Quit my day job?

[CostaRicaBill]

I'm looking to put a couple hundred dollars into an internet poker site and play 1/2 - 3/6 but mostly 2/4.
I know very little about all the different sites. Could someone give me some advice regarding these factors.

- Assuming I'm a good player, are there going to be big
swings playing, for example, Party 1/2 or 2/4? Would $300
be sufficient to get the ball rolling?

- Should I start at the micro-limits and work my way up, or
is it soft enough to just start with 2/4?

- Are these low levels beatable online for 1bb an hour?

- Which site would be the best for me overall (deposit
bonuses, skill of opponents)

Note: Right now I'm studying and working in Costa Rica for about $2.50 an hour, so $4 an hour playing poker sounds pretty good.

Thanks

[TimM]

I would say don't quit your day job until you discover all of the answers to these questions on the tables yourself.

Why do you have to quit your job to play?

[MrFroggyX]

- Assuming I'm a good player, are there going to be big
swings playing, for example, Party 1/2 or 2/4? Would $300
be sufficient to get the ball rolling?

You need 300xBigBet. That is if you have $300 play on the $0.5/$1 limit until you get $600 to play on the $1/$2.

- Should I start at the micro-limits and work my way up, or
is it soft enough to just start with 2/4?

Have you played poker before? If not.. start at the microlimits. Otherwise read my answer above.

- Are these low levels beatable online for 1bb an hour?

Yes.

- Which site would be the best for me overall (deposit
bonuses, skill of opponents)

Search in the forums. Search! (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/search.php?Cat=)
I woud reccomend the partynetwork. Every site have pros and cons. Partypoker.com i think is the fishiest place.

Note: Right now I'm studying and working in Costa Rica for about $2.50 an hour, so $4 an hour playing poker sounds pretty good.

Yes.



And who are you? TT, Punk or whatever his name is..?

Good luck!

[ctv1116]

Most people suggest 300BB at whatever your limit you're at if you're playing professionally. If poker is just a hobby, you can really have whatever roll you want, because you can reload whenever or just quit.

If you've never played poker before, I suggest you play 0.5/1 or lower. If you've beaten the 2/4 casino game, you probably still want to start at 0.5/1.

Yes, a solid player can win much more than 1BB/hour at 0.5/1. I'm pretty sure the same can be said of 2/4, but you probably need to be a very good player.

Party/Empire has the fishiest players, and a decent deposit bonus. They also have affiliate programs, so you can get some of your rake back.

Good luck and welcome to the forums.

[CostaRicaBill]

Thank you for your non-pretentious, informative response Mr.
Froggy.

I'm Bill, I was playing a lot on Paradise about 2 years ago and had to stop for awhile. I have just gotten back into the game and started reading the 2+2 forum again. I would say I was a break even player back then but I believe I have stepped up my game tremendously.

I found a card room here in Costa Rica that spreads 2/4 with some extremely weak locals and tourists. I am thinking of playing online but don't have a large bankroll. Since I'm making almost nothing working here, I do not want to put a lot of my money at risk if I am going to have to deal with big swings in these low limit games. Do you think that I should start at microlimits and slowly work my way up?

Thanks

[reggi]

300xBig Bet is ridiculous... 600.00 to play 1/2!!! lol! 50.00 is more than enough.

[Alobar]

[ QUOTE ]
300xBig Bet is ridiculous... 600.00 to play 1/2!!! lol! 50.00 is more than enough.

[/ QUOTE ]

You can easily lose $50 at 1/2, and even if you don't thats not enough money to be effective.

While I don't really think you need a 300BB bankroll to play 1/2 if you're half way decent, I would at least make sure I had $300 tho.

[Puffin]

Playing 1 2 you could loose 50 dollars in 10 min on a couple bad beats.

[MrFroggyX]

300xBig Bet is ridiculous... 600.00 to play 1/2!!! lol! 50.00 is more than enough.

