my thoughts on turning pro

[doubleas]

I went into my son’s room this morning to wake him up and as I was doing so, asked him how he slept and if he had any good dreams. He said that he dreamt that I didn’t have to go to work anymore and that we could do whatever we wanted to do after he got home from school every day. Wow! What a dream! I told him that it would be nice if that could occur. He even impressed me by stating how we’d have to have enough money to pay for the house if I didn’t work. That’s my son!

You know, I could make my son's dream come true if I became a professional poker player. It was pretty scary how quickly I daydreamed about said circumstance on my drive into work today. I was daydreaming about how I might start work around 11:00PM (EST) and finish up around 7:00AM (that is when the most people are on and probably when the drunkards/tired and tilted players play) in time to wake up the family, say hello and then head to bed. I’d sleep while the kids were at school. I’d wake up around 3:00 and spend the rest of the day/evening with my family having a good ole time until I headed into my office to work. What a life! This aspect is definitely a reason to go poker pro.

My current occupation is one where I get respect, team dynamics, and am able to see the fruits of our labor in an end product delivered to our government for use to protect our country. My new occupation would be alleviating gamblers from the entertainment budget. I’d be providing a service to the general public. I’d give them plenty of opportunities to put a lot of money in a pot where they’re drawing without odds and allow them the possibility to double their money. Hmmm…this aspect doesn’t really seem too appealing for my soul, but then again, I am spending a lot more time with my family. This aspect is a reason to stay where I’m at.

I’d be sleeping during the middle of the day in my new occupation missing out on those beautiful days that everyone seems to find a way to be outside. Oh wait. I currently spend most of my waking hours sitting in an office anyway. Push

As for finances, I currently make a very nice living and can afford to pay for a nice house and we never have to worry about paying the bills every month or whether we can go out to dinner tomorrow night. It is a monetarily worry-free life. Playing poker, I’ve proven that I can make about $20/table hour consistently over the last 6 months. I often two-table my sessions. We must deduct the time taken for choosing which table to sit at since that does take up quite a bit of my time as I’m pretty selective. OK, let us just pick $35/hour playing poker. If I worked a normal work schedule, I’d make about $70K/year. Now let us include the benefits that I now have to pay for myself like health, dental, etc., weeks of aces losing, the one time I take a shot at Spirit Rock in the big game and lose a $10,000 pot on a 2-outer, the cost of a new monitor after I put my fist through it, the cost of a new closet door after I put my foot through it, the cost of a new car after I drive into a wall, the doctor’s bills after I get therapy and the cost of the new lock put on the office door because my wife doesn’t want me to come out until I calm down after each session We seem to be leaning away from turning pro don’t we?

Hmm…but the time spent with family seems so appealing. There has to be more advantage to being a poker pro right? I can’t think of any. Until I can continually beat the $5/10 NL game for $1K/night, I don’t think I can turn pro. By then, one night will pay for both a new monitor and a new closet door. It may take a couple weeks to pay for the therapy though.

[PokerPaul]

hmmm , so i guess you will remain employed and continue with your respectable and soulful occupation, while playing parttime as a secondary income. Kudos, can't argue with that logic....apart from the fact that you may have a split personality disorder and turn into the HULK when faced with a 2 outer suckout. Hmmm, maybe a leak in your game.....

I was in the same boat as you, with a great job and income, but also with poker aspirations, up until a couple of months ago, when i got laid off out of the blue.

Turns out that was the best thing that ever happened to me. I now play online and make even more than i did before (tax free no less), AND i now work as an independant software consultant on the side working for occasional contracts, which actually pay more than twice what i was getting before as an employee.

Don't know where this is heading, but so far i have kept a level head, had some great highs, and suffered through some tough self-questioning losing droughts before righting the ship.

I must say though that i truly enjoy the freedom i have now, and the time i get to spent with my toddler kids, they won't be this small forever and i'll cherish and remember these times more than any additional office time i would have otherwise spent.

I do however miss actually talking to and spending time with other people, as sitting for hours alone in front of computer at home is kind of a mute existance from an interpersonal point of view.

Sometimes its a grind, but i do still love the game.

But i doubt it will work for many people considering it, but if you got the skill and discipline, it truly has its benefits (especially in tax free Canada, where i enjoy an additional 30% edge over any US player, AND healthcare is included).

[lacky]

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(especially in tax free Canada, where i enjoy an additional 30% edge over any US player, AND healthcare is included).

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And we hate u for it!!!

Steve

[doubleas]

Congrats.

Reading my post again, I really did a poor job of making fun of myself for always tilting and the sarcastic 'bragging' of how much I can make playing poker.

