You Can't Go Pro Without Already Being a Pro

[Arnfinn Madsen]

I think the essence is, lehighguy; that it is difficult for anyone who would like to respond constructively (like me [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]) to know how you will do if you go pro. I love it, not for the money (I made more in the job I quited), but for the enormous freedom. It am 30 years old and being allowed to once again live like a student, is great.

Poker is going good and motivation is there, but will it be for you? Almost impossible to answer. I think it is easy to make good money from being a poker pro if you have the right personality/talent and hard if you haven't. You are the one who has the most information about yourself, so bottomline it will in the end be you doing the decision. How good you are in poker now, isn't really very important (if you don't have low funds) since you will have plenty of time to study the game when you have gone pro.


All this existensialist questions/searching show however that you have to change some things in your life, you don't seem happy/satisfied.

[MicroBob]

I had way less than 500k when I went 'full-time'.

but my situation was significantly different in many ways.


- my job at the time (blackjack dealer) paid very little. and i could always get it back very quickly if I wanted/needed to.
- i was able to cut down on my hours at work when I was running decently, and dedicate more hours to poker.


For me going 'full-time' was more like 'taking-a-shot' because I thought the chances of having to return to my job within 3-4 months were extremely high and I was comfortable with that.
I had a pretty short bankroll and limited experience at poker.


To my mind...I didn't necessarily need 500k hands to prove that I was 'getting it' and was a 'proven winner'.
I didn't think I was that good when I tried it...but i believed I was smart enough to learn the game and get better WHILE i was doing it.
This is a pretty contraversial way of going about it though and wouldn't be responsible for many people's situations.



But if you are determined to try to do this then you are either going to have to put in the hands, or just take the plunge (because I suspect there isn't any kind of option where you go part-time at work and cut back on your hours to just 30-35 per week or something like that).

Having some sort of back-up plan would help your confidence of course.

But you are correct that there's no way you are going to be able to play 500k hands to 'prove' that you are lifetime winner while continuing to work 50-60 hours at your job.
I suspect that 15k or more hands per month might be a stretch.


Seriously....there's no way you could take a 3 month 'leave'?
there's no way you could get this job (or semi-similar) back if things go badly in poker?

my suspicion is that if you are good at something then you are good at it and there will be a place for you SOMEWHERE if the need comes.

you have made it sound like leaving your job practically makes you completely incapable of being hired for the rest of your life. And I simply do not believe that this can be true.
You might be better off in a different job anyway, even if it is less money. Working fewer hours, in a job that you enjoy a bit more would probably be best for you.


I suggest more seriously considering your other career options for if/when poker doesn't work out and then just leave your current job that you ahte so much.

[lehighguy]

I got the talk from my parents this weekend. Wasn't even mentioning poker, said I applied to video game design school and was gonna see if they gave me a scholarship. My dad was like all berserk. Gave me the I paid for your college and your gonna throw it away speech.

I don't really care, if in a year I've made a lot of money they will get off my back. But if I bust out they will like disown me.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

[ QUOTE ]
I got the talk from my parents this weekend. Wasn't even mentioning poker, said I applied to video game design school and was gonna see if they gave me a scholarship. My dad was like all berserk. Gave me the I paid for your college and your gonna throw it away speech.

I don't really care, if in a year I've made a lot of money they will get off my back. But if I bust out they will like disown me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pretty much puts the last piece in the puzzle, I think. If you are living/making decisions in order to satisfy somebody else's expections on the expense of your own's; you will never become happy. Time to prioritize yourself, and put them in the "I have decided to do this....."-category instead of "What do you think about me doing this?"-category, for a while.

If they really love you, they will keep loving you. If they will disown you, they did not really love you in the first place.

[lehighguy]

I have amazing parents. Thier sole goal for the last 22 years has been to raise me. I think I can honestly say that 99% of the things they have done in the last 22 years have been towards this course. I don't think they have ever done anything for themselves.

Basically, they wake up, go to work all day at jobs they hate, and then come home just to do [censored] for me. I kept up my end of the bargain by doing well in school and getting a good job.

If I don't succeed, it will invalidate thier entire lives. I'm thier only accomplishment in two decades. I don't think they have anything else to live for.

I've never felt like I owed society or other people anything. But with my parents I feel there is a moral obligation because of all they have done for me.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

So it is your love for them that is making it complicated.

You want to quit your job (because basically you have started to hate it and snobbish upperclass businesslife in general) but you don't want to do something that make them feel bad?

[lehighguy]

That sums it up.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

I think you should try to explain to them that you are unhappy with your current life, it might make them as well realize that a change is necessary.

[Turkish]

Why not look for a job that doesn't suck so bad? Get something closer to 40 hrs, that way you can still play quite a bit, your parents will be happy, and you wont have to rely on poker for your sole income

[lehighguy]

I tried that, the conversation went something like this.

Me: My job sucks. I'm probably gonna burn out if I keep doing it. If I do well they are just gonna promote me to another job I hate.

Parents: Life is suppose to suck. Work is suppose to suck. The majority of your time in this life is doing [censored] you hate. It's part of making a living. (Long speach about how hard we've worked for you to get ahead).

They have both worked [censored] mid-low paying menial jobs thier whole lives. I don't want to live the way they do because, simply put, they seems unhappy the vast majority of the time.