Convince me not to go pro

[duk]

One of the great things about being able to make money from poker is that it should provide you with quite a bit of flexibility. You don't necessarily need to find a job right away, and that is something that can't be said for most college graduates.

I would suggest that you use this flexibility to pursue only those jobs you find interesting (surely there have to be SOME out there). In the absence of a job, I agree with some of the other posters that you need some sort of a link to the "real world," and volunteering (again, hopefully for something you are interested in) is an excellent choice.

I imagine most people would agree that mornings aren't the optimal time to be playing poker, so maybe you can think about contributing that time to society. If you decide to get a real job down the road, I doubt that most employers would look down on you for doing volunteer work while you looked for a job that really interested you. And, this also has the effect of pointing out to your potential employer that your interest in the job is not purely monetary.

[pudley4]

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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.

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As has been mentioned, that job normally includes health coverage, some sort of retirement plan (401k, pension, etc), vacation and sick pay, and usually the possibility for job advancement/promotions. A 40k/year job is easily worth 50-60k when you add in all these benefits.

If you want to do it for a year, just to see how it is, or because you want to be able to say you did it, that's cool. But don't expect to be making a living playing 5/10 10 years from now...

Plus, making 50k/year playing 5/10 full time translates into a win rate of only 1BB/100 hands - depending on your sample size, that may be an inflated rate for you, and even if it is the correct rate, you may need a lot of work on your game in order to have any chance at moving up (which you'll eventually need to do)

[larrondo]

There should be more people in the world like you, Duk.

[pokerjo22]

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and am dreading going into the real world work place.

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Can I ask why? It sounds like you don't have very much confidence in your own ability to go out into the real world and secure a psychologically fulfilling and financially lucrative job? They do exist you know.

[snowbank]

50-60K a year is barely better than 40K plus benefits.(like someone mentioned) I would think if you were in this for the money you would want to make at least 70-80K if you can get a 40K job with benefits. Also, let's think about the opportunity costs of playing poker versus moving up in the business world or whatever world you could be entering:

3-4 years from now you may still be making $50-$60K a year playing poker. In your job, you could have received a huge promotion and be closing in on 6 figures, plus all of the benefits. Having to use your poker money to live off of could make it harder for you to try and move up in stakes, as others have talked about before.

It all depends on what you are trying to do. For example, if you were an entrepreneur and wanted to make as much money in the next year or two to try and get a business started, playing poker would make sense if you were confident you could do it. If you just want to make $50,000 a year playing poker because the first year of poker will be paying you more than a first year at a job, then it's obviously going to cost you in the long run. Based on the information you've given, it's hard to convince you one way or the other what you should do, because there's a lot of information we don't know.

Most of my response has been pretty general, as I'm not really trying to sway you one way or the other. However, my one concern for you, or point that I would bring up if I wanted to convince you that this would be a bad move is this:

Out of all of the people who are considering going pro, I think this is one of the smallest potential earnings I have seen. Most people considering going pro would have a legitimate shot at making $100,000+ their first year. Just something I noticed.

Best of luck to you.

[SomethingClever]

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...and secure a psychologically fulfilling and financially lucrative job? They do exist you know.

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I'd estimate 9 out of 10 jobs completely suck ass.

Even the greatest jobs can become a grind due to forces beyond your control (company/management changes direction/philosophy, awful coworkers, bad commute, etc...)

All that said, get a job, hippie!

[pokerjo22]

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I'd estimate 9 out of 10 jobs completely suck ass.


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Yeah, and I'd estimate 9/10 poker 'pros' go broke. I'm not saying its not hard, but its probably no harder than trying to make a career out of poker.

BTW, to the original poster, its obvious, but no-ones said it, potential earnings in the 'real word' dwarf those of poker.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/compan...-ceopay2_x.htm

[Felix_Nietsche]

You need to be making 100K at poker to make it worth your while to go pro...

The the payroll tax (social security) is a KILLER. When you work for a company, they pay half of it. Health insurance is a very important. One bad car accident and without insurance you can be financially crippled.

Keep playing part time and when you can make a rate of 10K per month for 6 months, then go pro...

[illguitar]

Very good interesting post for a college senior like myself who has been contemplating this very same thing. I have been fortunate enough to make enough money playing poker to quit my bs part-time college jobs like bartending and now i play for a living.
However, many of these points have been an eye opener for me in terms of insurance, etc. That said, I'm going for it for 2 years. I'll reevaluate then and see where I stand.
This may just be a pipe dream for guys like us, like NBA and NFL once were when we were chldren. But you are only young once and at 23 I'm going to take my shot. I think that the only harm to be done is the regret of never having taken that shot. IF you are passionate about poker. While playing constantly has definitely drained me from little nuances I used to love, I still can't sleep sometimes thinking about poker. The passion is what makes life worth living, if you truly love it, not just the relative ease of work for the payoff...do it! And I'll see you there.

Daver

[lehighguy]

I too am graduating college and considering going pro. Here's my situation. I can probably make 50K a year playing 3/6. I have a job offer from a Wall Street bank that pays 75,000 a year with earning potential even greater down the line. Here's the characteristics of each job as I see it.

Wall Street:
Hours per week: 60-80

Enjoyment factor: 2 out of 10, its kinda exciting to deal with that much money. but in reality all i will do is stare at excel spreadsheets and suck up to rich people.

Value to society: Negative. All of big finance is a giant scam. I'll be like those people that scammed my dad's union out of its pension. As an intern it seems its 70% finding loopholes in the tax code and 10% ripping of other sharks, and 20% stealing from people like my dad.

People on Wall street: Rich spoiled assholes who I hate talking to but i have to suck up to.

All in all I hate this job. But if I don't take it I worry about my "future" as well as how my parents will disown me.

Pros of Poker:
FREEDOM!!! My god i've become disgusted with society and corporate America. Everything I was told as a kid is a lie. All they wanna do is train the next batch of worker bees to work thier buts off all week and barely stay above water while fat cats get fater. Poker would give me freedom from it all. My god to be free. I could finally live the way I want instead of how someone wants me to live. I want have to tell some rich idiot hes some [censored] genuis. I won't have to make a living spinning half truths.

Free time: I can make most of my money on the weekends. It will leave me a lot of time to go to the gym, read, etc. Also I LOVE traveling. I could do a lot of traveling with a mobile job like poker.

I know this sound less like a debate and more like a decision I made, but I really do worry about my financial future and most importantly, I worry my parents would disown me. THey worked very hard to put me through college and now I'm turning around to them and saying:
Well college is a four year scam were they give rich kids a summer camp to go to and teach them nothing they can use in the real world. Its a giant expensive barrier to entry to keep poor kids from competing with rich kids. And corporate America is a miserable place were everyone hates their live. So everything weve worked for over the past 21 years was a lie.

Rant over. Perhaps that was a bit too much.