Time to Go Pro?

[godofPOPOV]

[ QUOTE ]
Jeff,

I have thought about starting my own business and have been looking around. The problem is that I do not have a good business idea. I've been also looking at investing in real estate and aftering crunching some numbers on a few properties realized that the real estate market may not be better than investing in stocks/mutual funds.

p.s. Jeff, I have read numerous of your posts and respect your opinion.

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i hope youre not saying that investing in the stock market is a poor investment..

[unfoldable]

[ QUOTE ]
Remember, playing many hours a week for a living will kill your excitement for the game.

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Most people who make a good living at work have a job that isn't necessarily pleasant. Longish hours, significant responsibility, not necessarily doing something you love doing. And you end up in the job because you wanted to make more money than you could doing something more interesting to you, less stress/hours, and probably less pay.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is exactly how I felt - while playing poker! I took a short shot around 18 month ago, when I had the chance to play poker fulltime. Despite all motivation and enthusiasm: After only very few weeks it felt boring as hell (i was playing online). And running bad doesnt add much thrill to it. Once you understand the deeper meaning of the word "variance" poker gets less exciting. Instead my real job was suddenly much more exciting.
I ended up not playing poker at all for around 15 month ( ok, i played three times). Now I started to play more again, but poker is not my top priority. It is something I do, when all other things are taken care of, despite making more money with it than with most other things.

Asking a question like you did usually means no, dont do it, but who am I to give you advice. You already made your decision, right?

[PJo336]

Well I feel the way YOU felt about it unfoldable is not neccessarily how others would feel. It probably would for me, im just saying. I dont think 50outs should judge based on others personal opinions on how they felt.

[unfoldable]

I didnt intend to give advice. Its more like a trip report. The situation he finds himself in is just so familiar to me. And giving up an $80k job + $100k poker winnings to (maybe) make $300k playing fulltime doesnt sound like a great idea to me. And yes, the games have changed.
When i think about it, i have to admit that i give a [censored] how he decides, i am not emotionally or otherwise involved. Just offering a view.
Wishing the best anyway

[br.bm]

Winning 25 or 30 stacks in a year isn't that much.

[canada_dry]

DON'T DO IT. Let me explain.

(1) 80K salary is guaranteed. 100K poker isn't
(2) work history is VITAL on a resume, "pro poker player" on a resume is a DEATH SENTENCE
(3) a real job keeps you grounded, in normal social circles. Poker involves living in a strange world of anti-social people, degenerates, arrogant maniacs. Keep this involvement part-time. Don't let it consume you.
(4) A job provides a service to the world. Can you really say the same about a poker player?

Anyhow...I would suggest taking a SEBATICLE from work. Don't quit. Take an extended vacation. Leave without pay. Don't burn bridges. Make sure you can return to work. Perhaps take a three month hiatus and see how things go. Ask yourself this: Do you want to be a pro poker player when you are 50? Because, good luck getting a job after you've killed your work history. "Pro Poker Player" to most people (bosses) means "DEGENERATE GAMBLER".

Keep it fun. Keep it profitable. Keep it part-time. That's my advice.

[galahad_187]

screw all this 'social status stuff.' you make 80k a year and i'm assuming full benifits. keep your day job just for the sanitiy. take your poker earnings and invest it, keep both jobs going and just retire early (say, 40-45) and play poker from there if it still profitable/what you want to do.

[dboy23]

[ QUOTE ]
screw all this 'social status stuff.' you make 80k a year and i'm assuming full benifits. keep your day job just for the sanitiy. take your poker earnings and invest it, keep both jobs going and just retire early (say, 40-45) and play poker from there if it still profitable/what you want to do.

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definitely the winner. Use poker to make a bunch of money to let you retire real early, then just keep playing responsible poker.

[pyedog]

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screw all this 'social status stuff.' you make 80k a year and i'm assuming full benifits. keep your day job just for the sanitiy. take your poker earnings and invest it, keep both jobs going and just retire early (say, 40-45) and play poker from there if it still profitable/what you want to do.

[/ QUOTE ]

definitely the winner. Use poker to make a bunch of money to let you retire real early, then just keep playing responsible poker.

[/ QUOTE ]
Don't you guys find it hard to work a full time job and play a lot of poker on the side though?

I'm struggling with these decisions myself right now. Basically I make $60K CDN per year ($54K US) and in the last six months I've made $35K USD in my spare time playing online poker (taking it more seriously as a semi pro since then playing 20 hours per week). I also hate my job and don't feel like it has a long term future, but it does pay decently considering I'm just out of university.

Realistically it would be great if I could keep making $60K per year each from my job and poker. But that doesn't leave me enough spare time to do anything else. So right now I'm leaning towards playing poker full time for awhile. But at the same time I know that I don't have any future in that. I'm a solid winner at $200NL, but that doesn't exactly make me an all star in the big picture.

If I thought poker was always going to be the same as it is now then I would do it though. My girlfriend actually plays higher stakes than me full time (even though I taught her to play) and she makes more than anyone I know. So I've got a bit of jealousy there.

[TheOffice]

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(1) 80K salary is guaranteed. 100K poker isn't
(2) work history is VITAL on a resume, "pro poker player" on a resume is a DEATH SENTENCE
(3) a real job keeps you grounded, in normal social circles. Poker involves living in a strange world of anti-social people, degenerates, arrogant maniacs. Keep this involvement part-time. Don't let it consume you.
(4) A job provides a service to the world. Can you really say the same about a poker player?

[/ QUOTE ]

(1) Probably true. However money isn't everything. If there's a time to go for it, it's now or possibly never. That said, I don't think earning 100k/year from online poker for the normally gifted folks is going to last very much longer.

(2) Fake it then. Nobody's ever going to notice.

(3) A psychologist is around people who're going through the roof with crazy [censored] every day. A policeman potentially puts his life in danger every day he goes to work. There are pros and cons to being a poker player and being anti-social isn't the worst con IMO. You are def. able to spread things out with the easy time schedule of a poker player.

(4) I read this argument every single time in an thread like this and can only think to myself: Wow, they must have great jobs, really making a difference in this world. The truth however is, that you are 100% replacable for no loss whatsoever in about everything you do. That accounts for probably 99% of all people, so that shouldn't be a concernt.


Just my opinion, of course.