Should I go Pro? #132890213 (long) - Page 4

Pog0 · #31 04-22-2006, 04:00 PM

A couple things relating directly to your situation:
You'll probably have a clearer perspective of what makes sense after summer. Use the summer months of playing professional poker to see how it works out.

Second, instead of building up your online bankroll larger than necessary, invest anything you don't require for your limit. Interest is a beautiful thing.

dragon14 · #32 04-22-2006, 05:27 PM

You have the summer to think it over. If it the end of the summer you're burned out of poker and wishing that you would have been a lifeguard then you can go back to school. If you're still enjoying poker you'll need to decide if you can do a good enough job at school or whether you're too addicted to/enjoying poker to go back. You can make these decisions every semester for the next few years.

I personally have enjoyed my life post-college more than when I was in college. Sitting in class used to bore the hell out of me. Just do what's best for you at this time and reevaluate on occasion.

You know more about yourself and the situation than we all do. Analyze your life every few months and make a decision on what you want to do.

yvesaint · #33 04-22-2006, 06:59 PM

college is awesome, nuff said

AlanBostick · #34 04-22-2006, 07:24 PM

There is no reason why you can't both stay in school and continue to play online poker.

You have learned how to manage your bankroll, you say. You probably have what it takes, then to learn how to manage your time -- which is in fact one of the things they don't actually teach you that is one of the most important life skills for you to learn in college.

You can drop out and play online and disappear from friends, family, and social life. You can drop poker and follow a normal life, leaving behind this peculiar, exciting way of making money. Or you can spend some number of hours a week online, multitabling your best game, and make enough money for that to pay your way through school and still have time for the non-academic aspects of college life that make it so important.

PokerAce · #35 04-22-2006, 10:00 PM

Sure, he could drop out of school now and when/if online poker is no longer lucrative, he could go back to school, get an education and hope that potential employers don't question things. However, once you drop out of school, for most people, it becomes extremely difficult to go back.

Higher education is very important. Not only for finding a job, but the knowledge and experience gained helps in every aspect of life.

I believe that people should hold a "real" job for several years simply because if they don't, they might miss out on a career that they would thoroughly enjoy and find extremely satisfying.

Being an online poker pro means spending many hours alone in front of a computer grinding it out. It's great when it's just extra money, but once you start needing that money to survive, the beats hurt worse and the downswings are extremely stressful. Not to mention that increasing your hours is easier said than done.

Basically, OP, you are 18 years old. You are still very much a kid and you honestly don't know what you want. You've been playing poker for a very short amount of time. Do you think you'll still want to be grinding out a living in 20 years? How about 30 years? 40? It sounds like you are in the "obsessed" phase of your poker experience. Don't make any life changing decisions now. The point is that now is the time in your life for you to try to find what you want to do with your life. Find a major that interests you and keep poker as a profitable hobby.

BluffTHIS! · #36 04-22-2006, 11:02 PM

Grim,

I think you def should go pro. When your lag azz finally realizes it just luckboxed its way into that 50K, same as shooting a 2 hour roll on the dice tables, you will have dumped 49.9K of that back into the NL poker economy that the rest of us full-timers depend on. Then you can go get a job in some service industry.

Or you could do the prudent thing and invest 48K of that as advised, and start back over at the NL100 tables and try to work your way back up while exercising prudent bankroll management for that 2K roll. If you can do that, then you can go pro and have a reason to believe you will succeed at it.

But most of us are rooting for you to do what I said in the first paragraph (sorry, but that's the way it goes - sharks need a constant supply of fish, and tourney donks who make big scores and luckboxes are especially juicy). [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

Blowup Doll · #37 04-23-2006, 12:03 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Sure, he could drop out of school now and when/if online poker is no longer lucrative, he could go back to school, get an education and hope that potential employers don't question things.

[/ QUOTE ]
What are they going to question? They cannot ask you how old you are. Period. You go back to school, you do your 3-4 years or whatever. You apply for a job. It's the same whether you're 22 or 32. I took 10 years off to see the world and have a good time and then went to college at 28. Got my PhD and am a professor. No one in all my 9 years in college/grad school ever once asked me how old i was. And, as i said, the national avg age for college is now 28. He'll be fine going back.

[ QUOTE ]
However, once you drop out of school, for most people, it becomes extremely difficult to go back.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's a decent point. I wouldn't say "extremely" though. It's just that most people aren't motivated. If you're motivated, then it's just as easy to get into college at 28 as it is at 18. In fact, it's sometimes easier since lots of colleges now are looking for the non-traditional student who will focus harder. I personally did one year at a community college first, got a 4.0, and then got a full scholarship the rest of the way through to my PhD.

#38 04-23-2006, 02:48 AM

I DO want to go through college and get my degree and become an architect, someday. But I feel that I am missing out on great oppurtonity to make BIG BUCKS playing online poker. Right, I can do both at the same time easily, but knowing that for every hour I spend in class I could be raking in $100s of bucks I just feel that I am underacheiving.

MYNAMEIZGREG · #39 04-23-2006, 03:39 AM

Grim, how many hours do you play on the weekend? Do you ever get tired/bored then? If you do, don't even consider dropping. Also, you can comfortably play 5 hours 7-12 or 8-1 9-2 every day and bam there's your five hours a day. Make up for Friday on the weekends or something.

Blowup Doll · #40 04-23-2006, 04:04 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I DO want to go through college and get my degree and become an architect, someday. But I feel that I am missing out on great oppurtonity to make BIG BUCKS playing online poker. Right, I can do both at the same time easily, but knowing that for every hour I spend in class I could be raking in $100s of bucks I just feel that I am underacheiving.

[/ QUOTE ]

You've already made up your mind. Turn on (your computer), tune in (to party poker), and drop out! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]