TBH Have you got a hobby that you may want to take more seriously? This could be something like writing, music if you play an instrument, set up a small buisness etc. Just be proactive! These are just a few examples of things you could be doing now that may give you something to use in the future. Take Ryan Spittles for example, he's got into TV through poker and is gaining tonnes of experience that he may be able to use if he decides poker is no longer for him. Also like others have said save your money, live as cheaply as possible and stay at home as long as you can. GL at the tables! Posted by Curt360x27
Thanks Curt yes my living costs are extremely low as i live at home with my dad. Yea i take a great interest in football and i am a big glasgow Celtic supporter was over at the game a few weeks ago with my dad when they beat barcelona hoping to get the chance to go to more games. Yea see you at the tables and stop 4 betting me! lol
I have decided to take a dramatic step and pack my university degree in. Brief background i mucked around last year at uni playing too much poker so had to come back this year to resit 2 exams and 1 bit of coursework. I have had a very good few months at poker and have found myself playing way more than i should. I had a 2500 word essay due in on friday and because ive been playing too much it wont be done on time. Basically i have lost all interest in uni for the last year and all i think about is poker hands 24/7. I actually feel a big release and a big weight of my shoulder having made this decision. I dont even see what the point of a degree is in the current economy to get a job in a local newsagent, I joined a poker stable of 6 people about 3 weeks ago 1 day after i won the ukops for 6k. They sent me $2000 and im allowed to play and game upto 55s on here and ps.fr. The guys that back me and coach me have won over $2.3million online jambeyang and thawright. I have decided to take this step so i can fully concentrate on the game and get as good as i can. I just told my dad about it and he reliases i have had no interest in uni in the last year and has tried to talk me out of it for the last year has given up on me changing my mind as he knows what i want to do and has accepted my decision. Posted by bearlyther
It seems like youve thought about it and if your minds not on your studys i think its not a bad idea and as others have said you can always go back to Uni wheras this might be a one time opportunity - GL with it
Ps - What is PS.fr ( Is it pokerstars france as ive seen afew ppl playing in French Comps recently, yet pokerstars is a worldwide site and i,ve seen other sites with .fr after the name. Just wondering what it means?
In Response to Re: Dramatic Step : Thanks Curt yes my living costs are extremely low as i live at home with my dad. Yea i take a great interest in football and i am a big glasgow Celtic supporter was over at the game a few weeks ago with my dad when they beat barcelona hoping to get the chance to go to more games. Yea see you at the tables and stop 4 betting me! lol Posted by bearlyther
there is a whole lot of advice on here, you take out what you need and go with your heart, you will make mistakes in life ,we all do. the thing is to be happy in life, you have only one chance, grab it and be happy.. wish you all the best,, exept with the celtic thing,,lol
Im interested in the fact in the last 4 or so months uve made 3 drastic statements.....
1st moving to aussie
2nd going vegas for 3 months
and now
3rd leaving uni.
Your what in yr mid/early 2os, you sure you aint having a early midlife crisis lol
Its a serious post, you just dont seem to know were you are or what you wanna do in life. Getting a big win in the ukops was great but in 6 months can you really say poker full time is the answer????, as in making it yr livelyhood
If your heart really isnt in something and a passion is completely distracting you then I cant really see it as a bad idea to take some time to pursue that passion/dream.
Took me two cracks to finish uni, for similar reasons.
Interestingly though I have a few friends (and hear a fair bit about) successful players using poker winnings to fund their furthar education. Pokers great lol, but life can get abit empty when its your priority over a long period.
The bulk of my income over a 3 and a half year period came from poker. But about 8 months ago I was offered a job that I would have been stupid to pass up and have to admit I feel a lot better now. The mental grind has such an impact on just about everything.
Good luck and see where you are in a year or two bud.
