Earning a living playing poker 1 year later.

[thomastem]

It is now 1 year since I quit my day job and have earned my living playing poker both online and live. The 2+2 forums and books by authors here have had a great influence on my success, certainly the speed in which I gained enough skill to do this.

Thank you to both authors and posters of 2+2.

To give back a little to the community I am going to type a little on a different take that I have in successfully becoming a pro. Yes I know a lot of posts and articles have been written hopefully I add a little different spin.

First I am married with 4 children. This has helped me not hurt me. Before leaving my day job I discussed the move with my wife seriously for about 6 months before we agreed it was the right move. Her support both emotionally and financially made it easier to make the jump.

With her agreeing to restart her career (we have a 3 year old) we knew that insurance and our bills were paid. This meant very little pressure for consistant profit and is critical to my comfort zone.

The point here is that all of the articles that I have read seem to state that it is easier if you are single. The truth as I see it is that if you have a partner that will help you it is easier. There are more issues to address but if your spouse will work with you then your individual issues can be less.

Now getting your spouse to want (not reluctantly agree) you to make the career change leads into a big reason for my success this first year. I treated the career move exactly as I would with starting a new business.

I put together a complete business proposal for my wife and myself. I took my last 2 years of earnings to prove a track record. I made very conservative projections of what the new business would profit quarterly along with budget projections for expenses.

When she read my track record she could see my hourly rate was much higher than what I would project so her reaction was "You should make much more than that." I explained that the projections were minimum expectations not goals. This would leave an overall cushion for variance (which all business experience to some degree).

I then presented her with a plan of action. This included time management. This displayed how many hours a week I would work, how many I would review my performance, how many I would research sources of information to enhance my game.

The completeness of information gave her the confidence in me that I knew how to succeed. The fact that I told her that she would be a partner and that we would review overall performance quaterly gave her a sence of tangible control.

She then agreed to her part of the investment enthusiastically.

I also believe that running my poker career as a business gives me an edge that most serious players do not have. I have never gone bust nor have I ever had to play while worrying or under the pressure of busting. Looking at an over view of numbers has also helped me review and ask myself the right questions about my preformance.

I obviously do not believe it is required to get into so much detail to be successful but it certainly would not hurt anyone serious about playing poker for a living.

This leads me to one of the points that I disagree with but see in almost every article on "Turning Pro". Almost always the writer suggests that it is hard and that you should keep your day job.

In my opinion it is no harder than starting a typical business in a typical field. To start a business you need the knowledge and drive to be successful. Remember I did not say easy just no harder than starting a typical business.

I also find that most professionals in various different positions will tell you, "I am successful but it isn't for everyone it is quite difficult to do what I do." It is human nature to believe that you are doing something that most people can not do. Making one's profession more important or difficult leads to advising against a friend trying it because they may fail.

So here is my advice, if you are willing to track your part time play for 2 years, if your play shows improvement over those 2 years, if you are willing to make a conservative/flexible budget and stay within its parameters, if you are willing to make a plan of action and stay within its parameters, if you are willing to close your business and change career if you can not meet the minimum requirements of your business plan and projections for a 3 or 6 month period, if you have the strong desire to take this risk for its rewards then in my opinion you can be successful.

I am certain that succesful pros get away with less but for me this guaruntees success.

I am sorry if this turned into a ramble but I wanted to give back to the community that helped me achieve my goals. Hopefully there is some helpful insight here for you and as always good luck at the tables.

Critter Dude

[gergery]

Awesome, thanks for posting.

I have a wife and daughter and will be embarking on a pro career in about a month, and also wrote out a detailed business plan, including hours played, limits, success criteria, backup plan, plan for improving, budget, how I anticipate interaction with family/computer time to go and so forth. Essential to do imho.

-g

[HotPants]

[ QUOTE ]
The completeness of information gave her the confidence in me that I knew how to succeed. The fact that I told her that she would be a partner and that we would review overall performance quaterly gave her a sence of tangible control.

She then agreed to her part of the investment enthusiastically.

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[HotPants]

Seriously though, I liked the spin you put on it

[mpslg]

Thanks for the post. This gives me some hope because I am married with 2 kids. I think it is going to take a lot to convince my wife it's a good idea though.

[thomastem]

My favorite game is a $500 buyin NL Holdem. My income in year 1 was ever so slightly higher than what I made last year at my old job. This fell within my projection so I count it as a successful year.

So I did not get rich in year won matter of fact my standard of living is about the same. I do expect this to improve each year forward.



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if you don't mind, what limits did you play and how much do you avg/month?

I think ppl will be interested to hear this as well. perhaps provide more detail to your story.

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[thomastem]

I think anyone cosidering to leave the security of a stable job to start there own business has this issue. I suggest that if you get serious that ask yourself what would make her confident in the risk.

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the post. This gives me some hope because I am married with 2 kids. I think it is going to take a lot to convince my wife it's a good idea though.

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[Tornado69]

1 thing that must be great is you taking care of the kids during the day. This way you don't have to pay for a baby sitter and can even get all your chores you used to do on the weekends/nighttime after work done during the day so you've got more free time. That's the one thing I've found out since I started this 6 months ago. I make a lot in just 2 hours of play and an hour of doing stock market things in the morning and I have all the free time in the world.

[thomastem]

Lol. Not close for me. My youngest goes to daycare and the rest are in school. Except when I take a vacation I typically work a minimum of 60 hours a week.

I do get to take the after school time with the kids that I did not have before but after dinner it is prime time and back to work. During the summer my 15 year old babysits while I am in the "office" working.

I do get the benefit of skipping shaving some mornings though.



[ QUOTE ]
1 thing that must be great is you taking care of the kids during the day. This way you don't have to pay for a baby sitter and can even get all your chores you used to do on the weekends/nighttime after work done during the day so you've got more free time. That's the one thing I've found out since I started this 6 months ago. I make a lot in just 2 hours of play and an hour of doing stock market things in the morning and I have all the free time in the world.

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