It started out being a witty, self-deprecating post that that got screwed up half way down. Thought the tilt stuff at the bottom was at least worth a chuckle though.

[BIGRED]

I've given this a lot of thought myself, as I'm sure others have. But like you, there's just too much going for me at my day job in terms of benefits and security that makes it pretty hard to trade it in for a full time poker gig. I jumped on the online bandwagon about a year ago and now I'm at a point where income provided by 3 hrs/day of poker has significantly surpassed the income from my daytime job. Even still, I find it hard to let go because I just don't know what will happen to online poker in the near future.

[Non_Comformist]

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I do however miss actually talking to and spending time with other people, as sitting for hours alone in front of computer at home is kind of a mute existance from an interpersonal point of view.

Sometimes its a grind, but i do still love the game.



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Been pro for 7 months and that is exactly how I would describe it. Oh that and money is nice as well. I decided to go back to school and take a couple of classed in areas of interst I passed up the first time, which helps.

[Blarg]

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the time spent with family seems so appealing. There has to be more advantage to being a poker pro right

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You don't sound all that convinced about how much you like spending time with your family. I don't blame you! Lots of people are lousy parents and their kids are horrible little monsters. Just kidding!

I like this line of thinking:

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I must say though that i truly enjoy the freedom i have now, and the time i get to spent with my toddler kids, they won't be this small forever and i'll cherish and remember these times more than any additional office time i would have otherwise spent.


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It's true. You'll remember the look on your 3-year-old kid while he's running around under a tree, doing anything or nothing at all strangely enough, till the day you die. Maybe even on the day you die, it's just that good.

We lose a major part of our lives, especially men, who typically are expected to work far from home, while our children grow up. In most of human history, it was much easier to have a tremendous impact on our children because most people worked on farms and were with their kids hour after hour. They didn't have to worry about creating some sort of hyped up "quality time" to make up for the fact that they never really saw their kids and maybe even didn't want to see them. They were right there in your face for better and worse. The better part was that they were a much deeper part of your life, and you didn't miss all the wonderful things about their growing up, or the chance to influence them for the better, comfort, teach, and scold them into being their best selves.

Now, we work all the time and don't even see our kids grow up. We come home and see them at the dinner table(maybe), or maybe we just all eat dinner numb as robots in front of a t.v. set. How was their day? How was yours? Nobody knows and it gets increasingly harder to care or communicate it when your parent or kid seems so tangential to your life. Then there's maybe a couple of hours you spend in the same house before bedtime.

And then when we're old a huge percentage of us wind up in old-age homes even if it's well within our means and our kids' means to keep us at home in relative comfort amid the things, habits, sights, atmosphere, and people we love in our old age instead of in an industrial setting with little privacy among strangers -- and we wonder why.

Children growing up in the abscence of their fathers pay a very high price for it, and so do their fathers. The same can be said more and more often of mothers now too, since more than half of them work outside the home too. You can never replace later the time you lose with your kids now, and can't have memories of things you haven't shared.

Work, and the way we work now, is a necessity for most everyone. But though it provides, it does so at a very high price, especially if we have children.

[Blarg]

I know I do.

I grew up knowing many people from Europe, being a naturalized citizen myself, and despite the mantra you always hear from politicians that U.S. healthcare is the "envy of the world," I've never met a German, Frenchman, Brit, or any European I can recall speaking to about it, or any Canadian either, that had anything close to envy of our health care system here. Quite the opposite, and usually dramatically so, was the absolute rule. They thought it was cruel, cheap, and all kinds of foolish. When they wanted to go to the doctor, they went, and they didn't have problems doing it either.

In a way, America's huge size and isolation -- being bordered by only two countries -- really stifles the amount of information flow we have with the rest of the world, and our exposure to different people and ways of thinking and living. We can often be very self-absorbed and provincial. In Europe, you can drive 100 miles and pass through three countries and multiple languages(sometimes within the same country). In California, you can drive that far and still be in the same County, and essentially feel like you're in the same place with the same people.

[moondogg]

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In a way, America's huge size and isolation -- being bordered by only two countries -- really stifles the amount of information flow we have with the rest of the world, and our exposure to different people and ways of thinking and living.

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It's not a geography issue. The problem is that so many people in the world still refuse to speak American. Just have a coversation with a Brit: their stories all start with "The last time I went on holiday I left my flat and put my bag in the boot of car and drove to the petrol station...". Gibberish.

Get the with program! Don't make us imperialize you!

[img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Blarg]

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The problem is that so many people in the world still refuse to speak American.

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Heh,like Steve Martin said, what is with those French? It's like they have a different word for EVERYthing!