Onlline – I reached a point where I was playing low stakes (5 or 10 dollar entrys) to either single table tourneys and winning more often than not, or entering 2 or so dollar multi tourneys (2500 people plus) and winning it outright or finishing top twenty, well within the money. At the same time, if I were to deposit 50 bucks right now, I bet I’d lose it all within 2 hours. Too much of a crapshoot. Some skill is involved but there are cheat programs, and I think it caters best to the mid-level strategists who are lucky enough to wind up on tables without bot programs/somebody playing 20 tables at once with a money edge.

Vegas – I played at the small poker room at the Monte Carlo. It was supposed to be a friendly room, but one guy showed up and was a total and complete ass to one of my friends. He tried to play through it, but it almost came to blows, so I had to pull him out of there. We wound up sitting at a Carribean Stud table at 5am much later, and he hit a hand that got him 1400 dollars. I lost my ASS at that table, despite doing well at that game on a small gambling cruise a few months earlier. The lessons?
1. Carribbean Stud is a game of pure luck. It’s a tourist game. But you can win.
2. If you wind up with the right asshole at your table, it might be impossible to brush it off as you should easily be able to do. This guy was digging and digging, and not in a good/friendly/professional way. The problem for him was that 3 of us were friends at the table and we all stood up and left, leaving him with only the small stacks of 3 old guys to plunder. He shit talked himself out of money.

Dog tracks. This is your goldmine. Old guys and working guys with a small amount of expendable income go there looking to just kill a few hours. They usually aren’t very schooled in the mechanics of poker and probably haven’t read Supersystem (Doyle’s book, which is the bible).
Meanwhile, if you know what you are doing, you can annihilate them. I bought in for 40 bucks and wound up wiping the table and in the meantime slipped my family chips…and walked away with over 300 dollars. Not high rolling, but considering the amount I gave away, it would have been an acceptable days work at about 600, for about 2.5 hours work. They hated me at that table, which always becomes a risk as you win more. Know when to walk away with their money.

Casinos outside of vegas. I play at a Hard Rock in my area. I’ve had varying success – usually losses, but I expect to lose. Some bad beats, etc. But overall, I know it’s fair, and if I lose it’s my own damn fault for chasing shit. You won’t find people who are pros at getting inside your head at 2nd rate casinos; it’s not worth it to them. Also, you can win. I’ve walked out with 300 plus – again, not big numbers, but you can feel good about that if you’re playing limit hold ‘em.

Guitar – practice, practice, etc. The same shit over and over. Tedious, but worth it. Once you get those basics down ( chords, not scales), you’ll find yourself tooling around with them in your own creative way. That’s when it becomes cool.