[Hellmouth]

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Think simple math. If you believe the statistics on general winners in poker, 1-2BB an hour at .5/1 is $1-2 an hour.. who can live off that? Now subtract whatever edge you had as a solid player, due to the variance induced by 4-5 calling stations seeing every river. You aren't left with any money, or any real understanding of how the game works... at any reasonable level. You can call it dogma, but I'll admit I didn't understand most of what I'm talking about until I started playing 10-20 and 20-40.

If you want me to state it more explicitly; In my opinion, the "value" gained from learning to beat super-loose games (like .01/.02 or higher) is not only negligible, it's counterproductive in building a foundation for winning money at poker... assuming you live in America where $1-2 an hour can be found in my couch.

I stand by my decree, if you aim to earn a *living* or make a *profession* out of poker... you are hurting yourself.

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He is looking for a supplement for his income, not to live off it.

I have made $1000 in a few months playing .50/1 and a few sit and go tourney's. If you think that that is not a lot of money then fine but it has been a nice supplement.

I think that the most important point is that no one who has never played poker should rely on it for income when there is the potenital for just digging a deeper hole in the short term. If your friend wants to learn to play poker with the eventual goal of making some money on the side that is one thing. However, in the near term he should not expect to be a consistant winner. Since he doesnt seem to be all that realistic (he is only thinking of a quick fix like drugs or poker) I would say the following.

1) Get another job and work 20 more hours/week.
2) Learn to play poker with free time as an investment in the future using job as investment in bankroll and as supplemental income. (50%:50%)
3) Win at low limit poker.
4) Quit job and play poker as supplemental income.

BTW. I think that teaching your friend to play is a noble thing to do. It is an investment of your time which is obviouslly not worthless. I just think that he may have an unrealistic idea about how much work and time it takes. If he is not willing to work a second job, why would he be willing to waste a lot of time infront of a computer?

Greg