For those who do this for a living...

[pokerjunky]

I've been toying with the thought of quitting my $18 an hour job to play poker full time. Right now I'm averaging close to 3BB/100 hands playing four 2/4 tables, so I figure this averages out to about $24 an hour if each table averages 50 hands per hour.

Anyway, I just have a few quetions for those who earn a living playing poker:

How many hands did you have logged in before you quit your job?

How do you go about filing your taxes?

How long have you been doing it(successfully)?

Thanks!

[Nick B.]

you need a lot bigger overlay than $6 more an hour to quit your job. if you absolutely must quit your job, wait until you move up in limits and are averaging $75-100 an hour.

[sthief09]

how many hands are you averaging 3 bb/100 over. not many people can do that. it's possible you've been running good

[jzpiano14]

hijack warning!!

I'm thinking bout doing the same thing but only for a summer job. I only make about 11 an hour-taxes-gas-commute time. I drive an hour to work each way in rush hour and I am considering playing poker instead. Do you think this is doable at 3/6 with a rakeback of 20% or at 2/4? I work 40-50 hours a week there if that helps. Anybody got any advice?

[cnfuzzd]

I was in a virtually dead-end job, considering playing poker, and some smart old dude who used to be a social worker put it like this:

"you are young. you are only young once. you have no obligations, and no real responsibilities. Do what you want. Who cares if you regret it. By the time it comes to pay the consequences, you will be old and not able to do anything fun anyway."

i was sold.

peace

john nickle

[EStreet20]

This point was already touched on about needing a much bigger overlay than 6 bucks an hour but one thing you have to consider is insurance. Do you get benefits from your job because if not paying for your own health alone (I won't even get into dental/vision etc plans) will destroy that 6 dollar an hour increase in pay. I have a friend who owns a small business (consists of him and his brother and a few part timers) and he's told me that paying for his insurance for one year was a killer, so he's been going without health insurance for basically his whole adult life which really blows. Either way, good luck with whatever decision you make.

[ZBTHorton]

I think the key here is how many hands have you played?

[pokerjunky]

[ QUOTE ]
you need a lot bigger overlay than $6 more an hour to quit your job. if you absolutely must quit your job, wait until you move up in limits and are averaging $75-100 an hour.

[/ QUOTE ]

What if I really hate my job?

[pokerjunky]

[ QUOTE ]
I think the key here is how many hands have you played?

[/ QUOTE ]

20,000 logged in PT.

[Seether]

I have been playing for my only income for the past 7 months, and at the time I decide to "go pro" after about the same amount of hands, but winning in 3/6.

Let me tell you that it was very difficult adjusting to poker being the only source of income. Its rough when you have a 200bb downswing right after paying the rent and bills. Im not going to tell you not to do it, but I think you should really think it through. Make sure you do not tilt, it is not an option when your playing for a living.

[MicroBob]

20k is a really small amount.

Some guys play 20k/wk and will have some weeks where they earn 3+BB/100....and others where they are -1BB/100.
You could VERY easily just be running well over your 20k hands. In the very least, it would be ridiculous to think that you will continue to earn 3BB/100 just because you have for 20k hands.


Somebody who doesn't understand this should not be going pro.


I generally agree with Nick that a $6 overlay is not good. What you save on gas with the commute you will likely make up for in paying for health-insurace.

I disagree that $50/$75 hr is necessary though.
At 40 hours a week this is $100k/yr and obviously some people will be better off leaving their current situation for less than that.


I left my $14/hr job when I was making $25/hr multi-tabling the 3/6. I also got clobbered shortly after starting....but I was able to do it for about 5 months. With bonuses and rake-back you should be able to do okay. $25/hr at 40 hours a week is $1k/wk or $50k/yr which was plenty for me.


Before leaving I was able to sign-out early quite a bit and only work 20-25 hours per week at my regular job sometimes thus allowing me to put in more hours of pokering at home.



