Just noticed this comment by OP:

Dude, just get a girlfriend and get laid. Everything will make sense again and life will no longer suck.

Yoou just want to fire your current boss. You aren't running to something; you are running away.

Establish boundaries at work. If stuff doesn't get done today after a 12 hr. day, they can eat me. It'll be there tomorrow.

Heard of a guy who nailed his shoes to his boss' door along with a note..."go ahead and try to fill these."

But running to small stakes poker?? There is NOTHING in your post that makes that look like a good idea for you. PLEASE do not go that way at this time.

When you hear about poker rooms comping players like this, then you will know it is time to go 'pro'

Poker is not fun when you rely on it for a source of income.

You can tell the difference between a pro (by "pro", I mean someone that relies on poker for income, not necessarily someone that's a winning player) and a recreational player (who may or may not be a winning player.) That is how stressful the losing streaks are. That's why even though you are losing, you see this as a palatable career option. You are considering the fun element and a couple of good runs in cash games, but not how much it sucks when you lose or you don't win enough.

This is a perfect example of what I'm talking about: I recently dated a poker pro that needed to win at least 2nd in a particular tournament to make up for what he lost earlier in the week. He got 9th out of like 300. To a recreational player like me, that would have been pretty sweet because it was like a $1000 profit. But he was pissed for like 2 days and didn't want to come out of the house.

If you get a years sabbatical from work go for it. Even if not, if you're as good as you imply you'll get another similar job in a years time, if thats what you want at that point. You aren't reliant on poker for a living as you have the years expenses - I do hope you have more salted away somewhere though - so no pressure on having to win.

Then if Poker doesnt work out do something else, somewhere else and after a year you will know if you want to go back to your job/somethng similar. Try Vegas LA and Florida for variety. You will have to leave the US every three months or so so jet off to the Caribbean for a week or two three times and life will take care of itself.

Not many people have this opportunity with no ties and the financial stability to try it, so **** the naysayers and give it a shot.

go for it. get some coaching and learn to crush the game in the first few months. you will propably lose while you learn but thats the price you will have to pay to find out if you can do it. dont piss your boss off when you leave. in 6 months he will still want his slave back

There are a lot of disturbing things about your plan, but let's start with the positives.

1. You want to leave the door open to return to your company. The best route is to request an (unpaid) leave of absence, shortening your time table so that you can get back to your job should you change your mind. You won't be quitting, just taking an extended vacation.

2. You want to include things like expenses in your winnings if you're a pro. You actually didn't need to do it as an amateur, but as a pro you need to comprehend that, and I think you have.

That being said,

3. Do you have a bankroll separate from your emergency money? If not, that's a red flag. You want 6 months to 1 year of money to live on PLUS a poker bankroll, not 6 months to 1 year of money AS a poker bankroll.

4. Do you have some sort of emotional support (friends, family, poker coach) that you can turn to if things go sour? That seems pretty important for when you hit the inevitable downswings and you start questioning yourself.

5. On a related note, any plans for improving your play and maximizing your chances of becoming a winner?

Your perfect example seems to portray someone who isn't sure how to handle being a pro. Most pros aren't trying to get even at the end of every week...thats a recipe for disaster. The whole thing is kinda lol.

Fast forward to OP's post a few months from now:

"Thanks for all the advice guys, I'm off to Vegas to start my new life!"

First of all, thank you to everybody for the very sincere responses and advice. I very much appreciate that!

Now some feedback on your responses.

What I am asking myself, when thinking about this idea, is: What is my downside?

In this regard, one piece of information I did not provide you with as I did not want to put too many details into this story as the text was anyway too long and I wanted to wait for your responses as well.

Our management board made this job more palatable for me by agreeing - in writing - to offer me a general management position within our group (that is what I wanted to do in the first place) after I have done this project for 18 months (the complete project will last at least 2 years, if not longer).
This is something they usually really do not do. It just showed how important it is for them that I take this position. They did not have anybody else for this project (we have more than 20,000 employees worldwide).

At the same time, they told me several times that it is probable,
that I can even quit this project earlier than 18 months and take a new position in the group.

So, with my "poker plan" I would quit the project earlier (after 9-10 months), do my sabbatical for 9 months and just start that new position (which has yet to be identified in the group as there has to be a corresponding vacancy) next year in September or October. Anyway, it is possible that our big boss does not understand why I need a break for 9 months, which would leave a bad impression on his part. I mean, if I would screw it up with him totally (what I do not believe), I cannot go to court with this letter in order to get
a nice job. This letter is more of a moral commitment on their part.

