So ideally you plan on quitting uni?

No offense, but you haven't even sniffed the bad side of poker if 300 BB is your biggest downswing. That's super common. How long have you been playing?

As for OP, you are probably going to fail. Most do. However, this is the time in your life to take a slot, before you have really any expenses or a family to feed.

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No offense, but if you have no expenses and can crush live poker how do you only have 3.5k to your name? That's like one really good week at 2/3.

It sounds like you either aren't actually crushing or have only played like 50-100 hours total.

I just hate seeing so many people trying to go pro before they really are ready on here. I'm not good enough to be a pro but I'm a pretty successful financial analyst so i can speak to the financial aspect of being a poker pro. If you are good enough to go pro you will be able to do it soon enough. If you have to ask, now is not the time. You will eventually have to move out and you will have a bunch of expenses. You need to be prepared for that. Just because you don't have expenses now doesn't mean you won't in a couple years.

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[QUOTE=ShellPoker;52547067]I'm playing live NL 1/2 very successfully. I had a good start but have never run down more than -$600 /QUOTE]

jfc most of us here have lost single pots that big, yes at 1/3.

OP you're not under-rolled, you have no roll. A BR is money completely separate from your life savings/daily expenses. You might be good enough to win, but at this point, you're still in the "taking shots" phase. There's nothing wrong with that, many if not most of us started there, but you might be better off not saying you're "going pro" just yet. You're playing some poker. Keep meticulous records, post hand histories for feedback, and just see where it goes.

And run good. Can't stress that enough.

None of this matters if you can't beat the rake

Absolutely laughably terrible advice.

No, but I have worked for a living all my life. I get that playing would be stressful, but so are job cuts, wage freezes, hiring freezes, budget cuts, 24/7 phone calls, etc...

To Spewing's point, yes, I still got paid through all of that, but to think any of that isn't stressful is not correct either.

I didn't mean to imply playing for a living is easy, I can't do it.

Most players who have tried it will tell you that these reasons do not really hold up, but it isn't a bad thing, at this age in your life, to try it and find out for yourself. Do not quit on your education, and do get some kind of work history. Yes, you are perfectly fine to take your shot, but make sure you have options. Also set clear parameters for when it is time to switch to a more stable job. The last thing you want to do is find yourself, 5 years later, grinding out 60 hours a week to make $30,000 a year, with no work history, no credit history, no insurance, and no education.

Just to put things in perspective, it looks like the average starting salary for a person in Australia with a bachelors is about $40k USD. If you are playing the equivalent of 2-5 USD, and playing full time (40 hours a week), you would have to win 4bb/hour, or roughly 13bb/100 hands.

So, bottom line, take your shot, but make sure you leave the backdoor open if it doesn't work out.

+💯 This👍

I spent all of 2016 studying and not working so by the end of it i didnt have a dollar. From January onwards i won a few grand playing poker so didnt bother to get a job as i still need to study for uni and am under no financial pressure

Also, im not saying im currently crushing live poker, im saying i think i can if i found the money to play 2/3. I think anyone with a decent online record over a large sample would do well, the games are super soft, especially the PLO.

Id like to finish my degree as a back up, but if things go really well then i would commit to poker.

yeah rake is 10% capped at $10 which is awful but the games are soft enough to be beaten.

[QUOTE=sw_emigre;52548237] im not considering going pro now, but wanting to know what is the best way to start out that could lead to turning pro.

Online im running about 100 over EV and have generally run well in local tournies so heres hoping it keeps up

Get a job, Play part time. Get better at poker. Put together a decent BR over time from winnings and savings from your job. When you feel ready to take a shot , do it! You will likely fail or not like the lifestyle enough to continue. Then you will become a rec player that can both have fun and supplement your income!

OTOH you might be one of the few who actually make it and thrive in that situation. You won't know if you don't try. Just be certain you are as ready as you can be before you make a commitment to being a poker pro.

What is the point of working a trivial job when he is in university and lives with his parents expense free?

There are only so many hours in a week. He needs to study amd also experience life, you are only in university once. He needs to enjoy that.

He should be able to make more hourly playing poker & hinung his skills than he could working at Starbucks. He also should be investing time in studying poker.

Please don't quit university.

I've just read the first post and have no question how this turned out.

first post = last post? the flaming is going to be very high here.

Play poker in your spare time, finish uni, get a real job, continue to play poker...when poker pays you more than your real job, that's a decent time to think about turning pro.

Realistically it's a much harder way to make money than getting paid a salary and the earnings cap is much lower than any sort of professional career trajectory. I'm far from earning big money but I strongly suspect that I make more money with less stress than almost any of the pros playing in Star casino, Sydney.

This so much. I wouldn't wish the stress of an under prepared, under skilled pro who owes family (or anyone) money on a downswing to anyone. Never take out a loan for anything other than a mortgage.

NVG has a link to an article about Phil Ivey. He started off building a BR while telemarketing.

OP, if Phil Ivey had a job when he began his career, you can too.

You are right. WTF do any of us know about this? You got it. Thanks!

Glad we're on the same page now, thanks.

Get a full time job and play poker as a side income. That way if you lose your bankroll you still have a regular income. If your poker income eventually gets big enough you can quit your full time job or cut hours to focus more on poker.

I played online a lot before Black Friday. I'm transitioning to live play now, after years of working crummy jobs and trying to find a respectable, well-paying one. I'm better bankrolled than you, but you're about a decade younger. If you lose your roll it doesn't matter as much as for someone my age. Honestly I wish I had quit college and played poker online full time. I would be wealthy by now. But I took the "prudent" path, and for me it was a huge waste of time. Years of my life I can't get back.

I'm not suggesting you quit university. Just think hard about what you want from life and how to get it, without being overly naive and idealistic. Be aware wanting to go pro does not mean you will succeed, but neither does getting a degree mean you'll land a decent paying job you actually enjoy.

That said, you are grossly underrolled for live poker, particularly tournaments. If you have no real living expenses this may be fine, but how would your parents react if you quit university to go pro? Would they still support you if you run bad? Your risk of ruin is very high, although for someone in your situation, "ruin" is a bit of a stretch--your worst case scenario is probably busting out, working a crummy job while living rent-free with your parents, and rebuilding your roll.

But since you live in a free country where you can play poker online, I'd strongly consider doing this as much as you can while you can, both to improve as a player and build your roll. You can theoretically make much more money playing online than in live games, and you can do so with a much lower risk of ruin by multi-tabling lower stake games. You can also build up hundreds of thousands of hands of experience in a matter of months online, where it would take you years live. And you can do this while going to university, just playing online in your spare time to build a bankroll and improve. If your goal is to play live tournaments, I'd recommend you play online tournaments of similar field size. And if you want to play cash games, I'd recommend playing online cash games. While you may do best at heads up tournaments, this is a very unusual live format, so you might want to focus on something more analogous to the games you eventually want to be playing live.

I don't think any of us can really tell you what you should do, just give our perspective from our own life experiences. Good luck.

How much are expecting to make in this game?