Warning: Stream of consciousness rant impending.

First of all if you are serious you must not have a child for at least 5 years. 100% chance if you're a daddy in 2 years you can kiss pro poker bye bye. I don't mean to be harsh but that's just the simple truth.

Next...if you really want to make a run you must save every dollar you can in a poker only account (I used an envelope in my sock draw). That money is in inviolate.

Next...you can easily make $40k a year playing 20/40 (that'd be a 1300 hour year at $30/hour) if you're committed to all the things a live pro must do (play every day, don't chase losses, don't protect wins, etc). Honestly it sounds like you don't have many good options orherwise which leads me to...

Consider keeping poker a hobby until you advance your career. I don't know where you live or what you do, but if you're dedicated to it surely there are opportunities for advancement. Be ambitious.

Finally with just you and the wife and her making money you could take a 20 shot with $10k if you kept your job, maybe twice that if you quit and went full time.

What did I miss?

That the biggest local game is 4/8 with an occasional 5/T -- he can't go pro unless online comes back.

If his other option is making $10/hour with no upward mobility and his wife has benefits I'm not 100% sure that's true.

For doing a risky activity vs. a steady paycheck, you should count the risky one about half. Thus, a $10/hour poker job is worth about $5/hr in "real job" terms. Add in that your local casino offers no upward mobility and you face the risk that you could see a rake increase (killing your profit at 4/8 or 5/T). It is a job with no future. You saw issues with going pro at only 20/40... didn't most of your friends tell you if you weren't a decent winner at 40/80, a day job would be much better.

Of course, and I wouldn't advise anyone to quit any job to play less than 20, and I wouldn't advise anyone to stall a "career" to play less than 40. I was making close to 6 figures when I left Oracle; by all counts I'm ******ed.

But if you're 23, your wife supports you, and your career prospects are meh, my advice would be study study study grind grind grind and at least give yourself an opportunity to succeed.

On the other hand it was Oracle, which has a reputation for eating its employees alive. I don't think your choice was as ******ed as it might seem to some people.

Thanks for the replies! I know everybody on 2+2 wants to go pro. and honestly what poker player hasnt left the poker room on a good night having made 200+ plus thinking to himself, I can do this **** for a living!'

I make 10/hr atm as a nurse aide. I don't really enjoy it however (who enjoys wiping butts) I live in cleveland, OH so we have a horseshoe opening here early next year so maybe it wil bring some higher stakes limit action. who knows. As I said though if I seriously thought I could do this for a living I would be willing to relocate as we don't have anything that really ties us down.

I do think I would like to have a son within 5 years however so that may be a concern. Honestly though I really cant see myself in any other job aside from poker. I've tried to focus on different things in school ect but after about 30 mins of studying math i get bored and go and read the poker theory fourm and practice counting outs. Maybe Im just sickly addicted to the game, i duno im not qualified to answer that. I do know that if im not playing poker im reading about it, if im not reading about it im thinking about it, if im not thinking about it, Im probably sleeping or spending time with my wife. (although I had a dream last night I got my aces cracked my 10 8o.)

I have ben saving up to enter the WSOP LIMIT event next year (the 1500) idk if my money is better used in cash games or not. I recently started stuffing my poker money inside a big stuffed bear on my bed. (classic huh,.) So ill try to leave that alone. Should I shot take 10/20? (say sit down with 600$ and hope to catch cards?) Im no way near rolled for 10/20 but hell im not even rolled for 4/8 but have the replinishing power to keep playing that if i bust. Is the play very different at 10/20 or am I still useing red book strategys?

Oh I sort of agree. But I could have you know tried another company....one with a soul.

Hey Jesse, care to comment on this? Does everyone you know want to be a pro? For the ones who do, should they?
Oddly, most of my ex-Storage Tek, ex-Sun friends seem to like working at Oracle. They say it is a good place to work.

Not everyone I know wants to go pro, but a ton of people do. Most people definitely should not.

Your friends are lazy and do not value actually getting **** done.

To be blunt you sound like you're addicted to poker, and if I were you I wouldn't make any rash decisions until you're done with the infatuation phase. I'd advise you to definitely not enter the WSOP event.

As to shot taking and whatever, it all really depends a lot on your time frames and ability to replenish resources. That said, some of your questions and word choice lead me to believe you still have a lot to learn, so for now I'd advise you to keep getting comfortable playing small stakes games, reading and posting hands, and studying in general.

