Convince me not to go pro

[tightmaniac]

Im graduating college this spring and am dreading going into the real world work place. I have been fortunate enough to be winning consistently online for the past year and a half and steadily improving. Due to this and scholarships I have no student loans to pay for and have saved up about a years worth of expenses in addition to my bankroll. Based on my current winrate at $5/10 I can make between 50-60k in a year compared to at most 40k by getting a job. I feel since I am single and have no kids or anything I can try it for a year or so and if not get a regular job. Right now I think if i get a job i will always be curious and regret not trying to turn pro. I would like to hear arguements of not turning pro though.

[TazQ]

If money is your only reason, you'll make quite a bit more by getting a job now and playing poker part time.

I'd only consider doing it for a living if it is a passion of yours, not the money.

[VinnyTheFish]

I know this many seem unlikely, but it’s true.

If you want to try, now is the time. You are young and people tend to change jobs many times before 30. So go for it, now is the time. But you want reasons not to so it.

Here are reasons not to:

1 – 104(k) Plan. You do not want to work everyday for the rest of the life. You will end up retiring. A company helps you long here. (* But if you are smart enough, you will but money in a Roth type IRA *)

2 – paid sick days and vacation days – Poker does not do such.

3 – study positive income (* Do you have enough saved so that you never, ever go down to your last dollar? *)

4 – Medical Insurance (* Sounds unlikely, but Car accident, Root Canal, etc. who pays? *)

[BruinEric]

Reasons NOT to:

1) Avoid instantly turning off girls with long-term marriage potential by telling them "ummm...I play online poker for money...Wait! Where are you going?"

2) Benefits such as group health insurance matter. At worst on your own, you are going to have to get personal coverage that limits your risk in case of a serious incident.

3) Do you really want to be staring at the computer screen 8+ hours a day because you HAVE to?

4) There are social benefits to being in the workforce. Meeting people, learning about how business is done, experiencing life outside your own house, etc.

Just a few that come to mind. Maybe do both? Commit 10 to 15 hours a week to your new higher-limit/multi-table experiment, and enjoy the money from a job and the potential extra money from poker fun.

[Cleveland Guy]

3) Do you really want to be staring at the computer screen 8+ hours a day because you HAVE to?

THIS IS MY JOB - and I Don't play poker for a living

[Justin A]

It's easier to go from a real job to playing poker in the future than vice versa. If you don't get a job now, it will be very hard to find employment in the future when they ask you what you've been doing with your time.

Justin A

[Greg J]

Something that you enjoy doing will become a grind, as you are now forced to play to make a living. You will be, in large part, taking advantage of the weakness of other human beings with a psychological addiction to gambling to make a living of your own. By playing poker for a living you don't really make the world a better place -- you are not contibuting the human capital you have developed in the process of getting a college degree in any meaningful way. No one knows when the gravy train of internet poker will end, but it could come either in the form 1) a crackdown by the federal government, or 2) the popularity of poker dying off, in which case there would be less fish and you would be stuck trying to extract money from players who are as serious about the game as you.*

* I do not necessarily agree with any of these arguments -- I am only presenting them.

[on_thg]

Um, Mom will be mad if you go pro. I checked.

[Xelent]

I'm a soph in College right now and going through similar decisions in my life. For me it isn't the passion of playing poker that would make me do it as much as the passion I have against waking up early and sitting in a cubicle from 9 to 5 everyday. But eventually I need to consider the realities of the situation.

The most important factor in my decision is my family. What they think of me as a result of me playing poker part-time in college for money makes them sickened and afraid. I will never convince them that this is a profitable "job."

Another thing is the long term. Poker right now is a fad among most people and while it will never die out, it may go back to what it was 10 years ago when it was 8 sharks and 2 fish per table as opposed to the other way around. Online poker may die for various reasons, and you need to think of retirement.

I plan on continuing to play poker through college and maybe a year or two after until I have saved enough money to start a business or other ventures/investments and then I can take it from there.

Since your already out of college, you have to ask yourself what you want to do with your life. Play poker right now while you save and look for a part-time job maybe or anything that interests you, but if you plan on poker being your only source of income for the next 20 years, you will find many hardships along the way and I think VERY few can make it that long without burning out.

This is from the point of view of someone who is COMPLETELY confused with his life right now and where he wants to take it.

[larrondo]

Other things to consider:

The poker action is likely to dry up at some point. Does anyone remember the backgammon craze of the seventies? Also, many people I know who hit upon a lucrative but dead end job ended up regretting it when ten years past. You get addicted to the money and freedom, and it gets harder to start something else.

As long as your winnings hold up, poker could be a great way to support yourself while you work towards something else. (I did a bunch of things to keep me afloat while I wrote my first screenplay, which later payed off.)

On the other hand, maybe you can be the next Doyle Brunson. When anyone asks career advice like this, I think the only responsible answer is 'don't do it.' If you want to do it anyway, God bless you.