Ok.
We are talking about your whole bankroll. Not what you are buying into on the table. You see the point?

Anyway, Use whatever bankroll you want. I don't care. It's your money.

[Piers]

Start paying low limit poker about $1/2, but most important only hands that count towards getting bonus money. That way you can get between $5 and $10 an hour per game added to your take by the card room for say your first 100 hours a month. If your currently earning $2.5 per hour, then you do not even need to be a particularly good poker player to make more as a Poker Pro.

Two potential problems are a PC with Internet access and cash flow. You need a decent bit of starting capital. Not only do you need to handle loosing streaks (I advise playing super tight to cut down variance), but also you need enough to spread money around the various card rooms to pick up all the promotions. If you are short of finance at the moment, then save up as much money as quickly as you can. In any form of professional gambling your “income” is dependant on the amount of money you already have so saving money is critically important.

Don’t give up your day job, because $300 really is not enough to guarantee any thing however good a player you are.

Oh and you absolutely must have a Neteller account to quickly move money between sites. With only a few hundred the speed you can move money will be very important. You might also want to look into rake back schemes at some of these sites.

Go down the list doing the start up promotions then any other bonuses at each site and going on to the next when finished. They all give regular bonuses, the first eight every month. (Also do not miss out on their completly risk free casino bonuses)
Intercasio Poker+
Carriabian Sun Poker+
Poker Plex+
Littlewoods*+
Ukbetting*+
Totalpoker*+
RitzClub*+
William Hill*+
Party Poker
Empire Poker
Paradise Poker
Poker Stars
Ultimate Bet
Poker Room
True Poker
One of the Prima network (e.g Royal Vegas)+
Absolute Poker++

Also the following are reliable and you can do the start up promotions when you have run out of other things to do.
Pacific Poker+
Classic Poker+
Planet Poker
24hr Poker (Gutshot)
Bugsys Club.
Victor Chandler et all*
Ladbrokes*


(* Might not be available from Costa Rica)
+ These are likely to be very fussy about documentation and proving that you really exist. Your first cash out could take a week or two but after that they will be quick.)
++ Any promotion you do here will tie your money up for a mounth

[crazy canuck]

The best way to build a bankroll is by taking advantage of bonuses...including refer a friend bonuses...so find a friend who kicks it back to you. Also, study the game by reading books and posts in the small stakes forum.

[jek187]

Just so everyone here knows, just because Reggi registered in the pre WPT era, does not mean he's respected. He's actually a bit of a troll, as you can read here: Paradise Poker Exposed (http://archiveserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=inet&Number=184827&Forum=, ,f14,,&Words=&Searchpage=2&Limit=25&Main=184827&Se arch=true&where=bodysub&Name=1384&daterange=1&newe rval=5&newertype=y&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=# Post184827)

[CostaRicaBill]

How do I go about taking advantage of the bonuses. Do I put my money in Neteller, open an account at a site, then switch my money to another site?

[reggi]

if you need 300.00 in a 1/2 game, you should quit. The only thing you could argue is chip intimidation.

[reggi]

What? That's a good article on Paradise Poker, lol. oh please respect me internet nerds.

[crazy canuck]

How do I go about taking advantage of the bonuses. Do I put my money in Neteller, open an account at a site, then switch my money to another site?

Yeah, I think neteller is the best choice. There is a nice list of bonuses at bonuswhores.com but do not sign up from there. Since you need every penny get a firend to refer you to the sites so you get the referral fee back. Also, later on there are some casino bonuses that you want to consider.

[jasonHoldEm]

[ QUOTE ]
if you need 300.00 in a 1/2 game, you should quit. The only thing you could argue is chip intimidation.

[/ QUOTE ]

Someone who doesn't understand the difference between bankroll and buy-in really shouldn't be throwing too many stones.

To the original poster...

