yea an extra $10k would be nice

I disagree with those saying 16K isn't enough. I know someone who started playing w/ an 8Kish roll. Started playing 2/5 and then moved to 5/10 quickly. Now he plays 5/10 & 10/20 and is doing well. Others have had just 20 BIs and have been playing for a few years.

I've run into better games, and more solid wins on the weekdays often than the weekends. It's quite counterintuitive.

Grinding full time can suck a lot. It's important to have a few escapes.

This!

If you are a good player offcourse.

Sometimes people jump out of airplanes and don't die.

I'm one of those who's saying 16k is not enough. My reasoning is that he doesn't actually have 16k to play with, because he doesn't have a "living roll" which should always be 6 months. His actual playing bankroll is therefore somewhere between 6k and 7k, if we separate it out on that criteria.

OP's question is about playing for a living, where failure is not an option. Sure, 6 months plus 2000 big blinds seems a bit conservative. However, we need to be conservative when we're talking about staking our livelihood on a game of chance. Variance of the game -- and variance of life itself -- must not be discounted lightly. Downswings happen, and bad life events happen.

To that end, any meaningful bankroll advice should never begin with "I know a guy who . . . ." The math of RoR means that some marginally good player might stick with 2 buy ins while an incredible player goes busto with 20 buy ins. The idea is that you can NEVER make your RoR equal to zero. All you can do (assuming you're a profitable player) is make it very small by having a large bankroll.

I don't know. Being a good player helps, but when you're playing/running badly, this could be kind of thin.

is the 16k the total amount of money you have including your living expenses, or is it just strictly a poker bankroll? It might be cutting it close (also depends on your standards of living) but i usually like to save atleast 6 month's rent just so that i can make sure i have a roof over my head even through the worst downswings.

There are not a lot of games going at 6 a.m. but the ones that are going are better than average, sometimes fantastic.

get a good rakeback deal and grind online half of the time. the rb will be like a crappy paid pt job, but at least you can count on that money.

DB Cooper may or may not be around to concur with this!

I read an article the other day that compared the rakeback deals for Full Tilt and the VIP program for PokerStars and that once you reach GoldStar level on Pokerstars you're getting the same as Full Tilt. One you advance higher than that level, you're getting more than Full Tilt.

Was an interesting article if I can find it again.


To the OP, good luck.. you sound like you're where I want to be in the next year or two. Just finishing my degree at ASU and sharpening my skills before taking on the task.

Try to cut costs ... Don't over tip

Eh I'd stick to live

also you don't need to play past 3 am ... I mean if the games is crazy good go for it... But playing from 8 pm - 3am is still real good and you'll have a better life


Also tell us more about yourSelf... Age? single?

This.

The nice thing with hanging around to around 3am, is that most of the drunks are going to roll in by then and you are going to know if the game is going to stay good by 3am. No need to stick around until 6am-8am if you already know at 3am there are no drunks in the game. The number of times a crazy spewtard joins the game after you leave will be few and far between. Again if you have made friends with the staff and spread the tips around you can always get a call when that spewtard comes in at 4am...

wait so you really tipmfloor people... I never even think about it

Why not play loose 1-2 games, and occasionally get up and walk over to the 2-5 and see if there are any good loose 2-5 games. Move to the 2-5 when it looks good.

IMO I think one of the things I haven't seen mentioned in the "is the 16K enough bankroll discussion" is that this isn't a guy who is thinking about going pro and wondering if he should grind his day job for another couple of months before he quits. This is a guy in a tough spot, in a ****ty economy and is playing out of necessity. In that case, what you got is what you got.

Of course a PT job would be the best route to make the transition, and a 20K+ bankroll would be the best route for bankroll safety, but if you find yourself with 16K and no job with no way of getting one, guess what, 16K is your total Life Roll and you do your best to not go broke.

GL OP

D

34 single Its kinda hit n miss playing till 6 or 7am ...I'm sometimes amazed at some of the characters that stagger into the poker room at 4 or 5 and dump off 6 or seven hundred bucks in like an hour.

Quick example from sat morning 5am at Mirage ...OJ Simpson lookalike w/ an Orleans poker Room windbreaker on ....a local ? I guess? not sure?

Looked like he had a few cocktails in him but not wasted, has a couple of cognacs at the table .

OJ loses his first buyin playing just about every hand in about 1/2 hr...I get none of it...

dude rebuys and i get into hand with him... calls an initial reraise and check/calls 2 pot sized bets to the river ...I've got AK on a A,K,2,9,X Rainbow no probable straight...i'm like WTF is this guy holding? guy bets $7 into a $300 pot ???????

Put him allin for his lat $80 dude calls and says. ".. UHHH you got it I got nothing" and shows 8, 5 os he really had nothing.....this kinda stuff only happens in the wee hours at least thats been my exp

yea 16 was my total roll its now 18 had a good wknd

Is any tip an over tip?

Maybe he can think of stiffing the dealers as a second job. Let's say that he wins four hands an hour and he's playing eight hours a day (let's also figure that he takes Sunday off)...

That's almost $200 a week! There's the part-time job people were talking about! (except that you don't have to work the extra hours)

Hey, you can cut other costs too:

Live in your car.

Wash your ass in the casino bathroom.

Eat other peoples' leftovers.

Rummage through the garbage for salvageable food.

Check out the shelters and food kitchens.

Find a girlfriend to mooch off of.

Steal a dress, become someone's girlfriend, mooch off of them.

lol good post any way you take it.

Keep $4800 (3 mos) as emergency money. Use the rest as bankroll. Play $1/2 till you have 40 2/5 Buyins then move up, but take shots at juicy games in between, especially late at night on weekends with drunks....

No, not if you are a live only player, now is not the time to try to learn online. It's apples and oranges

I have been to Vegas on 5 seperate trips and have made a lot more money at 1/2 than the 2/5. The games seem so much softer at 1/2 and this seems to fit your bankroll better. The last time I was at Ceasars, about a month ago, there were 6 tables of 1/2 going and only one table of 2/5 and everyone at the 2/5 were very solid players. I grinded out a win of $100 in like 5 hours then went over to Mandalay Bay and won $500 in 2 hrs at 1/2. Just an example but that's just my observation.