When I left my job though I did so with the mind-set of just giving it a shot for a couple months and merely HOPING that it would go well enough that I would be able to keep doing it...of course if it didn't work out I would be going back to my old gig.

To that end, I made SURE that my opportunities were still open there. I left on good terms....made sure not to use any sick-days after turning in my 2-week notice (which would automatically mean I could not be re-hired).

In fact, I still go back and visit friends on occasion and I STILL don't tell off some of the jerks I used to work for JUST IN CASE I might need to go back.
I could go on a really bad run AND the government could make it impossible for all americans to log onto any poker-site for all I know. Not likely....but best to keep my options open.


Regarding taxes - keep records....and pay taxes on your income.
Gambler's Guide to Taxes by Walter Lewis is pretty helpful as a guide.
Otherwise, there are only about 947 threads on online-pokering and taxes so I shan't go further.



There are a lot of people who seem to be thinking about trying this....and I guess that's not terribly surprising.

My recommendation is that if you're not pretty damned sure whether you are ready to do it or not then you probably shouldn't be doing it.
20k hands at 3BB/100 doesn't quite cut it.

[ThePenguin]

I've been playing online for my main source of income since I graduated college last June. Losing $1200 in a week at mostly 2/4, some 3/6, scared me into getting a job, and I had a winrate at party of over 5BB/100 even after that downswing (I had only 13.6 K hands that level). Point being, if you don't have solid money to fall back on, and many more hands than your 20,000 to assure yourself of long-term winnings, then that for-sure paycheck is probably the way to go, especially if you are getting benefits, as someone mentioned.

[bilyin]

Cound you kindly do humanity a favor and remove/change that avatar?

[ShortBus]

Okay here we go.

You're young. Do you have a spouse? A kid? How much money would you need to make a month to pay your bills? Does your bankroll currently allow for down swings? Do you have enough money to pay at least 6months of expenses incase (when) your cards go bad?

All of the above were my mistakes. In a short time I made 30k at 3/6 5/10 and a bit of 15/30 LMHE. Shortly after spending most of it and a cold deck of cards, I lost my bankroll. I didn't lose 30k, but I did lose the bankroll that was allowing me to earn my living.

So, what are you going to do if it doesn't work? Get a 9 to 5? Have you considered how hard it will be to go back to a "normal" job after playing for a living?

Are you prepared to spend hours a day online grinding out your living? Are you prepared to lose?

There are hundreds of questions you need to ask yourself. Keep in mind, there are quite a few people who try, and fail. At least the first time. Some never make it back after failing. I'm currently working my way back up to where I was. Poker is paying my bills, but I'm not living a golden life. It's NOT easy. Always remember that. It wont be the same as when you were playing for recreational purposes.

Should you try? Sure, why not? What do you have to lose? Just remember to be:

1. Mentally prepared
2. Physically prepared
3. Financially prepared

Other than that all I can say is good luck.

One more question, have you even had a cold run yet? My first cold run hit 6-7mo after I started playing for a living. It lasted 4 months... so when I ask if you've hit a cold run, I mean one that lasts longer than a week.

[krazyace5]

Shitty jobs are a dime a dozen, if you have a shitty job and not a career I say go for it. The shitty jobs will still be there if you need them.

[driller]

If you don't have a family or someone that occupies a significant amount of your spare time, then play part time. If you are successful, you can double your income without taking the considerable risk of losing all your money and having to go back to work at probably a worse job.

Most people have jobs that suck in one form or another. Not everybody can be a rock star.

[Danenania]

I say if you need to ask an internet messageboard whether you should quit your job or not then you probably aren't ready. When you are good enough to be secure, you will know it.

[roy_miami]

I suggest you keep your day job until you have at least 500K hands in poker tracker, you're playing 15/30 comfortably and you have a 600BB bankroll. It shouldn't take more than a year and a half to reach these goals playing part time. If you still think you have what it takes, go for it.