In Response to Dramatic Step : It seems like youve thought about it and if your minds not on your studys i think its not a bad idea and as others have said you can always go back to Uni wheras this might be a one time opportunity - GL with it Ps - What is PS.fr ( Is it pokerstars france as ive seen afew ppl playing in French Comps recently, yet pokerstars is a worldwide site and i,ve seen other sites with .fr after the name. Just wondering what it means? Paul Posted by MP33
HI Paul,
"Global sites" cannot operate in France EXCEPT as a completely seperate entity, & if they have been awarded a specific Gaming Licence. So, the major sites you know of with monsta traffic volumes do NOT operate in France on their "usual" platform, instead they have a dedicated "France only" site. Hence the "Fr" suffix. These sites are COMPLETELY different to their international platforms. (*By "completely different", I mean the Clients & Licence, not the Software, which is presumably identical).
Several European Countrires follow this model, Italy were the first, (hence the rash of "It" suffixed sites), but there are many more now, & this trend will grow, as Governments seek to regulate Online Gaming.
In Response to Re: Dramatic Step : HI Paul, "Global sites" cannot operate in France EXCEPT as a completely seperate entity, & if they have been awarded a specific Gaming Licence. So, the major sites you know of with monsta traffic volumes do NOT operate in France on their "usual" platform, instead they have a dedicated "France only" site. Hence the "Fr" suffix. These sites are COMPLETELY different to their international platforms. (*By "completely different", I mean the Clients & Licence, not the Software, which is presumably identical). Several European Countrires follow this model, Italy were the first, (hence the rash of "It" suffixed sites), but there are many more now, & this trend will grow, as Governments seek to regulate Online Gaming. Posted by Tikay10
Thx for that Tikay. Always had me puzzled when i see it on sharkscope
Hi Bearly, Im interested in the fact in the last 4 or so months uve made 3 drastic statements..... 1st moving to aussie 2nd going vegas for 3 months and now 3rd leaving uni. Your what in yr mid/early 2os, you sure you aint having a early midlife crisis lol Its a serious post, you just dont seem to know were you are or what you wanna do in life. Getting a big win in the ukops was great but in 6 months can you really say poker full time is the answer????, as in making it yr livelyhood Posted by seppe
Hi Seppe, no mid life crisis i had always wanted to go to Australia as ive never been there but after taking advise from people i decided against it as the living costs over there are supposed to be extremely high. A friend of myn knew a very good poker player who moved over there to play poker and he had to move back to the uk as his living costs were too high and the money he was winning at poker wasnt covering it. Maybe 1 day i will get the chance to go there on holiday.
I love the game of poker so much and my last job was 2 years ago when i worked in Disney world Florida for a placement year for un and it was an unbelivable experience for me. Im sure ther will be some players on here who could say that poker changes your mindset. For example after getting used to play poker when you have your own hours to play and dont have to ask the boss if you can have the day off to do something that you would have liked to have done. I would find it incredibly difficult me personally to go back and work for someone 9/5 6 days a week when i have been used to my own routine.
Just thinking about this and do you feel you are good enough to make enough with half of your winnings going to your backers?
Do you feel they are adding enough to your game to justify such a "management fee"?
I understand this might be too early to answer but questions had me interested
Also, your comment about having the day off when you have something you would have liked to do/thinking about poker 24/7 made me think. Do you feel you have enough discipline to treat playing poker as a full time job so you get the balance between burning out and putting in enough volume?
Yes basically i did have the bankroll if i wanted to continue playing for myself but i wanted to improve as a player and i felt this was the best way for me to do this. The other option i could have taken was to hire a coach but i felt this was a much better option. 50% is pretty standard within the poker backing industry and there services are well worth it.
Basically i cant send any hand histories to them of sky as the format doesnt allow for the hand history to me sent by email but if i am playing on another site i will ask for the hand history to be emailed to me and send it to them after the tournament. They then view the hands in universal replayer and tell me what i did well and what i did bad and what i can improve on. There record speaks for itself and i feel my game can improve so much listening to them.
Joining the stable has made me so much more disciplined and i definately have more focus to my game than i did before. As a: I am playing for other people and not just myself and B: I cant just go randomly reging upto 100 hyperturbo heads up games as i used to do! My game selection is so much better as they allow me to play as high as 50nl on cash and 55s in tournaments im not allowed to play any higher than that unless i ask them on a 1 of basis for example the super roller which is a £110 buyin they would let me take a shot at a tournament like this on a one of basis if i ask them can i play it before hand.
