Quitting my crap job to grind 2/5+ live??

[SirFelixCat]

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No matter what anyone says, Felix, you are going to do what you want to do anyways.

This whole thread gives plenty of perspective to think about, so saying yea or nay isn't really going to change anything, is it?

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Fair enough, but just thought I'd throw it out there.

I do think that my situation is quite different than OP's, but nonetheless, the jump is still the jump.

And as for MTT's, probably not as I'm not that interested in tournament poker. I may down the road, but no interest at this time.

[frommagio]

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I heard video poker is EXTREMLY beatable, but has HUDGE swings...... Ill put up a website of the worlds leading athority on beating video poker..... of course he is selling a course, but this guy seems to be the real deal

http://www.bobdancer.com/

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Hey trollboy, we can't handle the HUDGE EXTREM swings. Go away.

[frommagio]

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many casinos offer GREAT video poker "deals" and coupons(mostly vegas) that can actually give u an edge)

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GRATE NOOSE! Could you share a website for further info?

[Guthrie]

I can't really offer much advice on whether to try it or not, but if you decide to do it for a year or so, then go to graduate school, or to work, and are worried about a gap in your resumé, then I'd definitely recommend going to Los Angeles, and not Las Vegas or Atlantic City.

You could easily justify a year in LA, working part time as a bartender, while enjoying the beach, the babes, and everything else that LA has to offer, and never mention that you played poker to support yourself. LV & AC are gambling towns, much more difficult to justify a year in either without drawing attention to your true reason for being there.

As far as scummy degenerates, I used to play at the Bike to get away from the ones in the movie business.

[PokerintheI]

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My only question/comment is that people keep saying that OP taking himself out of the job market could have negative consequences on future job opportunities.

If he actually does play poker full-time for a few years, decides it's not for him and then moves on to graduate school, wouldn't the advanced degree make up for the years spent out of the job market?

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No, in most fields a graduate degree isn't going to make up for missing years of work experience.

Assuming that a resume for the future matters to you, get to whatever city you want to play in and then do something on the side with some vagueness in it. eg: Get an internship for a day or two a week that either pays a little or doesn't, this can then be listed on your resume as what you did for that time period. Future prospective employers won't worry about a year or two if you can say you were doing a long term internship.

Alternately, start your graduate degree. Most schools consider 1 grad level class to be half time. So for the price of 3-6 hours a week and like $800, you can list yourself as a "Student" working on a graduate degree while you play poker full time.

I have no opinion about the feasibility of being a pro player. Although I agree with some posters that it doesn't really sound like fun if you have to play 30-50 hours a week. I much prefer being a government contractor making 75k a year to work three 7 hour days a week and playing poker for fun and extra cash.

[jeffnc]

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I have gone to only playing SNG's and it is a very steady income source.

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If you don't mind me asking and you don't mind giving rough (but honest) answers:
- what level do you play
- how many at a time
- what sites
- hourly rate?

[Nick-Zack]

[ QUOTE ]

If you don't mind me asking and you don't mind giving rough (but honest) answers:
- what level do you play
- how many at a time
- what sites
- hourly rate?

[/ QUOTE ]

Here are the numbers for September so far for what its worth:

I have played 372 - $22+2 at FT. My ROI for those is 12.45% (my YTD is 13.01%). I have been in the money 40.86% of the time with an average finish of 4.43. PT has my MT Ratio at 3.97 with an hourly rate of $25.72 over 43.2 actual hours. The total win this month is $1111.80 + another $200.88 in rakeback.

I can comfortably have 6 going at the same time so start 6 and play until completion of all. If I get broke in one in the first level I will start another. I have tried doing continuous SNG's in the past but it didn't work. I have a hard time when I have 1 going in level 2 and another going in level 6. It is much better for me to have all of them in about the same level.

[PokerAmateur4]

OP,
I can't tell you your path. What I can tell you is to meditate upon this mantra:
"i was born in the wind, and will die in the wind."

[Hotel Detect]

For me this is almost entirely a question of what you want in life...

If you want to accumulate a large net worth then poker simply is not the path. I know that a lot of ppl on this site do not agree with me on this one, but virtually no poker player out there is what I consider to be trully wealthy. So if you are interested in one day being in the 50 million $ range, then you best start busting your ass in the business world, because it ain't gonna happen in poker. (unless somehow you magically became the next Phil Hellmuth, who might be the only one that is even close to this level) If you want to be in this category then i think wasting any time playing poker will do you more harm than good.

If you want to have a moderate to small net worth 10 or 15 years from now then perhaps you can take a stab at this dream, as long as you follow it up in a couple years with further education and a legitimate career path. There are going to be holes in your resume as others have stated but this should not preclude you entirely from successfully reentering the job market imo, you just aren't going to be the guy that is rocketing up the corporate ladder.

If you have low aspirations and are aiming for a stagnant, low net worth than you could employ a strategy of grinding 2/5 nl, working as a bartender, and avoiding the pitfalls of towns like vegas. (pit games, partying excessively, etc)

Since you seem like the type of person that is aiming to land in one of the first two categories, then I do not see how grinding it out at poker is going to help you very much, but it also might not hurt you irreversibly either.

Also, there is more to life than money, trust me, this is very true. Even with large sums of money, someone needs to find a mental balance that allows them to be happy. I have struggled with this quite a bit myself and I have family members that worked so hard to make it to the point of hundreds of millions that they forgot to notice that their life was passing them by. No one can make this choice for you since it has to do with what you are most interested in at your core as a person.

GL, my inclination is to go ahead with a plan of playing poker (so you don't regret what could have been), while either taking a light grad school courseload or pursuing an internship as others have suggested. I think you will tire of the poker side of things fairily quickly and begin your path to bigger aspirations.

Finally, I just want to say that having lived in vegas for so long and having grown up with various intelligent people that have no desire whatsoever to have a real job and are seduced by the faux ease of the poker world, I have seen many many people try and fail at what you are intending on doing. It is in no way easy, and it is only sustainable by people with very specific personality traits. Most of the people that I have known that have tried were people that wanted more monetarily from life than your average person and they certainly didn't find it grinding low limit NL.

once again, gl

ps - I was under the impression that Foxwoods games were softer than vegas games, anyone know?

[davidlong14]

1.) Build BR to $25k
2.) save another $15k+ for 4-6 mos living expenses
3.) go for it...take a shot