Quote:
Originally Posted by DeathDonkey
TDK - I am posting this publicly to maybe help others, not to be a jerk - I think you are very stuck in that allure of poker that causes many many people to be stuck being a small stakes pro. You feel you are just one good run away from living a very fun life with plenty of money and freedom, but it is quite hard to get out of the small / mid stakes these days as a pro. You have to make a lot at the tables just to pay life expenses and break even, rake isn't getting lower, games aren't getting softer, and if you do manage to go on a good run and move up, you are going to find tougher opposition too. I see a lot of guys in that situation at my home casino, some of them seem happy doing it, most of them seem pretty miserable and play 60 hours a week and drink a lot. Going out and doing some non poker job seems scary and awful, but the people I know that go that route by and large seem to feel pretty good when they start seeing some steady income roll in and get away from the poker dream / mirage. Poker is a great side hustle, its not a great job.
ps: if you want to play mix games, you need to surround yourself with some better players to learn from. Almost every pacific NW mix game player is really technically bad and I think its cuz they just all see how each other play and think that's "standard"
No offense taken. Just truth.
My biggest problem has always been I don’t play enough.
Since my first full year as a pro in 2017 I’ve only topped 160 hours in a month 11 times. Meanwhile, I’ve come in under 120 hours in a month 24 times (2020 excluded) and under 100 11 of those times. When I’m doing really well I get lazy and complacent and take extra time off. When I’m doing really poorly I struggle to find the motivation to play. When I was married, having that extra stable income and premium health insurance made a huge difference. Post-divorce not only did I have to hand over half my bankroll, but my monthly expenses have somehow gone up and it’s caught up to me. Then I followed all that up with my worst year as a pro.
I never really toyed with the idea of getting a job until last year. I’m open to it. But it’s hard to imagine finding something that pays as well as poker. Post-pandemic, my hourly in my three main games is just under $60. My hourly in 20/40 is $93. My hourly in 20/40 at Fortune is even higher. Yes, I know those last two numbers are absolutely bloated by run good but I’ve always been around a 1.5 BB/hr player in LHE so I think $60 is a good baseline. I just don’t know what I could do that pays like that. I’m not quite desperate enough to go searching for something, but I’m open to the idea of a career switch for sure.