Why will you never go pro?

[Brad22]

For the online pros here....

What limits are you playing at, how many tables, and how many hours a day do you do this?

How are you calculating your annual income?

[bvaughn]

Never is a really long time so I can't say never. But for the time being my reasons for not going pro are close to roundhouse's reasons:

1) I have a great job with great benefits.
2) My compensation is adequate for my lifestyle right now.
3) I have a company car I would have to give up.
4) I still enjoy my job (most days).
5) My workload is less than most jobs with the same pay.

But, I have been beating the $15/30 game 4-tabling for a little over 1BB/100 over 80,000 hands. I have a ton of room for improvement, but I truly believe that I can improve enough to make 2+BB/100 at 15/30 and eventually move to higher limits and win there as well. I've talked to my wife about "going pro", and although we both agree that it is best not to do it now, IF I ever got to the point that I could count on making $200,000 a year playing poker then it would probably be worth it financially to quit my job and play poker full-time.

I'm 30 right now, and the dream in my head is to "retire" at 40 and play poker from then on. I would have 15 years with my company so I would have a healthy 401k and pension, and if I was good enough at high-limit poker by that time, it would more than replace my salary+bonus+benefits.

[Paluka]

[ QUOTE ]
60,000 hands month @ 1BB/100 = $36,000 a month. So $432,000 a year. Minus internet connection costs, electricity, PC, etc... wouldn't add up to much.

Edit: Forgot to include rakeback, so time $432,000 by 1.25 or whatever it is. $540,000.

[/ QUOTE ]

60k hands a month is a joke.

[J.A.Sucker]

I won't go pro because the people on this board told me it wasn't a good idea.

[Boltsfan1992]

[ QUOTE ]
I was getting a bit board of all the "I wanna go pro, should I, shouldn't I" type posts this boards seems to attract like flies to brown stuff. So I decided to speak up for the little guy. That's right, those of us who play poker and not only still work for the man, but are quite happy to do so.

Why will you never go pro?
What are your poker aspirations?
And to satiate my curiosity, what levels do you currently play?

Your friendly never-go-pro-er,
RH

[/ QUOTE ]

For me, going "pro" is unlikely. Why? I still like my job. The benefits are good, and I do get time off to play when I want to.

However, I cannot say going "pro" will never happen. My wife is going back to school and when she completes her graduate degree program, she has the potential to earn double what we make together.

I wrote this before, but in order to convince me to leave my former position (which was also very good to me) and move out to Arizona for her degree program, she said, "When I finish and earn what I think the potential could be...you can LEAVE your job and play poker full time if you'd like!"

She had me at "hello."

So, until that time, I am content trying to learn to play well.

PB

[VBM]

well, i'm not in love w/ my job, but i couldn't play poker professionally b/c:

1. in the future, i want to be able to spend my time w/ my family & not think about work ever when i'm not doing it.

2. poker is not productive. you literally produce nothing and your profession is entirely about chasing BB's. the "correct" execution of your "job" is to find the weak and sick and prey on them like an animal.

3. while i think that there are a lot of very socially redeeming and underappreciated aspects to poker (critical thinking, attuned cost-benefit analysis, emotional control, etc) i also think in an online pro career you cost yourself some other "real-world" skills; e.g. career-specific experience most obviously, but also professionalism "skills" like accountability at work, creativity in your career, how to interact w/ customers, working in a team or collaborative efforts, etc.

4. i'm just not good enough to be a great poker success. but if i were, i'm almost certainly smart and talented enough to contribute something much more meaningful and/or bigger and/or more profitable than to play cards.

[ellipse_87]

4. The prospect of sitting in a room on my own all day, in front of a computer, makes my blood run cold.

The prospect of sitting in a room with the same group of people all day, every day, makes my blood run cold. Which is why generating cash flow from my computer is a wet dream for me.

[Eegs]

I like $100 NL and 3/6 limit, I'll never go pro because playing poker professionally is sort of like becoming a porn star. If you have sex all day as a job, what the hell do you do on the weekends with your girlfriend or when you go to bars and meet women what is the object? Find someone to play a bit of Scrabble with?

[wayabvpar]

1) I am no where near good enough to play as a pro

2) I play poker as a leisure activity- playing as a pro would add too much pressure and kill the fun for me

3) Retirement benefits. I have a 401k with 50% and a pension- poker doesn't provide me with these

4) Medical benefits- see above. I have had my wisdom teeth out and had a lymph node removed in the past 2 years. Total out of pocket for me was less than $500 (my dental insurance pretty much blows). If I paid for everything, I would have been out 5 figures easily.

5) Posting on message boards doesn't pay the bills when I should be grinding out hands; I can do it at my current job between tasks or when things get slow [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

If I get good enough/lucky enough to win a big (7 figure) tournament, I would obviously need to rethink things. For now, however, I am content with playing a 3-4 nights a week online, and once or twice a week live for fun and profit.

[roundhouse]

[ QUOTE ]
4. The prospect of sitting in a room on my own all day, in front of a computer, makes my blood run cold.

The prospect of sitting in a room with the same group of people all day, every day, makes my blood run cold. Which is why generating cash flow from my computer is a wet dream for me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Even if the group of people in question are all highly intelligent and socially sharp, you have insight into and influence on the upper echelons of political power, and you and said group make life for millions of people in your country a little better every day? Each to their own I suppose.

RH