[Hornacek]

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Second, even if you made $100,000 a year: it's true there are very few jobs out of college that pay that much for 40 hours a week. But there are a slew of finance jobs that pay that much or more for 60-100 hours a week. And those jobs, when you get to your late 20s and early 30s, will pay you significantly more than you could ever make playing poker (unless you're Phil Ivey, but I'm guessing the odds you're Phil Ivey are about the same odds that you're Eric Mindich).

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I just graduated with my Bachelors ('04) and Masters ('05) in Computer Science from MIT and am working in NY on Wall Street. My first year pay, while not amazing compared to what I hope to make in the future, is probably the same amount any of the top 5% of the players here will make in a year. Plus, I get free breakfast and lunch every day, medical insurance, dental, life insurance, transportation subsidy, and 401K retirement.

On top of that, I go home every night, play poker (if I want to) without the restriction that I won't have any food to eat if I lose it all.

In short: FINISH COLLEGE. I played 3x as much as I do now in college, and still got decent grades... your parents will be happy, and it's the better long-term goal.