For me, I don't mind the slower pace of live poker. Everyone is in a rush these days.

I'm 39 with 3 daughters (8,5, and 2 weeks) - any chance I get to sit at a table and just have quiet and enjoy something and relax is +EV for me.

Which reminds me, I'm 40 next week - maybe I can get out for my birthday and play some.

The interesting thing is that if you're sitting at a table getting 15 hands per hour, you're probably sitting at a very good table. When you're sitting at a table getting ~twice as many as that, it's likely that table isn't remotely as good.

Gbasically+1toeveryonewhosaidkeepthejobandhavepoke rhasafunrechobbyonthesideG

As long as you don't end up with the players who behave like they are 8, 5, or 2 weeks.

it can be really fun or really boring
a table with 8 people wearing headphones, tanking etc is torture (and not very profitable)

a table with interesting funny people telling good stories preferably drinking is a lot of fun (and usually profitable)

most tables are a mix of the 2.

if you're playing low stakes no limit there is really no reason to ever have to play a boring table.

basically nobody in public casinos is making 300k a year from poker so i'm not sure where you got that number from.

I bet there are a bunch of people making 300k in any one year, all they really need to do is bink two major tournaments or run +3 sigma in a midstakes game.

What you mean is that basically nobody should expect to win 300k a year from poker long term.

Slower paced? I don't know -- I don't play online poker other than the freebie poker (oops I mean bingo buffoon poker) apps on my phone. But live poker provides many things to entertain you while you're waiting for the action to get back to you:

Watching grandstanders that have to wait until the action is on them to hollywood whatever action they're going to take or not take.

Playing "what's that smell?". Is it a guy with skunk breath from not eating or failing basic oral hygiene? Is it the guy who is farting his taco dinner in morse code? Is it the guy who hasn't bathed this week? Or is it all three? (My high score so far is from the guy who leaned back in his chair, spread his legs and started fanning the legs of his baggy polyester shorts so that the smell of his musty junk wafted across the table).

Playing "Hop Skip Chip" by watching the shifty guys at the table and trying to catch them in chip deceit: either skimming from their stack to go south, palming and adding large denomination chips when make large or all in bets, or best yet, co-opting some of their neighbor's chips.

Playing "Dodge the Drunk" -- you know, the guy who's almost ready to puke on the table, but somehow keeps getting lucky with his 9 3 OS preflop all in.

Learning to chime in with "it's your turn" on "action's on you" with the rest of the players while the headphoned table twit fiddles with his phone every time action is on him -- and has ignored the dealer's three reminders to act (yes, there needs to be a live poker rule that if you have knowingly reduced your ability to follow the action with headphones or dark sunglasses or other means and you fail to act or acknowledge that action is on you within 10 seconds of it being your action, then you have automatically checked or folded).

This is all in addition to the normal types of human interaction: people trying to start arguments over politics, couples arguing over the other's actions during a hand (or losing money), guys trying to tell the same boring bad beat story for the 423rd time (there seems to be a rule that the more boring the details, the longer the story), and sports chit chat.

This. OP would have to have untapped world-class poker talent, discipline, and work ethic for a higher earning potential at poker. There are a myraid of reasons to quit your day job for the relative freedom poker offers. Rarely is economics one of them

I get a kick out of 'the relative freedom poker offers.' The pros that I see are glued to their seats for 2,500/hrs+/yr.

Yes that's what I meant. You phrased it a lot better than I did.

then they're doing it wrong. if you play 1/2 nl you probably have to play that much to make decent money. if you play 5/10nl/5/5plo+ you 1)don't have to 2) there aren't 2500 hours worth of good games to play anyway

Lol at having to be a savant or genius to beat small stakes live poker. You just need to select the right tables and be in the right frame of mind.

Not sure what you mean by decent money, but in order to gross $100,000 at +5 bb/hr 5/10 NL, you'd have to play 2,000 hours.

No Limit Hold Em: Hours of boredom followed by moments of sheer terror

Seriously though, I much prefer live to online. The conversation is enjoyable and the speed helps me analyze my own play more clearly as well as that of others.

Yeah, I always laugh at the freedom part too, especially when the most profitable hours (and the ones you need to be glued to your chair) are mostly the ones where all regular jobbed people are out having a good time / enjoying life.

GcluelessfreedomnoobG

The real pro simply plays the bigger higher variance game for 200 hours and simply runs really good so that he doesn't need to put in the hours.

GwinkyfaceG

It's still a choice most people don't have. Regular jobbed people must work a predetermined schedule and get disciplined/fired for deviating from it without notice. Poker players can choose to go into work two hours late, two hours early or take the day off without notice. Of course there may be an opportunity cost in the form of lost potential income for missing prime hours, but oftentimes the opportunity cost of playing those prime hours is higher. The freedom comes from being able to have your job be flexible around your life, rather than your life be flexible around your job. If I've got family in town and they want to go to dinner or my girlfriend wants to go on a date with me on Friday 8:00 pm you won't see me in the poker room.

If you miss work too many times you completely lose your source of income. A poker player only misses income on the hours/days he chooses not to play.

Meh, this isn't totally true these days. I've worked white collar jobs for Fortune 500 companies for 7 years and for the most part as long as you get your work done, coming in late/working from home/taking days off with little advance notice is fine. The notion of punching the clock in a professional job is fairly antiquated IME. Of course there are some where you still need to stick to the script (lawyer, consultant) but at least you usually get paid handsomely for it.

Job dependent of course, but a lot of jobs are flexible in this regards, especially with advanced warning. Not sure the "without notice (for non-emergencies)" (you live a different lifestyle than me if you feel the need to invoke this very often) makes up for every other benefit (paid holidays, medical, etc.).

Gbuteachtotheirown,whatdoIcareG

Well, this wasn't about pros/cons of poker vs. regular job, just specifically about "lol at poker players having more freedom," unless you really meant "lol at additional freedom compensating enough for other negative factors."

You and Joe are right that a lot of jobs allow more flexibility now. It would be nice to have actual statistics on it, but I would guess that a significant majority of jobs still have a pretty rigid scheduling. There's a reason it's a nightmare to try to drive anywhere around 5:00 pm.

While I don't choose to take off days I was planning on playing very often, I go into work at a different time almost every day.

~40% of the time he loses income on the days he chooses TO play.

true but you can make more than 50 dollars an hour in good games. i consistently have for the last 5-6 years and i'm not even that good. if i played 2000 hours a year surely my hourly would be less than it is now and i'd burn myself out.

it also helps to be able to play multiple games well.
i mostly play plo now but when i see a really good 5/10 nl game i jump in.
when i was playing closer to half plo half nl i would always just play whichever game was better.

for me brute forcing 2000-2500 hours in a year at higher stakes games isn't a good idea.

i do the bulk of my playing during tournament series-the games are better, you have a better selection of games and can get a lot more good quality hours in per day. then i can **** off and do what i want for a few weeks, go on vacation etc. all hours aren't the same.

another advantage-albeit not a huge one your expenses per hour played are also a lot less this way.

at the end of the day everyone should figure out what works best for them.

I had one of the most flexible jobs ever in that I worked from home 3-4 days a week and even when I went into the office I was only there for a few hours. But there were always meetings to call into and people instant messaging you so you still always felt handcuffed. At least I did, and now ever since I semi retired I've felt like an eagle soaring through the air

I'm like to be sociable so the slowness of playing live doesn't bother me