is it really that hard to turn pro?

[lvpro 0]

People always act like your ridiculous to even bring up the idea, but is it really that hard? I mean, all you have to do is beat the PartyPoker 15/30 game for 2 1/2 BB an hour, and boom, you've got yourself a $75 an hour job. And from what I've seen of the 30/60 games on Party, they're not much better.I'm not planning on dropping out of school right now or anything, but I'm starting to hate my major, and I can't imagine doing it for a living my whole life. I've made about $9000 on poker just in the last month, and I really don't see why this couldn't be a career down the road. Thoughts?

If I were you, I would drop out of school immediately. Being in Pullman has to be making you dumber anyway. :wink: j/k-A Bitter Huskies fan.

[jayboogie 0]

I don't know if this has been said but you don't really just decide to become a pro or something like that. For the people who do decide to just 1 day quit their job and start grinding it out, chances are they're going to fail. You become a pro after you play for a long time and 1 day it just becomes your sole source of making income and you start playing poker for a living. You've stated how you don't have much bankroll management skills in the past and Ill tell you that you have no shot of making it if you can't manage a bankroll. This game is incredibly easy when the decks hit you in the face and the cards are hot, but it's incredibly difficult when your luck turns sour. Bad runs happen and they happen a lot, if you don't have the bankroll to withstand these bad runs, your going to bust. Money is a tool of the trade for a poker player, without it, you can't work, so it's important to always keep yourself in the game.Of course, you can do this for a living, just know that the odds are against you making it. The truth is though that if you need to ask questions like this and think about whether you can do it, you probably can't. When your good enough to do it for a living, you just know it in your head and it becomes your job.

[blueodum 0]

Now being a successful professional poker player is what's difficult since you need to make enough money for bills and living expenses and also since you have no medical insurance, money for medical purposes, and not to mention money to sustain the downswings of playing poker. Every time I read something like this, I thank the powers that be I live in Canada.

[blueodum 0]

I live at home (waiting on University) I only have to throw some rent to my parents and that's it. No need for a car, no bills to pay, I only need enough money to pay for cigarettes and going out a couple nights a week.I can work a couple hours a night and maintain this lifestyle. I'm 19.Okay, but if you're doing this when you're 35, you're a loser.Eventually you're going to have to find a way to make more than 1000 a month. When I was a grad student, I shared a three bedroom with two friends in Toronto and was able to survive on 700 CDN a month. Now I spend that much a month on food alone.

[Socrates 0]

On eother apect ppl overlook is that in addition to all of the medical insurance, dental, life, bills etc... you should satill be able to put away 20% of your earnings every pay perios, for poker players that would be 20% of any winnings you accumulate. You also have to shink about 401Ks and getting your max into those as well (another 15%) - most young people don't even consider this stuff and netiher do most 20 somethings. Until you sit down with a financial planner and see that in your current state you'll be 90 before you can retire, it doesn't really hit you.To the kid who said he could live off 12K / yr. ($100 a month) - are you always going to live at home and are your parents always going to support you?

[HoosierAlum 0]

No. It is easy to turn "pro". Anybody who plays poker as their main source of income is essentially a pro. Turning pro is the easy part. Being successful and profitable and living comfortably and avoiding going broke and paying higher taxes and certain people look down on you and paying for your own health insurance and avoiding going on tilt and dodging all the gambling pitfalls and maintaining a love for the game and staying within proper bankroll management and having your significant other be ok with it and dealing with the legal issues of online poker and a million other reasons are the aspects that make turning pro so difficult.

[blueodum 0]

That said, if you have a brain in your head, $75/hr is not impossible in a job you love.Not impossible, but quite likely very very difficult. It really depends on the type of person you are. Some incredibly smart people have a tough time dealing with traditional jobs. For example: dealing with bosses who are less intelligent than you, yet hold power over you; irritating coworkers and/or customers; having to get up early and fight traffic to and from work.These are the types of people who are drawn to occupations where they can be their own bosses and set their own hours. Poker appeals to them over and above the money.I'm one of these people. I'd rather make 35 000 a year playing poker than 100 000 a year in a regular job.

[DDiabolical 0]

I live at home (waiting on University) I only have to throw some rent to my parents and that's it. No need for a car, no bills to pay, I only need enough money to pay for cigarettes and going out a couple nights a week.I can work a couple hours a night and maintain this lifestyle. I'm 19.Okay, but if you're doing this when you're 35, you're a loser.Eventually you're going to have to find a way to make more than 1000 a month. When I was a grad student, I shared a three bedroom with two friends in Toronto and was able to survive on 700 CDN a month. Now I spend that much a month on food alone.

