Gonna go slightly out of the scope of your question sorry.
First, there's more to professional life than basic 5-9 or gambling for a living.
Accounting skills in particular are extremely useful to any entrepreneurial venture.
Most people would tell you "eh grind some money from poker then start your company" but miss the whole point that a poker player is generally not suited to run a company. Having this specific accounting skillset though, you're much better equipped than most and I would urge you to consider it.
(I personally started my own business and being unable to do my own accounting was one of the main reason why I lost motivation in it. And "accounting" goes a longer way than just crunching number, but should also often prepare you to manage legal and contractual aspects)
It's a skill that makes you very valueable as an associate, even if you don't want to go on your own.
Commenting on another one of your points, and again in my personal opinion, I see something quite incoherent in your post :
Quote:
The downside to going pro is that no bank is going to want to give me a loan based on me playing professionally, and so I'd need the whole net amount (~$200k give or take 50) before I could buy a place with my gf
vs
Seriously, if you value your freedom and the ability to travel (which I also understand as you entertaining the possibility of living abroad), don't buy a flat. Buying a flat is opposite to any ideal you may have as a poker player.
It anchors you down to one place, it's much more hassle than just renting your place, and god forbid you ever want to live far away and rent it, the shitstorm of hassle and incompetence you'll have to face will be gut-wrenching. At least, again, it's my personal experience, for it's a mistake I have myself made, buying in France before moving away to Australia 2 years later, wp genius.
Now you may think, like most people "yeah but renting is basically lighting money on fire !!!". This is generally not true, you can easily check online that the benefits of buying vs renting are not all that obvious economically speaking.
This is most especially not true if you don't plan on living in the place you're buying for a LONG period of time. So if you want it to make any economical sense, do no even consider living abroad.
Usually the girlfriend would be pressuring the boyfriend into that (personal experience again, sigh), talk some sense into her
.