Time to Go Pro?

[FiftyOuts]

I know there is enough post about people going pro but I'm seriously considering it. Any advice would be sincerely considered and appreciated.

I've been playing poker for about 3 years now. Last year I made about $100,000 during 500 hour of play at a brick & mortar. I make about $80,000 at my day job.

Some people I talk to think I'm crazy to keep my day job while others think I'm crazy to quite my job.

I don't necessarily hate my job but I don't enjoy it as much as I enjoy playing poker.

I think financially it would make sense for me to go pro. I made $100,000 last year playing part time and I know if I would focus on poker more that I can make significantly more money.

But the games seems that are getting harder. There are more and more better players. So I'm worried that eventually my edge on my opponents would shrink and the games become less profitable.

Any advice from people who have went pro? Do you enjoy the experience? Was it what you had expected?

[KipBond]

1) How old are you?
2) What is your current job/occupation?
3) What limits did you win (most of) the $100,000 in?
4) Are you married?
5) Have kids?

[FiftyOuts]

I'm 30 years old and single so I don't have any financial dependent on me other than myself. I'm an engineer. I won most of my money playing 10, 25 and 25, 50 no limit.

[Sigurd]

What did you make the previous years, and how much did you play?

Personally I think you should try playing a bit online (at lower stakes than you play live), and use a program like Pokertracker to keep track of your play.
This would allow you to play a lot of hands in a relatively short periode of time, so you have a bigger sample size, and a better chance of analysing your play (and see the swings).

Playing a bit online would also allow you to put in some short sessions without having to go to the casino.

Have you mostly been playing friday/saturday nights? If so, are the games harder to beat at other times, where you would have to play, if you went pro?

Psychologically it can be very hard to run bad if poker is your sole source of income.

[Reef]

so you played 15,000 hands or less all of last year..

how do you know you're a winning player?
would you be fine breaking even for 6 months?

[kolotoure]

[ QUOTE ]
so you played 15,000 hands or less all of last year..

how do you know you're a winning player?
would you be fine breaking even for 6 months?

[/ QUOTE ]

[Sigurd]

[ QUOTE ]
so you played 15,000 hands or less all of last year..

how do you know you're a winning player?
would you be fine breaking even for 6 months?

[/ QUOTE ]

Apparently I misjudged how few hands you actually play per hour when you play "live".

This is spot on..

[JoaoPinto]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm 30 years old and single so I don't have any financial dependent on me other than myself. I'm an engineer. I won most of my money playing 10, 25 and 25, 50 no limit.

[/ QUOTE ]

Go for it. If you [censored] up your still employable.

[gholizad]

If your resume is good enough that you think you can easily find another job in case things so bad, then you should give it a shot IMO.

[johnnyrocket]

100,000 on those stakes is nowhere near enough to go pro, you could easily hit lots of variance, way too little or a profit to know whether to go pro or not