You should have a 300 BB bankroll (or there abouts) to help cover your swings. So for 2/4 you'd like to have around $1000-1200 set aside for your poker bankroll. This is especially important if you plan to quit your job and rely on your poker earnings (since if you go broke you're in trouble).

The low limit games are very beatable by a decent to good player for at least 1 BB/hr...just make sure you're indeed a decent to good player before you jump off that cliff, it could be a long way down if you're overestimating your ability.

Good luck,
J

[MicroBob]

yes...a 300BB roll is the typical recommended starting point...but this is assuming you are actually already a decent player.
if you aren't, then you will blow through the 300BB roll. losing players do this enough afterall.


i have 25-50BB downswings at some point every week.
but i usually wind up way on the plus-side each week.

last week i lost a bit more than that....but i had posted nice winning weeks the previous 5 weeks so it wasn't too earth-shattering.
additionally, i attribute the losses partly to leaks developed in my game and partly to some really horrendous beats.


i didn't quit my day-job until i was reasonably certain that i was a good enough poker-player to make it worthwhile.

this means that i kept my job until i had proved a win-rate over 30k+ hands. and even then....i made sure to leave the door open to return to my old job if necessary (i.e. - if online poker kicked my butt).

this is the approach i recommend. cover the various possibilities that can happen and don't just assume that it will go well.


however, if it is reasonable to assume that you can easily get your job back if things go badly in poker then that changes things a bit i suspect.
especially if you are already certain you are good enough to beat the games.


still, it's hard to KNOW whether you can beat the games before you have actually played them.

why don't you at least try playing them for a day or two (at least) before you quit your job??
it makes little sense to me why you would jump into online-play before even knowing for certain if you are good enough to do it or what is involved.

[sumdumguy]

How about keeping it a hobby for now. Then when it's vacation time, ask for an extra 2 weeks unpaid so you can spend a total of 4 weeks to determine if you actually like doing it.

If you must take reggi's advice, go in for 50 BB's at 5-10 and play 1-2 instead! /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
Then when it's vacation time, ask for an extra 2 weeks unpaid so you can spend a total of 4 weeks to determine if you actually like doing it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you think someone making $2.50/hr in Costa Rica gets 2 weeks paid vacation?

[sumdumguy]

I live a blessed life. It did not even occur to me that your labour laws are different than ours. I sincerely apologize, and wish you the very best in your venture.

Are u kidding... Chip intimidation. Its limit poker! I agree sit down with 50, keep 550 in the bank. U can run bad for a while a lose badly.

Chip Intimidation... Funny

[Bump-en-Stein]

[ QUOTE ]


Note: Right now I'm studying and working in Costa Rica for about $2.50 an hour, so $4 an hour playing poker sounds pretty good.

Thanks

[/ QUOTE ]

Your dayjob? How can you be the Night-Watch-Man during the day? Incredible, no wonder they pay you so little, you must still be in training.

[CostaRicaBill]

Hey guys, I actually came to Costa Rica to study Spanish, then got offered a sort of internship at the school. So they pay me a little and I get to learn Spanish for free. But now I am basically fluent and $2.50 just isn't that enticing anymore.

I have done a lot of studying over the years, read these forums continuously and have put in a good amount of hours on Paradise (about 2 years ago, I was probably break even at best). I have been playing 2/4 here in the casino and believe I have stepped up my game tremendously and was hoping to make a litle extra cash playing low-limit online.

I would like to live here for a while and would love to just play poker to support myself until I can find something that pays better. I know Paradise Poker is located closeby, any Paradise representatives like to offer me a job?!

So just to clear things up:
- I probably could'nt get a 2 week vacation
- Nightwatchman actually only make like $1.25 an hour
- I am pretty lazy and would prefer to play poker all day

Bill

[SomeTimesIWin]

If you want to build up an online bankroll and want to start at the $1-$2 level Intercasino Poker and Pokerplex are good places to start at because of their monthly bonus offerings. Currently it is a $50 monthly bonus after you've met the 300 raked hand requirement.