Really good to read thru this advice from many people on here. Not only is it useful for the OP, but its great in general that the community can pass on their wisdom/experience in this way.
I never did Uni, and its something I deeply regret and I imagine that one day I will rectify that.
If you were in year 1 of Uni then I think peoples replies would be a lot different. To spend so much time/money into something and then quit at the final hurdle is IMO a bit silly. Even if your heart isn't in it, the qualification that you get out of it doesn't say that and once you get it then no one can take it away from you.
If you have to ban yourself from the sites for a few days while you write your courseword then so be it. Maybe ask your dad to unplug the router or something. Just get the coursework done. As soon as you get it started it will be done in no time.
About 2/3 years ago I got really friendly with 3 other players. We all talked about hands/strat/what tournies to play/what live comps to play daily. We were all making very good money, loved the game and had a lot of fun.
This continued until a few months ago when now I am basically the only 1 left who is still full time.
All 3 have made really decent amounts of money at the game, in fact last year I'm sure they all have £50k plus years. 2 are still grinding to pay the bills but are constantly looking for jobs and 1 has already found a new job and is out of the game completely.
And I remember having various talks with them about what an amazing lifestyle we all had with no one to answer to and doing what we want when we wanted, how we couldn't ever get a real job, planning poker trips abroad etc.
I've played for a living for 7 years and there are times when I am so sick of poker! It really feels like a job now and believe me it will soon become repetitive.
While some jobs are in all honesty ballache, they always provide income. There are going to be weeks/months (esp if playing mtts) when you run badly and while being sick of poker and earning nothing, infact losing money on buy ins, you will be sick of life. A skint, running bad poker player isn't a nice place to be.
I have thought about going back to work but my qualifications have all expired as I required training courses/credits to keep them valid. I have a 7 year gap on my cv which is really tough to explain to potential employers. I have found mentioning you played poker for years does not go down well! Most think you are likely not to stick with their company for long because of your background.
I won't go into detail about all the times poker has ruined social events I have supposed to be on and enjoying. Friends weddings etc etc when all I can think about is how much I have lost or why didn't those rockets hold. Thats even if I bother going.
Of course there are positives which you must have experienced to be considering this, but I think it's important to give you an insight to what your going to go through.
1 year - just finish it and forget abt poker for a year.
You have certainly been given plenty of well meaning advice bearly,obviously it is your decision to make and i wish you well.My input to the debate is just to let you know when i was younger my attitude would be the same as yours now;in fact to be honest i would have packed in Uni long ago.
However now that i am older (53 years of age) i would finish the Uni course and then play poker.
All the best bearly and also i am glad to see you are a fellow Hoops supporter,take care mate.
I think relying on poker for your future is very unreliable - you're chasing the dream of running like TommyD or Scotty77 - basically impossible right?!
Read my last blog post if you want an insight into what it's like 2/3 years down the line. Poker was a guaranteed £2-5k for me a month and I still lost interest/wanted out. Now I barely log on to a poker site.
Finish your degree and get yourself a good job - if you bink an EPT in your spare time then things might change
About 2/3 years ago I got really friendly with 3 other players. We all talked about hands/strat/what tournies to play/what live comps to play daily. We were all making very good money, loved the game and had a lot of fun. This continued until a few months ago when now I am basically the only 1 left who is still full time. All 3 have made really decent amounts of money at the game, in fact last year I'm sure they all have £50k plus years. 2 are still grinding to pay the bills but are constantly looking for jobs and 1 has already found a new job and is out of the game completely. And I remember having various talks with them about what an amazing lifestyle we all had with no one to answer to and doing what we want when we wanted, how we couldn't ever get a real job, planning poker trips abroad etc. Posted by scotty77
Ryan - do you think your still playing the game because you have a side line now? And if you didn't get into presenting do you think you would still be playing? Or would you have moved on like the others in this group?
I think its an important question to ask in relation to thread.. as from my experience reading posts from successful poker players who have been playing 3-5 years they'll all give off a "if I could do it again I wouldn't pick poker vibe" like 7 times out of 10 and as per some posts in here.
