Playing semiprofessionally....rather part time

[Al_Capone_Junior]

At the moment...

My limit hold'em play ranges from small limits up to 10-20, with a preference for 6-12 or 8-16. A couple times a year I might venture higher, but I have no real desire to play limit hold'em this high in vegas these days. I played 3-6 kill and 4-8 (full kill) games in a "semi-pro" capacity for years, thus I basically have the limit hold'em thing "down."

I'd still play lots of stud/stud-8 if the games existed anymore. But they don't.

Thus, mostly I play 1-2, 1-3 or 2-5 no limit hold'em. More EV, less overall variance, easier time beating the tourists in the long run.

Keep in mind tho when I played for a living, I played online, and played mostly 5-10 or 10-20 stud-8 (primary game), $100 or $200 no limit hold'em (NO higher), 5-10 through 15-30 limit hold'em (would not multi-table on 15-30), and 5-10 through 20-40 stud high (was very game selective here, average play was 10-20). I played a smattering of tournaments and other games as well, but usually stuck to cash games. Thus I was basically a "limit pro" when I played for the majority of my income, and I played mostly online (some of that was propping as well).

Most of the reason I played only online was purely due to geographical concerns, I didn't live anywhere near a live cardroom, a little bit was that propping is more of a reality online than live. Online play sucks tho in my book, but then so does playing cards for a living. I'm a "working man*" who plays cards on the side for money. I TOTALLY prefer live play as well.

One thing I can tell you for sure is that if you graduate from semi-pro to "pro" you're going to lose your love for the game if you keep at it for very long. I almost quit playing due to pure boredom, not because I was losing. Now I don't play as much and I love it once again. Poker is my true passion, but too much of anything is always going to eventually ruin the pleasure of it all.

al

*one funny thing is that I'm a highly white collar educated guy who much prefers blue collar work, thus I am really more of a "blue collar man." WTF I am doing playing poker and working in a cardroom is beyond me [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img], I should be hammering, welding, using a screw-gun, starting an engine, or some such chit [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Hey, I did "metal roofing in texas" for years, bee-otch!