Absolutely. I have no plans of becoming a professional poker player for the rest of my life, I don't ever have dreams of winning the WSOP, I really don't.For now though it suits a layed back life until I'm at uni, and hopefully at uni it may even help me pay my way through (uni being about 10x cheaper here than in the US).The poker boom will go boom eventually. It's just a game afterall.

[blueodum 0]

I wish they had had online poker when I was at university. Kids - they don't know how good they have it now!

[JacKingOff_suit 0]

When you play poker, you need outs.When you bluff, you need outs.When you turn pro, you need outs.College degree is your outs, if your poker profession doesn't work out.Good luck.

[jjdylan 0]

But hookers don't go well with Coke.

thats not what ive heard...

[tyfgine 0]

Learn to drink. And by that I mean heavily. Very heavily. Only the smooth feeling of jack can bring you back up after a bad downswing. Well, Jack or a hooker. But hookers don't go well with Coke.

i beg to differ.

[iggymcfly 0]

I don't know if this has been said but you don't really just decide to become a pro or something like that. For the people who do decide to just 1 day quit their job and start grinding it out, chances are they're going to fail. You become a pro after you play for a long time and 1 day it just becomes your sole source of making income and you start playing poker for a living. You've stated how you don't have much bankroll management skills in the past and Ill tell you that you have no shot of making it if you can't manage a bankroll. This game is incredibly easy when the decks hit you in the face and the cards are hot, but it's incredibly difficult when your luck turns sour. Bad runs happen and they happen a lot, if you don't have the bankroll to withstand these bad runs, your going to bust. Money is a tool of the trade for a poker player, without it, you can't work, so it's important to always keep yourself in the game.Of course, you can do this for a living, just know that the odds are against you making it. The truth is though that if you need to ask questions like this and think about whether you can do it, you probably can't. When your good enough to do it for a living, you just know it in your head and it becomes your job.

Back in the original post, I stated that I don't feel like I'm ready to play poker full-time yet. My current plan is to go to school for another year and a half, and try to get my degree, (although I'm falling behind in credits a little bit, and I don't think I'll make it). Then, at that point, I'm thinking that my poker game will have evolved enough to support me, and I'll be able to make poker my full-time career.What I was really asking is if it's that difficult to make a living playing poker. People act like it's irresponsible and ridiculous to try unless you've got a $50,000 a year job to fall back on, and that's on an actual poker forum. When you talk to people who don't play poker, they think it's even sillier.The thing is that I can't think of anything I'd rather do for a career that's even remotely practical, and I feel like I have the ability to make it. I deposited $50 a month ago, and I've grown that to $10,000, so it seems like even if that's not sustainable, I'm at least a little more than some lucky schmuck that caught a few cards. I know there's not any magic designation to turning pro, but when you see 8 people post "TP/MM" on every thread where someone even considers trying to make this a living, it makes me wonder why people are acting so skeptical.It just seems like beating mid-level online limit games for 2 BB/hr isn't that difficult to do, and if live games in large cities are even softer, I don't see any reason why I couldn't eventually make a living playing poker.

[RhinestoneCowboy 2]

Learn to drink. And by that I mean heavily. Very heavily. Only the smooth feeling of jack can bring you back up after a bad downswing. Well, Jack or a hooker. But hookers don't go well with Coca-Cola, and cocaine is too expensive....

FYP

[THE ACE IS BACK 0]

You turned a $50 deposit into $10000 in one month.. Let me put it this way: You're the luckest SOB on the face of this earth. This post has just become silly now. Phil Ivey look out.

[Staynerjohn 0]

For someone like myself, $1000/mo is all I need, I'm effectively pro now (part time job gives me enough to live on and provides some stability) and $1000/mo without this job would be fine for me.I live at home (waiting on University) I only have to throw some rent to my parents and that's it. No need for a car, no bills to pay, I only need enough money to pay for cigarettes and going out a couple nights a week.I can work a couple hours a night and maintain this lifestyle. I'm 19.

