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Playing poker for a living
skeg01
Member Posts: 298
Does anyone here play poker for a living? It's my dream to do this but i have no idea how to do it considering i don't have much starting money lol.
I think i'm a good player overall after such a short time of playing (8 months), i'm only 19 so i know i have time on my side to fulfill my dream but i really don't have a clue where to start off, if anyone would care to give me some tips or advice (apart from not playing for a living :P) it would be much appreciated, thanks.
I think i'm a good player overall after such a short time of playing (8 months), i'm only 19 so i know i have time on my side to fulfill my dream but i really don't have a clue where to start off, if anyone would care to give me some tips or advice (apart from not playing for a living :P) it would be much appreciated, thanks.
Comments
There is a decent number of people playing for a living on the site, almost all of whom are playing with their own money, I would imagine.
There is a tip the channel regularly play from WSOP Main Event champion Greg Raymer. It goes something like "even if you are an excellent poker player, I do not advise you to become a full-time professional. If you get bored of the game in 5 or 10 years time you are going to have a hard time explaining it away to a potential employer. Use poker as a side income." Good advice.
If you don't have any capital to start with, playing poker for a living isn't really an option anyway. It isn't like you can apply to be a poker player. Most players go pro after their first big live win.
There is a ton of stuff to consider if you are seriously thinking about trying to play full time.
Giving specific advice is tricky as it really depends on your personal circumstances i.e. do you have rent & other bills and what exactly is your starting balance. It also depends on your aspirations and whether you want to be able to churn out cash to pay bills or you want to be jet setting all over the world living a champagne lifestyle and playing all the big live games.
Some general things i would consider are the following....
Are you good enough?
Will you be able to not tilt when you get a serious downswing and your rent, car insurance, phone bill etc are due?
Do you have a backup plan?
Are you happy to play unsociable hours and be pounding the tables when your friends are out partying? playing for a living usually means long hours.
Do the numbers support your idea? work out your average ROI over a large sample size and work out ALL your outgoings.
There are so many more things to consider but a lot really depend on your particual situation.
If you are young and stay with your parents and have little outlay then you may be in a situation were it won't hurt to try.
Having said all that if you are good enough and the sun is shining on you then it can be a great adventure, i have got to see a lot of places and do a lot of things through poker that i may not otherwise have had the opportunity to try.
If you seriously want to give it a try then i would suggest ....
1: Try and have all of you bills and any other outlays covered for at least 3 months.
2: Start with as much of a starting bankroll as possible.
3: Put a study plan in place to further your poker education (review sessions with friends, x amount of hours going over hand histories, join some training sites etc etc)
4: If you are lucky enough to hit a big win remember you could have a downswing to ride out so for example if you win $10k and think of it as $10k profit and spend $6k and keep $4k on your roll and then hit a $5k downswing... some quick maths will highlight the problem. Try and have a system in place to allow your roll to grow to give you a better chance of success when the chit does hit the fan.
5: Have some set hours that you don't play, it is easy to forget just how many hours you are racking up when you get into the zone and you can neglect family,friends and the rest of your life without realising it. Apart from that you can burn yourself out and kill all the fun of playing if you totally overdo it and this will affect your expected returns.
If you are starting out with a low roll and your stats are good you might want to consider staking even just to start with to allow you to deal with swings and possibly play higher, staking is another large can of worms to get into though.
Good luck.
Does poker have a decent pension scheme? Does it have sick pay? How many holidays do you get? Will it make it easy to get a mortgage?
etc etc etc......
However, if its your dream life then who am I to stop your dream. Please don't think it will be all birds and fast cars. Only the very lucky top players get that.
You need to have a big enough edge to even consider it
I think a bit more information is needed to help people answer. I don't think I have played you before but I might be wrong. You are making a life decision so you need to think it through and be honest with yourself before you do it.
Why do you want to be a poker pro?
What have you done that makes you think you are a good player/what games do you play etc
What would you do if it doesn't work out/you decide you want to do something else?
What money do you need to make from poker both now and in the future and have you looked into what sort of volume/win rates you would need to get to achieve this?
Can you see yourself playing poker full time in 5 years/10years/25 years...if not what is your exit strategy given poker pro for x years isn't going to impress to many potential employers.
I have seen lots of threads with people saying they want to be a poker pro (both here and on other forums) and it seems to be people saying, I am doing well at low stakes cash or I have won a £500 in a MTT or I am doing well in low stakes tournaments etc and I am thinking of turning pro so apologies if anything I have said seems harsh but my answer is based on these sorts of posts I have seen.
If you are serious about it I would suggest you got a job and played around that job. If you are serious about doing this it isn't that hard to play in the evenings/weekends and work during the day. This means you can build up a roll to enable you to play at the required stakes and then make a decision about what you want to do.
I think Scotty77/Coxylboro did a post a while ago with how much money you needed behind you to go pro and I think it shocked a lot of people with how much it was so you could PM them to get details.
Matt
Still good advice though.
One thing you have got to know about me though is that i am a lazy, good for nothing ******* and proud of it lol. I have no intention of ever getting a job, i have no motivation whatsoever, and i absolutely detest having to put effort and commitment into anything. But all those things go out the window when it comes to poker, for the first time in my life i'm actually motivated to do something lol.
That was the main point in the long paragraph i had just typed out, i will answer the other questions another time haha.
Good luck.