Not opening 67s from HJ is pretty spastic imo. Who cares if BTN calls. I agree flop is a xf (ainec) and that on the river we probably have plenty more better bluffs.

I like Ava's analysis on most things, his analysis here seems pretty good too. Wrt resigning and going pro I think whether or not you can re-enter at the same level you left your job at is a big factor. Gl whatever you decide.

@Ava what do you do for a living out of curiosity?

PS; **** a 4.5 hour drive just to play poker.

Much appreciated. I’m always up for the conversation and okay with making mistakes. Pre is fine imo. I agree that flop is bad. Unfortunately once that card comes OTT I feel the necessity to fire, but the bluff OTR could be setting money on fire as well. Thanks for the input .

Just made a post below, basically agree with everything you said.

Thanks dude, much appreciated, and agreed. Most likely no, but always fun to entertain.

Also, 4.5 hours isn’t too bad! I’ll be there for 3 full days!

It’s semi surprising how many people speak of misery that they endure when playing in a live setting. For me personally playing for a living is enjoyable mostly because of the freedom it provides me. I don’t like being at an actual job where when I come and go is controlled and my salary is set.

When I’m playing I love to be sociable with my neighbors and I feel that if you bring this upbeat mindset that others find it infectious. If you want to be sad and miserable like the other players then that’s definitely what will happen. Poker should be a sociable atmosphere and whether it’s the younger players who just want to listen to their music all day or old grumps who just want to sit there stonefaced just try starting some dialogue and joke around a bit. Their are much worse things you can be doing with your life than playing a game for a living.

Are you trolling?

Just think about the whole table setup here. You will be OOP like always with low SCs, because Btn is not folding. The reverse implied odds, the sticky player on the Btn, playing draws OOP and so on ..

With sticky players OTB you want to tighten up your range in this spot. Opening KQ+,AT+ and 77+ seems best. I would shy away from small PP because we need to flop a set to play those hands OOP for value.

You should think about scenarios in which we get it in happily/play a big pot happily. Those are like non-existent with 76s, but we like to go bet bet bet on K2388 with KQ..

I agree with your general sentiment. If you are looking to clear $100k a year, poker is one of the worst and most improbable paths to do it. Look at pharmacists who average a good amount over $100k a year. Well, there's hundreds of thousands of them in America. How many poker players do you think are making six figures? A tiny fraction of that maybe? So if your goal is to make money, why pick the least likely path?

However, I disagree with you on a few things. I don't think corporate is as much of a sure thing as you make it out to be, and luck plays a big part. The problem with having a "good career trajectory" is that you have to make decisions to get on this trajectory at an age when you are least informed to make this decision. If you pick the wrong one, you're handicapping your earning potential for the rest of your career. Once you start in one field, it is really hard to jump onto another one.

Also, there's the problem of people under 30 who have been in a bull economy for the past 10 years. Yea, the starting point in the aftermath of the great recession was a low point, but we've been on this insane run for a decade where every asset class has grown dramatically without any real setbacks. Of course the corporate world is going to look like a great and sure thing. Well, this is the career equivalent of running hot. I know investment bankers going from 6 figure salaries and bonuses at major banks to working for a small fraction of that at a "temp" job they held for several years after they got laid off in 2007/2008. Those people kicked out of their career path will never get rehired in a comparable position. They don't get to return to where they were when the economy recovers, they are permanently replaced by the next generation of talent. Don't give corporate advice unless you've gone through that period professionally, wait until the next crash comes and see its impact on people's savings, investments, wages, and finances before extolling corporate gigs.

I think overall, the vast majority of poker pros and poker pro wannabes would still be better off in a "real" job, I don't think the pros and cons are weighted as fairly as it should be.

I think that being at the higher skill end of poker pros, poker as a profession is better than the vast majority of corporate professions. This is especially true for unmarried younger men. Because in the corporate world, your age often holds you back when you're young. You're probably never making partner at 25, never becoming MD at 25, never reaching a position where you can rake in mid to high 6 figures when you're in your 20's. But poker doesn't have these artificial barriers. You can spend your 20's earning what you deserve to earn based on your skill and you also get to have the time and freedom to enjoy the money you earn. You get to travel the world on a whim and spend your best years doing it. You can enjoy your youth to an extent that someone constrained by a schedule and a location under threat of being fired simply can't. But this all assumes, of course, that you have the necessary aptitude and skills to succeed in poker.

I'm flattered that you saved your first post for me.

Much appreciated input - thanks for sharing! Nice first post

Famous

With regards to the 76s hand, if I'm going to play it, on that exact board I'm going to take a line of betting maybe 25% pot on the flop, then any turn where I pick up equity I'll bomb it 85-130% pot. Then if I still get called, I decide river, but if river bricks, you have to go big or just give up.

Also, I think people underestimate the insane degree of "luck" that goes into having a successful career. Fortuitousness will account for a large percentage of your final destination regardless of which field or career you choose. As you say, a lot is about making the right connections and picking the right fields and companies at the right time.

I actually think those who pick the poker route can offset a good chunk of this fate/luck factor. If you're a really really hard working poker pro who dedicates every breathing moment to their craft, I imagine it'd be difficult not to make $100k a year (in cash format, that is - MTTs ofc is W/E).

You can be the most career driven person working 50+ hour weeks and still not catch a break because you ran bad on the aforementioned connection/trajectory front early in your career.

Thats not how it works in America.

Im absolutely certain I could take any 18 y.o. and have them at $100K by 30. If they were actually intelligent or well spoken, probably by 27ish. This is for average labor markets, if we are talking tech in SV then it would be much higher ofc. But I'm talking lowes/ford/lockeed/verizon/darden type corp roles mostly in the southeast bc that is what I am familiar with and 6 figures in places that arent california and new york is still a ton of money even in 2018.

