Question re Turning Pro - When is Best?

[Hoop Addict]

Ok, not entirely sure where this should go, so mods, feel free to move if you like. I'm just posting here since it's where I most often post.

OK, so basically the deal is this. I work as an Admin/Accts clerk at a car dealership. I get a below avg wage. I never completed high school, so essentially, I have no real qualifications, thus my long term earning potential is not exactly fantastic.

I love poker. I've played it *seriously* since basically the start of the year. I'll post my 07 stats for the year at the bottom of this post.

I live at home with my folks. My girlfriend of 4 years also lives with her folks (although in reality, we both split time at each others house). We're pretty much ready to look at get our own home in the early stages of 08.

So my dilemma is this: do I 1) wait until after we've got a home loan etc before I quit my job or 2) quit now & give myself 6 months with low overheads to get up & running & with lower risk if it all goes wrong.

My fears are if I go with option 1 & fail, how do we pay for a home loan and with 2 what the chances are of getting a home loan if I don't have a job other than "professional gambler".

Any advice would be appreciated.

07 stats:
Tournaments played : 850
Total Buy-in : $21449.90
Total Winnings : $45868.90
Total Profit : $24419.00
ROI : 113.8%

[SuperUberBob]

Stay in school and use your brain. Be a doctor, be a lawyer, carry a leather briefcase. Forget about poker as a profession. Poker make ya grunt and smell. See, be a thinker, not a stinker.

[Rekwob]

dont do it unless you have no dependents and few overheads, unless your bankroll is huge for whatever you're playing

[Hoop Addict]

[ QUOTE ]
Stay in school and use your brain. Be a doctor, be a lawyer, carry a leather briefcase. Forget about poker as a profession. Poker make ya grunt and smell. See, be a thinker, not a stinker.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm 23 & I dropped out of school when I was 17 for completely different reasons & got myself a job.

[Hoop Addict]

[ QUOTE ]
dont do it unless you have no dependents and few overheads, unless your bankroll is huge for whatever you're playing

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, if I were to quit now, I'd have no overheads (living with folks) and no dependents. But I'd have trouble getting a home loan 6 months down the track.

[0evg0]

[ QUOTE ]
Stay in school and use your brain. Be a doctor, be a lawyer, carry a leather briefcase. Forget about poker as a profession. Poker make ya grunt and smell. See, be a thinker, not a stinker.

[/ QUOTE ]

dude, at least read his post. He isn't currently in school, and college probably isn't a realistic option at this point in his life.

I can't speak to the difficulties you may encounter re: getting a home loan without a guaranteed income, but I can say that if you were to quit your job now and focus on poker, the next 6 months could easily be spent working exceedingly hard so that if you still do need a loan, it will at least be much much less sizeable if you want it to be (by working exceedingly hard at putting in as many hours as possible).

[THAY3R]

If you're strictly an MTT'er there really is no reason to quit your job to play poker, the most profitable times to play is when you will be home from work anyways.

Not saying you should always have another job since working sucks, but maybe keep as is while playing more poker and see how things go over a bit larger sample.

[Wetdog]

OK, lets be practical here. You get into an average of 4 tournaments a day at an average of $25 each and earn $28 on average each time (after buy in) for a profit each day of $112. Wow. If that were an 8 hour day you would make $12 an hour. As a poker pro grinder that would be 2BB/hr at 3/6. Not exactly ballin, is it?

Go learn to be a welder or electrician or something else that makes > $12 an hour.

[THAY3R]

[ QUOTE ]
OK, lets be practical here. You get into an average of 4 tournaments a day at an average of $25 each

[/ QUOTE ]

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[Bond18]

Your chances of getting a home loan as a pro gambler are slim to none. Even Hellmuth had trouble for a long time with this.

If getting a home is very important to you, you unfortunately shouldn't quit your job, and this is coming from a guy who tells everyone to quit their job.