression of your skill level @ 2/5? And how many hours did you play?

5 hours at 2/5. Game is certainly not as easy as 1/2. Couple of guys at the table were really solid but saw some tiltish play. I think I may not have been the most +EV player because I nitted up but my reads were decent. What I didn't like was that players were flatting QQ+ instead of 3betting