Poker Earnings and College Financial Aid (long)

[pacman544]

I have been playing poker for two and a half years. It has been my main source of income for a year and a half and I have been a professional for 5 months. i dropped out of college a year and a half ago and I am now looking to reapply.
I began filling out the college Profile for financial aid. I ecountered a number of problems. I am fairly new to be being a professional and dont have enough experience to accurately dtermine how much I would make a year or if it is possible for me to be sucessful in the long term. I have bounced around from various live games, sngs, online limit and no limit holdem, online pl omaha. I also often underestimate my live game income because I dont have a defined bankroll and often use the same money for living expense. That is simply cured but a problem when estimating yearly income.
I alos have numerous problems related to school. My playing time will decline while i am in school and the fin aid profile asks for next years expected income. I am also will be going to school in NYC cutting into my live game play.I also left school due to depression and trying to explain that all this "other income" in taxible terms comes from being a pro poker player is not the best statement for reapplication.
Any response is appreciated.

[srw5n]

Pacman-
I have a couple thoughts but no answers:
1. For financial aid purposes I'd zero out your expected income. Obviously you plan to continue playing, but if you don't there is obviously no benefit in stating you expect to earn X dollars.
2. If you really plan to continue as a "professional" you need to keep records. Start simple with running total of your bankroll and your results after each session (while noting limits and location). This is going to be enough for tax purposes and will give you a ball park of:
a. your hourly return
b. games your EV+ at
c. sustainable income
d. What hours you play best
e. which games you beat regularly (aka are the softest)
3. This allows you to easily draw down from your bankroll for living expenses and you can see you are doing such. Further, if you are truly making a substantial income playing poker you may wish to file as a self employed professional for tax purposes, in which case all related expenses are deductable.
4. While you're in school put yourself on a schedule. You said it was your job so treat it like one. Figure out when you are making the most money and play 20 hours a week during those hours (if that's too much cut back, if you can handle more increase it).

I'm currently putting myself through law school by playing poker live and online. I moved from California to Boston so my live play has decreased and my online play increased, but that was a decision I made. I often found myself in a situation similar to yours, however, the last year has taught me to treat it like a job. I play about 20-30 hours a week and have been doing exceedingly well since I made the switch. I realized a couple things once I started keeping detailed records: my ROI in sit and goes was not terribly high, my ROI in tournies was paltry, my full ring game EV was that of a good player, but I made a killing playing ultra short and heads up. So I have adjusted accordingly.

Anyway. I know getting away from record keeping and schedules are the reasons many people like to play poker, but if you are serious about supporting yourself playing poker I cannot recommended anything more highly...

Best of luck to you!

[pacman544]

I realize its a huge oversite in not keeping live records. I only turned 21 three months ago and considered live games profitible entertainment until i realized how EV they were. I have only starting playing them on a regular basis for two months. Online games spoiled me in terms of records.

I shouldnt call myself a professional. Its more of a job. I have no intentions of doing this long term. I realize i am still very inexperienced and still can make numerous improvements in my play. It has been the only way for me to afford to pay the rent over the past year and the only way I could even dream of going back to the university of my choice.