Moving to Hawaii

[TStoneMBD]

Say that a player is beating PP15 for 2BB/100, 4tabling 25 hours a week. He wants to move to Hawaii and play poker for a living down there.

How much money do you think he would need to start with in order for him to live comfortably, while maintaining a proper bankroll, along with being able to fly out to visit family once or twice a year? Let's assume that he will rent a 2BR apartment.

It doesn't have to be in one of the more expensive parts of the island, as long as he lives in a populated area.

What do you think his monthly expenses would be?

[Aukai]

I'm from a rural part of Oahu, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms that you better be crushing those games you're playing to live comfortably there.

Doesn't help that the median home price is over half a mil now- http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2005/01/31/daily43.html . Apartments are real expensive too. That said, it's possible. Difficult, but possible.

But it's just the price of paradise. Can't wait to go back for good.

[jdl22]

Drink much milk? I've seen milk at Safeway for over $6 a gallon.

I don't know apartments there well but other things - food, gas etc are quite expensive. My guess is that you could get a decent place somewhere more rural and live reasonably cheap. Perhaps you should look into housing on the big island.

[pshreck]

Not many cows on the islands?

[jdl22]

Not sure. I've seen cows there and I've heard quite a few Hawaiian songs about local cowboys but I doubt that there is enough milk being produced to sustain the entire islands. I'm quite sure that's true for O'ahu it's possible there are larger farms on some outer islands.

[soah]

What happened to Atlantic City?

[TStoneMBD]

atlantic city is the safe route, and the route ill most likely take. hawaii definitely sounds like the place id rather live though. its definitely unlikely ill be able to live out the dream, at least any time soon, but would like to know if its at least possible.

i dont drink much milk, the women down there produce breastmilk right? that should be enough to hold me over.

[M2d]

mostly beef cattle. not many dairys there.

[M2d]

a whole lot depends on what you mean by "live comfortably". do you want to buy a house or rent? do you want to go out and party a lot or are you more into cheaper entertainment (hiking, biking, surfing, etc).
if that's a sustainable win rate, you can do alright there. do you have something to fall back on later, or do you plan to play internet poker for the rest of your life? There's no legalized gambling there, so B&M play isn't an option.

that said, I'm from a pretty rural part of Oahu as well, and I think you can find a decent 3 br house for 400k. everything gets more expensive as you get closer to town (except for destination locations like the mansions on the beach on the north shore, etc).
also, how committed are you to playing? there are going to be a lot of days when you look outside, think about the waves and want to say screw it for the poker for the day.

[TStoneMBD]

definitely renting. i plan on playing poker for a while, but i definitely want to put myself in a position where i can retire early through another field. if my entire profit of poker is going to be spent on monthly expenses, then it aint worth it. if my monthly expenses surpass 6k then thats too much imo.

[thatpfunk]

Why not LA/ Southern California?

[pshreck]

What do/did you do professionally before poker?

[jdl22]

OK.

I remember there is a farm/ranch near pipeline which I was told was part of some kind of ag program at UH. Thinking about it they weren't dairy cows.

[TStoneMBD]

im 20. ive never worked a day in my life.

LA sounds enticing, ive been considering that. im almost certain im moving to NJ this year, or the start of next year. all these talks about LA and Hawaii though are just long term thoughts.

[Six_of_One]

My brother lives in Honolulu. I think people exaggerate when they talk about how expensive it is to live in Hawaii...his rent is really cheap, he only pays like $825 for a one-bedroom.

[ChoicestHops]

Ive heard the cost of living is pretty high. I dont know why you would want to rent when you could buy somewhere else.

Here a one-bedroom is $450/mo and these are the nicer apartments in town. Lower cost of living rocks.

[M2d]

there's a wierd thing in hawaii real estate where the lower end to mid range is pretty low and stable, but the mid-high to upper end is crazy. same goes for rentals.
COL isn't as bad as people think, but I live in the bay area, so i think i'm over sticker shock.

as an example, gas is probably similarly priced here and there. it's usually a few cents cheaper in the bay area, but sometimes it's more expensive. however, the amount you drive in the bay area is way more than in hawaii, so your gas expenses are actually more in SF.

also, heating bills are non-existant (although you may need AC at times). food is more expensive, but, if you shop smart (away from tourist areas) it's not as bad as you'd think.

[M2d]

if you rent a one br in a decent area and don't have car payments, your monthly nut should be about 1.5K. maybe less.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
Drink much milk? I've seen milk at Safeway for over $6 a gallon.

[/ QUOTE ]

Milk has gone through the roof here too. It's around $5/gallon.

[wonderwes]

Do you prefer live games or online play? I am jealous how many freaking card rooms I read about in Cali. Cali seems like a great place to live (if you pick the right place). Why must Texas be surrounded by horrid poker playing states? (NM,OK,LA)

[DeezNuts]

[ QUOTE ]
Ive heard the cost of living is pretty high. I dont know why you would want to rent when you could buy somewhere else.

Here a one-bedroom is $450/mo and these are the nicer apartments in town. Lower cost of living rocks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Honolulu vs. Little Rock....hmmm....I don't know why either.

DN

[billyjex]

If I ever decided to play poker for a living, I would definetely be moving to southern Cali.

Even though you could probably sustain a good living just online, it would be nice to be able to go to Commerce and play in those (from what I read) very juicy high limit games. Also, you would be close to much of the tournament action in LA, Vegas and the Bay Area.

Good weather, lots of things to do as well. Traffic is horrid, however.

[AgentBishop]

I live in hawaii right now because of the military and I think it sucks. You'll want to move back after 6 months just like I did. Island fever is not a joke. You have to pay second day air on almost anything you want to order online. I had to pay $60 in shipping just for poker chips. That sucks. Milk is over 6 bucks a gallon no matter where you shop. OJ is like 5 as well. Anything where rent is under $1K is a dump, plain and simple. Im sure there are exceptions though. But if you can get a couple room mates in a 3BR house or apt and one of them is military so you can shop in the commisary (milk is 3.50 a gallon there and all the locals are always looking for "friends" to take them. Little venting there, sorry.) and you drive a motorcyle to save on gas (2.20+ for the cheap stuff) then it should be more than doable i guess. But unless you really LOVE surfing and the beaches go somewhere else! After 6 months its just another place to live that sucks when you want to order something off the internet or visit your familly off-island.

[TStoneMBD]

thank you.

[AgentBishop]

A couple of other things. Customer service here REALLY sucks! No one cares. Hang loose, and they MEAN it! They also find it necessary to really over price things here for some reason too. For instance, you know the cheapo 11.5 gram chips you can get a set of 500 all day long for under $70 in the mainland (dont say "the states" btw) well try $160 here. Oh the pet shops here somehow find a way to justify paying $850+ for a MIXED BREED dog. WTF!! And don't try and BRING your pet without checking the quarantine requirements(yeah they have that). Could get really expensive. One last thing, they will steal your vehicle or any other thing they can touch as fast as humanly possible.

[sublime]

stone-

the same things have been crossing my mind recently. IMO, moving to a palce that doesnt offer casino poker is a mistake. especially one as far away as hawai. granted its gorgeous, but internet poker is not the most stable occupation.

cali would be my first choice. followed by vegas (cheap living i think).

[ChoicestHops]

Little Rock sucks.

I just dont understand why you would want to move to a somewhat area of high cost of living like Hawaii (unless you already live in Boston or something) and be renting.