How much $ per day for you to turn pro?

[Reef]

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I suppose it depends, if your 21 and never had a job 100 a day feels great. Alot better then your friends working at costco.

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I'm 21 too, but 100/day is not even close to 'feel great'. To go pro I think I'd want to do 200/day.

I gave a fairly glib answer before, so a little more detail. Ed Miller's thoughts on the matter are pretty definitive though.

For me, to go pro, I'd want to play no more than 20 hrs a week. I make close to $100k as an engineer, counting health/disability insurance, holidays/vacation pay, etc. So, we're talking I'd need to make about $2k a week at poker, in 20 hours. So, $100/hour.

If I could 2-table 15/30 6-max at 2BB/100, that'd be about $120/hour. I'm nowhere near being that good. I found that personally, running 4 tables is too frantic. Add to that I'm married with kids and the best play time is at night when they're around, I *MUST* be able to handle side distractions while I play, which means fewer tables.

Now, what do I give up?

I have a stable job, good insurance, and paid vacation time. I've completed my Masters recently in software engineering and picked up enough skills to really work myself into an lead/architect position in the next few years. I can pretty safely assume pay raises, while in poker there is no yearly raise. It's also a job that requires you stay current. If I went pro as a poker player, my ability to go back to being an engineer when the poker boom is over in 5 years is limited. I'd have a really tough time convincing employers I was worth the kind of money I'd need.

Instead, my goal is to play part time, wait until the kids get through college, and maybe build up a big enough bankroll and enough skill that I could think about retiring faily young (late 40's) and play poker for a living. This also lets me see if I even care to play in 10 years.

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A consistent $200/day playing less than 5 hours would do it for me.

Would mean time and money to travel, perhaps to go back to school.

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Assuming a 5-day week, that's $50K per year pre-tax. Yeah, that'll really make you a world taveler.

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Yes, in fact it would.
I've been all over the world on far less than $50k/year.

Are you one of those people who can't imagine travelling without $200/night hotels, room service, and cab rides everywhere?

I'm more of a bathroom down the hall, Indian takeout, Metro pass sort of guy myself.

Last trip to London cost less than $2k for me and my niece, inlcuding airfare from the American South.

...and a consistent $50k/year on part time hours would mean I could go back to school with financial worries and still have Summers off to travel. If I want to take a trip, I can always play a bit more for a couple weeks to pay for it.

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Second, unless you are a machine, it's very unlikely that you'll be able to play 40 hours of poker a week. 20 hours per week is much more likely.

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I play more than 20 hours/week now with a 40+ hour/week job.

[BigBiceps]

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Second, unless you are a machine, it's very unlikely that you'll be able to play 40 hours of poker a week. 20 hours per week is much more likely.

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I play more than 20 hours/week now with a 40+ hour/week job.

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I have averaged over 50 hours/ week with an ~40 hour/week job over the last 3 months.

No wonder I am tired.

I love all the people who refer to $50k/year as a "decent" paying job and $100k/year as a "good" paying job.

$50k/year is more than most Americans have ever made, and $100k/year is far more than they ever will.


I'm not advocating quitting a good job to grind out $10/hour bonus whoring, but keep in mind that in most of the country $50k/year jobs are very difficult to find.

Often it's a choice betweek poker and $10/hour or less doing some tedious crap job you hate.

One big advantage of poker, of course, is that you can make just as much living someplace with a low cost of living as in a big city. Some of you probably pay more in utility bills than I pay in rent.

[Cumulonimbus]

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No wonder I am tired.

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I hear this helps.

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Kyle

[PokerAce]

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Second, unless you are a machine, it's very unlikely that you'll be able to play 40 hours of poker a week. 20 hours per week is much more likely.

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I play more than 20 hours/week now with a 40+ hour/week job.

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I have averaged over 50 hours/ week with an ~40 hour/week job over the last 3 months.

No wonder I am tired.

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Some people can play more than 20 hours a week, some can't.

Before going pro, I was playing about 20 hours a week. After going pro, I found it was really hard to play much more than that each week.

If you force yourself to play a lot, you may end up getting burnt out and find yourself not able to play at all. I learned this first hand.

[Marlow]

I'm planning on saving 2 years worth of cash beforee I take the leap. Your post leads me to believe that I might be a little premature here...

[PokerAce]

Two years worth of expenses will be plenty and is probably overkill. Better safe than sorry though.

After that, you need to make sure you can make enough at poker to cover your expenses and taxes, and to also grow your bankroll. You'll want to move up in limits to give yourself raises as often as you can.