rich man, working class man and poker pros

[spurgeon]

Have you guys ever noticed this point? Poker is kind of a double edged sword. Let's say you are wealthy. Your net worth is 10 million dollars. Would you want to spend your time grinding it out at a 20-40 hold em table? I would rather hang out in a whirlpool with a couple of penthouse pets! Let's say you are a working class man bringing home 30 grand a year. After you pay your bills, child support etc, you do not have enough money to play in a 20-40 game! So, I do not know where the ranks of pro poker players comes from. The rich do not need to turn pro. The working class man to middle class people do not have enough money to get a bank roll going! How in the world could someone turn pro if they are from the middle class? Also, how big a bankroll would one need to turn pro?

[bear187]

Lets not be retarded. Slow BR progression from the 1/2 level is the way to get up to 10/20 and 20/40.

You don't turn pro overnight.

[James282]

Nice response, hopefully there will be no more responses after this one.
-James

[Caruso329]

It is stupid to assume that a middle class person could not afford the bankroll to become a poker pro.

Say you used the 300 BB rule for your bankroll and estimate monthly expenses to be about $4000.

Playing 10/20, you would need a bankroll of $6000. I'm not sure how much more you would need to multi-table but let's just assume that 300 BB would be enough for 4-tabling the 10/20.

To have enough capital to start out at this level, you would need $10,000-$20,000 depending on how many months ahead you want to have covered. A person bringing in 50,000-60,000/yr can easily save this much up over a period of a few years.

If you were to set aside $38 a week, for 5 years, it would equal $10,000. Now add on interest in a saving account and you can shave off a few months.

Now 4 tabling 10/20, 4-6 hours a day. Let's assume 60 hands/hour/table, so 240 hands/hour so 960-1440 hands/day. Now we're playing pro so we don't have to abide by the man's schedule so we'll only work 4 days a week.

3840-5760 hands/week.

Assuming a win rate of 2 BB/100:
76.8 - 115.2 BB/week or $1536 - $2304
$79,872/yr - $119,808/yr

Assuming a win rate of 3 BB/100:
115.2 - 172.8 BB/week or $2304 - $3456
$119,808/yr - $179,712/yr

Now, I probably got some of my calculations wrong, but that's a basic idea.

*EDIT*
Sorry James, I started typing before you posted.

[bisonbison]

Having monthly expenses of $4000 is upper middle class at worst.

Say you have an apartment in the SF bay area:

Rent/Utilities/Phone/TV/Groceries/Car Insurance: $1500-$1700.

If you put aside a 3rd of your income for taxes, you only need to make about $2500 to break even.

[Caruso329]

Thanks for the correction bisonbison. I'm still in college living in the dorms so I have no monthly expenses besides gas, groceries, etc. That was just a rough (very rough apparently) estimate I made.