Due to a series of recent misfortunes, I find myself in a position where I need to move away Georgia and grind live 2/5 NLHE full time. My life/poker roll is far from ideal but should be adequate for success if I put my nose to the grindstone. I’ve got a lifetime hourly of $30/hr over 2300 hrs (almost all of which are from Biloxi and Jacksonville), not too impressive but I know it’ll go up from being older/wiser, not playing stoned anymore, and living in a city with fishier games.

From everything I’ve been reading, the best current regions for poker are Vegas, Maryland, Philly, and South Florida. Problem is, I’ve never been to any of these places, let alone played in them. And I don’t really have the time or money to travel and feel them all out prior to deciding. I need to pick one and go.

My number 1 criteria is juiciness of games (plethora of deep-pocketed fish, games running all hours, good game selection).

Number 2 would be cost of living, including the important consideration of eating mostly comped casino meals. To be honest, that’s pretty much it. I’m not concerned with lifestyle or anything like that, cuz I don’t plan on having a life outside of poker for the next year or two anyway. A distant third criteria would be safety/crime/not getting followed home and murdered.

I’ve been reading up on all these places, but was hoping some players with experience in all these regions could chime in and make my decision easier.

I apologize for the similarity to the Bay Area/LA/Vegas thread, but obv my regional options are different.

Thanks in advance, 2p2!

hey man, i'm sorry to hear about your misfortunes, whatever they might be. I do want to stress to you that if you have been playing part time while holding a regular job, playing full time "FOR A LIVING" is a totally different animal, to say the very least. You really really need to be ready to do this, and not because of a series of misfortunes.

I'm not trying to be an *** hole. But it is what it is. Live full time poker, even with your win rate (which is not too bad based on that sample size but could be much better) is something that you should really only do once you are so far ahead in this game profit wise and you don't have to worry about money and living expenses for like 2 years. It's really easy for you now to say "Well, I lost my job. My girl (or boy haha) left me. I'm going to play poker full time finally". But the reality is, if you have never played as a sole means of income, about 40% of the time you are gong to come home feeling like **** because you dropped a buy in or three and you have rent due the next day. You have to hope and pray things will turn around for you, and trust me, this WILL interfere with your decisions on the table unless you have tons of expenses paid and tons of cash on hand (I mean like a hundred grand or more, which isn't hard for a good player).

So, as long as you understand that it is a totally different game playing for a living that will test your mental capacities, I would recommend playing at each location for a few months, then see which one you like best. I would suggest either MD (you can play MDL & Horseshoe Balt that has a bigger 2/5 game) or Fla. It's really about what location you prefer. Games are games and if you are good you can win in any game. No one can make that determination but you.

Good luck man

Living expenses alone should make Philly #4 on your list. Ranked by that criteria alone, I would rate them:

1- Fla
2- Vegas
3- MD
4- Philly

Vegas is by far the answer if your move is for poker and low cost lifestyle options.

CT should be added to your list of places to consider. Pretty low cost of living near Foxwoods & Mohegan. Games are consistently soft imho. Lots of punters. Both places comp most of their 2/5 regs quite well. Free hotel rooms (which you can sometimes sell to people), bonus comp dollars weekly, $2/hr for playing. Foxwoods black card (earned after you put in 500 hours over 75 days) gets $4/hr. Can spend the comp dollars on food in the resort or on other basics like clothes from their outlet mall.

I also think Vegas is definitely a contender and Philly/AC is probably not the best choice, but haven't experienced the other places on your list 1st hand. Agree that you should think short term 1st though and try out a couple different locales before settling in. Months are probably not necessary though, thinking more like days or weeks to see if you like a place

I appreciate the words of wisdom. I should've mentioned in the OP that I actually did play professionally for about 2 years. It was my sole means of income and trust me I am more than familiar with the sole-crushingness of it. But that's why I feel like I'm better tuned to succeed this time around. I learned a lot of lessons the hard way.

There are mainly 4 reasons I failed my first go-round as a pro:
1. LAZINESS - not putting in anywhere close to enough hours, traveling around to hang out with my friends, having a monster session and thinking I'd earned the next few days off, etc.
2. TOURNAMENTS - my skill set was honed for cash games, yet I kept chasing the big score and never hit it
3. LOCATION - I moved to Biloxi, which was kind of half-assing it. It was somewhere where I could play but still close enough to home. I didn't go for optimal poker value.
4. WEED - I was a huge pothead, often called it a day early to go home and get high, thus cutting into my hours. Eventually I made the even worse decision to start playing high. Disastrous results.

I can foresee myself continuing to struggle with #1 a little, but 2, 3, and 4 are absolutely corrected going forward. I've also written a very detailed poker "constitution" for myself with specific guidelines, BRM rules and milestones, goals, etc.

The biggest problem is that my life/poker roll is far from comfortable, so if things get off to a brutal start I might have to pick up part time work early on.

Thanks, HailSaban. Philly was kind of already in last place in my mind but hadn't ruled it out yet cuz I kept reading how sick the games at Parx are.

Vegas seems like the natural choice. It is the poker mecca after all. I was concerned there might be too many grinders and since the economy there ain't too good the locals might not be donating. But you've always got an influx of tourists and I'm hoping that the burgeoning poker scenes elsewhere have diluted the concentration of grinders in Vegas. Slightly concerned about some of the temptations in Vegas though. I need to stay focused.

