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Live Cash Games Earnings Question

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  1. Yourangutang Yourangutang is offline

    Posts: 284
    Joined: Aug 09

    Oct 12th, 2009 (10/12/2009 4:37pm)

    So, I've been playing online cash games the past few months, currently at NL50, will probably move up shortly when I reach 40 buy ins to play NL100. I just got word that a pretty nice "underground" type poker club opened just THREE BLOCKS from my apartment in Queens New York. They run $1$2 and $5$5 games. I am debating whether it would be worth withdrawing $2000 from online to play live and leaving the other half of my roll online to keep playing NL50 ( I play about 8-10 tables usually, make maybe about $20 per hour).

    I have played at some live underground games around here a few times and the competition is almost as bad as weekend casino cash game competition. Obviously though that also means that the short term variance could be pretty sick.

    My question for those of you that have substantial live cash game experience (I've only played live maybe 4 times in undergound NYC games and about 7 or 8 times in AC and Vegas), is How much money could a good Cash game player earn per hour playing live $1$2 games?? And eventually live $5$5 games?

    After you account for what would likely be a huge rake (I'm assuming the rakes going to be about $5 per hour based on what I've seen) and Tips for dealers, How much could one realistically expect to earn? Would $20 an hour at $1$2 and $40 an hour at $5$5 be realistic?
  2. Slingtownorbust Slingtownorbust is offline

    Naklo Nad Notecia
    Poland

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    Oct 12th, 2009 (10/12/2009 4:40pm) in reply to Yourangutang

    careful about those underground games. i lived in nyc for 10 years and have been present when clubs have been raided and you can lose all your chips. also some guy got shot and killed at one like 5 years ago.
  3. Yourangutang Yourangutang is offline

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    Oct 12th, 2009 (10/12/2009 5:12pm) in reply to Slingtownorbust

     
    Originally Posted by Slingtownorbust View Post

    careful about those underground games. i lived in nyc for 10 years and have been present when clubs have been raided and you can lose all your chips. also some guy got shot and killed at one like 5 years ago.

    Yeah, thats another consideration for sure. I'm sure that they all get raided at some point. I've played in two different undergound games, one was a shady little one to two table game in downtown Manhattan, the other was well organized in a huge room in an office building in Queens with about 8 tables going. Both had some sketchy people so its definitely something that I'm aware of. In all likelyhood the bigger, nicer and more well organized that they are the more likely that they will be to eventually get the polices attention. This one will be on a main highy traffic street in Astoria so I could easily see it being shut down with a matter of a couple of months or less
    Thread Starter
  4. molotok molotok is offline

    Manhattan, NY
    United States

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    Oct 12th, 2009 (10/12/2009 5:21pm) in reply to Yourangutang

    The rake is bigger than you think, but if the games are good you can make way more than online. I would say about a buy in per 5 hour session.<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">
  5. oBOBCATu oBOBCATu is offline

    Burundi

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    Oct 12th, 2009 (10/12/2009 6:02pm) in reply to Yourangutang

     
    Originally Posted by Yourangutang View Post

    After you account for what would likely be a huge rake (I'm assuming the rakes going to be about $5 per hour based on what I've seen) and Tips for dealers, How much could one realistically expect to earn? Would $20 an hour at $1$2 and $40 an hour at $5$5 be realistic?

    I'm not too sure that those rates are attainable. I've played about 100 hours of live 1/2NL over the past couple months and have been disappointed with my winrate. I had anticipated it being much more lucrative than it actually was because the players are just so bad and utterly stupid. But you see so few hands per hour compared to online that it made playing very boring, and the rake and need to tip dealers cuts into your winrate more than is readily apparent. I have won at a rate slightly lower than my winrate playing 6 tables of 50nl, and with rakeback it's an even bigger difference. Now for sure 100 hours is a small sample, but given the level of retardation a standard 1/2nl live game holds I think it may be a decent approximation of what one should expect to win. But maybe you're super sweet and can crush, I dunno.

    Personally, I never play in any live home games with strangers. There are just too many potential bad things that can happen, and if I were you I'd be very hesitant to risk such a large portion of your roll. I mean, if the cops show up one night you're fucked. Plus it's much more convenient to just sit in a comfy chair, listen to some music, and grind the internets.

    gl.
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