By poker_boy | 6 Comments
Last updated: Tuesday, March 8, 2011 | 90 Views Tags: birds, bullshit, drastic changes, live games, newbie, online games, playing poker, smoking weed, tunica
This week’s question is as follows:
Also, I was being very broad when I said playing online for a living. My game is Texas Hold ‘em, but any poker advice will do.
As for bankroll, it depends. Can you multitable ring games profitably? If you are consistently averaging 3BB/hour profit*, then, if you are playing 2/4 NLHE, you will be making $12/hr at each table. Play 4 tables, that’s $48/hr. (Some of the time.) Play 21 hours a week at that rate, you make your $1000/wk. For 2/4 NL, you should have a bankroll of about $8000. More really, because as a pro, you need more of a cushion for those times when variance slams you. If you are a loose aggressive player, you will have more variance, so will need more of a bankroll. You could go weeks or months losing pretty much all the time. Yes, even as a good player. It happens. And you absolutely need the discipline to use good bankroll management, and be able to go down a level when your bankroll gets too low to play the game you want to. That will also mean more hours to play a week, but you gotta do what you gotta do, and you gotta do the smart thing. If you are a pro, you cannot lose your bankroll.
You should also have 6 months-1 year’s worth of living expenses put aside. If you need $1000/wk for living, that’s $30k-50k. You should make that ahead of time, playing poker.
Don’t forget that you need to set aside 1/3 of your winnings for taxes. So add more hours per week. Now you are up to 31 hours a week grinding, with probably $10k-15k to play with and your $50k set aside for living expenses, which you do not touch for poker ever.
*If you are serious about playing online poker for a living, I am sure you already have PokerTracker or holdem manager and are very clear how much you actually make. If you are not making a profit now, and have a good sample of over 500k+ hands, you need to work on your game before you even consider this move. If you have those stats, you will also have a good idea when is a good time to play and what your best game actually is. It may not be the game you enjoy the most. But fun is not the primary factor when you are playing for a living. Profit is.
Playing poker for a living is not easy. It’s not a lot of fun. But, that said, you’d better enjoy the game or it will just be grim.
Mike Smith
March 8, 2011
Sounds like a plan.
March 8, 2011
That is…the life.
March 8, 2011
Well, first of all you do NOT know whether you are going to be profitable online. You haven’t quoted any figures for your online win rates to date, so I assume you don’t have any. Online is much harder to beat than live.
Not until you have a positive win rate 50 000+ hands of cash play or 1500+ SNG’s or 3000+ MTT’s you be reasonably sure that you are a winning player, let alone having an accurate idea of your win rate.
Until then, completely forget any hopes of becoming a professional. You simply cannot start from the beginning with the assumption that with enough training you will get there in the end. Very few people have what it takes to go pro.
Play for a hobby. Devote 10-20 hours a week to playing online and studying the game, while you continue with whatever else you are doing with your life at the moment.
If, a few months or years down the line, you are consistently making enough to live on, then you might just consider whether you have what it takes to go pro.
If you ever DO get to that stage, you should have a year’s worth of living expenses in the bank, in addition to a bankroll of at least 100 buy-ins for the stakes you play before you make the leap to quitting your day job.
It has been said many times that poker is a hard way to make an easy living.
I’m at uni, and I play enough poker (and am good enough) to make roughly what I would make in a part time job.
But my point is that playing 15-20 hours a week is more than enough for me.
I long ago accepted that I do not have what it takes to play poker professionally. It’s a grind. Even though I love poker, most of the time. Even though I only play 15-20 hours a week, and in a situation where I do not depend on the money I make (it would be pain if I stopped making money, but I wouldn’t starve or anything), the periods of bad beats really get to me; the careful, studious multi tabling which results in me breaking even after hundreds of hours of play, because sometimes the the cards just don’t fall right for weeks on end.
I would simply not be able to handle the bitter frustration of the down swings if I knew I depended on that money.
Maybe you are different, maybe you have the discipline and mental fortitude to go pro.
The fact that you are asking this in YA, and asking in all seriousness whether you think weed and poker is a good mix suggests to me that you do not have what it takes.
March 8, 2011
I spent six years playing poker for a living. I would guess about 90% of that was online. I did it the wrong way. My bankroll was between $500 and $1000 when I quit my job. There were a lot of times where I had the rent money on the table, but I liked it. I wouldn’t recommend that.
Most people suggest that you have six months or more of rent and bills saved up and a healthy bankroll.
For me, if I needed to make $1000 a week, I think a $5000 bankroll would be enough. If I was playing limit I would play 4 5/10s and for nl I would play 4 nl200s. Better advice would be to have a $10,000 roll and $5000 in the bank.
As far as weed goes, I smoked weed 99% of the days I played cards. I have never really had a problem with weed making me worse at things. I know I play pool a lot better when I am stoned and I made str8 a’s in school smoking weed before class and tests. Beware of alcohol, it has cost me thousands.
March 8, 2011
Weather you can make a living at it?? Will speak for it self. Weed effects everyone different. I know I concentrate better. Read people better and enjoy the game more when stoned. Also I can hide my red eyes behind sunglasses without looking weird at a poker table.. LOL
March 8, 2011
I like your theory James, but I intentionality didn’t put my success numbers on here bc I know there would be to many nay sayers. Smoked all night and profited five hundred last night. Not to bad for someone who don’t have what it takes ;). I do appreciate the input though!