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  #1  
Old 11-17-2005, 11:09 PM
Pinky Pinky is offline
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Default I\'m thinking of quitting my job

I know this topic has been broached before but I wanted to present my situation and get some advice.

I started online over a year ago and started down about 8K. Then I had a period of breaking even or being slightly positive.

Recently, I started getting much better, read more (about 10 books) and in the past 4 months, I'm up about 14K. My winrate is now consistently about $40-$50/hour online. I'm pretty confident I can make at least $60K or more if I could do this fulltime.

I have a law degree, spent 100K on it but am bored with law. Though I only make in the low 40s, I have a 9-5 schedule but am getting really tired of it. I get frustrated b/c my job cuts into my poker time!!! I also don't have the time to do all the poker reading I wish I had. Keep in mind the 14K I've made in the past 4 months is based on part-time playing. I really want to quit now but of course what will friends/family think or should I even care? I'm 30 and don't have real responsibilities now so the timing should be good. I've talked to some people and they said to at least get a better track record (since my jump has only happenned in the last 4 months). Any ideas, advice/pitfalls?
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  #2  
Old 11-18-2005, 12:35 AM
jman220 jman220 is offline
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Default Re: I\'m thinking of quitting my job

[ QUOTE ]
I know this topic has been broached before but I wanted to present my situation and get some advice.

I started online over a year ago and started down about 8K. Then I had a period of breaking even or being slightly positive.

Recently, I started getting much better, read more (about 10 books) and in the past 4 months, I'm up about 14K. My winrate is now consistently about $40-$50/hour online. I'm pretty confident I can make at least $60K or more if I could do this fulltime.

I have a law degree, spent 100K on it but am bored with law. Though I only make in the low 40s, I have a 9-5 schedule but am getting really tired of it. I get frustrated b/c my job cuts into my poker time!!! I also don't have the time to do all the poker reading I wish I had. Keep in mind the 14K I've made in the past 4 months is based on part-time playing. I really want to quit now but of course what will friends/family think or should I even care? I'm 30 and don't have real responsibilities now so the timing should be good. I've talked to some people and they said to at least get a better track record (since my jump has only happenned in the last 4 months). Any ideas, advice/pitfalls?

[/ QUOTE ]

A 14k bankroll is not nearly enough to do this. If you do this you will be sorry.

Edit: Switch to a different kind of law. What do you do now, transactional? Try trial work, do some court appointed stuff. Build up a bigger bankroll before you attempt this. And you need more than a few months of playing part time to know if you are really a winning player. (Or at least, to know how much you are really winning). No offense.
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Old 11-18-2005, 12:39 AM
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Default Re: I\'m thinking of quitting my job

One thing to keep in mind is that you will not be playing poker 8 hours a day, so your hourly rate is not enough info for you to figure out how much you can make a year

There's tons of other stuff to consider, maybe some one else will chime in with all that
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  #4  
Old 11-18-2005, 02:57 AM
SirArthur SirArthur is offline
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Default Re: I\'m thinking of quitting my job

I'm near your age, and have been playing online poker for a living for around 1 1/2 years.

It is so not easy. Why is this?
After about 6 months I hit a major wall due to burn out. The monotony & tedium of daily online play can not go understated.

In the past year have taken many breaks of two weeks here, 3 weeks there, I have even taken an entire month off on two occassions.
I NEED these breaks to stay fresh. If not for them, I'd go crazy.
I'm able to take these breaks because my win rate is high enough, and my BR is high enough to amply sustain myself.

My advice to you, do not do this for a living, mainly because of all the time & money you've invested in your law career.
Also, as alluded to, playing winning poker for 4 months is not nearly enough time to determine if you can do this for a living.
The advice to pursue a different focus of your law practice is an excellent one.

Good luck with whatever you decide.
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  #5  
Old 11-18-2005, 03:34 AM
Mens Rea Mens Rea is offline
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Default Re: I\'m thinking of quitting my job

No disrespect intended, but man, that's tough - 100k on the JD and you're making 40k a year? Where'd you go to school?
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  #6  
Old 11-18-2005, 03:39 AM
Mens Rea Mens Rea is offline
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Default Re: I\'m thinking of quitting my job

Also, if the poker doesn't work out, I think you might encounter some difficulty reentering the legal field at a decent firm.

They are going to want you to account for the hole in your resume, which is tough. My advice would be this - if you are going to do this, sign up for some kind of organization or charity that you can put on your resume to fill the gap.
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  #7  
Old 11-18-2005, 10:41 AM
Indiana Indiana is offline
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Default Re: I\'m thinking of quitting my job

Lots of people want to quit their jobs so maybe I could open up a little and shed some light on this. Indianapolis is a really big poker town although most don't know it. I myself am only a small time guy (~50-60K per year in poker) but I play with some very big timers who make a lot more. I've often thought of quitting my job and observed that most of the big time poker players here in Indy remain in their juicy MBA 9-5 occupations because they claim that it gives them the stability they need if poker times get hard and quite frankly their jobs do not interfere with making much coin in poker. Playing poker exclusively is probably not the best profession unless u have a huge bankroll that would allow you to stop playing permanently if you had to. Take Danny Negreanu for example. If you read his blogs you can tell that he spends a lot of time away from the felt because he has the coin. You on the other hand may have to play more than you want to and this won't have good results. Most of the gamblers here that I know have other businesses as well. One of the biggest gamblers that I play with (he's a looser by the way) is Dwight Freeney, DE for the Colts. We will be playing in a game on the east side tomorrow night.

Wish me luck,

Indy
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  #8  
Old 11-18-2005, 11:21 AM
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Default Re: I\'m thinking of quitting my job

How about just reversing things...law part time and more time on poker? If you're burnt out on law, maybe a job change or some time off is the answer...what was it that interested you about law in the first place? Can you find that again?
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  #9  
Old 11-18-2005, 04:20 PM
rwanger rwanger is offline
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Default Re: I\'m thinking of quitting my job

Keep playing poker part time for now. If you can get your law hours down a bit (to say 30?) that might be a really good compromise. It's easier to play online poker well when you only have at it a few hours a day during the week. Plus, that's when the games are juciest anyway.

You should be able to make a few thousand a month in poker while still having the fulltime job. Then, you can slowly move up in limits, so that your winrate will double or triple per hour. If you start making $200 an hour...there isn't much pressure to be playing 40 hours a week.

Of course, I like my real job, so maybe that's the difference (and I don't make $200 an hour at poker yet). Maybe start making enough at poker so you can get a real job that you like but may not pay very well (although, you're not breaking the bank with 40k now anyway).

Playing 40 or 50 hours a week is a GRIND. I used to do it at 3-6 limit. You have to play at non-optimal times, and it's very hard NOT to play if it's your only source of income (unless your rate was super high to begin with).
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  #10  
Old 11-18-2005, 04:31 PM
AceHiStation AceHiStation is offline
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Default Re: I\'m thinking of quitting my job

The beautiful thing about playing professionally is that you don't have to pay for schooling(well, at least not as much =))... basically, I think the fact that you've invested the time into yourself to get through law school is very respectable. Many people aren't built for this type of direction as they don't have the drive to go through so much school. Keep poker as your outlet on the side, and I really like the change in law fields idea. Keep things mixed up a bit, and keep poker as a profitable hobby, at least for now.
-Ace
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