Just want to see when you players who play for a living quit your job. I know its possible to play .5/1NL for a living but also some people play 10/20NL and still work. Im trying to find the spot where I am able to quit work. Just recently my bankroll has reached 11k and is climbing. Right now Im 15-16 tabling the 1/2 FR with a modest winrate. I feel this could be enough, or should I wait for 2/4 or 3/6??

break down your weekly / monthy avg profit over the past year. calculate how much you would be needing to withdraw to pay monthly expenses. if you think whats left after that is enough to live on and also allow your BR to still grow, then youre good

There is no objective number because everyone has a different earning potential. Someone working at Best Buy for $12/hr is going to be happy to play poker for a living making $10/hr while someone who was making $300k a year is going to need to have more of an incentive.

I figure if you have a bad job then you should be happy to quit when you hit 80% of your income but if you have a good job then I'd expect to get at least 140% over the total value of the employment compensation before I'd quit.

this paints the picture a little better for me now. thing is i have a contract job (R+D, lab/scientist work) that is up in october that i really like making $25/hr. im pretty much planning on moving out to vegas in august, but if you go by even 200% hourly rate - im pretty much there. im just worried that my roll wont grow like it is now. it seems that if fore example one plays .5/1$ for a living, the potential to grow the roll and move up is severely cut as opposed to someone playing 3/6NL and being able to have plenty of leftover funds to move up to 10/20NL+ as experience allows. it seems that playing only to pay bills with no significant growth is just horrid.

if you can realistically discern your hourly wage, divide it by 2 and then realistically discern how many hours you can play per month and divide that by 2 and see if making that works out better than your current job.

Also, be sure you'd be able to live through 6-12 months breakeven. If you're sure you could handle that, both financially and psychologically, then you're ready.

I didn't go pro until I was sure I was a solid winner at NL400, not that I had much of a job before hand. I was one of those living with parents --> poker pro transitions. Damn us young kids and our loud music and skateboards.

this is what im scared will do me in. i will have the dough to pay the bills, just mentally this would screw me up.

i'm in pretty same situation like you. Here's my thinking.
i'm still a student. now im thinking if i go pro or stay on university. im 23years old.i've been playing poker seriously for 1,5 years.

i play NL100(with 7-15ptbb/100/ 5k$/month) average 5 hours per day. if i finish school i will hardly get a lot more then 1,5k€ with my electrical engineering degree. in my country Slovenia (central EU) is average salary 800€. (i think doctors earn around from 1.7k€ to 2k€/ month).

in my country poker winnings is not taxed. i won't work never in regular job. NEVER.

my plan is to built my bankroll (100BI/level) and move up as soon as possible. i play only NL100 and i think that im already above 90% population with my 5k$/month.

we will see how it goes, but for now i can say that's goes incredibly well.

sanjeSanje

Stick to your dream!

I would imagine the best time to go pro is when the profits earned while playing poker exceed your yearly earnings at your job. If you can make more money playing poker why work? If you can supplement your income with poker, why quit your job (if you like your job and pay)? Online poker offers us the ability to work during the day and play at night, or however your work schedule is. I would not stress about need money to quit your job and go pro. I would let the game tell you when it is time to go pro.

A further consideration is that if you quit your job you'll likely need to make more as spending increases with spare time. If you spend 40 hours a week at work and an additional 10 hours in traffic that is 50 hours you can't be consuming. You are also less likely to go out at night during the week which is also going to add to your burn rate.

I think anyone can go pro so long as they have a requisite savings. If it were me, I would say you should have 1 year of living expenses + poker bankroll. Then try grinding for a year. If at the end of that year you didn't make enough for the next year's living expenses, it's time to find a job again.

Meeting expenses isn't enough unless your replacing a McJob. You have to make enough playing poker that it is commensurate with your earning potential. Lots of people can live on $50k but it would be stupid to leave a $90k a year job to make $50k playing poker .

going pro is not easy, you need to set aside 1 years expenses in case you face couple month of down swing, it happens a lot, you need to have at least 100 buy in BR in your current game. may be more.

psychology is very important too, you have to over come all kinds of tilt before you go pro, other wise u will go busto very quick.

i think being a pro, your play style will change a bit too, you will play more scared poker afraid lost all, you will might chase the money you lost, you will have a lot of other concern which you will not have if you have a job to support your living.

if you think u r ok with all of these, then why not give a try

well in response to everything i def agree with just about every comment. i know i have the bankroll and yrs worth of living expenses saved up, the skill and the desire to go pro. the only thing i worry about is day to day. will i get sick of the game or be unable to take the swings, most likely be able to take it all but just lose interest. i guess it wouldnt be too bad, bc then i would realize that work isnt that bad after all if i start to life tilt full time poker.

I would start considering it with at least 100k aside.

Tvta, Seriously you really think you can go pro man? playing .5/1 nl come on man. You have what sounds like a solid job an enjoy it. Why leave that to grind 16 tables of .5/1 nl online. No one here should even considering going pro unless they can beat at least 3/6 nl 2/4 plo or 20/40 limit. The only exception is a european dude who lives in a socialist country where doctors make almost the same as some bum doing a meanial job and gambling isnt taxed. In the US in order to go pro you should be able to make minimal 80k in a year. Otherwise keep your day jobs and make a little extra money on the side.

You also have to take into account the number of hours you work not just the amount of money. Making $80k by grinding away for 12 hours a day 7 days a week is not an improvement over $60k and working normal business hours.

i didnt say i was going pro playing .5/1. im aware this is a path to nowhere. i was saying that certain people go pro at certain stages, some people pay the bills at .5/1 while others play 10/20nl and still work 40 hrs a week.

the day i graduated college because even though im just a 1/2 grinder I didnt want to put on a suit.

But add commuting costs and travel time to a job, etc. Commuting to my 9-5 costs me probably $10k+ a year all told.

I agree that people need to factor in commute time when calculating hourly rate. If someone spends an hour to get to work and an hour to get home he didn't work 8 hours at $14 he worked 10 hours at $11.20.

this is one reason i hate the real world. once your finally out of work and not getting paid anymore, you get a good amount of rush hour traffic to look forward too where you are earning negative cash.

so no one really answered my original question. for those of you who make the majority of your income through poker, when did you quit your job?

Because it is different for everyone. It is relative to your earning potential including future earning potential not just starting salary.

I quit my job before I even started it. I got a job offer at the end of second year law but by the end of law school taking the job would have been too much of a pay cut.

The solution is to live near work. You avoid all the traffic issues. The reasons people usually have to deal with traffic is because they want to save on living expenses so end up living somewhere cheap but far from everything.

I became a part-time pro in November of 2006. I needed extra income and decided to give poker a shot with a $2000 bankroll.
I "worked" approx. 25 hours a week and made 20,000 in 2007!
The hard part is, I used most of it for bills, a thanksgiving vacation, and Xmas. This year im almost break even.
It is VERY stressful when you need to win to pay the bills! I cannot wait til I play only for extra spending money! Im about 8 months away from that!
I have a good job, so to quit to play poker with no benefits, no vacation, no guarnteed advancement, and no retirement plan...would be downright silly!