[newfant]

The ideal situation for an online poker player is to have a dayjob and then to play poker after work for a few hours each evening. This way the player has two sources of income and pressure on the old bankroll is greatly decreased. Plus, most of the fish are online in the evening, so having a dayjob doesn't cut into the best poker-playing hours.

Most of the people that quit their jobs are in either low-paying jobs or in jobs they don't like. For these people, it might make sense to quit their jobs because if it doesn't work out, they can just get another crappy job. No big deal really.

I think too much is made out of people "going pro," because inevitably these people are in relatively low-paying jobs that they don't like. Plus, many of them are at the beginning of their careers so taking a few months off to play poker full-time will likely not hurt them in the long run.