And, in most cases its like poker was Plan A and there was never a Plan B, other than maybe get a sponsership deal or bink a WSOP! It shocking really to think, that theres guys that can print 50K a year (not just your mates obv), travel the world playing a game, and they dont have a backup plan to like.. use some of that money their printing to fasttrack themselves into business/property/trading/stability and hedge some of the pressure away from pure poker.
In Response to Re: Dramatic Step : Hi Seppe, no mid life crisis i had always wanted to go to Australia as ive never been there but after taking advise from people i decided against it as the living costs over there are supposed to be extremely high. A friend of myn knew a very good poker player who moved over there to play poker and he had to move back to the uk as his living costs were too high and the money he was winning at poker wasnt covering it. Maybe 1 day i will get the chance to go there on holiday. I love the game of poker so much and my last job was 2 years ago when i worked in Disney world Florida for a placement year for un and it was an unbelivable experience for me. Im sure ther will be some players on here who could say that poker changes your mindset. For example after getting used to play poker when you have your own hours to play and dont have to ask the boss if you can have the day off to do something that you would have liked to have done. I would find it incredibly difficult me personally to go back and work for someone 9/5 6 days a week when i have been used to my own routine. Posted by bearlyther
Hi bearly,
The main question is, look futher down the line as most have said. Ye its great now & your loving it but in 2,3,4 years time can you honestly say youll be this passionate about poker????. Youve already dont the hard part in uni so just stick with it & cross the line. Atleast then you have something to fall back on
Thanks everyone for your advise i really appreciate it and can completely understand what you are all saying about having a plan b etc.
But basically i mucked up uni last year because i played too much poker and was given the chance to go back this year which i very relectentely did. I had coursework due in for today and i never handed it in as basically i left it all too late simply because i had no interest in uni this year despite what all my friends and family said to try and finish up. I know i could have finished if i had put the serious effort into it but basically i couldnt find any motivation what so ever each day to do the work.
Who knows in the future wheather i will regret not finishing it or not as il probly look back then and say to myself that there was no way i was going to finish it as i quite simply didnt have the motavation to do it.
Appreciate everyones support some really great advise from everyone but i basically just couldnt find the motivation for it so im going to give poker a serious shot.
You'd obviously made your decision mate, and that's not meant as a bad thing. You've made your choice, stick to it! (unlike uni lol) and give it your best shot while you're still young and have minimal responsibilities.
IMO, while you have really low living costs, you should build and build and build a roll like never before, withdraw the absolute minimum you need to live, cos you really wanna have a nest egg stored for them bad months if you really gonna make a go of it.
Thanks everyone for your advise i really appreciate it and can completely understand what you are all saying about having a plan b etc. But basically i mucked up uni last year because i played too much poker and was given the chance to go back this year which i very relectentely did. I had coursework due in for today and i never handed it in as basically i left it all too late simply because i had no interest in uni this year despite what all my friends and family said to try and finish up. I know i could have finished if i had put the serious effort into it but basically i couldnt find any motivation what so ever each day to do the work. Who knows in the future wheather i will regret not finishing it or not as il probly look back then and say to myself that there was no way i was going to finish it as i quite simply didnt have the motavation to do it. Appreciate everyones support some really great advise from everyone but i basically just couldnt find the motivation for it so im going to give poker a serious shot. Posted by bearlyther
Hi bearly,
thats the prob tho you did uni for x amount of years then didnt have the motivation. POKER IS GREAT WHEN YOUR WINNING BUT THE GRIND AFTER AWHILE WILL CATCH YOU UP, & THEN WILL YOU STILL HAVE THE GET UP & GO ATTATUDE YOU HAVE NOW??????
Comments
Ps - What is PS.fr ( Is it pokerstars france as ive seen afew ppl playing in French Comps recently, yet pokerstars is a worldwide site and i,ve seen other sites with .fr after the name. Just wondering what it means?
Paul
the thing is to be happy in life, you have only one chance, grab it and be happy..
wish you all the best,, exept with the celtic thing,,lol
Im interested in the fact in the last 4 or so months uve made 3 drastic statements.....
