Should I go Pro?

[OldLearner]

The golf analogy was not intended to compare the games. It was intended to point out that after 9 months (of doing anything) you SHOULD NOT consider going professional.

But your analogy of poker being "taking money from drunks off the street" was good. Based on this, yes, we should all go pro (except maybe for DrunkBob...he's only average).

[MicroBob]

9 months has nothing to do with it.
You can be a winning player over 100k hands or 200k hands and have a reasonable idea of what your win-rate will be if you wanted to play 30-40 hours a week.

I've been playing full-time for income for over 5 months.
In Feb, 2003 I didn't know whether a full-house beat a flush or vice-versa. By April, 2004 I was comfortable enough with my game to give it a shot.

If you're saying that you have to be a successful player for 2 years or longer in order to pull it off I would say that's ludicrous.

I believe Ed Miller didn't really pick up the game until 2000 or 2001 or so (not sure on this). And now he has a pretty good book about it.

[bforester]

Some people have already mentioned health insurance. I myself don't have health insurance. When I had to have my appendix removed at the hospital recently, I had to pay $25,000 out of my own pocket. I'm mentioning this to show you what kind of swings you can have in life besides poker bankroll swings. Maybe, it's another factor that can help you decide wether it's time for you to go pro. Good luck if you go pro.

[OldLearner]

Do you consider yourself a professional Bob?

I am a winning player (for much longer than 9 months) but I don't consider myself a professional.

My definition of a professional may be different than yours. I expect a professional to have a high degree of expertise, so much so that I don't believe it is achievable in 9 months.

If it means that you have chosen to do it for a living, well then I guess anyone can be a professional. But that trivializes the term professional.

[MicroBob]

The term 'professional' has been discussed previously.

On my income-taxes I believe I am filing as a 'professional gambler'.
If I am making $1k/wk or so playing 3/6 then I suggest I am doing better then a lot of the big-money touring tourney guys who are going broke.
To that end, I believe I approach my poker in a far more professional manner then some of the unsuccessful big-tourney guys.

So one could argue that calling some of the big-spenders 'professional' really trivializes the term if they are deep in debt.


Regardless, the original poster is clearly asking about whether he should play 3/6 full-time for income. So in the context of his question (and I thought for this thread as well), this is what 'turning pro' refers to.

[lacky]

I'm having a hard time seeing what your decision not to have health insurence has to do with playing poker. All self employeed people have to get privete insurence, it's not a big deal

[lefty rosen]

Move to Canada, that won't be such an expensive hit........ No going pro in the US because of a lack of health care is such perilous slope it's not funny........

[jmark]

MicroBob,

I hope this isn't too personal of a question. If you make $1k/week at 3/6, what's your net pay after taxes, health insurance, etc.? How much would it be if you weren't filing as a professional?

[SinCityGuy]

[ QUOTE ]
MicroBob,

I hope this isn't too personal of a question. If you make $1k/week at 3/6, what's your net pay after taxes, health insurance, etc.? How much would it be if you weren't filing as a professional?

[/ QUOTE ]

Filing as a professional gives you a lot of deductions. First, you only need to declare your net winnings. Your health insurance is deductable. Books and software are deductable. You can sock away up to about $20,000 per year in a self-funded 401K plan, tax free. Tournament players can write off their travel expenses. These are just a few; there are many more.

[SinCityGuy]

That's unfortunate, but totally avoidable. You can get dirt cheap coverage that will limit your out of pocket expenses to a maximum of $3,000 per year.