Poker Update

It has been nearly 3 weeks to the day since I arrived in Pittsburgh. In the 19 possible days that I could have played poker (not counting today as a possible) I have played poker 16 of them. On average I play 7hrs per session which gives me a rough total of 110 hrs on the felt this month. Fun. I hope I can continue at this pace and finish the month with 150-160 hours played. This might sound like the same amount of hours people with typical jobs work but it really isn't. I don't get a lunch break, I can work 7 hours and break even or lose and every single hour of play is actual work. I don't get paid to browse Facebook or Reddit or whatever. There is a well known quote with regards to making a living playing poker that goes "It's a hard way to make an easy living". Truer words have never been spoken.

For the month of August my total profit sits right around 3.5k after yesterday's +843 session. While there have been times that I have run good this month there have also been times that I have run bad. Yesterday I didn't even run hot, my table was simply fantastic.

My table was basically all old guys shooting the shit and having fun while doing what they do best: limping everything and anything from any position that isn't called aces and folding to most aggression post flop. It sort of blows my mind that these guys can play so suboptimally and have not a care in the world, but I was a fish at one point too so it really shouldn't be that surprising. My life would be a hell of a lot easier if the government could simply send their social security checks to me in the mail instead of me having to win them on the felt, but I digress.

It's kind of strange...even assuming that I maintain a roughly 6k/month pace (which is a big if) then I would on average make about 72k/year. However, I don't get any benefits, that is before taxes and there is a growing hole on my resume. Thus that 72k is likely equivalent to a job that pays 55k or something. While that isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination it certainly isn't great. I have no idea what sort of opportunity costs I am giving up right now. On the other hand I am my own boss and can do whatever the hell I want wherever the hell I want basically which is still pretty frickin awesome. And I still might get murdered by variance or have the games become tougher or any one of a hundred things and only make 40k this year. Of course once I get out of Pittsburgh I will be playing in bigger games (2/5 and then hopefully 5/T) and will hopefully be making more money. Ah well, still another 5 weeks here. Grind on da mind for now.