1st moving to aussie
2nd going vegas for 3 months
and now
3rd leaving uni.
Your what in yr mid/early 2os, you sure you aint having a early midlife crisis lol
Its a serious post, you just dont seem to know were you are or what you wanna do in life. Getting a big win in the ukops was great but in 6 months can you really say poker full time is the answer????, as in making it yr livelyhood
If your heart really isnt in something and a passion is completely distracting you then I cant really see it as a bad idea to take some time to pursue that passion/dream.
Took me two cracks to finish uni, for similar reasons.
Interestingly though I have a few friends (and hear a fair bit about) successful players using poker winnings to fund their furthar education. Pokers great lol, but life can get abit empty when its your priority over a long period.
The bulk of my income over a 3 and a half year period came from poker. But about 8 months ago I was offered a job that I would have been stupid to pass up and have to admit I feel a lot better now. The mental grind has such an impact on just about everything.
Good luck and see where you are in a year or two bud.
"Global sites" cannot operate in France EXCEPT as a completely seperate entity, & if they have been awarded a specific Gaming Licence. So, the major sites you know of with monsta traffic volumes do NOT operate in France on their "usual" platform, instead they have a dedicated "France only" site. Hence the "Fr" suffix. These sites are COMPLETELY different to their international platforms. (*By "completely different", I mean the Clients & Licence, not the Software, which is presumably identical).
Several European Countrires follow this model, Italy were the first, (hence the rash of "It" suffixed sites), but there are many more now, & this trend will grow, as Governments seek to regulate Online Gaming.
Do you feel they are adding enough to your game to justify such a "management fee"?
I understand this might be too early to answer but questions had me interested
Also, your comment about having the day off when you have something you would have liked to do/thinking about poker 24/7 made me think. Do you feel you have enough discipline to treat playing poker as a full time job so you get the balance between burning out and putting in enough volume?
Anyway, as I said before, good luck with it!
Matt
Yes basically i did have the bankroll if i wanted to continue playing for myself but i wanted to improve as a player and i felt this was the best way for me to do this. The other option i could have taken was to hire a coach but i felt this was a much better option. 50% is pretty standard within the poker backing industry and there services are well worth it.
Basically i cant send any hand histories to them of sky as the format doesnt allow for the hand history to me sent by email but if i am playing on another site i will ask for the hand history to be emailed to me and send it to them after the tournament. They then view the hands in universal replayer and tell me what i did well and what i did bad and what i can improve on. There record speaks for itself and i feel my game can improve so much listening to them.
Joining the stable has made me so much more disciplined and i definately have more focus to my game than i did before. As a: I am playing for other people and not just myself and B: I cant just go randomly reging upto 100 hyperturbo heads up games as i used to do! My game selection is so much better as they allow me to play as high as 50nl on cash and 55s in tournaments im not allowed to play any higher than that unless i ask them on a 1 of basis for example the super roller which is a £110 buyin they would let me take a shot at a tournament like this on a one of basis if i ask them can i play it before hand.
However now that i am older (53 years of age) i would finish the Uni course and then play poker.
All the best bearly and also i am glad to see you are a fellow Hoops supporter,take care mate.
Lots of pros and cons of it.
Main pro - the money
Main con - sitting in a corner pressing 3 buttons at silly oclock gets very very tedious and boring.
The main question is, look futher down the line as most have said. Ye its great now & your loving it but in 2,3,4 years time can you honestly say youll be this passionate about poker????. Youve already dont the hard part in uni so just stick with it & cross the line. Atleast then you have something to fall back on
IMO, while you have really low living costs, you should build and build and build a roll like never before, withdraw the absolute minimum you need to live, cos you really wanna have a nest egg stored for them bad months if you really gonna make a go of it.
Good luck and keep us updated!
thats the prob tho you did uni for x amount of years then didnt have the motivation. POKER IS GREAT WHEN YOUR WINNING BUT THE GRIND AFTER AWHILE WILL CATCH YOU UP, & THEN WILL YOU STILL HAVE THE GET UP & GO ATTATUDE YOU HAVE NOW??????