Oh yeah, a year and a half may sound like a long time, but the summer will fly by, then its just 1 short little year left of work.

[fnord_too]

Here are some things that a regular job affords you that you should think about. Note that if you hate your job, you can look for another one.

Benefits - this is huge. Health care, 401k, etc. are very nice to have, and really add a lot to your salary.

Social Security Tax - Your employer pays half of your social security tax (SST). There is something similar to SST if you are self employed called self employment tax I believe. At any rate, as I understand it, SST is capped, so even if you are making a lot at poker, you only have to bear the full burden of this tax up to the cap, and a lot of the room under the cap will be handled by your job. I could be all wet here, this is not an area of expertise for me, maybe an accountant can chime in and give us the real skinny, this is just my understanding from casual conversation.

Credit - It will be very hard to establish a credit line or get a home mortgage if you do not have a regular job. For instance for a mortgage, you will need to establish income over a two year period before they will consider your poker income. (Again, not my area of expertise, but that is whay my mortgage broker told me when I asked not too long ago).

If you don't have good benefits at your job, or just hate it, by all means start looking for a new one. Job hopping can be a good way to advance your carreer if you don't over do it.

Also, if you only really have 20k hands at the level you are looking at playing, you really do not have enough to accurately assess your win rate. Additionally, you are probably still learning at a rapid pace, so that also detracts from your ability to assess.

You didn't talk about your bankroll or savings, so let me end with one more big thing: You really need to have an adequate bank roll (say 1000BB) AND AT LEAST 3 months living expenses to even think about trying this. You will need to be seriously pounding the pavement for a job if your savings dips. Figure most jobs pay twice a month, and lag by one pay period, so you will need a month + however long it takes you to find a job in living expenses plus some slop at all times, and if you hit this amount in your savings, you need to start looking for a job.

Now, if you live with your parents or have some real options if you fall on your face, your idea is more viable. Do yourself a favor though and make sure you have health insurance. If you are on your own, things are much more trcky.

Personally, I am in the camp that for most of us, poker is a great supplemental income. I would not leave my job unless my expectation was pretty damn high, because I really enjoy the side benefits of having a job (it's just the work I hate /images/graemlins/grin.gif).

[lucas9000]

if it's only a summer job why not give it a shot? unless you REALLY need to make a bunch of money over the summer, i'd say go for it. you'll probably realize that it sucks as a job, and then in the future you won't be one of the guys who quits a good job for poker only to realize that playing poker for a living doesn't suit him /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[mack848]

[ QUOTE ]
I suggest you keep your day job until you have at least 500K hands in poker tracker, you're playing 15/30 comfortably and you have a 600BB bankroll. It shouldn't take more than a year and a half to reach these goals playing part time. If you still think you have what it takes, go for it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with most of the advice given in this thread, but the notion that someone who has a crappy job needs to get to the level of playing 15/30 comfortably before turning pro is ludicrous. So long as the individual has the option of finding another 'crappy' job (and they are two a penny by definition)if it doesn't work out, then even doubling their income by playing at 3/6 or 5/10 is highly possible.

As I say, I pretty much agree with all of the other cautionary advice re. bank roll, taxes, health care etc.

[Reef]

[ QUOTE ]
I was in a virtually dead-end job, considering playing poker, and some smart old dude who used to be a social worker put it like this:

"you are young. you are only young once. you have no obligations, and no real responsibilities. Do what you want. Who cares if you regret it. By the time it comes to pay the consequences, you will be old and not able to do anything fun anyway."

i was sold.

peace

john nickle

[/ QUOTE ]

you heard it straight from the peacejohnnickle. In this case I disagree though.

to original poster: a few things- 3BB/100 over how many hands? (for the love of baby Jesus, do not say anything under 50k)... are you aware that it becomes a grind as well? Did you factor in other expenses like insurance? Retirement?

