For those that play online for a living, how realistic is this?

[Rick Diesel]

Right now, I probably average between 10-15 hours per week. I just figure that if I get rid of the 50-60 hour work week that I have at my real job, I could easily play poker for 30-35 hours of that time, and still have MUCH more free time than I had previously.

Obviously I would install breaks into my play time, as I would be home with my dogs all day, and would spend a lot of time playing with them.

[Rick Diesel]

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how do you have 1000 posts and not know where to post [censored]?

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good answer

[lorinda]

Your figures for $109s are unrealistic.

See 1-table tournament forum for details.

Lori

[Mr_J]

"What is the right forum then?"

Yep the 1table forum. That's the SNG forum.

"Also, how do you 6-8 table? Do you have two monitors?"

You could do it on one, it all depends on the specs of your monitor. Most people 8 table with 2 1600x1200 resolution monitors. Your video card is what decides whether you can use 2 monitors.

Right click on your desktop. Then click 'properties'. The click the 'settings' tab. Under where it says display, check what other options you have. I'm no techie but this should show you whether you can run 2 monitors or not.

[Iplayragstoo]

You ned two video cards for that, its a super simple install.

[NateDog]

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You ned two video cards for that

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No. You only need one, but it has to have dual or multi monitor support.

[Uglyowl]

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how do you have 1000 posts and not know where to post [censored]?

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Who the hell are you?

[Freudian]

Your avatar scared me. It moved perfectly in sync with the music I was playing in winamp. I had to turn the music off to see it wasn't an infernal hacking trick.

[Non_Comformist]

Hey Rick,

The accounting world losses anothter one huh?

I left a little over a year ago. I spotted two things in your post right away.

#1, Playing for than 25-30 hours a week is extremely difficult. I too came from a firm where I was putting in 55hrs a week. The thing you have to remember about online multitable poker is unlike other jobs, when you are playing you are fully engaged just about at all times. So while a person from a normal job may work 40hours, his/her time actually performing work is much less when you subtract the times people pause for a minute or two to think. 40hrs of poker would be an actual 40hours of playing poker.

Additionally I think the biggest benefit of playing poker for a living is not having to work a full 40hours. Trust me the game gets old quickly once you go beyond the part time mode.


Second, Your winrates right now are based on you playing when you want to, with little pressure, and for the most part at a few optimal hours. You will not have any of these luxuries when you go fulltime. I am not saying you can't maintain them, but it is something to think about.

Feel free to PM if want to discuss this futher.

Jeremy

[Orpheus]

Okay... first off, don't mistake my direct declaratives for bossiness or "knowitall-ism", nor my illustrations as anything more than a pencil sketch. I'm a moron and I know it. I just know this post could turn into "War and Peace", and I'd like to keep it down to "Atlas Shrugged" length.

If you're going top do this professionally, I'd also allow for 10-20 hours a week of "professional development" [books, drills, session review]. You can count a fraction of this against your "breaks" but not much more than an hour a day: it's still "thinking poker". What's your upgrade path, so you don't stagnate?

There are other parasitic time losses, too, like time to prepare/center for each session [though perhaps this isn't as big a factor in SNGs. In my limited experiene, they start off slow. Unlike ring sessions, you don't have to hit the ground running because you can discard the first few hands with little penalty] Will you be online only, or will you also be playing live?

If you're doing this for a living, your schedule will run *you*, at least until you're quite successful and have a financial cushion. What will you do when you hit a nasty psychological or statistical downturn? It's harder to take an unplanned week or two off unless you've planned for it (You might want to sock away a vacation fund, put the kennel and a "last minute discount travel" agency on the speed dial, etc.) How many disaster tales involved a player continuing to playi when they suspected they shouldn't?

You've already run across some fiscal costs of proper equipment: you'll proably want 2 or more monitors, and a complete backup computer. Right now, you can afford to have the shop fiddle and diddle with your computer for a week or more, as they jack up your bill, or wait for a back-ordered part. Your Landlord may not be so accomodating.

None of the professional expenses may terribly large, but it could be a huge mistake to leave them out of your business plan. A few hundred dollars at Dell, Office Max and other non-poker sites (check the hot deals forums at Fatwallet and similar sites) could *easily* save you thousands later.

Also: Invest in yourself--and budget that investment (but don't kid yourself and splurge on luxuries)

I'm sure you get the idea. I can't play poker as well as you apparently can (and being a poker pro wouldn't be very personally satisfying to me), but I've started businesses and been a "professional" (i.e. jobs requiring grad school, postgrad training and/or licensure] in several fields.

It's pretty commonsense. As a rule of thumb, the professions I entered required as much time/resources for "professional activities" and infrastructure as actual work. Even tacking a couple of hours a day onto your playing time can boost your total weekly hours to 50+, and you'll be giving up the bennies, perks and, yes, "respectability" of a steady job. You may not care, your Significant Other may not care. But your bank officer might, and you'll be taking a hit to your resume, if you ever give it up and have to explain the year you spent attempting a "recreation industry startup".

I'm not trying to rain on your parade, just give you ideas. You sound bright enough to take it from there, if you keep your eyes open. Imagine you're a doctor or lawyer setting up a new practice (vs. buying an established one). Think journals and equipment and nonbillable hours. (Fortunately, the sites will provide you with "patients" to "operate on".) Always overestimate costs/burdens, with one thought: "Will I be pleasantly surprised if I'm wrong" (vs. overestimating in ways that are destructive or paralyzing)

It's a business. Pick your accounting and other record software. Remember the IRS. Look into a health plana. These are not luxuries. They are things that you are giving up by making the switch.

Don't try to live by a business plan doodled on a single page. Get a fat looseleaf notebook and a package of separator tabs. Over the next several weeks, when something occurs to you, jot it down, file it and research it as a project--e.g. while upgrading your computer set-up isn't exactly rocket science, and you can find prepackaged answers here, creating the best solution *for you* could be a project all by itself. The same goes for your tax situation, insurance, etc.

And don't forget the psychological side: your support network, etc. Most of us don't worry about that for hobbies, but your hobby is about to go mission critical.