Glad to see that the youth of society have their standards set so high...move out of your parents basement, stop wanking with the door locked and GET A LIFE!!!!! :!:

[DaBruins 0]

You turned a $50 deposit into $10000 in one month.. Let me put it this way: You're the luckest SOB on the face of this earth. This post has just become silly now. Phil Ivey look out.

not all that off. I took a 200 deposit into 10,000 in one month. And my buddy took a 100 deposit into 12,000 a month and a half. I still refuse to play online though for any significant period of time (i dont consider a month significant in poker standards). Sure we got lucky in our MTTs and at 600 nl and 30/60 etc., but we played great as well.

[DDiabolical 0]

For someone like myself, $1000/mo is all I need, I'm effectively pro now (part time job gives me enough to live on and provides some stability) and $1000/mo without this job would be fine for me.I live at home (waiting on University) I only have to throw some rent to my parents and that's it. No need for a car, no bills to pay, I only need enough money to pay for cigarettes and going out a couple nights a week.I can work a couple hours a night and maintain this lifestyle. I'm 19.

Glad to see that the youth of society have their standards set so high...move out of your parents basement, stop wanking with the door locked and GET A LIFE!!!!! :!:

Yeah it makes loads of sense to move out of my parents house so I can live on my own for a few months right before moving 300 miles to university..How about I stay at home, in a room which is 4x bigger than any accommodation I could afford, and not waste thousands on some walls I don't need? And how the **** else am I supposed to do it, with the door unlocked?! I'm not into that kinky shit. Anymore.

[koolromeo 0]

Learn to drink. And by that I mean heavily. Very heavily. Only the smooth feeling of jack can bring you back up after a bad downswing. Well, Jack or a hooker. But hookers don't go well with Coke.

i thought hookers and coke were like peanutbutter and jelly.

[wannabe 0]

I play for a living... if you would like some s0lid advice or just talk about it, PM me... I mostly play NL, but I could still give you some solid advice. I used to play 20/40, averaging 1.79 BB/100, but it became too much of a grind (and those 5k downswings were not fun either) , and I really enjoy NL better.

[tskillz187 0]

to OP: turning pro is much less about talent than you might want to believe. I think almost any competent poker player can figure out a way to earn enough to make it work. The fact of the matter for me is that poker is so damn boring. they call it grinding for a reason. I turned to hating the game when i was playing 45-60 hours a week. Make sure you can actually stay happy playing, because I wasnt. I played poker to start because it was fun and i was making a little money, then when it became work, the fun left and as soon as i hit a downswing and started losing money even after putting in 8-10 hour days, thats when i lost it. As many have said stay in college finish it out, then definitely give it a try, keep building until then so you have a solid base. I wouldnt discourage anyone from trying, but for me it wasnt much fun. Now I'm in it for the lottery ticket of winning a sat getting into a big tourney and winning that puppy. Anyways, goodluck I hope things work out.

[acesfullmike 0]

what about multi-tabling the much lower limits. if you can 6 table the 5/10, thats $80/hr and you only have to beat it for 2BB/100. that seems MUCH more likely than beating the 15/30 for 2.5bb/100. with the addition of gametime+ and pokertracker you don't have to keep up with the other players near as much. just my opinion.

[Abbaddabba 0]

what about multi-tabling the much lower limits. if you can 6 table the 5/10, thats $80/hr and you only have to beat it for 2BB/100.

If you can 20 table the 10/20 for 3BB/100, you can be making a bajillion dollars a year. YSRLY!

[Pokerghost2 0]

You turned a $50 deposit into $10000 in one month.. Let me put it this  way: You're the luckest SOB on the face of this earth. This post has just become silly now.  Phil Ivey look out.

not all that off. I took a 200 deposit into 10,000 in one month. And my buddy took a 100 deposit into 12,000 a month and a half. I still refuse to play online though for any significant period of time (i dont consider a month significant in poker standards). Sure we got lucky in our MTTs and at 600 nl and 30/60 etc., but we played great as well.

lol. guys like you make me laugh play a little bit and then write back later what u think of ur lucky streak, cuz thats what it was. the sad thing is u dont even realise how lucky ur streak was.

[HoosierAlum 0]

You turned a $50 deposit into $10000 in one month.. Let me put it this  way: You're the luckest SOB on the face of this earth. This post has just become silly now.  Phil Ivey look out.

not all that off. I took a 200 deposit into 10,000 in one month. And my buddy took a 100 deposit into 12,000 a month and a half. I still refuse to play online though for any significant period of time (i dont consider a month significant in poker standards). Sure we got lucky in our MTTs and at 600 nl and 30/60 etc., but we played great as well.

This is pretty hilarious.