Not going to respond to most of the other wall but the reference to the economy being a heater and example of investment bankers clearing 6 figs one year and being broke the next..."investment bankers" are legit some of the worst people on earth and not what I'm talking about. It is also a specific / non value add role that isnt easily transferable and its a good thing they got wiped out. A part of my coaching to my hypothetical 18 yo student would be to hop industries at least 3x and for one of them to be manufacturing and one to be hospitality.

I do agree millenials have a really distorted view of the labor market and most are in for a pretty rude awakening when this pops (<2 years)

9 years really to progress to 100k? I'll stick with poker.

Your whole post is correct. But you could also take an 18 y.o who's intelligent and hardworking, have them play poker and they would be making 100k+ by 19.

Not saying poker is all roses (it's not) and it's my belief that you really have to have a certain temperament to stick as a pro long term, but increasing one's earning power/hourly is a lot easier quicker with poker than a poker job, imo.

Too much emphasis on nominal amounts in this thread right now. Firstly, 100k from solely poker in a year with respectable volume is not as easy as people are made to believe. Secondly, where’s the passion lie? That’s how you should be looking at it given you can live self a moderate life. I guess nominal amounts is important if you consider 100k annually is the floor to leave your job.

Won’t lie I tend not to agree with much of what Avarita says but I do agree about climbing corporate ladder and having a higher earning ceiling than poker. The growth is easier and has potentially a lot more to offer from what I can see.

Growth is easier but the speed seems 10x slower?

You are literally the worst example bc you have what it takes to be successful. You might not realize this but in the corp world you would likely have hit 100k by 25, and prolly VP level by 35 which is anywhere from $200-$500K depending on industry/education.

In the game of wealth accumulation, cash flow is king. Talking about a kid hitting 100k in a year immediately via poker is really short sighted and I'm surprised to see that from you.

You also might be forgetting, with a career we can still play poker.

If op wants, I will make a simple visual of what I am talking about...but if it is going to fall on a bunch of blind eyes I wont bother.

If I am also allowed to teach him poker, I would still take my 18 yo corp monkey over bbbisick over a 10 year period.

And frankly its not close.

I think you are taking my response as me disagreeing with you, and I'm not. As far as wealth accumulation, I was just stating that poker (if talented + hardworking) can get to that mystical 100k mark much quicker than the corporate ladder, however long term the corporate ladder has a much higher ceiling +stability.

The downside of poker is more stress, a ceiling (even elite players don't really make high 6 figures) and not a ton of stability. I've personally always said to friends I'd have more money if I stayed and worked.

My POV is simply I don't blame some people going pro, if they have the passion for it, have some talent and a work ethic. It's not the right choice most of the time, but pursuing something your passionate is IMO worth well more than making more money at a job you hate.

Some people are overstating how easy it is to put together consecutive 100k+ years in todays games and ava is overstating how easy it is to rise through the corporate ranks and make lots of money. In the end you need to live your life whichever way is going to make you happy and how you deem it successful. Most people should def stick to a more standard career but poker can be decently stable if you go about it the right way. Main downside of poker is obv the lack of future certainty and resume gap, so you shouldn't be doing poker if you aren't going to save and work towards building a nice nest egg for when poker is no longer a good option. No matter what your job is you should always be saving money and building marketable skills though.

I still agree with your overall sentiment that going with a more traditional job is by far the easier and safer choice to accumulate money for the vast majority of people. But I'd like to clarify that what holds most people back today is not a lack of knowledge or guidance, but a lack of innate motivation and discipline. I don't think you can instill something like motivation into most people who lack it, especially 18 year old kids. Because any reasonably capable kid who wants to clear six figures can just jump on the path to become a pharmacist, dentist, or some other similar job. There's hundreds of thousands of positions open, competition is pretty easy, you can go to an average state school on scholarships and still enter into one of these jobs. But how many kids are motivated to do this? How many can stick to this path and no become disillusioned?

And I wish you would touch on the other parts of what I said, including the freedom and quicker realization of potential that poker provides. I can't think of any other occupation that can offer the kind of lifestyle to an 18 year old that poker can. Hell, even a 15 year old if you play on untracked sites. I am someone who went from a traditional career path into poker and my regret is that I wish I played poker instead of spending all that time and money going to college instead, I could have retired by 30 and switched over into entrepreneurship or something.

The poker dream is only really available to those who are capable enough to succeed in most fields anyway. So for the slackers out there who think poker is an easy way to make a living, they'll never realize the dream. But for those who are capable, poker as a profession is far better than being a lawyer at most law firms or being a pharmacist/dentist, etc. Being able to sleep in any time you want, take extended breaks, go on extended travels, have the flexibility to fit almost anything else into your life, etc, these are all luxuries that you can't afford as a professional in most traditional professions. Again, I came from the traditional path, and my regret is that I didn't leave earlier. I went through so much stress and wasted so much time on my traditional career path that I could have spent on poker instead.

FWIW I agree with 98% of what you are saying which is pretty rare so kudos. (Would disagree on schedule, I had a worse schedule as a live pro than I do now in corp finance)

Addressing some of the posts about not chasing money/$100K being arbitrary, I 100% agree.

I very sincerely believe that we should all be living in small communities riding our bikes with no handlebars. But most want wealth. Or at least they think they do.

Need way more than 2 posts. Unless you are a new account from a different poster. Crushing the quality posts

deep af.

Personally would rather rip my own eyeballs out than be a dentist. No one is passionate about dentistry. Literally no one.

Dude dentists love the fuggin dream mate.