[lefty rosen]

Not worth it at all. Unless you have a wife that works and you want to be house husband don't contemplate it. For you to quit your job it should be a low paying one or one highly stressful, either physically or mentally. The pay isn't steady and a tilted run can screw up your bottom line badly......

[lefty rosen]

Case in point I was three tabling Party 2/4 for about 6 weeks and hit a mindblowing 200BB drop on a 300BB roll(Combination of bad luck and tilt after whacko beats). After that I was so gunshy I had to grind back my roll with 25NL sessions for the rest of the month. End of the month I won a grand total of 125 dollars I had about 3 months of that in a row last year. If thats your main source of income the welfare office here you come......... /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree with most of the advice given in this thread, but the notion that someone who has a crappy job needs to get to the level of playing 15/30 comfortably before turning pro is ludicrous.

[/ QUOTE ]



Indeed....this is akin to saying "in order to leave your horrid job with people you hate that pays only $25k/yr you better make sure that your new job pays AT LEAST $175k/yr. Otherwise, why would you want to leave the secure job?"


Also agree that all the other cautionary stuff is generally correct...as well as the stuff about proving that you are a winning player (beyond 20k hands).


The statement from a different post that if you have to ask on an internet chat-board then clearly the answer is no is ABSOLUTELY correct. If you don't KNOW then you shouldn't be doing it.


But the 15/30 thing is ridiculous.
With multi-tabling and bonuses and rake-back it's completely realistic to make $40-50k/yr at 2/4 and 3/6.
If you're currently making that much then the decision is up to you (especially considering the insurance and 401k stuff)...but if you only make $25k/yr and you have PROVEN that you can make $1k/wk playing online-poker why would you stay at your crappy job?


Also - building up a bankroll on 15/30 while keeping your low-paying crappy job would be kind of ridiculous.
After that much success at 15/30 (and after getting the bankroll to get there) you would have upwards of $20k or so perhaps....but would still be 'holding on' to your job that pays almost that much for the whole year.


All you need is to do the math.

I was making $13/hr or so at my regular job....and $25/hr at online-poker.

My regular job had SOME possibilitiy for advancement if I wanted to continue. Online-poker offered more flexibility and the possibility of doubling my income with increased bankroll and additional study.

do the math. you don't have to beat the 15/30 to make a living at this.

[lefty rosen]

You can get by 3 or 4 tabling 1/2 if you are willing to live modestly. You just will have to play [censored] load of hours. It all depends what living standards you want. Myself I was a true pro I would probably want to make about 50K but live on 25 or 30k and bank the rest. Spending to the penny what you make when you speculate for a living is recipe for a disaster at some point...

[Alobar]

[ QUOTE ]
You can get by 3 or 4 tabling 1/2 if you are willing to live modestly. You just will have to play [censored] load of hours. It all depends what living standards you want. Myself I was a true pro I would probably want to make about 50K but live on 25 or 30k and bank the rest. Spending to the penny what you make when you speculate for a living is recipe for a disaster at some point...

[/ QUOTE ]

When I first turned "pro" I was 4 tabling the 1/2 6max games and only playing about 25 hours a week, so lots of hours still arent needed /images/graemlins/smile.gif

But then again, im also single, had no car payment, live in AZ where housing is cheap, so I wouldnt recomend it unless you are young and can live on like 2K a month

[ShortBus]

Here's something else to consider, LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.

As Alobar said, Arizona is cheap, which means you'll have to make a lot less than you would if you were living in New Hampshire or other high priced places of living.

I too live in arizona, (i'm fairly young) and only need a few grand to live a comfortable (though not overly rich) life. Low limits are def.. beatable but you have to be able to put in the long hours to play so low and make enough money to survive on.

Consider what the cost of living is in your area and if you can make that much playing for a living.

It's never easy, but it's doable.

[mack848]

[ QUOTE ]
Here's something else to consider, LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.

