Playing for a living (long)
Yesterday, I lost my job due to a conflict of interests (another long story) in a family run business of which I was a shareholder and VP of the Corp.
That being said, it's a given that my mind has been racing for the last 24 hours. Given the situation, I think there is a possibility (20%) that I may be asked to come back, but there will be some stern negotiations if that is the case. Now for the meat of this post.
I've been playing for 3 years, starting in limit ring, moving to NL, back to limit, and in the past fedw months to SNGs, where I have had my greatest success. I haven't played a high volume, as my work used to take up alot of my time. I have previously played 5, 6, 10, 15, & 20 SNGs, and my stats for each are as follows (I know about small sample sizes, etc. but I want to post all pertinent information):
$5/$6 SNGS: 169 played; 31.33% ROI
$10 SNGS: 95 played; 25.55% ROI
$15 SNGS: 48 played; 16.34% ROI
$20 SNGS: 93 played; 21.21% ROI
As close as I can figure, over 405 SNGs at various levels, I'm +23.42% ROI.
I don't consider myself a great player, but not a bad one either, maybe more like middle of the road/average.
I would like opinions and thoughts of players that play for a living, and are not just college students, but those that actually support a family, own a home, etc. about my situation.
Our monthly "nut" is about $3K (a little high, but better to be high than low) and my wife brings home about $1K/month. We currently have about 3 months worth of expenses saved, and my poker BR is $1K (It was much higher, but she's going back to school, and we just bought new mattresses, so that hit the BR by about $3K for both).
If I 4-table the $10's until I get to around $1500, and move back to the $20's, I figure it's going to take about 790 SNGs/month to reach that goal (maybe 26/day... not too difficult, but more than I have played in any one day before). If I could maintain 20% at the 20's, that would come out to 454/month, or 15/day.
Basically, I would like some honest opinions about playing SNGs for a living from those that do, and more importantly, what kinds of things should I be thinking about in regards to playing for a living (if that is indeed what I end up doing).
I don't think I am going to make any concrete decisions about what exactly I am going to do for another week or so, but I am trying to plan some things out now so that my decision making process is easier when the time comes. I may look for another job immediately, I may try playing for a few months, I'm just not real sure right now, and this feeling is one I am totally unfamiliar with.
I also have a few questions for those that play for a living:
1. How do you go about withdraws? Do you make a set amount each month, biweekly? Do you just take a % of your winnings out? I had thought to make 2 WDs/month, around the middle and end of roughly what I and my wife need to pay bills and survive.
2. Are you generally much tighter with BR management? I had previously played SNGs with a 50 buy-in BR, but if I DO end up doing this for a living, I think I might want to move to 75 or maybe even 100.
3. Were you "forced" into this decision or was it choice? How long ahve you been doing it? Are you happy with your decision?
4. What kind (if any) tax problems am I looking at? (I plan to report everything, but is there anything specific I need to do if I choose this path?)
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated, serious replies only, please...
Thanks alot,
'Mez
|