Earning a living playing poker 1 year later.

[Stagemusic]

Thomas,

It has been awhile for me too. I don't post anymore but I still come back to read occasionally. I saw your post and just had to drop a line to say congratulations. You approached your decision with great thought and even greater communication. You were a class act then although we disagreed occasionally and you are a class act now. Tell the animals I said Hey.

Stage.

[thomastem]

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Tell the animals I said Hey.

Stage.

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Critters....they don't like being discriminated against as animals. One time someone called them "The unholy critters." That really pissed them off.

By the way is Hutz still around?

[Stagemusic]

My apologies...I should not have discriminated against them. Of course they are critters. And I don't have a clue about Hutz

[MicroBob]

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Micro Bob,

I hope I do not sound like I am repeating myself but the point that I try to make agrees with what you say but includes all business owners.

The problem of not spending time with your spouse is something most new business owners and several professions have to deal with not just poker. Business owners, specially new ones, deal with days, weeks, months, quarters, or even the first full year of losses.

I also try to make the point that my wife and I discussed this at length, the fact that my time with her and the family will be less and she and I agreed to this sacrifice BEFORE we moved forward.

We also made it clear that if one of us have a change in feelings and feel that the stress is too much that we revisit if it is worth the sacrifice. Everything in life has its price.

I feel the difference between my situation and the others you bring up is that we fully communicated before making a decision and agreed to be flexible if we decide the stress becomes too much.

Very rarely do I see communication in the other posts. Most of the time the spouse did not seem to have any input beforehand.

Im sorry but when I look at the facts the problem is not poker but communication.

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you bring up some valid points there.

Although I do think that some of the relationship issues are just the guy becoming too addicted to poker and just blowing off his sig-other.

But certainly for professional players it isn't THAT much different (if at all) than just being upset with somebody for spending too much time at work and not enough time at home (particualrly a small-business owner who has to REALLY dive-in to their business to have any chance of succeeding).


I think all of your ideas about communicating with your wife/family on this and having a true business-plan going in are really terrific.


Obviously part of that business-plan also included not as much time-wasting on 2+2 as well and, instead, making sure that your poker-time is actually productive poker-time.
(the fact that you have been mostly MIA on 2+2 for quite awhile is the evidence here of course).

This is another little aspect of yours that I would be wise to incorporate into my own approach.

[thomastem]

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Obviously part of that business-plan also included not as much time-wasting on 2+2 as well and, instead, making sure that your poker-time is actually productive poker-time.
(the fact that you have been mostly MIA on 2+2 for quite awhile is the evidence here of course).

This is another little aspect of yours that I would be wise to incorporate into my own approach.

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I do not post here as I use to be I do read and pickup information to strengthen my game. My Time Management plan calls for/allows for a minimum of 10 hours but no more than 20 per week for improving my game though study of outside sources.

Along with reading posts here I review hand histories, read Card Player as well as Allin Magazines. I include any new books, DVDs, or televised poker events in this category as well.

HHs are a fairly consistant time allotment. When new mags 1st come out I am lucky to get an hour a week viewing posts, less if there is a new book to boot.

The last couple of weeks I have been able to sneak a couple of posts in Other Poker.

Now I may sound a little retentive here but when I discussed my 1st quarter action plan with my better half adding limit 5 Draw was the main new addition. Since there are no good books specific to the game it was decided that the first quarter I would read no books and instead research specific articles plus post on areas to help learn the game.

Sorry if I rambled here but Bob you brought up an interesting example that hammers home the point on turning pro that I do not see in most articles. Planned Time Management is very import imo.

[guitarizt]

I ran my own b&m store and let me tell you, comparing playing poker fulltime to being your own boss is like comparing being state governor to president of your school's pta. I'm surprised more people have not tried to go pro, lol.

[scrapperdog]

Yep, 92% of the people who play poker lose money and yet going pro is ez as pie, almost as ez as joining the army. There is a very good reason why most people say to keep your day job. All of the "plans of action" in the world are not gonna change that.

[scrapperdog]

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My favorite game is a $500 buyin NL Holdem. My income in year 1 was ever so slightly higher than what I made last year at my old job. This fell within my projection so I count it as a successful year.

So I did not get rich in year won matter of fact my standard of living is about the same. I do expect this to improve each year forward.



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if you don't mind, what limits did you play and how much do you avg/month?

I think ppl will be interested to hear this as well. perhaps provide more detail to your story.

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IMO you should play on making more for a few years, then less and less every year. Not to bring this crap up again, but obviously poker rooms are eventually not gonna be as popular as they are now. There is gonna be a lot less ez money to grab. My guess would be that half the internet pros are gonna be pounding the pavement looking for a job. I have no clue what half you will be in, but I do know that I dont encourage people to quit a stable job for a short term gain.

[sandsmarc]

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My favorite game is a $500 buyin NL Holdem. My income in year 1 was ever so slightly higher than what I made last year at my old job. This fell within my projection so I count it as a successful year.

So I did not get rich in year won matter of fact my standard of living is about the same. I do expect this to improve each year forward.



[ QUOTE ]
if you don't mind, what limits did you play and how much do you avg/month?

I think ppl will be interested to hear this as well. perhaps provide more detail to your story.

[/ QUOTE ]

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IMO you should play on making more for a few years, then less and less every year. Not to bring this crap up again, but obviously poker rooms are eventually not gonna be as popular as they are now. There is gonna be a lot less ez money to grab. My guess would be that half the internet pros are gonna be pounding the pavement looking for a job. I have no clue what half you will be in, but I do know that I dont encourage people to quit a stable job for a short term gain.

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Agree completely. 5 years from now, the madness and popularity will dwindle, the fish will be broke and gone, and you will have a gaping 5 year hole in your resume. Online poker may not even exist as we know it, and definitely not in its present untaxed state. I think you have made a huge mistake and gambled with your family's long term well-being. I hope the escape from responsibility was worth it.

[dwedeking]

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Agree completely. 5 years from now, the madness and popularity will dwindle, the fish will be broke and gone, and you will have a gaping 5 year hole in your resume. Online poker may not even exist as we know it, and definitely not in its present untaxed state. I think you have made a huge mistake and gambled with your family's long term well-being. I hope the escape from responsibility was worth it.

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So people that start up their own businesses and fail are doomed to never be employed again? While I can understand your position of liking the stability that working for someonelse can bring to you, I think that your attitude that anyone that does different than you is making mistakes pathetic. Frankly, I'm more stressed working for someone else than I am in dealing with the ups and downs of being my own boss (I don't play poker professionally, but I can see the correlations mentally between playing poker professionally and starting your own small business).

I've owned businesses and worked with a lot of small business owners. Businesses that don't need to adapt to changing marketplace within a 5 or 10 year span (ie poker fad fades etc) are a very small percentage.