Just getting back into it after a several year lay off from playing. I am moving to Vegas later this month and I receive a retirement from the military. My question is while building a bank roll I plan on working part time. I know the 6 months living expense, how much does my retirement play into this calculation? My retirement is enough to meet my minimum expenses to live. So I assume I only have to focus on building a bank roll and not living expenses? Great site BTW with I had known about it when I was playing previously.

imo It is your comfort level for both living expenses and poker bankroll. The important play is to keep them separate. Like you mentioned, have 6 months living expenses safe and 100 buy ins on hand for your poker br.

if you are playing live in vegas you should be winning most times you sit down or you cant beat the games and rake. so your other money shouldnt come into play.

most people that are not really good players that move to vegas play small stakes and fritter away their retirement money then keep playing and lose just enough to have enough left to stay alive. dont do this please.

Yeah, if your retirement checks are going to cover your living expenses, then you don't have to worry about saving for living expenses in advance.

1) Good that you don't have to make money to 'live' ... use the 'monthly' money to survive and (hopefully) use the poker money to have some extra fun.
2) Good that you are going to have a distraction (job) some of the time ... split this somehow between home and poker.
3) As with your living expenses, set a weekly/monthly budget for your poker BR as well. It's too easy in Vegas to start chasing losses. Perhaps with a military background you will have the discipline to stick to your stop gaps.

4) Find a few (at least 2-3) places to play that have a good comp program (if there are any) and then 'speculate' at other rooms on weekends or when 'action' is in town. Treasure Island is one room that takes care of regs based on hours played each week. I saw at least 2 players that just sit there and read/ipad their way to a weekly profit!

Have fun .. build the bankroll .. you've earned it .. GL

Generally you're right, though I'd make sure you have enough money put away for a rainy day. You never know when illness or some unforeseen circumstance will strike. Just be careful.

I might suggest initially keeping poker money separate if your job pays for the rest of your life. That's what I do. Use the money to build your bankroll til you get to a level where your poker dividends pay for your lifestyle. Parse out $6000 and build it up playing $1/$2 to $10,000, then move up to 1/3. Build that up to $21,000, then move up to 2/5. Build that to $42,000 and move to 5/10. Take a shot once you hit the prescribed money level and if you miss, drop back down til you get back to that amount of money and take a shot again.

If you run into a wall and can't progress no matter what you do...you've hit your max level. Can you live comfortably off the income your poker play generates at this level? If yes, quit day job. If no, don't and use poker to supplement your income.

If you're playing at the starting 1/2 level and go bust for $6000, then I would probably decide poker wasn't for me as anything other than recreation.