So Ive just become unemployed by the recent internet poker ban as I was a 50/1 24 tabling pro until Friday. Prior to this year though, I used to travel around and play 1/2 -5/10 for a living. So, I guess its back to that now. I live in Greensboro, NC and am planning to move to Asheville to be close enough to grind a living. Seems like a lot of mixed responses on here about Cherokee, but can a guy make an actual living there?? If every table has at least 3 fish, I dont see why I cant. Is this naive of me? I have never been to Cherokee or played on the electronic tables but I did beat 24 tabling online at a nice clip and cash games in Atlantic City prior to that. Im stuck in NC though due to family and Cherokee is literally my only option it seems to attempt to maintain a career in poker until online is legal and regulated down the road. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I only played there once, and while you are certainly better than me, I did not find it to be an easy game. I don't know what kind of living you're looking to make, but I think it would be hard for anyone to average more than $50/hour at any 1/2 table. One advantage you have at Cherokee is that they have e-tables so you get more hands per hour and no tipping, which adds a bit to your hourly win rate.

I would think that to make a living at poker, you have to find a place where 2/5 NL or PLO runs daily, and I don't think it does at Cherokee.

$50/hour is certainly fine by me. I kept track of my winnings when I used to play live 7 years and I was at $75/hour on normal dealer dealt $1/$2 tables but most of those were deep tables where you could win 200-300bbs at a time. Ill be going there this week to give it a shot. I do not have a ton of other options. On a side note, Im a White Sox fan and remember your name from the fan forum message boards. I never posted but remembered your name.

If you know quite a lot about dealers you'll have to admit, that dealer's will unfairly push the action on non-locals, and they'll push back attempted mucked cards to newbies (and these attempted muck cards often will win the pot!!!!), also on a reccent trip to MISS. a dealer called the floor and made seat one make a bet he was just kidding about,,,,,,,the other dude in the pot didn't want the bet to be enforces because,,,,,, he had made a bluff of $30.00 and had nothing, the floor made seat one make the bet and he pulled the pot.....The dealer was on the rag that day and made everyone at the table uneasy, also in west va. I witnessed the pot being pushed to four players before I had to call the floor to get it pushed to the right person!!!!!!!!!!!

you used to find some deep stacked soft players, to have a win rate of 75 USD per hour, is this before or after the 20 USD an hour a player has to pay in rake, tips, drinks, and rooming??????

You're going to face enormous difficulties at Cheer. Harrahs, the players talk about their hands and often during the weekdays it will be dead. The flux and swings at the 1/2 level where and ace-five offsuit kills your KK,QQ, etc. is going to tilt you,,,,,,,go to PA, where there have huge 150 table rooms with real players.

That was just my total profit considering what I walked away from the table with after everything, but not considering the costs of a room. I lived a very grinder existence and skimped on rooms and other expenses as much as possible, so it was not much more than what youd pay in rent living somewhere and I essentially lived on the road. I have a kid now so Im stuck in NC, so its either move to Asheville, NC for Cherokee grinding or as close as possible to WVA without leaving NC. If neither of those will work then I may opt for traveling every other month to bigger card rooms. I have to do something though. Hell if I can make $20/hour and play 10 hour sessions...Im fine with that, anything worse and I might take up a real job at that point.

As far as guy's discussing hands and most of the other things fish do, thats pretty standard anywhere from what Ive seen. Nothing about 1/2 could tilt me as Ive seen it all, I just need steady/reliable action. Sounds like both Cherokee and WVA might only be reliable on the weekends though. Thanks for the advice, Ill probably be coming to check it out soon. Ill be the guy tattooed on both sides of my neck. I also have a prosthetic arm, so yeah that might be a even more noticeable than the other when I stack a huge pot one handed. Feel free to say hello.

Just played Harrahs Cherokee on Sunday; they shut down this Monday at 8 AM for scheduled maintenance; may be upgrading for the tournaments scheduled for next month. The games are highly variable at Harrahs; gotta say there are some good players at 1/2; and nits; when a relatively inexperienced player sits down; he is either lucky or loses pretty quickly..>>I have not played the 2/5; does not seem to run much; I pay very tight; try to win as the cards allow; then get off the table when I do not get any action. Gl I thik you could average$300/day on weekends or when busy..>>during week ; not enough action.

jmho

gl

This sounds way too much like "move up to where they respect your raises" to me.

A game where you get bad beats put on you regularly is a good game, it means you're getting it in with way the best of it. The goal is not to avoid beats it's to win money. 1/2 games with donks who barely know how to play are rife with bad beats but also some of the most profitable (in terms of BB) games around, you just have to not let the beats tilt you.