[/ QUOTE ]

And if you happen to like in the UK, health care and taxes are not much of a consideration. Mind you housing is pretty expensive.

[mack848]

[ QUOTE ]
You can get by 3 or 4 tabling 1/2 if you are willing to live modestly. You just will have to play [censored] load of hours.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think anyone should consider turning pro playing as low as 1/2. That would be a hell of a grind.

[roy_miami]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I suggest you keep your day job until you have at least 500K hands in poker tracker, you're playing 15/30 comfortably and you have a 600BB bankroll. It shouldn't take more than a year and a half to reach these goals playing part time. If you still think you have what it takes, go for it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with most of the advice given in this thread, but the notion that someone who has a crappy job needs to get to the level of playing 15/30 comfortably before turning pro is ludicrous. So long as the individual has the option of finding another 'crappy' job (and they are two a penny by definition)if it doesn't work out, then even doubling their income by playing at 3/6 or 5/10 is highly possible.

As I say, I pretty much agree with all of the other cautionary advice re. bank roll, taxes, health care etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't say you need to be playing 15/30 to become "pro". I suggested he keep his job for another year or two to make sure he is indeed a winning player. I went on to say, during this year or two he should set himself some goals, one of them being to build a roll and play 15/30. Moving up levels can be stressfull even when you have a day job to fall back on. Microbob, didnt you just recently make the move to 15/30? I sensed from your posts you were feeling a little stressed about the results at the beginning, yes? Why not alleviate some if the stress by moving up while you have a job? If you are truely a winning player why wouldn't you want to play 15/30 making $150K per year instead of the $30-40K you'll make at 3/6. Where I come from $30-40K a year is plenty to live on, but why would I settle for that when I can make so much more playing the same game at a higher level. It just doesn't make sense to me that people are arguing against this advice. Perhaps they just don't want another 2+2er in the mix at the 15 games. Another reason to play as high as possible is you will have to pay cash for big ticket items. How long is it going to take you to save up for a house playing 3/6? Making $150K a year at 15/30 you'll have your house paid for in 2 or 3 years. Also, where I'm from $18 per hour working 9-5 isn't too shabby so I wouldn't throw that away until I was dam sure I could beat the game full time.

Right now I'm single tabling 15/30 and 20/40 with the goal of comfortably mulit-tabling 15/30 and 30/60 games within the next year. My long term goal is to be a millionaire within ten years from a combination of winnings and investments of winnings. Obviously the more I can make in the beginning, the better. You guys grinding the 2/4 and 3/6 games for a living, what are your long term goals?

[Peter_rus]

I quit my job after half year of learning poker. I never regret i quit my job.

[ QUOTE ]
How many hands did you have logged in before you quit your job?

How do you go about filing your taxes?

How long have you been doing it(successfully)?

[/ QUOTE ]

- around 50K
- currently i don't pay taxes at all. But i live in Russia - there are a little people pay taxes... Though i planning it this year.
- around year.

[lozen]

Your not the only one toying with this. I have a bankroll of over $14,000 a job i hate. But still not able to make the jump. Tilting is not an option.

[lefty rosen]

I don't think living in Russia counts, because living expenses aren't comparable. In Russia if you make 2K US you are probably living like a king. In the US you are scrounging in many major cities. I suspect you could get by on 500 US a month in Russia........

[dealer_toe]

I think Moscow is one of the most exspensive city's to live in, in the world. I don't know the exchange rate, but I remember seeing a list somewhere and it being up there.

my pointless 2cents.

k2

[Peter_rus]

Yep it's terrible to live in Moscow for 500$/month, though i used to. But these 500$/month make you *average*. Good salary is 1.5K-2K which have top management. Students work for 200-300$/month as well as most phisical jobs workers.

Renting a flat with one room far outside of center - 300$/month

Cheapiest russian terrible new car - 6 000$.

New one room flat outside of center of the city - 60 000$

The only thing that cheap in russia is transport. We still have oil around 0.45$/litre, metro ticket is also 0.45$ for one-way ticket. Taxi from side regions to center around 10$.

