Hi BiggerPockets, 

My name is Isaac Baron.  I am a "retired" professional poker player, I have been fortunate to do fairly well over the years in poker, but I have become disillusioned with playing the game for a living, and feel like it is time for a change. I am looking to get into real estate investing, specifically flips to start out with.  I have some capital that I am willing to use to invest and I have done somewhat of a deep dive over the past couple months into real estate, including working towards getting my license (exam in a couple weeks) and I feel that I have a much better grasp on how this business works than I did just a short while ago.  However, I still don't feel confident enough in my knowledge and experience to go out and start investing quite yet.  I am looking for any and all advice or tips that you fine people could share with me in order to get me over the hump and take the next step.  The main things that I am struggling with at the moment are finding deals and how to find good contractors without going through too much of my own trial and error and bad contractor experiences.  Also, I am located in the Los Angeles area if that matters.