Is pro poker right for me? [LONG]

[Nomad84]

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All I can say it's tough, it's stessful, and it starts to suck really bad after about the fourth month. I went pro for about 6 months, made about 25K four tabling 3/6, then took a nine to five job for considerably less money. Although you may be skilled enough to earn a living at it, you have to be emotionally prepared for a roller coaster ride. Turned out I wasn't. Grinding out 30 - 40 hours a week only to break even for that week is tough, and believe me, it will happen to you if you play long enough. I may be making less money now, but at least I have peace of mind and can play poker as a hobby rather than a job.

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Thanks for sharing your experiences.

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Of course, theres other problems that go along with going pro:

1. Forget about getting a loan or credit card

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This is not a long term proposition to me, and I won't be needing to borrow money any time soon. This should not be a factor for me within the next year or so.

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2. No health insurance or 401K

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I *think* I can get cheap health care if I need it, but I will definitely look into this further. I don't know too much about investing. Aside from employer matching, what are the benefits of a 401k vs. just investing through Edward Jones (who I currently use)? I have a Roth IRA, but I don't know a lot about investing in general.

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3. You can't really enjoy the money you make since most of it belongs to your bankroll anyway

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I have considered this, but I'm glad you mentioned it anyway.

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4. You become too obsessed

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This is something that could be somewhat problematic. I have a tendency to attack something with too much of my time and energy until I've either gotten as good as I can get at it, or until I find a new challenge. That's part of the reason that I don't imagine I'd like to play professionally for more than a year. I love playing, but I'm afraid that if I play 1500 hrs/year, it's only a matter of time before I would be looking for a new challenge. As a side effect, I think that might help me to do better in grad school at that point.

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5. You get an uneasy feeling when somebody asks what you do for a living.

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Obviously, I have no stance on this because I haven't "been there."

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Anyway, good luck! By the way, if you need 2K/month to live on, you need to expect to win at least 4K to make up for the bad swings, unexpected expenditures, and the fact that no one will let you borrow money (except maybe your parents).

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Thanks! That is the idea right now. I'm fairly certain that I can net $4-5k/month on average, but like I said in previous posts, if I don't, I'm not going to be in financial trouble. Hopefully I can get a better picture of my true winrate in the next few months. Thank you for your input!

[Nomad84]

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which OU do you go to?

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University of Oklahoma

[b33nz]

Nomad84, I'm wondering if there is a place to find a bigger picture of your avatar... Haha I love those retro posters and I haven't seen yours yet anywhere. Kudos to your avatar [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

[Nomad84]

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Thanks for your response. As I mentioned in my response to Zen, I don't expect to have too much in the way of financial pressure. If I really wanted to, I could take the year off and do nothing and still have enough money to get by, so even if I had to grind it out at the micros, I wouldn't be hurting for cash. Obviously I'd rather not do that, though.


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Hey dude,
Good luck either way but looking at this paragraph I;m wondering about how much you;ve taken into account as far as living expenses go. Many people can make great livings playing online living off "mommy and daddy" but looking at your estimated income/savings plan in previous post you won;t be making a killing playing and paying for a place. Not that it's not livable, but compared to the potential you have according to your other posts, as far as academcins/career prospects go, your poker career would pale in comparison by far.

Good luck,
Matt

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That is assuming that I am paying rent+bills+car, etc. I estimate that I will be spending approximately $2000/month after I graduate and don't plan to get any outside help with that (parents, etc.) Currently, I am spending about $1000/month since I don't have any car expenses other than gas right now, and the $2k estimate includes more money for bills, more money for entertainment, household items, etc. I am also getting some money from scholarships that helps with my living costs right now, effectively lowereing them to about $800/month. Including my bankroll, I have about $25k right now, which will allow me to get by for quite a while, although maybe not a full year after graduation like I had guessed before. I expect to add to that throughout the next few months though.

I'm not considering this as a way to get rich quick or anything like that. I don't expect to make a killing. I do think that I could make enough to cover my monthly nut relatively easily, but as I've said before, it wouldn't be critical.

Also, regarding career options, I still plan to pursue a career in engineering, even if I decide to stop to play poker for a while. A big part of the decision of what I do after I graduate will hinge on how much more difficult it is to enter the job market as someone who graduated a year ago vs. someone who just graduated, and also how much more difficult it would be to get into a good grad school under the same circumstances. Unfortunately, I don't know what the differences are or where to learn about it.

Thanks for the input/concern!

[Nomad84]

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Nomad84, I'm wondering if there is a place to find a bigger picture of your avatar... Haha I love those retro posters and I haven't seen yours yet anywhere. Kudos to your avatar [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

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I stole it here. I don't know if they make a poster of it or not. It doesn't even seem to be that common on a shirt. I got the shirt several months ago, but mine is dark blue, which looks better IMO.

[angst]

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5. You get an uneasy feeling when somebody asks what you do for a living.


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This is one of the things that are stopping me (the other thing being that I suck at poker and will always suck at it). Why can't I just give a fook about what everybody else thinks of me?

[adsman]

Hey Nomad,

One thing that I have noticed on these type of threads is the great caution the majority of respondents urge with regards to taking a year off. I think that this must be a cultural thing, (as most posters here are from the states).

In Australia it is unusual if somebody doesn't take a year off to travel to europe, or work in london, or do whatever. A lot of kids do it between school and college, others do it after finishing university. I've been doing it full time for over 15 years. And nobody that I know has done it with 25K sitting in the bank, much less the fact of having the opportunity to earn up to 4K a month from wherever you want in the world.

And this is the crux. All you need is a laptop and wireless roaming or a mobile with international roaming or something like that and you could travel and live around the world and still be making your earn. It boggles my mind. It boggles my mind that you're even hesitating about this.

I'd just do it, bro.

[b33nz]

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5. You get an uneasy feeling when somebody asks what you do for a living.

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If you are successful, people are either going to respect you or be jealous of you. Both are fine with me.

You only live once man, I say go for it. If things don't turn out the way you expected, you can always do something else.

[Subfallen]

i would be more encouraged about your prospects if you were more competitive.

i think enjoying and being inspired by competition are the most important components of being able to put in the hours as a poker pro. you don't really seem to have that sort of personality.

i could be wrong tho.