Hello, I recently moved to Vegas, I am 23 and have played poker for over 10 years , mostly online during the poker boom (well obviously as I just stated im 23 ) anyways, the reason I am posting is that I am at a bit of a crossroads, I took the route of getting a job in Vegas as soon as moving here, I am a certified Security officer so finding employment and even moving up is and would be easy. My initial plan was to work 40 hours a week and try to play live 20 hours a week at $1/2, while this is still a viable plan there have been some factors I did not consider including nearly an hour of commute to and from work, probably closer to an hour total but it differs day to day, as well as expenses from my 6 month lease at my new appartment downtown, basically what Im saying is that im struggling to find a ton of extra time and energy to walk up to GN and play 1/2 or drive to the strip, what should I do? I have played probably 10-15 hours of live so far since arriving and am up a few buy ins, obviously too small of a sample size to quit my job and just grind, do I just work for months and play a few hours nightly of US facing online poker? Or do I man up and play 1/2 a few hours a night? I have Fridays and Saturdays off so that is a good thing considering I could play all day on the "best days" but I just havent, all opinions welcome, I absolutely love poker and would love nothing more than to play full time, its just not currently an option.

p.s I do have a few months of life roll that I dont use for poker, but my poker roll is not nearly where I would feel comftorable just moving right into live.

Just play online if you don't feel like playing live during the week, and play live on Fridays and Saturdays. During the week, it seems like it comes down to motivation for you. If you're eventually motivated enough to play live during the week, you'll do it. As far as keeping a job, I would play it safe and keep your job til you're ready to move up to 5/10, cause that will mean you'll have been a long-term winner at 2/5. You mentioned your monthly lease expense. How much is your rent?

Where are you driving to that's an hour from downtown? Primm?

I work 40 hours a week in my own business and play poker 30 hours a week. I play golf 2/3 times a week, see my GF every weekend, play national bridge tournaments a couple of times a month and watch my football (soccer) team most home matches. I turned 55 last year.

Not much sympathy for your failure to manage 40+20 at 23 years of age - sounds very much to me like you don't 'want it' enough to be any sort of serious poker player, despite what you say.

Not perhaps the answer you were looking for, but maybe you do need to undertake some sort of honest self-examination to establish whether the ambitions you claim are genuinely held.........

Damn, Aggro. Slow down. You've been doing your life probably as long as OP has been alive. Give him some time to figure out adulting.

OP, he's not really wrong. It's a lot of commitment to hold a FT job and grind. Online might be easier, or just look at poker as a hobby, do it when you want. Seems you don't need it, so keep it fun, once you get a routine established, maybe some seniority, you can devote more time.

Work and commuteYou got a job right away, good. Now, protect that base, first and foremost. This means make your job history favorable and somewhat stable. When it becomes possible, improve it with respect to your goal.

Second, you have a 6 mo rental somewhere near downtown, but a bit of a haul to/from your job apparently. Take a look at that time factor when you look at your lease renewal or moving elsewhere. (Same consideration as to your "commute" to prospective live play.)

It's a little disconcerting you seem surprised at the one factor that could be determined early on, the expense of your rent.

Re live v online: After a reported 10 years online experience, you should have a handle on that aspect of your play. Live play will always take more time per hand played than online. So, what is the payoff for you to go "live" versus playing online ? "Manning up" should have ZERO to do with your decision.

No ****. When I was young I worked 40-50 hours a week, and had college classes 4 nights a week. How can someone that age be lacking energy. Maybe too much weed.

suck it up and do both.

One of the best piece of wisdom i ever heard was not even directed at me but it stuck with me ever since.

Someone very succesful was talking about how they only got about 4-5 hours sleep each day. When asked how did he manage he made this simple statement.

“I would rather be tired than poor”

If you can't bring yourself to walk down the street and play poker in your spare time, then definitely don't quit your job to play poker.

dude when i had a job i didnt play hardly any poker at all at times. work just sucks the fun right out of you. dont quit your job to play 1/2 imo.

play tournies

I agree partly , there is no reason not to be adding 20 hours of poker but I didn’t mention I’m required to patrol 15-20 miles daily , it’s taken a surprisingly bad toll on me so far as far as blisters and bruising ribs having to hop a fence, but the playIng is 100% going to be happening it’s just a matter of when i feel settled in. In the meantime I’ll be grinding online to stay fresh.

* Vegas life update , brakes on car sounding rather bad so going to have to get those fixed , R.I.P. part of life roll

Btw games at the GN been great so far

Don't give up the job, I think if you cant put in 20 hrs a week with a full time job there is no way you will have the discipline or dedication to play full time and playing 1-2 ft is the nut low

pics of girlfriend

sounds like you should focus on the important things or thing for that matter, your health. Start researching and reading (start small, 15 minutes a day) about how important proper nutrition, sleep, and exercise are and then implement the material into your life.

Don't play poker just because. You have a job, that's good so don't feel the need to play, play when you are excited to play and want to play. Can't stress the health thing enough though, it will lead to a clearer mindset, better physicality, more energy, everything good will be elevated.