Thanks, boom. For some reason I hadn't really considered CT. I think I kind of assumed that it was expensive and I remember hearing the games were tough there, but that was years ago. I'll look into it a little more.

Also I hate 10-handed games. Major knock on Maryland Live IMO.

Please make a PG&C thread when you do this so we can follow along. Good luck to you at the tables. Some good advice for you ITT.

I must be the only one who thinks that the average 2/5 game in Vegas can be tough. The last 5 or 6 2/5 sessions I've sat in Vegas, I got up and left in less than an hour because of all the regs at the table. There were few fish or soft spots to be found.

I've played 2/5 at the Rio, the Wynn, and Bellagio a few times over the last several months.

I'm from Maryland (Prince Georges County, 20 mins from MD Live) but I relocated to Vegas in Feb 2014. The biggest thing is going to be where you're comfortable cost of living wise. My cost of living in Vegas is 2.5x less than Maryland.

This pretty much leaves out Vegas. Almost all their poker rooms are on Bravo. Check this afternoon and evening and see how many 2/5 are going. You're going to want to put in as many hours as you can. You don't want 30 hour weeks because there were not enough good games running.

Never been to Maryland, but I would guess the cost of living is going to be higher there than FL. I would think safety is also lower in Maryland and Philly than FL. FL also has no state income tax, and taxes in general are likely lower than in megalopolis further north.

Las Vegas has more poker pros and wanna be poker pros who take the game seriously than any other location in the United States. Not somewhere I would want to move to to play poker.

But that doesn't mean they are all good lol. But the 2/5 level? Vegas is packed wall to wall with regular pros or wanna be pros at that level my friend. But maybe you are better than all of them. Doesn't hurt to try.

I appreciate all the responses. I will admit this is making me uneasy. I was heavily leaning Vegas but your input makes the games sound less than ideal. While I'm confident I would be significantly better than most of the grinders, I'm trying to avoid dick-measuring contests at this point. I'm aiming for straight-up profitability, terrible loose players, and flexibility to table select and play all hours of the day.

My very successful poker pro friend in South Florida says action is best in Vegas or Maryland and would pick one of those right now if he had to start anew. Very frustrating getting so much mixed info.

I'd rather not have to sink a significant amount of my life/poker roll into traveling costs just to test them out for a week or two each. Sounds like I may have to bite the bullet and do just that.

Is the concentration of 2/5 grinders in Vegas as bad now as it was a few years ago? I assumed with poker booming all over the east coast now that some of those guys might've relocated away from Vegas, and that new pros who otherwise might've picked Vegas could now stay closer to home.

The thing about vegas is the variety of potential games. If you see some regs then just go out the door less than a block and check out next game. Having plenty of 1/2 games around to 'reload' is a plus there too. I would pick up a cabbie job or something too just to get the low down on things a coiple days a week. Soft 5/10 is also hard to find and vegas has the best potential for that.

No expert here but vegas and florida seem to be the top 2

I do not understand. Please explain how this is possible.

I don't think Bensalem is a bad choice you have Parx and Sugar House right there with AC and Sands a one hour drive. Looks like you can get an apartment for around $800. Also Maryland live is two hours when you want to make a road trip. Parx runs the Deep Stack series often which is a cheap shot at a big pay day.
Good luck

Okay, hold on before you make a decision. Do yourself a favor and match each poster's feedback against the substance of his post history. (pig4bill and answer20 can be trusted. Other players who obviously can't beat $1/2 are telling you that the $2/5 games are tough. Like no ****.)

Also this. You can not be 2.5x less than something. That is not an English sentence.

Are you seriously saying that you believe the cost of living is lower in SoFla than it is in Vegas? As someone who has lived in both Las Vegas and Miami (and DC/MD for that matter), and actually spent several years spending six months in LV and six months in Miami, I can tell you that your belief is absolutely incorrect.

Pretty much everything is cheaper in Las Vegas, not just housing. Restaurants are cheaper, groceries are cheaper, getting your car fixed is cheaper, hiring trades people (plumbers, electricians, etc.) is cheaper, and so on. And since the OP wants to rely on comps for some (or all) meals, the comps in Vegas are much better, thus potentially making his cost of living even lower there.

Don't get me wrong, I love South Florida (especially Miami Beach), and the poker here is phenomenally good, but it does cost much more to live here than to live in Vegas.

5 sessions of less than an hour? Solid research.

what the good players fortunately don't have to worry about are "the regs". Because they are all easily exploitable and most of them suck to begin with. smh

if you can only beat the fish, you should look to improve your game first before relocating to where all the fish (and low cost of living) are. (not directed to the op).

Are you saying there aren't multiple $2/5 games running around the clock at various casinos? I would think if there's anywhere on Earth you'd be guaranteed to find a few 2/5 games whenever you want, it'd be Vegas. Is Maryland or FLA better for this? I'll def start regularly checking Bravo every day to get an idea.

This is what I'm looking for. I figure Vegas is the #1 spot for POTENTIAL for great games to randomly manifest. Drunk gamblers, rich businessman whales randomly sitting down and max buying, etc. But I've never been to Vegas, so I'm wondering if this is all in my head, the idea I've painted in my mind based on movies and preconceived notions of Vegas.

What do you mean by "having 1/2 games to reload?" I'm definitely not looking to play 1/2 myself unless dire circumstances arise. Do you mean for me to reload my bankroll, or that the 2/5 games will constantly be reloaded with players wandering over from 1/2?