poker for a living through college

[Cory Neely]

I have been reading this post and was wondering if anyone has done what I and 2 other friends are going to do.
We have taken up poker and have been studying the books and playing every chance we get for past 2 years. We have decided to base the majority of our learning and play on live games and not online. We have all read TOP, WLLH, SSH, and TPFAP. We have re-read WLLH and SSH to the point where we have most of it memorized. We are constantly searching for holes in our game and we watch each other close to catch and mistakes the other makes.
Ok enough of the biography. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
This year while going to college instead of working at some fast food joint we have decided to play low limit holdem in our local card rooms for a change. We plan on playing 2/4 - 5/10 depending on our bankroll size and chopping the rent several ways. I have come to the conclusion that the reason why some people dont make it well as a full time poker player is that sometimes people go on bad runs and they run out of money or they try to make it on thier own and not have enough to cover the rent and dont have anyone to back them. A 3 way deal might be a better solution for this problem. If one of us has a bad run for a while then the others could cover. No big deal. This sounds kinda like THE CREW but its not. For one we are all friends. We wouldnt mind if the others lived with us for free so if a bad run of cards happens then so be it.
My question is has anyone done this and lived to tell about it? I know very well working at Mcdonalds or something would be a safer bet but when youre in college you want the freedom to come and go as you please and not have a work schedule that says you have to be at work at 5 on wednesday and thursday then your teacher assigns you an assload or work wednesday morning.
I know we can beat the game without a doubt, Im just wondering if anyone has tried the same situation.
Also what limits would 2-3 people be able to play and live on by sharing bills. (my guess would be 4/8)
Is it bad to think we could each make 30k a year playing low limit cards?

[TheCroShow]

sounds like a really good idea, but it can and will cause problems. playing off the same bankroll is not a good idea. i don't even think i would play off the same bankroll with my brother. money seperates friends.

[RunDownHouse]

I'm going to say that sounds like an awful idea. Nothing sets people on one another like money (or, more accurately, the lack thereof). If you do this, you're going to want written rules about exactly how all of these monetary relationships will work.

[Cory Neely]

I know playing from the same roll is bad (look at the crew). We would actually be playing from seperate rolls. I guess it kinda got confusing when I talked about the helping out stuff but I was just trying to say the fault of most full time poker players is that they go on thier own and if they run out of money then thats it, end. But in the unlikey event (since its such a low limit) that one of us should go through that struggle then the others have his back.

[TheCroShow]

go to my friend's site. there is a core of about 4-5 professionals there, and they help each other out, give each other advice and have grown well together. www.604poker.com

[TwinTowers]

Give it a shot. Its not like your risking your life's savings (since you have no life savings). If worse comes to worse, you'd have to get a job.

Remember to consistently stay ahead of the rake, you need to step up from the 3/6 tables, but at the same time you can play outside of your comfort level (that should be in one of those books) [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[mmbt0ne]

Online man, play online. At these low limits in a live game you're gonna see some HUGE swings, just because people are gonna be as crazy as it gets. Add that with tipping on every pot, and it's gonna be hard to end up ahead.

If you each have the roll for 1/2 online while still having a few months expenses covered, there is an abundance of bonus whoring possibilities, and more fish to win money off. You'll be getting more hands/hour, can play more than 1 table at a time, and there is no tipping. If you guys put in some effort and studied, you could get up to 2/4 or 3/6 in a month, maybe 2. And once you get there, I think you'd be able to make enough money (given the effort) to live a college life on.

You can check out balkii's thread here where he talks about his first year playing as a pro. I copied the relevant numbers portion for you below.

</font><blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:</font><hr />
Played the 3/6 game for many many hands, and finally decided I was costing myself money by not moving up to 5/10. Well, played the full games for a while (26K hands) and came out barely ahead. I was living off the incomce so I couldnt take it anymore. Dropped back down. Rebuilt my confidence and my roll and started playing the 5/10 full game only at nights. It was great. Played just like 3/6. Then I finally made the switch to the 6max. Wow. That [censored] is hell. a Lot of fun, but I think i'm gonna die of stress related illness.

I'm not gonna dig thru PT looking for crazy hands or wild beats, but I will post the one beat that I can remember. Table was shorthanded, and I have 88 in the big blind. I think i raised it against an UTG limper and the SB. Flop was 84x. Capped by me and UTG. turn was A. capped. River was A. Capped, and I lose to A4. Ick.

Anyways. So here I am, after 1 year of online pro poker. I played 222,928 hands of poker. I worked 965 hours. I made $43,906.43. I'm looking forward to next year.

[/ QUOTE ]


A lot of college-aged people on these boards have poker as a primary source of income (myself included) and all I can tell you is that if you stay on top of your game, study these forums, post hands, reply to other peoples hands (THE most important thing that very few people do), and honestly put forth an effort to be a winning player, you and your friends have a good chance of succeeding.

[Cory Neely]

Thanks for the feedback so far. When we start playing I will make sure to keep a daily online record of how our sessions went and such. One thing I am concerned about is taxes. I know i'll have to pay them so I really don't care too much about trying to avoid it but what kind of taxes can I be looking at if I were to make 20k or 30k this year just playing poker. I'm sure a broker would tell me these things but have any of you found a good way to get around things like donating your money to charity or something. I was watching the travel channel the other day and it had something on about beating Vegas and I saw if you win more than $1,999 on a slot then you have to pay taxes but if you won $gazillion on a blackjack table you wouldnt have to pay taxes.

[Johnny5]

Unless you are going to try to make a living playing at home games, I suggest you ask the people in another forum.

J5

[Cory Neely]

What section would you recomend?