The people saying that 500k or 1m is enough to quit working and live for 40+ years likely still have their parents paying some or most of their bills.

Why would i want to quit? After winning the ME, I'm probably enjoying poker the most at this time. As a pro, most of the stress comes from poker when you're grinding out the small/mid-stakes trying to make a living. That's why regardless it's important to be rolled very deep so that bad variance doesn't emotionally affect you as much as it would if your risk of ruin is higher. If i won the ME, i'd roll myself 500k and continue on the current path of climbing the stakes that im on. Just because your bankroll is a dollar amount doesn't mean you should or are even ready to play the higher stakes. Bankroll size does not determine your skill level.

No you shouldn't quit unless your like in your 60s. But if your in your early 20s or 30s i'd say keep playing probably invest some money in something outside of poker and scale back on the daily grind but even if you won $10mil do you really think thats enough to live on for the rest of your life. Lets say you win $10mil. After you pay your taxes your probably left with 6-7mil maybe more or less depending on where your from. Lets assume you live til 75 with inflation your money won't last long and thats assuming you don't have a family you have to take care of.

If you hit it big, you no longer need to grind away 20-40 hours/week. You can play when you want and where you want.

Want to play for a week in Aruba? Want to snorkel in Aruba? There you go. You've got the cash and you will probably have a great time doing both.

Drop $10K in one session. Man that could take weeks/months to recover, but now hey, it's not so bad.

Card rooms have plenty of retirees (rocks and rec players) who, by keeping their day job, are now living this life. If you hit it big and can keep your ego in check, you could too. Unlike the retirees though, you'll be out on the waverunner with the babes in tow.

It's weird that the OP talks about poker player careers as if everyone who "makes it big" does so by binking an MTT for 500k.

Outside of a handful of people who get ultra lucky and bink huge with little upfront investment, most people who run up a bunch of money did so by taking shots and taking risks over and over again. Most of the time, if someone is capable of quitting when they make a million, they probably would've quit before they even got there.

few points firstly I got a bit annoyed with people saying that you could not survive on this.

so I actually took a rate of 3.5% inflation put it into a spread sheet and worked out on the basis of needing to make $50,000 a year. allowing for a 3.5% compounding inflation rate.

after 50 years we have spent $6.5 million.

two thirds of Americans earn less then $42000 a year. if you went with that factor for inflation after 50 years you need $5.5 million.

I come from the UK so all winnings would be tax free it varies from country to country.

so in effect if you earned no interest and just kept it in a bank account drawing on it for the rest of your life you would be ok unless you spent more and were irresponsible.

the fact is most people dont quite earn as much as first place pay outs in the WSOP within there whole working life.

now lets assume we invested it sure I know value of shares can go up as well as down but if you put it into diversified shares paying dividends and didn't bother with the selling and buying you would have a stable income for the rest of your life.

you could also invest in property and live of the rent etc.

if you dont know how to invest $8million plus to give you a comfortable stable income for the rest of your life then you can go to a financial adviser who would.

barring global uncertainty such as a world war economic collapse environmental disaster,
extreme political movements or something of the likes your just been iressponsible if you can't put away $8.5 million to give you a stable income for the rest of your life.

I have clients who make $500k who couldn't stop working for a year, and one who makes a million every year and his lifestyle needs every penny of it.

With a wife and three kids, all who will attend college, I figure it would take north of $3m to retire right now, and not worry. That means no side jobs that supplement. And I'm coming from a position where our house is paid off, and my car is as well.

You know it's really not uncommon to get a 8% roi per year on larger investments. That's with a moderately conservative strategy as well

up to 80k per year of virtually free money