Quote:
Originally Posted by clivestraddle
One curious question stands out for a grinder
At what level is 1/2 or 1/3 NLHE beatable?
If you add the fees before you sit down and the first half hr fee
example $10 door and $5 per half hr - the first half hr costs you $15 or $30 per hr
the first hr would be $20
the 2nd hr would 16.66
the 3rd hr would be 13.33
the 4hr hr would be 12.50......at this point you are heading in the lower limit of profitable playing time - your average concentration starts to diminish and realistically you are best to play 3.5-5 hrs - situations change this factor but this generalization applies to most sessions.
So that being said...are low stakes poker profitable at these rates?
Absolutely still profitable, just as one might reasonably anticipate being profitable in a casino with both rake and a jackpot drop.
Specific examples lead too much towards straying into BBV territory, but the same principles still play of looking for tendencies of the other players and exploiting them as much as possible.
I know, for example, walking in the door at POPC that I start at -$40 with my door fee and four time cards that I get when I also get my chips. So I sit down and am out of pocket (on average) -$340. I generally go out with more in my pocket than I walked in with and by enough that it is still worth my time. Having something like POPC close enough to the Houston office is added bonus...beats the hell out of having had to drive to South Sam in the tail end of evening rush hour traffic.
Am I making what I make in my day job, on average? No. But then again, I've had courts approve my hourly rate for expert testimony north of $300, and I don't ever expect that from poker.
Poker isn't my living. It is, in the case of local clubs, my tax-free play money...at least until such time as the State of Texas wises up to what they could be getting a cut of in some manner.