[flair1239]

Just a couple random thoughts.

Somewhere in Mid-high in the "A very Tommy Hand" thread, Tommy Angelo is giving his thought process on how he played a hand. Towards the end he says something like: "I had no hand, no position, but lots of time...so I folded"

It was the "lots of time" comment that interested me. I wondered, how many of the Internet Pros on this site have "lot's of time." , Especially those who are playing 5/10 or lower.

What do you need to have "lots of time" as a pro? I think this means that you have your finances in order and that they are not necessarily dependent on extreme short term results.

Can you go a month or two without winning and making a withdrawl.

Think about it. Say you are playing 5/10 and you have a $10,000 bankroll. Say you need to clear 3000 a month, minimum, which may mean $4000 before taxes.

Say you have a couple short months... where is the shortfall going to come from? If it comes from savings, then you have a cushion, you won't have to pillage your bankroll. But say your savings are not adequate, and say you have to take from your bankroll. Maybe the end of the month looks like this: You had a weak month and only grossed $2500, you withdraw, then and need another $1,000 to get by. If that $1,000 needs to come from your bankroll, you have in essence inflicted a 100BB downswing for the month on your bankroll. It (your bankroll) does not know the difference between a withdrawl and a downswing.

Numerous posts lately have dealt with short term/long term. The concensus seems to be it is important not to get too tied into your short-term results as that can negatively affect your play when things do not go well. I submit to you that there are many players who depend upon their poker income entirely or partially , for whom it is impossible to ignore short term results, since they are depending upon them to pay their bills for that month (ie they don't have the cushion that they need.)

So if you are going to turn pro, you obviously want to be able to play optimally as much as possible. I think it is important to structure your finances as such that month to month results, will not have a large impct on you financially.

If you cannot arrange your finances that way, you probably should not turn pro.