Hi,

How much does living costs affect the level of a player pool at 1/2 ? Lets say a smaller city with ~500k people in Spain, Portugal or maybe even Prague vs UK or similar. I mean you can have a decent side/main income playing 1/2 somewhere with average paycheck not much more than 1k. That's not the case in wealthy citys. Just a rent can easily be more than 1k.
So I expect to be less regs around unless its London with 24/7 games and stunning table selection. London is even more expensive than rest of the UK tho. I realise it's not always so easy, clear. But on average? Tell me about your experience please!

Wrong forum, but I believe this is the primary reason online poker (particularly with non-segregated player pools) is so difficult.

I've always taken a different approach to this thought process.

If someone wants to play poker, they will. No matter what it means to their every day life. They may not be able to play as often, but they will play .. and they will be a 'Reg'. Most Regs are playing with 'income' but maybe just not 'disposable' income every time they sit down.

What you need to look at from location to location is the mind set of each Player. If you can sit down and figure out who is actually 'aware' that they are playing for tanks of gas/tires and/or rent/utility payments instead of BB, then you will have an advantage over them in certain polarizing spots since they will be thinking dollars instead of ranges.

Due to circumstances you may find a Player waiting to play a higher stake attempting to just run a table over because they think they are superior due to the cash in their pocket. You can figure a whole different strategy for those Players.

So the answer to your question is .. Yes .. Living expenses have an impact on the Player Pool. But, IMO, the affect is multi-way since they can't play as often and when they do play they aren't fulling committed to do what they have to do to play the 'right way'. GL

Even in USA#1, the amount of money changing hands in even a low-stakes poker game is baffling to non-gamblers. As poker players, we get very used to it, but when I mention a win or loss of over $1,000, it blows my colleagues' minds and they think I'm a total degen.

Haha so true. Even my wife does this, I stopped attempting to explain things to her a long time ago. She gets the win/loss total when the month is over now