I need a little life advice right now.

[LearnedfromTV]

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Good points.

Part of what is driving me to do this is the fact that even if all hell breaks loose and the games are dead and it was a huge mistake... so waht's the big deal? I'll have few months off. I'll travel, I'll go to live events, I'll enjoy life for a little bit. When I come back to school in January, I will be refreshed and ready to start studying again.

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+

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On a side note, I have almost completely lost the will to study and do work. Every day in class I pay attention for about 2 minutes, then before I know it my mind has drifted off on to some random [censored] and 15 minutes has passed, and my stupid prof is talking about neuro transmitters and action potentials, and I am scratching my balls all the while. I have no focus in school, I have no motivation or drive. wtf cmon.

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+ 19 year old junior

= take the time off.

IMO. This doesn't sound like a standard "college will be there, oh wait, I never went back" situation, so I'm not worried about that. You'll get your degree. Also, for a lot of people, I think college, from an academic perspective, would be best if it went from ages like 19-23, or 20-24, especially for guys. It's not a maturity issue or anything, just the combination of being more able to focus/able to deal with boredom, having more of a sense of direction. If you're on track to graduate at 20, there's really no reason to rush. Let "college" be a five-year social experience, with four years of classes and one year off, poker or no.

If you were poor, I'd say, hurry and get your degree by 20 so you can get to the real world and pay back your loans. But that is obviously not your situation. Enjoy yourself. Take some time to digest things and understand where you want to go. One year off + two years college > Two years college + One year career. I think that would be true for any 19-year old junior, with the only caveat being money. You have the money.

[J.A.K.]

Tough isn't it? This is one of those decisions that if you stay in school, down the road you will KNOW it was the right thing to do. But at presesnt you REALLY want to leave and play poker. If you can overcome your own will (at age 19) to do something that you are pretty sure is the best all around decision, then you will be successful at much more than poker. Being young helps in risk taking (financially) but why take unnecessary risk? How do you condition your mind to focus on school when your gravy train may be pulling out? Maturity and perspective. I can see several instances down the road where you may regret taking time off, but I do not ever see you regretting graduating on time. If you are looking for an absolute, KEEP DOING WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND STAY IN SCHOOL. I mean at worst you make what, $250/hr?

[DLizzle]

wow you guys are so pessimistic. I think I can make a fairly strong case for taking time off and playing. First of all, most of the fish don't even KNOW about the bill and its implications yet. Next, it won't take effect for a while. There will still be fish around once this is all over from other country.

Also, I assume Ansky that you are a well above average player and not your run of the mill multitabling slight winner. A lot of regulars on sites I play are not good now, and now even winners will turn into losers. I feel confident that I can learn to beat these players as well as the fish that will still be there.

One thing I suggest is learning more games, and I believe you are already proficient in both tournaments and cash games. If the games dry up people may be forced to step out of the their comfort zone, and tourney donks are often cash game donks, limit holdem players have no idea how to play PLO.

Lastly, it sounds to me like you really would prefer taking some time off school to play poker. Honestly even without the poker ban it sounds like a decent idea. Is there a reason that you're in school that would be hindered by taking time off to make a boatload of money doing something you like? It can't be that you want to start your career early, the poker money will compensate for that. You can live in the same house with the same friends, living the same life, only you can make a ton of money, take a break from school, and come right back to it when you're ready. do it.

[DLizzle]

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Tough isn't it? This is one of those decisions that if you stay in school, down the road you will KNOW it was the right thing to do. But at presesnt you REALLY want to leave and play poker. If you can overcome your own will (at age 19) to do something that you are pretty sure is the best all around decision, then you will be successful at much more than poker. Being young helps in risk taking (financially) but why take unnecessary risk? How do you condition your mind to focus on school when your gravy train may be pulling out? Maturity and perspective. I can see several instances down the road where you may regret taking time off, but I do not ever see you regretting graduating on time. If you are looking for an absolute, KEEP DOING WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND STAY IN SCHOOL. I mean at worst you make what, $250/hr?

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I think this is completely wrong and pretty much backwards. I don't think he would ever regret taking time off, but he could easily regret not taking the time off. I know for me, I would probably be much better off taking a year off and playing poker. Honestly. I do ok in school, but I have no motivation or work ethic as far as that. I attend 3 classes a week, because they are mandatory. I do a minimum amount of work. I play poker and dick around for the rest of the time. If I took time off school, I would do better in poker, and when I came back to school when I wanted to, I would do better in that. Why don't I? I don't even honestly know. Probably because too many people important to me would hate the decision. I still might. Ansky, I really suggest you do this, poker ban or not.

[DLizzle]

oh i just read the post about the living situation. Uh, find a loophole maybe? Or just take a really light course load. I'm still glad I wrote the above posts because they actually helped me figure some things out.

[Body Man D]

Ansky,

I am older than most on this forum so I may be able to offer some advice learned from life experience. Your college years should be and probably will be the best time of your life. You have less worries and responsibilites now than you will probably ever have in the future. Don't give that up by essentially taking on a full time job(poker). That being said, I wouldn't completely give up poker just to become a typical college student. With your abilities and the uncertainty surrounding the future of poker, you need to capitalize while the going is still good. The amount of money you could earn, and hopefully save, from playing poker right now could lessen the worries and responsibilities you will face later in life.

I realize these statement's contradict each other and I think that is why you are on here seeking advice. I think what you need to do is find a proper balance. I would suggest the following. The typical student(at least from my day) takes about 15 class hours. When you add study time etc. it equates to about 40 hours a week spent on school. This still leaves plenty of time for partying, chasing women etc. that makes college fun.

