As a parent, how amenable would you be to your kid pursuing poker...?

[teddyFBI]

Not sure what the average age is on these forums, but I'd guess the majority of posters are between 19 and 24. Cruise the forums, and you'll find a new thread every week about how some poster thinks his parents are absolutely clueless about poker, and how he wishes they would just see the light, realize he's a winning player, and support his decision to play professionally for a few years (either in lieu of going college, or immediately after). Although my parents have generally been as supportive as two neurotic Jewish parents can be about their first-born, at times I too have wished that they (and moreso my extended family) would cut me a little more slack about it.

Thought it'd be interesting to turn the tables, and ask how you -- let's assume you're a winning 2p2'er who gets a hard time from his parents about poker -- would react if, down the road, your kid told you that he was a big winner online, and that he wanted to take a year off before college to play full-time. Or worse still, that he wanted to drop out of college after 2 years because he could be making $150,000 - $200,000 if he played full-time, much more (so he reasons) than he could ever hope to make coming out of college.

What would you say?

(The group of people I'd be really interested in hearing from are those that have made the above decision already, to the dismay of their parents, but I wonder whether, at 19 or 20 you'll yet have the perspective to be able to do this type of role reversal and think about what it really means to raise a kid...)

[Marwan]

I'd say to finish degree first, then pursue poker after that.. from experience I know that you can juggle both at the same time unless you're in some hard program. After that, you have the security of a degree, so if things don't pan out with poker after the "trial run" of being a pro, they have the degree. Also, people are going to change careers more than once in their lifetime, poker may lose its appeal pretty fast as a main source of income, so I'd definitely want my kid to keep their options open.. Some people on here find the money of poker good, but don't find it provides the fulfillment/satisfaction that another job could.. it's not their "passion" or true calling, which leads to boredom and disinterest/eventually going back to rec. play. Still playing poker and having fun is difficult when you're grinding, and a young person probably doesn't know the meaning of day in and day out. Degree first in whatever they choose, poker later.

[Sciolist]

I figure poker will have been solved in 15 years, so it's probably not the best career move someone could make to start playing in 10 years time.

[kyleb]

"You can make $150,000 - $200,000 if you drop out now and play poker?"
"Yes."
"Can you prove it to me?"
"Sure, here are my stats and winrate and my extrapolations for the future with considerations built in."
"THEN WHY THE [censored] ARE YOU IN SCHOOL"

That is how that conversation would go down.

[kkcountry]

[ QUOTE ]
"You can make $150,000 - $200,000 if you drop out now and play poker?"
"Yes."
"Can you prove it to me?"
"Sure, here are my stats and winrate and my extrapolations for the future with considerations built in."
"THEN WHY THE [censored] ARE YOU IN SCHOOL"

That is how that conversation would go down.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now would he be welcomed to move back in with mom and dad if internet poker went away like it could? It just seems to me that if any "different" career choice needed a backup plan, it would be poker, considering how fast it could fall off of the face of the earth, not to mention the long term damage one could do to one's professional and academic marketability by dropping out/not going to school.

edit: holy run on sentence batman

[Idiotex]

OP, I make a modest living playing poker. But, I have an excellent winrate. I only like to play a few hours a day, and I'm a bankroll nit. So basically, expected earnings in future will increase.

I completed a business degree before I embarked on giving poker a try. I took time off from college a couple of times because I found it so boring / easy, and I became fairly depressed during some of these periods because I felt like I had no direction. I wanted something fullfilling.

I can't say I regret my decision one bit. I love the lifestyle, thinking about the game and improving etc etc.

Most succesfull people I have ever spoken to have just told me to do what you love, because you will be good at it, and have a decent shot at making some cash. And even if it doesn't pan out, at least you won't hate your life.

I am fortunate in that I will probably recieve a good inheritence one day, so I don't have to worry as much about being broke and 65. But still, I think I'd pursure this path either way.

I want my kids to be happy, and if I ever have them I will allow them to pursue whatever is close to their heart. That doesn't mean if they say, I want to surf and smoke weed all day I won't have anything to say. But even still, I wouldn't stop them. I think sometimes we all have ideas about our lives and what we want when we're young, and they're not always correct. Someone might think they want to just surf and smoke weed, but after doing it for a while they will realize certain things become beyond their grasp. For example, if they would like to meet a nice girl and get married, most of the nicer women won't marry a dope-smoking surfer.

It's late here and i'm ranting. My main points are that I will try to give my kids plenty of latitude in their life choices, and talk them through with them. I'll also be happy to discuss things with them if those choices aren't panning out without being a condescending a-hole.

Fwiw, my Mum is very supportive of poker, even at first (although she assumed at the time that I would fail). My parents are seperated, Dad is coming around slowly but still has no concept of what I do. He invests in stocks and I try and draw correlations for him but he doesn't get it.

Sorry about the excessive ranting.

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

if online poker starts booming again I am going to be teaching my eight year old NL poker.

[jeffnc]

[ QUOTE ]
I figure poker will have been solved in 15 years, so it's probably not the best career move someone could make to start playing in 10 years time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Poker can't really be solved like chess can be solved, IMO. Even if chess is solved, you can still play live and it won't make any difference to 99.9% of the players out there.

[Idiotex]

If I have kids I will definitely teach them how to play poker (if they express an interest) and give them a starting roll once they have studied the game sufficiently. I mean, any reasonably smart person can beat 50NL if they put in the effort. Thirteen year olds get paid like $5 an hour. They have an incentive to learn, and the skills you learn in poker may be useful later in life (business and stocks).

[Jay.]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I figure poker will have been solved in 15 years, so it's probably not the best career move someone could make to start playing in 10 years time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Poker can't really be solved like chess can be solved, IMO. Even if chess is solved, you can still play live and it won't make any difference to 99.9% of the players out there.

[/ QUOTE ]

Online medium-high stakes poker could very well become solved if you had lots of good short stacks on every table forcing you to play a short stack and all very similar strategies. Sure you could fight out an edge but the variance on a very small win rate would be a killer. This is a pretty real worry eventually.