Quote Originally Posted by BetCheckBet View Post
I’d be interested why he got out of poker? As I understood he was making six figures in limit holdem. Doesn’t seem like he plays at all now. He seemed like a strong player and makes me wonder why he didn’t continue at least at a smaller level

Having said all that I don’t envy anyone who makes a living gambling. Working a job normal job will give you the following.

32-45 paid days off vacation and holidays.
Couple grand a year in benefits
Couple grand a year in matching retirement contributions
Unemployment insurance or long term disability.
And most importantly a sense of safety and security with your work and if you are let go access to severance pay.

This doesn’t even include the fact that you may greatly be impacting yourself through references and limited networking.

Now if you can pull in good money the above doesn’t matter. But if you gotta be making easily 6 figures to make giving up the above worth it.
He was originally grinding big volume on low-middle stakes online, mostly heads up against fish.

That eventually dried up, especially at limit holdem. His last attempt to do pro poker was playing the limit holdem game at the Encore, but that game simply wasn't very good, and he wasn't doing well enough to continue with it.

I have heard he's done well with the prop betting, so while the host of the show was skeptical, it does seem that he's making a living at it.

The general rule in sportsbetting is that you're more likely to find an edge (but less likely to get significant action) on lower profile bets. This is because high profile bets (such as NFL sides or totals) have both a lot of scrutiny and a lot of action. Because props are bet just a tiny fraction of sides/totals, and because there's so many of them, there can be some which are simply set wrong (and occasionally egregiously wrong).

So while the host of that show and the YouTube commenters were mocking China for "eyeballing" things in order to make some of his picks, that strategy is actually more viable than it sounds, provided you are knowledgeable enough about the players and their current circumstances.

The big downsides? You get shut out of action from props very easily, and also (as China briefly mentioned), you can move the line yourself from one bet. So if someone gets to it before you, the value is sometimes already ruined.

While this wasn't a sports prop, I single-handedly moved the international betting line on Joe Biden winning the 2020 Dem primary, when I put down $3500 in action on it at about 3am in October 2019. Every single book had lowered his line within about 20 minutes of my placement of those bets, starting immediately with the book where I did it.


Anyway, nice to hear PFA getting 2 mentions on the interview.