And... i love my city. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Baulucky]

You seem to have left the most important issue out:

How much are your expenses?.

[helpmeout]

I'm not a pro yet but it has been my aim since I started playing about 7months ago.

Firstly you are playing way too low a limit to consider quiting your job.

Poker is what you'd call high risk, you have no guarantees, so in order to make it worthwhile you have to be earning a lot more than a normal job. Your skills arent transferable either so you have to take that into consideration. Even in crap jobs you learn a few work related skills.

If you worked your way up through employment you could expect to be making maybe $50k a year (rough figure obviously) so for poker to be worth it you want to double this because of the high risk. In 5 years everything could change, there maybe so many pros that you can no longer make large amounts of money or new legislation comes in, whatever, you get the point.

My previous goal for becoming a pro was to make $20k from poker. I have done this however I am going to wait a bit longer, probably add another $10k to the figure.

Playing everyday and playing twice a week are 2 different things, it is tough to play everyday. You cant just log in 40 hours a week and earn X dollars, you have to add in study time as well. You will also become emotionally drained from the swings and pressure of putting food on the table.

I have probably only played around 80k hands total from 5c/10c up to 10/20 6max. I would like to play around 50k hands at 10/20 before I go pro, adding this to the 30k at 5/10 should give me a good idea of where I am at with some confidence.

My advice would be to keep grinding away, wait until you are earning around $50 an hour over 50k hands before you get too serious. You also want a nice amount of cash saved up so you dont need to worry too much about living expenses or any unexpected emergencies.

Also dont take too much advice from pros who have made it and think it is the greatest thing ever, for every one of them there are probably another 5 or 10 who went bust and ruined their life.

[Bob Moss]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
you need a lot bigger overlay than $6 more an hour to quit your job. if you absolutely must quit your job, wait until you move up in limits and are averaging $75-100 an hour.

[/ QUOTE ]

What if I really hate my job?

[/ QUOTE ]

Then go for it.

Bob

[MicroBob]

In one breath you seem to say you can't get a house or other things unless you are playing at the 15/30 (making $100/hr or so I am assuming...at least)....next breath you say that making $18/hr ain't too shabby.

I'm just not following what you have to say.

If you can make significantly more now then why hang onto the lower-paying job?


One reason why it's tougher to move up WHILE still keeping a job is that you just aren't able to put in as many hours into your play and thus won't improve as quickly.


Obviously I have no objection to playing at the highest level that you can make the most income at. Not sure why you thought otherwise.

but I am saying that it's very possible to make $50k/yr or so at 3/6 if you are determined and can multi-table.


FWIW - I gave 15/30 a shot for a little while. Lack of good cards and lack of talent combined on my decision to give it a rest for awhile and climb back into it at a later date. I don't regret trying it....I learned a lot. The money I lost was fairly inconsequential.


If I had decided to hang onto my job until I was good enough to consistently beat the 15/30 then I would still be working at my old job and would be struggling with my poker game far more than I am now. I also would not have nearly as much money as I have now. The combination of making very little at my old job AND having to buy gas for the commute would have left me a around break-even....plus whatever I would continue to make from poker on top of that I suppose.


Obviously people need to analyze their own individual situation. for me, it seemed pretty obvious. I was at $14/hr at my old job...I was making $25/hr online. I was enjoying playing online much more than my job PLUS I didn't have to commute.
I did NOT come on these forums and proclaim "Hey everyone. Do you think I should turn pro?"
I just did it. And after a little while I slowly leaked out things like "well....I've been away from my old job for 3 weeks now doing this online-poker thing. And I sure hope I don't have to go back. Things going swimmingly thus far." etc etc.


If the answer isn't obvious enough to you that you can't figure it out without coming to an internet message-board to ask then you probably shouldn't be doing it.


