How many Vegas based pros are earning 500k+ a year and how are they doing it?

I really couldn't tell you how many profitable MTT "pros" there are in Vegas, but I do see a lot of the same faces every time I play out there. The biggest potential hurdle I see for becoming a full-time MTT pro is that there aren't high stakes events persistently available, and I'm not sure anyone can beat the Wynn $200 daily for a high enough win rate to survive. The Venetian is always running a series throughout the year, but on any given day $400 might be the biggest tournament you can find in Vegas when there isn't a special series running. Then in the summer you have the issue of field sizes ballooning to such extremes that it's very hard to realize your EV in the available sample size, meaning you are reliant on binking a monster score to be significantly profitable. The thought of being a live MTT pro is daunting despite the softness of the games. I'm guessing most of the full-time MTT grinders out there also play cash when good events aren't available. I suppose you could grind online too.

I don't know the cash world at all other than to say that there seems to be a big game running semi-regularly in Resorts World, which I assume is mixed. I've seen nosebleed guys in Bobby's Room at Bellagio during the WSOP, but I don't know what they play back there and how regularly the games run. Without knowing anything concrete, I wonder about the state of the "big game" of old now that so many of the participants like Chau, Doyle, Chip, Forrest, and Greenstein are either dead or seemingly not playing poker for high stakes anymore. During the WSOP you may be able to find people like Trueteller, Jungle, and Antonius back there playing huge games, but I don't know anything about the state of that room on any given random night. You could watch on Bravo to get a sense of what's running and when.

I've been told that mix is the way to go if you really want to make it as a poker pro, but clearly there are other niches. If you are a killer NLHE player then I assume you could just grind the 5/10 games at Aria and Wynn and make a living from that. The advantage of learning all the games would seem to be the added flexibility of playing other variants when a good game pops up. If all you play is NLHE and PLO, you are probably going to be able to find lots of games and tournaments, but you lose the flexibility to play good mixed games when they are available.

sounds like you make a good living as a poker pro in Detroit. it's not super likely you would have a better profit in LV.

Good chance you're right, but I would rather live somewhere with good food and hiking, and a chance to make it to the top of my profession.

The "top" is going to be pretty hard with people like Robl running around. A fair number of top Vegas players fly for an hour to LA, where big games seem to be more regular. WRT LHE, the guys I used to know that played the bigger games told me LHE was basically "solved" years ago by even mid-stakes players. The result being that the good players just passed chips around all night, the casino being the only big winner.

The Bellagio game is still running pretty much daily, Antonious posted a couple of hours ago about a 2k/4k mix game at Bobbys room (or whatver the new name is now).

That game will always run, but its pretty much impossible to get in.

what makes you think Vegas is the top of the profession? 20 years ago sure. Today not so much.

500k yr in Vegas is extremely limited... 50k-100k is achievable.
to make 500k a year, you're going to travel around the US.

I hope you’re not thinking about playing at the Mirage.

Hiking is not good for half the year in Las Vegas, unless you like getting up really early.

I doubt many pros are making 500k a year. The ones that do consistently are going to be quiet about it. Your best bet may be to start a vlog and become a famous streamer who gets invited to juicy games.

A good 3-6 month stay in Vegas outside of WSOP/summer time meeting people, a bit of hendon mob research, and you will have all of the answers to your poker questions.

Hendon mob shows poker winnings sans buy ins.
No one is going to tell you how much they make at poker after knowing you for 3-6 months. If they do they are usually bull shitting or going off of what they won during a short heater and they’ll be busto or awfully quiet about how much they’re crushing 6 months later.

My advice is that you wold be f**king out of your mind to make such a move to Las Vegas.

I spend about 10 days each month in Las Vegas (and about 20 days outside the US.)

However, Just sit back in Detroit and keep winning. If you want to see what Las Vegas offers, fly out for a week or so a couple of times.

(You have a VERY sweet set-up in Detroit. I've lived in both the 313 and 702. Yoiu really should look at a field trip on some cheap airfare, hotels are cheap mid-week at this point. Good luck, look before you leap.)

Really hard to imagine many making $500k, let alone $200k playing poker in Vegas

Mariano made $486,200 last year. But he doesn't live in Vegas, and he wouldn't say he MAKES 500k a year after doing it for only a couple three years.

Yeah a move to Vegas would mean making less money for a lot of people.

Does Vegas really have a wide variety of games? It’s mostly just a bunch of NL cash games and tournaments. Sure there is a little PLO and mixed games, but not even many 5-10 NL games and you can’t always find limit Hold’em games above 20-40. 80-160 limit hold’em is rare.

sure but that's bc he has access to private big games with tons of horrible players.
99.9 percent of Vegas pros don't.

I don't understand the expectations. what games are you going to regularly find in Vegas that will give an opportunity to profit $200K in a year when you are new to town? the great games have limited seats and the other big games are likely filled with pros who are very good players.