I "think" I'm a good player (lol) and I am considering playing fulltime at 3 local area casino's that get decent tourist traffic with weak to medium strength players.

Online players like to talk in terms of 3 bb per 100 hands as a decent rate of return.

My question is, do live players do better then this and what kind of hourly return should I consider decent for a live 2/5 game with a $10 rake hourly.

This of course assuming that I am on my A game and no leaks.

Thanks



Mods, I repeating this question from the brick and morter thread because I was unsure where it should be.

If you are a very good player, maybe you can get 10bb per 100 hands. Live games are really slow, so consider yourself extremely lucky if you see 30-40 hands per hour. That means you can expect around 3-4bb/hr or in the case of 2/5, $15-$20/hr.

Would this be after the rake net ($15-$20 per hour) to me ??

No way. Maybe 10 ptbb/100 at a live game for a good player but a moderatly good player can profit 5ptbb/100 at the local, live games Ive seen. 10ptbb/100 is 20BB/100. That would mean about $33/hr.

It is easier to beat live for 10ptbb/100 even after tipping and rake is included than it is to beat online for that rate. But since you can multi table online many people see a high $/hr online than live even with the considerably smaller bb/100 they win.

I would bet you could make $20-30/hr after rake and tipping if you really are a good player.

I like this. It's tough to put a live winrate into ptbb/100 and to compare it with online winrates because of the huge differences in rake.

Are we talking 2/5NL 200max or 500max?

Jason, thanks for the input

Raze, 2/5NL 500max


There are so many plays that I'm able to take advantage of (that work) live that I just cant do online, so it would make sense to me that the ROI would be much higher but I wasn't 100% sure if it is true or just me telling myself that. lol

Live games - its hourly rate, not bb/100. Just simpler to think about rather than going an extra step with unnecessary assumptions. Hourly rate is what (even online) you should always be maximizing, bb/100 is just nice because of the variable of # of tables online.

Question - are you referring to Atlantic City or to another venue?

It is definitely possible to beat those 2/5 games for a living, especially if you can play extended sessions on the three core days (Fri-Sun). I've been playing that game semi-professionally for a couple years now, so I know that people (not that many though) can make a living there. I prefer the semipro route at least as a starting point - you get to see if you can really hack it or if you want to hack it as a pro live player, with fallback.

Wouldn't be a live pro unless you are playing pretty high.

Cost of gas, tipping the dealer, slow hands, higher rake, etc.

Drama - I play in and around the Toronto area in the summers and LV in the winters. Toronto has 3 Indian casinos and 2 large ones withing 1.5 hour drives.

ICmoney - Yes the drive time, gas, tips etc... are really a nu sense

So far this week has been about $25 per hour average (very small sample size I know) but when I play I can play 10:00 - 7:00 or 8 hours per day.

I move from casino to casino depending on the crowds (looking for the most tourist action)

I haven't tried this in LV yet but I think it will be tougher there for sure but who knows.

I just wanted to get an ideal of what people would consider bad, good and great live 2/5 hourly returns.

Thanks for the input everyone and please feel free to add.