What up FTR. I have been playing hold'em online for about an year now, learning the game through reading Sklansky books and posts on FTR and 2+2 and I'm proud to say that I've been a winning player since March of this year. I have went from playing $.5/$1 limit for the 1st 3 months, switching over to $25 NL and from there have been steadily playing higher stakes in NL. Sites such as pokerlistings.com and bonuswhores.com were of great help to me in deciding what cardroom to play in, and what bonuses to play for. Going through cardrooms clearing bonuses has provided me valuable experience playing against a diverse population of people, and I would recommend "bonus whoring" to any beginning online player looking to hone their chops.
I have made over 8k in the last 50 days, which to many on this site probably isn't much, but to a college student with bills to pay and loans to return it is a nice chunk of change. I feel that I am improving everyday- just last week I have moved up to $400 NL at PartyPoker and within a day was killing the stake, so I decided to make a run at it at the $2000 NL and was met with success there, which I did not expect since I was playing scared. My profits have increased exponentially in the last few weeks, even I find it hard to believe that I am getting that much better in so short of a period. The last few days I have been pushing myself to make a grand a day, and I am finding it to be a very attainable goal. 400 NL is my bread and butter, but I also play 600 NL, 1000 NL and 2000 NL when I see a soft table or if I'm looking for a challenge.
Right now I am taking a semester off from school, for financial and motivational reasons and am devoting much of my time "working" on PartyPoker primarily. I am not quite old enough to enter a casino legally in the U.S., so I will be sticking to playing online poker until the end of this year.
I am making this post to get feedback from those out there who make a living playing high-stakes NL, and I would like to hear your experience on how you got to where you are as a poker pro. What are the pitfalls of being a high-stakes NL player? Is it profitable to convert to live games even though you're playing less hands per hour? When do you have to start paying taxes on what you make online or in a casino? How are you investing your earnings? Should I be smoking less pot when I'm playing? Any advice would be appreciated.
By the way, if anyone is interested, I will pay money for a good PartyPoker buddy list, granted that the people on your list are fish who play $400 NL or higher and that the list is new.