I'd like to play for a living (gee I bet you've never heard that before. Well, I think I want to give it a shot.

Alright, so Vegas is an obvious choice and certainly wouldn't rule it out. But, I would like a milder climate, with a reasonable cost of living (rules out Socal and Nocal I think). Sacramento maybe? I'm not afraid of cold weather either, so thoughts on the Michigan scene?

I have a school aged son, so I would have to live in the burbs. I went to check out the casinos in Denver and KC. They're nice, but they seem so damn isolated from civilization. btw, Blackhawk seemed to be full of fish.

One last thing, would like to be in an area with a decent economy.


Sorry guys, a lot of requisites I know, but just want to hear y'alls experiences. Currently live in Texas and can't really play here.

Consider South Florida (i.e. Broward County, the area around Fort Lauderdale. Pembroke Pines is a nice suburb if you are willing to spurge a little for rent.) No state income tax, mild climate, lots of retirees and snowbirds for you to beat up.

Thanks. Hadn't even thought of Florida. Ever been to Sacramento?

Mild climate? Are you kidding? Have you been here in the summer months, and by summer I mean, generally, April through October?

GF: I live in Sacramento.
Two things that you need to consider. ONe, the cost of Living ANYWHERE in California will make you consider other places. Sure, we are way lower than Bay Area and LA basin, but its still California. Costs of housing, gas, general living, etc will drive u bonkers.
Two- game and table selection. Its limited. Capitol Casino, in-town Sacramento, has ten cash tables, and is jumping thru hoops to try and add a few more tables. City regulations and such, of course, don't you know. They go full almost every day by 500pm. And they run 3 limit games, at least 2 O/8 limit games, so that leaves a NL players limited options.
There is very little else to play within the city. Other rooms advertise, etc., but just don't get the players and tables going.
Thunder Valley Resort is a 30 minute drive, has 25+ tables, and hops every night and weekend. Still, for NL hold'em, check Bravo to see that they offer limited 2-5 NL, and just a teeny bit bigger on the weekend.
Tahoe, 90 minutes, very little goes on. Reno, 2 hrs away, and honestly, the sharks there are tending to consume each other as the fish have gone away.
Climate- hey, it gets hot in the summer, and very dry. IN other news, water is wet and Obama is a Democrat. So don't go outside in the afternoon.

I've played plenty in South Florida and Las Vegas. Either is preferable to Sacramento, Tahoe and Reno. I just spent six weeks in So.FL, Gulfstream, Seminole HR, Palm Beach, Pompano as well as Daytona, Naples and Tampa. I wish I could spend six months there, and in the future I may very well do that.

Sactown is BAD.

Other than Thunder Valley (30 minutes north of downtown) on Friday and Saturday nights, the no-limit games are generally shark-infested.

Capitol Casino in downtown Sacramento specializes in Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, which takes up 3 out of 11 tables on most nights.

Living in Sactown is NOT cheap. Rent is not cheap. Gasoline in Sactown is about 15-20% more expensive than in South Florida. There is state income tax (up to 10%).

Schools in general are lousy.

Summers in Sactown can be oppressively hot, with triple-digit high temperatures for 10-15 days per month.

prague

Thanks everyone. SActown may be hot, but I'm from Texas. Trust me, it's not the heat.



Mild climate is broad. I could handle a 4 seasonish locale, though again, I felt the Blackhawk area was isolated in Denver and KC was just staid and depressing, but maybe it was the weather?

How about Michigan or Maryland? I doubt I would actually live in Detroit, but how about the outer ring burbs? I think I would like Ann Arbor, but if you're not a student you're paying a premium you wouldn't have to.

Sacramento is the "New Orleans" of the west, with levees and bypasses keeping the rivers from flooding low-lying areas (downtown, Natomas, "the Pocket", etc. Natomas in particular is 20 feet below the top of the levees, which means over 100,000 people may die from drowning if a levee were to fail.) You'll have live in the Northeast suburbs of Sacramento (i.e. Citrus Heights, Antelope, Roseville, Rocklin) in order to avoid the flood-prone areas. Needless to say, rent is higher in the Northeast suburbs than the other areas.

Generally any area which will have good games will have quite an expensive cost of living as the games are good because people have money. The exception to this is Vegas because it's a tourist city but then you're living in some boiling hot god forsaken pit.

Give NJ a try.

Depending where in NJ you live, not only do you have the AC casinos, but you also have the nearby PA casinos to the east, the CT casinos to the north and the MD casinos to the south.

If you live in NJ, you also have the on-line option.

Thanks guys.

Remove weather out of the occasion. How is the Detroit scene like?

Well, THIS thread is like 6 months old, so it's way outdated, but...

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/27...014-a-1381217/

Thanks

OP, you're asking about Detroit when two of your "requirements" are mild climate and good economy.

LOL. That's called fishing for a good answer. I'll take that as a no.

If you take out weather -NORTH DAKOTA! BOOM TOWN BUCKS and little else to do -free booze for the suckers and no bad beat drop($5 max) they play 2/5 nl $800.00 pot cap/$400 max buy-in.might try it for a week or so in summer myself

How about Pittsburgh. Two rooms there ans Wheeling and Ohio not far. Ohio might be worth a look. MD and NJ have a high cost of living. Even South Jersey is pricier than Upstate NY where I currently live. PA away from Philly is cheaper than NJ.

Go take a look ar Reno.

I've heard good things about that city.

Bring your own teepee. Housing is scarce up there.

I live outside of Detroit. About 15 minutes south. There are multiple charity rooms in the area. Open everyday and have cash games going everynight and at some during the day. Lots of them have 3+ tables going with 3K plus on each table.

Tournaments are deep stack ones. Anywhere between 30k to 500K.. sometimes even a million chip tourneys. A lot of the nightly's have $800+ for first. Buy-in's run from $20-$100 depending on the day. Most $80-100 tourneys are run on the weekends. Most average is a $30 buyin.... 10% to the house.. 10% to the charity.. 80% to the prize pool.

Lots of good schools and the economy is picking up. Not to mention 3 casino's in Detroit, 1 in Toledo which is an hour from Detroit. Firekeepers casino is about 2 hours from Detroit on 94. And Soaring Eagle casino in Mount Pleasant is about 2 hours or so away.

Lots of options and a good place to relocate to.

Colorado is a great place to live with a reasonable cost of living, but a HORRIBLE place to try to play poker for a living.

There are plenty of 1/2 & 2/5 games in Black Hawk, but CO has a $100 max bet law in place, so your upside in either of those games is fairly limited. There's a regular 30/60 half kill limit game that runs all the time, but again, that's limit hold 'em (unsure if that's your game of choice or not).

As you pointed out, Black Hawk is fairly isolated from the metro Denver area. Depending on where you live, your drive time would be a little over an hour, give or take.

Assuming the $100 max bet law gets updated, it might be plausible, but definitely not the place to try to make a living playing poker at this time.

Yeah, the girlfriend didn't really like the Denver area, and honestly, I have visions of me getting stuck in the snow again like I did during spring break.


I would love to live in Ann Arbor and commute to Denver.