But having this letter or not does not really matter. I strongly believe that I can get another job as well at this company (if not the general management position) - if I fail with my plans - as I have a good relation to the top management. They gave me very much the feeling (and not only that ;-) ), that they value my work very much.

I think, it is key on how to communicate this sabbatical to the management. This will be the most difficult part as this affects my "safety net" for next year. But I think my chances are good on this one.

All in all, if everything goes bad, worst case from my point of view would be that

- I had at the end a 9 or 10 months "vacation", in which
- I have played 1 or 2 months of poker with losing a few more thousands which does not hurt me too much (clearly below 10k at the limits I play) and then stopped playing poker on a regular basis,
- I worked on a business plan where the outcome
was "No money in it - don't do it!" so that I skip that one also and where
- I would travel the rest of the time before starting a new job with my current company.

Does not sound like hell, does it?

When is your project scheduled to be completed? You prolly know yourself that you either get promoted to top management or are considered "burned" after the project. What you feel right now is pretty common for people in such a situation, did happen to friends of mine, too.

Unless your pretty sure you don't want to continue working in this company, it's prolly the better way to wait what they have in mind for you or if they tag you as "he's not gonna make it". If unfortunately the latter is the case, you still can decide between changing to a new company, developing your own business idea and playing poker.

Yes, I'm really frustrated since March this year... that's quite a long time.

Over here, I do not have many connections either as I always moved for my career from town to town and did not have really the time to build up many connections. This is also one of my goals for this break, to invest time into people... something I badly neglected over the years.

Yes, I will go for the break and I want to exactly do that: figuring out what I a want to do in life. Currently, I have a hard time being able to think (let alone work) on other options. Maybe that's why I came up with poker, as it was an easy "solution" to my problem...

The info on my poker experience had to be very short so I just grabbed two outstanding events. I did not wanted to say that I "beat" those bracelet winners. I know very well that luck plays a major role in tourney poker.

By the way, one of the bracelet winners won actually 2 WSOP bracelets already and is a sponsored pro with one of the large sites. He final-tabled at the WSOP this year as well. The other bracelet winner was two years ago in my country leading the casino top-winner list by playing small-buyin tourneys (Euro 300-500). He cashed in that year with these small tourney approx. Euro 100,000. So, both were not that bad - but: I did not beat them by playing better poker or something! That was not my point.

I have just played ABC poker that 2 days at the tourney. As I said, I am bad at tourney poker. However, I did not suck out on anybody (but had no bad beats either).

My experience so far is, the more money you make, the more money you spend - especially, I think, as an employee (and not a business owner), when the money comes in every month "automatically"...

But I have to change my mindset on this one, I know. I even did not calculate this one year estimate exactly. My money might also last for 18-20 months... the one year was just for being on the very conservative side.

Nope.

I am not paid by hours. I am paid to get a job done. If I need only 20 hours per week for that, fine for me. But this is unfortunately not the case. It is the kind of project that requires so much work. The problem can also not be solved by employing more people for my team (I have currently 13 people working for me).

Thanks!

Hold on! Pez is between bf's. I'm moving to Vegas asap. Dude keep your job way to dangerous out here.

That is correct. Would leave the country every 3 months for travel and then get back in.

Yeah, as Skipdan6 also said, I have to rethink during and at the end of this extended vacation.

lol

Yes, this is very important and I did not do that so far in detail as I cannot really say what my real performance in live cash games is. Up to now, I have just put all of my poker expenses in one basket.

Hey karoshiman,

So you are me about one year ago. I worked in NYC for a big 4 firm and absolutely hated my life. I wanted to kill myself and other in my job (figuratively but one or twice literally). Obviously like you I thought poker would be the answer

About 1 year ago I quit my job to become a full time poker player having never done it before I thought obviously I was qualified for it. lol.

I started small (12 tabling .50/1) online and playing 1/2 2/5 real life.

Let me tell you unless you have buddhist like inner peace you will hate poker almost as much as your current job. The downswings can be brutal and make you question everything about your game. Not only that but it carries over in other parts of your life. For example, after a downswign you feel like you need to play more to get your money back. Obviously this is the worse mindset to have and leads you to bleed chips. But also to become anti social as most of your time will be spent in front of a computer or at a poker table.

You will hate life as much as before trust me on this. Poker becomes boring and tedious after a couple of months of doing it. OP do not become a professional poker player. Take some time off to travel , do the things you want to do like , and sure play poker but not as your number 1 source of income.

PM me if you want more info.

Did you post about it here before you did it? Do you have an old post where you LOL at not being able to easily sustain a 50k a month win rate?

Nah I hardly post on 2p2 although I lurk quite a bit.