My suggestion, as other's have said already, is that you just reduce your class load. If you take 6 hours instead of 15, you could get by spending about 15 hours a week toward schooling. Spend the 25 hours you save playing poker. If your hourly rate truly is $400/hr this gives you $500,000 in the bank after a year without having given up on your college lifestyle.

I envy your youth and abilities and just hope you make a decision that works best for you. We can all sit here and tell you what we would do but you have to decide for yourself. Hope this helps in some way.

Best of Luck,

Derek

[bobneptune]

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So, we are at quite the crossroads here....

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as someone who had been accepted to medical school in 1973 and turned it down to train racehorses, i have a little appreciation for your position.

the best advice i could give you would be to follow the imortal words of joseph campbell in "the power of myth" and to "follow your bliss!!!"

to do this , you must really enjoy playing poker, not just as a means to and end of making $500/hr. if you do enjoy it, how can you turn down $500 an hour and making your own hours ???

you can always go back to school and persue other interests if you sour on playing poker. the only difference is, you will be persuing other interests 7 figures to the good.

a friend of mine told me many years ago,"i've been rich , and i've been poor... and rich is better !!!"

there are going to be ways found to circumnavigate the new frist law, poker isn't going anywhere. if online poker disappeared tomorrow, you could just relocate to vegas where there are tens of thousands of fish deplaning every day dying to donk off thousands with a corona in each hand.

i mean, why is this even a discussion ????

hmmmmmm..... 19 and able to make $500 an hour ??? there really is a heaven, isn'there ???

[durkahdurkah]

I'm thinking the best bet here is to figure exactly how many classes you need to take to keep your student visa (fulltime? halftime? one class?), figure out which classes that are left for you to take to fulfill graduation requirements, and pick the easiest classes from that bunch (any Gen Ed requirements left?). This way you are not sacrificing graduating on time (or in your case, it seems, early), and are still able to devote sick time to poker and make mad moneys before the ban kills off the fishies.

Plus, one other thing, even if keeping the canadian visa wasn't an issue, once you drop out of school temporarily, the reapplication/readdmittance procedure is kind of a pain in the ass, at least it was for me. I had to drop out for a full year to take care of issues, reapplied 5 months before the next semester, and between all of the run-around, I didn't know if I was going to be able to go back to school until literally 2 weeks before classes started. It was a bit stressful. I wouldn't wish that upon anyone.

[NYWalker]

Ansky,

At this point, I suggest you choose the thing you REALLY want to do.

In this case, studying at school is a long term plan and your +$500-$800/hr playing poker online seems to be a 5-6 months short term activity. It will be a good idea to take one semester off and make a killing at onlinepoker.

You are only 19 and can afford to delay 6 month finishing your degree. In the next 6 months, making extra $100K will secure your future eduction (with financial freedom, later on, you can focus on study and finance advanced degree on your own). So, it isn't a bad idea to pause school for one semester.

Assume you have this delima and still go to school for this semester while playing poker online at nights, can you really do both things well??? Since we assume online poker will dry up, you may put more time in poker and may not do good at school anyway, right? When you have this kinda situation, follow your heart and passion, make the right choice. Obviously, your choice indicates your priority - you pick one and lose others - can't make a choice that's good for all. If you think your next six months priority is to make as much money as possible while you still can, then you should pick playing poker for the next 6 months.

However, you must accept the following risks:
1. online poker can be banned or dry up in less than 6 months, then you may waste a few months of your time;

2. You may lose some money back if you have bad running streams. I don't question your skill, but poker also needs luck. When you play fulltime, you shouldn't assume $500/hr x 8 = $4000 a day goal. (I did day trading back in 1999, I made $300K in the first 3 months, when I quit everything and started do it fulltime, I lost $900K. Partically becasue I set my goal to trade for 3K profit everyday no matter what...)

3. At the end of the 6 months, you may want to extend it to a year, and lower your target to $200/hr, $100/hr, eventually give up school. (very unlikely, but need to consider since people can change when the environment changes)

I think good poker player like you do follow disciplines strictly, so I have no doubt about your returning back to school regardless the outcome of the next 5-6 months.

This is just my opinion. (most of them don't make sense [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] )

Make the choice that meets your immediate priority; do the thing you READLY want and do it well with passion.

You will be successful in both in the long run!

[2Fast]

Ansky - haven't read the other posts, but as a fellow McGill alumnus and banker who's worked like 80+ hours a week for the past 9 years (and like 100+ the first 4 years) I say you have to make the money while you can and just do it. Sure your parents won't like it, and there's a risk that it will dry up a bit with the new US law, but I think you need to capitalize on this as much as you can. As you say, money like this might not and indeed probably won't be around forever, and in my experience even though I make a ton of money these days time has become the more important element (I don't have enough of it) and you have a chance to make a good bit of money AND set your own hours and have a decent amount of free time in a college environment - plus as you say you can always go back to school.

Montreal is an awesome city and there's a lot to be said for having an extended college experience - I'm sure like 40% of students take more than 4 years to graduate these days. Definitely get your degree, but you have lots of time and opportunities and I think that capitalizing on poker now is a smart thing from a financial and life perspective. And you also seem to really want to do this and give it a try so I think that should be a great motivator as well - plus what is the downside if things go wrong here? You miss out on one semester? That might seem like a lot for you now but in the big picture it's not a ton of time and you will be going back to school soon enough.

I would add that maybe think about taking just a couple course per semester and lengthening out graduation a bit as you might get bored/burned out only playing poker every day and this might keep you more in the flow at school.