What do you consider for someone to call themsevles PRO/SEMI-PRO/ETC?

[csg]

[ QUOTE ]
if you live off your poker earnings and have no other income youre a pro.

if you have multiple lines of income and poker is a significant portion of it you are semipro.



[/ QUOTE ]

I tried to address the same question on our Swedish forum a couple of month ago and got the same stupid answers as the one above.

It has irritated me that any one can be refered to as a PokerPro without any distinction on how much the are actually making playing poker.

What I think both Red Rain and I is asking for, Is at what level can one be considered to be taken as a serious PokerPro. i.e. not living out of mom.

Personally I would say that one have to make about 10K$/month in order to:
1. Have a decent living. 3K for house, car, schools for kids etc.
2. 3K for pension savings etc. I don´t want to live on the street when I retire.
3. 3K to build my bankroll.

Anything below this is not a life in my view.

[SinCityGuy]

[ QUOTE ]
Personally I would say that one have to make about 10K$/month in order to:
1. Have a decent living. 3K for house, car, schools for kids etc.
2. 3K for pension savings etc. I don´t want to live on the street when I retire.
3. 3K to build my bankroll.

Anything below this is not a life in my view.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very interesting.

Using that logic, about 85% of Americans are living in poverty.

[Nietzsche]

Anyone who depends on poker to make a living are by the very definition a pro.

I think what you are trying to say is: Pro does not equal being good. Which is true, as in any profession.

[csg]

So you think 36K$ per year to provide for the family is a lot???!!!

First you have to separate the issues here.

Providing for the family if one has such is the very bottom line that one has to make playing every month. Then we have the pension savings for about 3K per month. I can accept that this could be on the very top, but as you don´t know how long you can work as a professional poker player I think its right to stash away as much as possible in the beginning of the career, say the first 2-4 years.

Regarding the bankroll. I strongly belive that one should regard the poker as a business and every business needs to make profit inorder to be able to invest in future business. But if you are confortable playing 1/2$ NL online and never stepping up its fine. However I think that if I ever was to try to go pro I would like to build my self a bankroll so that I could play on levels very I could make a decent profit every month and maybe not have to put in so many grinding hours as I have to do on lower level.

[ianlippert]

[ QUOTE ]
So you think 36K$ per year to provide for the family is a lot???!!!


[/ QUOTE ]

I'd say it really depends on where you live. My parents combined income is $70K Canadian (probably $50K US) and we live a very comfortable middle class life style. Also if you are married $35K would be in addition to whatever your wife makes. I think anyone that has problems supporting a family on $50K/yr should really take a look at their lifestyle.

[pzhon]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So you think 36K$ per year to provide for the family is a lot???!!!


[/ QUOTE ]

I'd say it really depends on where you live.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm surprised that on this long thread, people have not mentioned this factor more.

At one point, I had a studio in a big city subsidized by my employer which still cost me over $800/month. I think the market rate would have been $1300-1500/month. Someone I hired was living in a less desirable part of Ohio and rented a house with two other people. They paid $285/month, and his share was $90/month.

[Jesse Kidd]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
if you live off your poker earnings and have no other income youre a pro.

if you have multiple lines of income and poker is a significant portion of it you are semipro.



[/ QUOTE ]

I tried to address the same question on our Swedish forum a couple of month ago and got the same stupid answers as the one above.

It has irritated me that any one can be refered to as a PokerPro without any distinction on how much the are actually making playing poker.

What I think both Red Rain and I is asking for, Is at what level can one be considered to be taken as a serious PokerPro. i.e. not living out of mom.

Personally I would say that one have to make about 10K$/month in order to:
1. Have a decent living. 3K for house, car, schools for kids etc.
2. 3K for pension savings etc. I don´t want to live on the street when I retire.
3. 3K to build my bankroll.

Anything below this is not a life in my view.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ugh. No offense to the poster above, but...wow. The arrogance of that last sentence makes me cringe.

I've derived my income from poker for 2 years now, and I don't think the amount I make defines my job one bit.

Jesse

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]


Anything below this is not a life in my view.

[/ QUOTE ]



so most school-teachers and nurses in this country are not living 'a life'.


We're not talking minimum-wage here and that someone should be able to survive on $6/hr from McDonalds or Wal-Mart or as a janitor.

We're talking 'real' professions (as it were) where the typical salary is $50k or less....and we have people saying "it's not a life" or "I can't see how anyone can really survive on less" and things like that.


I think that if you use $100k/yr as a cut-off we are probably looking at less than 10% of the world's population...and I suspect less than 5%.


I've never made $100k in a year before.
I'm 34 years-old.
I don't believe I fall into the category of 'no life'.

[Guthrie]

Let's go for one of Webster's definitions of a professional:

"participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs"


End of thread.

[csg]

And those real professions are putting their salaries on stake every day?