Thanks for the answers jess. No plans of going pro anytime soon, I just like to know what all it entails and how much I need saved up and in general when to know I'm rdy which you and other threads have answered... I've been infatuated for almost 2 years now so I hope if this is just a phase it ends soon so I can move on lol.. also I am posting from my phone so my word choices and grammer reflect on that a lot... thanks again.. ill continue too learn and grind out 4/8 and 5/10 and learning the game and building my roll,..hopin the new csino here has some higher LHE games for me to play... I assume that if im meant to play poker and have the skills its what will end up happening naturlly..... ill remind u who I am in a year or two when I felt you... ok? thnks again for answering me and not flaming me for my silly dream..

No dream is silly; some aren't practical but if they are your dreams and you are passionate about them and willing to work hard to achieve them, don't let anyone tell you not to chase them with reckless abandon.

At least before you have kids; after that I cannot advise you.

Pass the torch to me after he has kids. My advice will be worth at least what he pays for it.

Sounds like a coinflip to me.

Jesse - do you have stop-loss limits in a session for your own mental well being? I'm curious what you consider a "bad" session in terms of bb's lost. As an established pro - could you tell me how volatile your results are on any given week (month)?

I used to think stop losses were for wimpy tilters and that a pro could never log enough hours if he set one. I now think that's hogwash and tend to quit if I'm stuck more than 3-4 racks (37-50 bets). After your 3rd 2-rack buy in you simply cannot be playing your best; at least I cannot be. So the answer is you need to know yourself and set one that effectively prevents you from playing super bad, gets you out before suicide watch is incurred (that number for me is $4k or so), but allows you to log big enough hours.

In the 6 months so far this year I have been playing a lot of 40 I have a +17, +22, -7, and -11 in at the table results. And yes that's in thousands.

I believe a live 20 stud can all but eliminate losing months by playing big hours (180) and only 20. If you mix games you'll always have losing months. Ducy?

Jesse,

I read your blog regarding coyotes etc. We get them here a lot in Monrovia (NE LA area). I heard once that one attacked a woman riding a bicycle. Also, a friend of mine was once walking his small dog in the street and came across a coyote. His story of the encounter gave me visions of Dodge City where the villain confronts the hero in the middle of the street. The coyote wanted his dog and he was waving his hands and yelling a while and the coyote finally gave up and circled around him.

We also have bears dumping our trash cans over like once a week. We also get lots of deer. A couple years ago I was walking my dog at like 6:30 in the morning and 100 yards up the street I came across Animal Control parked in front of a house. There was a deer lying on the front lawn and I saw a lot of blood in the street. I assumed the deer had been hit by a car and didn't think much more. A week later I saw the neighbor and asked about the incident. He told me that at 6am that particular morning a mountain lion had attacked the deer in the street. Tough neighborhood.

Me and my dogs vs 6 coyotes would depend on the coyotes level of commitment. That of Tyson and I would be pegged at 100 (they'd have to kill us to win), but Clint honestly would be a liability.

That's funny, I always drive through NE LA on my way up to Angeles Crest Hghwy (one of the best things about living here, imo) and think "Who the hell lives out here in Monrovia, La Canada, etc."

A bunch of poker players, apparently.

As a side note I came face to face with a black bear up on the ACH not too far from where it branches off the 210. The good news is that I can say with 100% certainty that it was a lot more scared of me than I was of it. And I'm a pretty big coward.

The black bears are shy but one mom stood on back feet when we opened the garage to see her and her cub chowing down on our trash.

Here is a pic from our driveway. We sat there in the car until the bear had its fill and left.

What I really wonder is WTF do they eat when there is no garbage around? This whole area is pretty desolate............

Man, I wish I had bears by my building. We just get homeless guys pissing on the front door.

Many years ago my older bro and I were hiking in the sierras. We were hiking down a small mountainside to fish. I said I had to whiz so we stopped. I starting going. Like 5 seconds later a black bear cub strolls out of nowhere and just walks on by us. Like bout 20 yards away!!!!

Niners or Packers to finish as the #1 seed?

Niners schedule:
SF @ BAL
STL @ SF
SF @ ARI
PIT @ SF
SF @ SEA
SF @ STL

Packers:
MIN @ GB
GB @ DET
GB @ NYG
OAK @ GB
GB @ KC
CHI @ GB
DET @ GB

Anything particularly degrading you will be forced to do should the Packers go undefeated? Work your shift at the Bike in a Rogers jersey?