Hell, I've seen messages from people that have said something like "can you really make $24/hr if you make 1BB/hr playing 4-tables of 3/6? If so, I am going to go pro because that sounds pretty good."

ummmm...yes, you really can make that much. The math is pretty simple.
If you need to confirm that you really can make that much then you better not go pro.



This is why I sometimes struggle when responding to these 'should i go pro' posts.
Because it's really not THAT freaking tough to pull it off imo if you are a winning player.

But it seems like a lot of people delude themselves into thinking they are a winning player when they aren't (or just have 20k hands of 2BB/100 for example)...or don't understand how many hours or hands one should need to put in to make $1k/wk or whatever their goal is.
Honestly, it's not that tough to do the math and I feel a little guilty doing it for people sometimes because I wonder if I'm encouraging bad players to go pro by showing them math that is so obvious it should be a requirement that they can do it on their own IN ORDER TO go pro.


End of general rambling thoughts on topic.
Thanks for listening.

[roy_miami]

[ QUOTE ]
In one breath you seem to say you can't get a house or other things unless you are playing at the 15/30 (making $100/hr or so I am assuming...at least)....next breath you say that making $18/hr ain't too shabby.

I'm just not following what you have to say.

[/ QUOTE ]

Poker pros cant get mortgages as far as I know. It would take 30 years to save $250,000 in cash to buy a house making $18 an hour as a poker pro.

I never said if you can't play 15/30 you can't make a living on poker. My suggestion to the OP was he should set himself some goals before he quits his day job. In my oppinion beating the 15/30 game is a pretty reasonable short term goal. This doesn't seem like a ludicrous idea to me, if you think it is then we'll have to respectfully disagree.

If the 15/30 game was a lot tougher than 3/6 I could see an arguement for settling for the lower limits until you increase your skills and confidence, but its not. In fact it may actually be easier.

[James282]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
In one breath you seem to say you can't get a house or other things unless you are playing at the 15/30 (making $100/hr or so I am assuming...at least)....next breath you say that making $18/hr ain't too shabby.

I'm just not following what you have to say.

[/ QUOTE ]

Poker pros cant get mortgages as far as I know. It would take 30 years to save $250,000 in cash to buy a house making $18 an hour as a poker pro.

I never said if you can't play 15/30 you can't make a living on poker. My suggestion to the OP was he should set himself some goals before he quits his day job. In my oppinion beating the 15/30 game is a pretty reasonable short term goal. This doesn't seem like a ludicrous idea to me, if you think it is then we'll have to respectfully disagree.

If the 15/30 game was a lot tougher than 3/6 I could see an arguement for settling for the lower limits until you increase your skills and confidence, but its not. In fact it may actually be easier.

[/ QUOTE ]

Can't get mortgages? LMFAO. Be a little more off-base.
-James

[lefty rosen]

They can get loans but at much higher rates. The risk is much higher so the lenders pass it on to the lendee......

[roy_miami]

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Can't get mortgages? LMFAO. Be a little more off-base.

[/ QUOTE ]

I take it you didn't read the entire thread? Or are you saying you can get a mortgage without a job? You can't where I'm from.

[lefty rosen]

If you have income you can get a mortgage. The lenders will want 5 years plus of good income and will want to charge credit card rates of interst but you will get a loan.....

[pokerjunky]

Wow, great responses guys. Thanks for all the advice and words of wisdom. I think the fact that I hate my job so much has clouded my judgement a litlle bit - I'm definately not secure enough to quit just yet, especially with kids and a wife that doesn't work.

I took a few vacation days and did nothing but play poker all day to get a feel for what it would be like. I tried to pretend that it was what I was depending on to feed my family, and all I can say is YIKES, my blood pressure was through the roof. The bad beats were a lot more aggravating than they usually are, normally I shrug them off but this time I was getting PISSED!

So, I have concluded that I'm neither financially nor emotionally ready for this, even though someday I would like to be.