^^ +1

Ignore trainrex. The games are very soft and you get dealt ~45 hands/hr. Put 2+2 together. You will run into a few solid pros, but not many. Good luck.

Edit: PM me if you'd like. I live 20 minutes from the casino and would be happy to help in any way I can. Also, regarding your possible decision to move to Asheville, Asheville is the uncounterfeitable nuts.

Just found this thread: Do games about 1/2 go much? And when the PLO games go, is it also 1/2?

I've gone several times for 3-day stays over the last year and always found the games to be fairly easy (compared to online). So i doubt you're going to have any trouble making a profit there when you've been 24-tabling 100NL. These trips were always during the week, though, due to my work schedule, and i never saw the place fill up. Usually there were 5-6 tables full after dinner. One of those was usually 3/6 limit and the others were 1/2 NL. I'd imagine the weekends are even juicier and you could probably make enough to survive (not a great life, but survive) by playing just on the weekends. I'm also told that the only time 2/5 NL filled up was on the weekend. I've never seen another game type start (though i'd love to start a Razz or 2-7 triple draw table sometime )

Also keep in mind that a lot of the players seem to come from across the mtns in Tenn. So whenever there's a road closing or bad weather the play up there really dries up. I had situations this winter where players seemed to just be sitting at the table because they had no where else to go and nothing else to do and that makes for an awful game. Others can vouch for how the games were when I-40 was closed for months as i avoided the casino the whole time. Just something to take into consideration if that's going to be your main source of income. On the good side, the casino handed out a lot of free rooms to the people there in those situations.

Thanks for the info Scott!

I live out in Raleigh and I think I'm gonna start heading up there every month or so for a weekend.

Someone mentioned they were shutting down for some upgrades? Is that just for the day or a more extended thing?

Here's to hoping the action is good, gotta find new ways to play in this brave new world

My wife and I brought home a grand profit after an eight hour session, and we were at the same table. You sound like you could probably be comfortable there and make what you need for the most part. Granted this was on a Saturday and not a week day.

That was completed. They wanted to upgrade the tournament software prior to their scheduled May events. You should be good to go from that stanpoint.

The good news is I think Asheville (great place to live) is probably both close enough to Cherokee and as close to Charles Town, WV as you can be in NC (7hrs). There are probably places that could save you an hour / hour and a half on that, but would be significantly further from cherokee. Seems like a good compromise on that front.

Another option would be to live in Charlotte (about 3 from cherokee) or Hendersonville (1.5) and go down to hit Jacksonville, FL regularly (5-6 hrs). Heard good things about those games as well. Also, Harrah's So. Indiana is about in that same 5-7 hr radius. Just a thought. Good luck.

Has anyone played in the Saturday a.m. tournament? Website says tournament begins with 5 tables - is that the max? Registration begins at 8 a.m. - what time should I arrive to guarantee entry? Thanks for the help.

Thanks for all the insight. I actually cant drive at the moment so that limits me a bit where I can get to and still keep it affordable. Have found buses that run to WVA and Cherokee pretty frequently from both Asheville, NC and Greensboro, NC if I get stuck living here. Unfortunately my girlfriend has a kid by her ex husband, which keeps us from moving more than 3 hours away from Greensboro, thats why Asheville started looking like the best bet since I know I can for certain make it to Cherokee enough times a week to grind out an existence. I guess if I meet enough people that travel regularly to the casinos I can probably bum a ride here and there til I have my license back. Cant seem to convince any of my poker friends that the Cherokee electronic tables will be worth it, so looks like its WV this weekend and Cherokee the next.

Awesome, thanks.

Have Friday off work, really leaning towards a one man excursion out to play a few days of poker =D

Is it worth going to harrahs at all during the week to play? Or only on the weekend? I looked up rooms on their website and pretty much all weekend rooms are locked up from now to who the **** knows when. Anyone have other recommendations for cheapish motels in the area for someone going solo?

Yeah I've thought about going there for about a year and I've never seen their hotel with vacancies... I'd also like to know what people recommend for hotels cause I might be grabbing one tomorrow!

I'm probably going to book a night at the microtel (for fri night, prob gonna leave early morning) which is 100 a night including tax. I couldn't really find anything cheaper which is kinda disappointing, I guess it only kinda sucks cause I'm going solo. Hit me up on AIM if you want to arrange something perhaps - mrquickfoot.

Will be getting there early friday morning (leaving now 2 hr drive). Will update games running as long as im there via twitter: http://twitter.com/therealgiggz