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Paying bills with poker profits

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  1. Nato76 Nato76 is offline

    Posts: 1,862
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    Jul 25th, 2005 (7/25/2005 12:21pm)

    Just wondering who uses their poker profits to pay bills? I am talking about the part time players. I have a 9-5 job and play poker part time. I am buying a house and I am going to use a lot of my BR for a down payment. Since I am going to have more bills because of a bigger place I either have to get a second job or use my poker profits to pay some bills. After the down payment I will only have around $3k as my BR. I mainly play SnG's and MTT's. Once in a while I will throw in a cash game. Any suggestions on how I should mix up my games. Right now I take half of my Sng winnings and play MTT's.
  2. supermoves supermoves is offline invented poker

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    Jul 25th, 2005 (7/25/2005 12:30pm) in reply to Nato76

    Jennifer Harmon does...she sets herself a bankroll for the limits she plays. If she goes over that bankroll she considers that income. So if you are playing 1/2nl, you should have about $1000. (thats 10 losing sessions with 50BB per session). I would give myself a little buffer..call it $1500...so anything over $1500 is safe to take out if you need it...
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  3. Nato76 Nato76 is offline

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    Jul 25th, 2005 (7/25/2005 12:32pm) in reply to supermoves

    I guess this could apply to SnG's also.
    Thread Starter
  4. 4check 4check is offline

    Littleton, MA
    United States

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    Jul 25th, 2005 (7/25/2005 1:20pm) in reply to Nato76

    I'm also a part timer, when I was consistently losing (I think of it as "learning") I had no bankroll but I had a weekly budget, and when it ran out I would stop playing and read, study, etc until the next week. Now that I am starting to win regularly I keep a $2K buffer in neteller, and about $1K at each site that I play at. Everything else over that goes directly to pay off debt.

    Right now I am working on paying off my car (and that's the thought that keeps me focused 3 hours into an MTT). I stick mostly to MTTs because there's a big upside, small downside. In cash games I get bored after a while and that K9o in early position starts to look like a great starting hand. It's hard to lose money fast in MTTs.
  5. wizardmickey wizardmickey is offline

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    Jul 25th, 2005 (7/25/2005 3:44pm) in reply to 4check

    i was spending way too much money playing mtt's and now that ive focused on sng's for awhile, my bankroll is start to escalate. if you hit a mtt great, but if you are right on the bubble or just past it, its hard to pay for them. if youre in a serious situation where you need the income for awhile, crack down, get you some tracking software, and play your sngs and make your money every week.
  6. bdluss bdluss is offline

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    Jul 25th, 2005 (7/25/2005 4:31pm) in reply to Nato76

    I am in a very similar situation, poker pays about 2/3 of my bills and accounts for the majority of my income. Some important considerations are that it is going to be difficult to grow your BR as you will be continually taking out $. Also, any consistent source of income is best, i.e. SNG or Cash games as you probably know the swings in MTT can be much more. Generally, because I use poker to pay bills I do not enter as high of buy in tournaments as I look to reduce risk in having a prolonged cold streak.
     
  7. Big Stacks04 Big Stacks04 is offline

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    Jul 25th, 2005 (7/25/2005 5:22pm) in reply to bdluss

    I use poker as a second income also which allows my wife to stay at home with our children(6mos and 2yrs). I've found that setting daily and weekly goals are very important and has helped me remain focussed. Initially I was somewhat overwhelmed by the tought of I gotta make X amount each month. Now I withdraw my weekly goal amount every sunday like a paycheck. If I happen to make a decent score in a MTT than I withdraw the majority of the $$ and put it into savings. I've mainly focussed on cash games with some quality MTT mixed in so far. It can definitely be a grind at times and I'm getting better at only playing when I'm feeling pretty good. If I sense for even a second that I'm tired or impatient I will get out of the game(specially cash games).

    Biggy
  8. pnkranger pnkranger is offline

    Norman, OK
    United States

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    Jul 25th, 2005 (7/25/2005 6:55pm) in reply to Big Stacks04

    weekly and monthly goals rule.
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