Bottomline is if you are not married or have children do it OP.

Listen.

Life is about options, the more option and freedom to do different things, the happier you are.

Early in life, we should try to do things that give us as many options as possible. Poker is not that. Poker is something you can always do, anytime. However, once you go into poker, with the resume gap, skill gap, it becomes harder for you to go back and do other stuff.

Also, it's a self defense mechanism where we say we reject high aspiration things, so that we don't have to face the failure of not achieving those things. ie) Don't be the kid who says he can get straight A's if he wants....he only gets C's b/c he doesn't study. That kid is afraid to admit that he is not that smart when he studies hard and doesn't get A's.

Don't say you want to settle for 50k a year. Say you want 500k a year. 5MM a year. Do that, fail at that, and that's fine...but don't give up on bigger goals before you even try.

Cheers,

S

*attainable ?

You need to graduate. There are too many of us "could have graduated with honors and gone on to get a PH.D but are now grinding low-mid stakes poker." Having a bachelor's in psychology will add to your story. GL.

Definitely graduate...a college degree is a minimum requirement for most jobs these days. Those without one are looked down upon. I don't think it's right but it is true.

I'd say yes come to vegas and grind for a few months but dont plan on making it your bread and butter in a year unless you are v disciplined/good with money and also an above average winner

save up 10k and you should be good, start out playing $2-5 and move down if you dip below.

If your metric for success is getting your name on a list that celebrates the cancerous desire to continue to drain your surroundings of every last scrap of wealth long after every possible human luxury is acquired, then I suppose the Forbes list works as a measurement.

I don't he ever mentioned not graduating. It is just his degree is worthless unless he wants to get one of those weird customer service jobs that requires a college degree and pays $11 an hour.

+1

The corporate world is meaningless and you end up spending most of your time kissing the ass of the moron who happens to be your boss.
I guess it depends on your personality, but if you fit the standard poker player personality profile (INTJ) and value your freedom, you'll likely be happier making $80k/a playing cards than $250k/a selling your soul.

time > money, IMO.

Why anybody would want to play low stakes poker for a living is beyond me. Many seem to dream of freedom and riches. The reality is your tied to a poker table 10 hours a day with smelly degenerates making ~$12/hr IF your any good. And most players are not.

I recall reading in the famous Another kid Another dream thread about how Matt explains how most players end up giving up because they simply can't take the inevitable losing that comes with poker. And these were 5/10 players. Can you imagine trying to grind 1/3 and 2/5?

Funny, I was just reading the TMack thread and came across this post.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=309

I could think of better things to do with 10k fresh out of college than go to Vegas and chase a pipe dream.

Right, I am definitely graduating before going on any poker adventures, which won't be long. Graduate school is the backup plan. If I go busto with a proper roll along with the experience I have, then that will be confirmation enough that I need to hit the books once again. That should show me that I lack the discipline and management skills to be a progressive and successful player. Btw, how are the games in Tunica?

serious questions:

why are you passionate about poker?

what else are you passionate about?

Why do you think you will succeed at being a pro when so many that try fail?

Do you see yourself being fulfilled 10 or 20 years down the road doing this?

I'm passionate about poker because I get so much out of it. It is a challenging and engaging game, and mostly it feels right playing it. I'm not just a gambler; I find great satisfaction in striving for and seeing self improvement in a game that requires patience, analytical skills, and emotional stability. What else am I passionate about? I can say there are many other things that I love doing, but passionate is a different feeling/attitude. I love playing golf, backpacking, camping, hunting, fishing, goin to shows, traveling... Hell I love jerking off but who cares? I'm not necessarily passionate about those things. I have no idea if I will succeed of course, but I feel my potential is too great to ditch this career option because other people failed... You can say the same damn thing about countless other careers. And I can definitely see myself being fulfilled doing this several years down the road, but that may just be my optimism talking

Op,

Listen to NIKE and just do it.

The only people I would call "successful poker players" would be those grinding 5/10 and up, making 10k+ per month. This is the kind of profit margin you need to handle the swings and afford a normal lifestyle

What is a normal lifestyle?

Well played sir. You just made a friend for life.

jerryyangmeme.internet

This. Goal #1 for a low-stakes player should be to move out of low stakes.

I consider 2-5 the low end of midstakes, who's with me?

Then 50-1 and 1-2 low stakes.

It really depends on how deep the game plays and how deep you buy in.

Vegas 2/5 is more of a mid-stakes game compared to other areas of the country

I agree with this but I guess different people have different views of what they call a normal lifestyle. I can see how some people would consider making $30/hr a normal lifestyle so $2/5nl would be enough for this

A normal American lifestyle:

1-2 bed apt/house rent, $400 to $1000 per month, let's call it 8K/yr
A 15K car that you keep 5-10 years, about $2K/yr
Car insurance, $600/yr
Food, with occasional restaurants, $50-200/wk, about 5K/yr
Clothes, $1K/yr
Entertainment,alcohol,other vices $50/wk, about $3K/yr
Vacation/travel, $2k/yr
Other Hobbies/indulgences, $2k/yr
Basic health insurance, $2k/yr
= somewhere around $25K - $30K a year, before taxes
So, a comfortable, basic American lifestyle requires about a $40K salary which is about $20/hr and you haven't even saved for retirement and you'd have to cut back on the "extras" if you also want a family.

If you could maintain the lifestyle above, with a paycheck coming every month, you won't be a balla, but you will have little or no stress about money.

I'd argue, you'd probably want to pad that with an extra 10-20K if you were trying to make it grinding poker, to get through the bad runs. Ask yourself if you can really make $25-$30 an hour grinding 1-2 (or even 2/5) for 40 hrs/wk for more than 6 months.

Anybody who's considering the big move (i love these threads), should really try playing part time for 1000 hours, keep good, honest records and see where they're at.

And how much bankroll do you need? I think we should just start telling all the folks that open 2p2 accounts to start these threads that your bankroll should be equal to what you want to make in one year.

Wanna make 50K/yr? Take a 50K roll, and play the stakes appropriate to that with conservative bankroll management, which means 5/10 with occasional shots at 10/20 and a few $300-$1000 tournaments.

All of these threads come back to the fact that you can't make a decent middle-class+ american salary grinding 1/2 and 2/5 shot-taking.

Of course, if I was 21 again, just out of college and had 4K or more to my name, no financial responsibilities, no wife/gf, none of the above would matter. Why not give yourself a month, two months, maybe even 3-6 months to try it out? Consider it an extended poker vacation and if it doesn't work out or you realize you hate the grind, you're still young enough to do something else.

Nothing will wipe your passion out of the game like having to do it every day for 8-12 hours a day at the table with the type of people you are going to meet, and grinding out a win day in and day out in order to keep a roof over your head, the light bill on, and food in your fridge.

For some this is heaven I guess, but it's definitely not for everyone and takes some serious discipline.

All those pro's you emulate and admire so much have been, or are broke and when you see some of the so called greats u admired watching on TV walking around the casino like a homeless person, let that be your reality check.

If u r grinding cash games live to hit your nut, my opinion at least, is that u should not be playing any tournaments unless they are freerolls. The variance of tournaments is so much higher than cash games that the occasional tournament will seriously take a big bite out of your winrate and if you count it hourly, it will hurt your hourly rate a lot.

If u living a 30k-40k annual budget, spending several thousand a year on tournaments is NOT within your means. U can hedge this by selling pieces of yourself but doing a 340 or 560 Venetian Deepstack a few times a year should not be in a cash game player's plans if he is making 30-40 a year to live.

I almost look at this like spending on table games but not as extreme. If u play online MTT for ur annual nut, it is a different story.