[Brad1970]

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Also keep in mind that you will be hurting chances for future employment by taking yourself out of the job market, and may hurt yourself when it comes to things like verifying income for credit, mortgages, etc (the logical assumption here is that you will not be declaring any winnings). My advice would be not to do this, at least not yet, as you can continue to have your irritating job (welcome to the club, the job market isn't kind to the post-college crowd), and play on the side. If you can pickup a couple of hundred a session, more power to you. Good luck in whatever option you choose.

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I think this is the most important piece of advice in this thread.

I was recently playing with a former high stakes kid (maybe late 20's) who was 'slumming it' in my 20/40 game. He told me the story about how he had lost a lot in previous months taking shots at 1-200 and up and since he doesn't have any real world skills or experience is forced to drop down and grind it up again. Honestly, I felt a little sorry for him.

Getting experience in the workworld and then playing poker is a perfect combination in my own nonprofessional opinion. Sure, you want to play poker now but what about in 10 years? in 5 years? What about when you realize that 2/5nl isn't going to be pulling in mega bucks but only enough to make ends meet. Do you really think it's going to be easy to all of a sudden get a good job? Let alone a job that makes anywhere near the money you're used to making.

Sidenote: I graduated college in May with the same aspirations. However , within weeks of spending my weekends at casinos (which I had been doign for months) and spending my weekdays bored in my apartment, I needed something more. So I got a job. It's not a great job by any means and the pay is miniscule compared to my poker income, but it keeps be engaged in the real world, I dont' have to surround myself with miserable people (people actually enjoy cmoing to work here) and most importantly I can still play on the weekends.

I think there's a good balance to be found.

Good luck though without you choose.

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two good posts. couldn't agree more.