[talou]

OK, so, you're 20 and, with no apparent serious experience in poker, have decided to take $14,000 and devote it to playing poker professionally. Sorry, but if that's not idiotic, it's frivolous at best. You *did* get a lot of good advice; it just wasn't what you want to hear. And since we don't know each other, I can't be sure - you might be the exception, but the number of 20 year-olds I've ever met who had any idea what maturity was can be counted on the fingers of one hand. If you are the exception (and I would argue that the decision to take a significant amount of money and dive into professional poker is not a ringing commendation), I apologize for offending your delicate sensibilities.

I'm no professional (in fact, most people on this forum would probably classify me as a fish if they saw me play), but I enjoy playing and have had net positive results online so far (which doesn't prove that I'm not a fish) and have read quite a bit. My advice: invest most of it, and start getting experience with a little of it. You can use it as a bankroll when you get good, which will take a long time and a lot of work. Tens of thousands of hands. If you just start gambling over your head, you'll just lose it faster than you can absorb the lessons that actual play provides.

For what it's worth - my recommended books: Small Stakes Hold 'em, both Harrington books, Super System, Phil Gordon's Little Green Book, The Theory of Poker, Hold 'em for Advanced Players, Caro's Book of Tells.