Hi Josh/all,

I do have a love for the game...so much so that I am seriously considering leaving my
"old life"
to begin anew as a "pro. poker player." For the first 22 years of my life (I'm 25 now)
I spent all my time in school, preparing for a life that poker now allows me to let go of...
and I don't have the guts to do it...(to quit my 9-5 and start living the poker life...).
It
is tearing me apart even thinking about the decision and you ARE DEFINITELY RIGHT...
the love of the game will be the thing that gives me the courage/strength to let go of my old life...
and I would agree (though not based on a ton of experience on my part)
that this should be the main/deciding factor for making this life change...

I am a winning player who has reached the "long-run" (when I hit the LR I said to myself holy sh*t - look at all this money I won!
( I was playing 5/10 and crushing the game for a lot - not enough to make $100K a year playing part time, but a lot for someone just playing poker as a hobby...).

As I understand it, whenever you take a "bad beat" you know you're in a good game that is profitable...if you are not getting a lot of bad beats where you play, then the games aren't good...
And I think that most of my money comes from opponents incorrectly calling Turn bets (when they
don't have odds...).
This is a big money maker...

Also I see opponents semi-bluffing far too often (when they do not have a big enough chance of making their opponent fold - maybe even a 0% chance...yet they check raise HU with only a 4 flush going into the river w/a .000002% chance of making me fold - I think this is another mistake I see all the time...

Would you say I kinda know "where the money comes from?"

I want to know where I should go to to play 10/20, 15/30, 20/40, 30/60, etc. online in a game where the above ave. limit player can make 1 BBet per hour no problem...
I don't have a "best buddy" to ask, and was wondering if there was
another way to find out other than by trial and error...(which is costly and time-consuming...esp. at mid-high limits...).

Thanks for the replies, and hopefully I WILL BE another success story and taking shots at 100/200+ within a 12 month timeframe!

Joe M.

PS. FWIW I heard a quote I lliked a lot from Howard LEderer's Limit HE video...he said that: "as you move up in limits, the bad players at the [higher] limits are just like the bad players you found at the lower limits you're used to...It's the better players (the winning players) at those limits that you will
not be used to and that will do things that you've never seen before." Howard said that you have to "take shots" at the higher limits that you're thinking about moving up to and give yourself time to adjust to the super-expert play that you will be encountering. I thought this was great and definitely hits
home for me (I played 2/4 and 3/6 a year ago at this time exactly - Halloween I rem.
I was playing 2/4 taking shots at 3/6...Now I am going to be taking
shots at 30/60 (hopefully will be there by Christmas (when it's cold out and hopefully many fishies will be bored indoors and opening up poker
accounts!!! lol - a dynamic I noticed last December!).
I think it's
possible to go from nothing to 300/600 in 2 years...with a lot of work (I'm talking about a super smart high IQ person who plays EVERYDAY
and loves it...OH, and has a mentor/poker buddy who has gone through the same process already...I need one of those! lol).