I need help with a life changing decision whether to quit my job at UPS or not.

My stats are after 7 months:
1/2NL $18k over 730hrs $25/hr.
2/5NL $5k over 125hrs $39/hr.
Overall with drawing winnings $25k over 850hrs = $28/hr

I work at UPS part time 20hrs a week 4hrs a day Mon-Fri 1030pm-230am. It's ends up being only $11hr $180 a week $11k/year with the best insurance coverage you can get. I'm just turned 22 years old so the insurance is not important to me right now. I have only 2 years in. It takes about 15-20 years to get full time where I live but even that is no guarantee since the economy is bad and they take away and give out less full time jobs every year. I can currently however do double shifts about half the year when it is busy if I need to but since I have been making more money playing poker I have not done any double shifts since my first year when I was broke. It would take atleast 10 more years to make atleast $25/hr. which is what I'm making just from $1/2NL right now. The job is very taxing on every part of my body and it really drains my energy. I eat well and have always been in good shape so staying in shape is not a problem.

I play at the casino 3am-9am right after work most weekdays and whenever I feel like it on the weekends. There is an $100 drawing at 7am and 9am everyday and an average of 10 people in the drawing on weekdays so that is a $10 value each drawing and $100 week if I'm in every drawing. If I were to quit my job I would play 10hrs a day instead of 6 by going to the casino at 11pm instead of 3am and would just take a day off after each losing session. Motivating myself to play will not be a problem because I'm young and have a lot of goals. I dont mind playing just 1/2 even though i know i can beat 2/5 because 2/5 is a very small player pool.

So the question is should I quit my job since I'm making more money and it would take a while to make as much per hour as I do in poker and it feels like I'm going to quit eventually for poker. Another thing I am considering is letting the rest of the year play out and try to play as many hours as i would if I were a full time pro. That would be about 2000 hrs and at about $25hr it would add up to $50k. Right now I'm only on pace for about 1500 hrs. because of my job. I also love to travel and would be willing to move to where the action is if I need to.

losing 10 buy ins in ~240 hands is beyond what's remotely possible through simple variance if you're buying in for 100-200bb.

It's really ****ing bad.

Was not aware of this.

Think the obv play in this spot is to buy in for less than the chip leader until you see how good the table is, then adjust appropriately.

I think that I maybe had one -10 BI downswing in 250 hands playing online. I actually think it took about 400 hands. That's once out of somewhere around 2 million hands online since '05. So, yeah, I would think it should ~never happen live.

Just ****in' play and if you win you win. If it's enough to live on then its enough to live on, good for you. If it isn't, go back to work. Simple.

1. Do not make life-changing decisions based on advice you get in a chat forum.

2. Nice results. Good job.


3. Yes, the insurance is important to you. It is insurance against you having to pay way more in medical costs than you can afford. It covers the cost of staying healthy. Don't be short-sighted; have insurance and take advantage of the benefits included. One reason there is less in your paycheck is because you are getting much more in benefits.

And isn't insurance coverage going to be mandatory soon? So if you leave UPS, you will surely be paying more for insurance in the near future.


4. The answer is no. What happens if you have a downswing? Are you going to be able to pay your bills? What is the long-term plan?

5. This sounds reasonable. Just don't count that $50K until it is actually in your hands. You sound like a solid player but you never know.

P.S. Don't make life changing decisions based on advice you get on a chat forum.

PS didnt read whole or recent thread, only page 3.

And to the other guy up there ^ keep playing on the side of your job, build up savings/roll whilst keeping a job, retire in 10 years.

People are so scared of hard work.

I would strongly suggest against quitting your day job. I am not sure why you can't do both. If the travel between the 2 locations is not bad, you do not have a family to worry about, and you have no daytime responsibilities, I would play before work/after UPS work more often.

With a job 4 hours a day that does not start until 10pm, I think you could easily do both, ESPECIALLY with great health benefits. Stick to both, if for no other reason than your future (health, resume, retirement, etc)

Thanks soa. First I want to say that like you said I would never make a life changing decision based on a chat I'm just simply using it as advise. Secondly my girlfriend is willing to get a job just for the insurance. And finally I can take any downswing head on. My biggest downswing is $2k and since it is 1/2 i can't imagine it ever being more then that. I also have most of my bankroll since I'm a cheap guy and don't have many expenses. I don't see going bust a problem unless poker games change dramatically.

Thanks bosox. I'm not sure what side your pulling for you make great arguments for both. Travel between UPS and casino is about 25mins.

Your girlfriend can't add you as a dependent on her insurance since you aren't married, so that's not going to do anything....and what if you break up? I sell insurance, and would strongly suggest you make sure the health insurance issue is taken care of before you make this decision. COBRA is going to cost you $400+ per month and if you live in NY, health insurance on the individual market there is insanely expensive ($1k+ per month since everyone pays the same price regardless of age or health).

I would absolutely not quit the job that you have until you have over a six figure BR and then still it's a maybe. Decent jobs are hard to come by these days in areas outside of mine, but I would never quit my job until I had a huge no doubt about anything BR even where I live. If you have a steady job then you are guaranteed money EVERY month, yes you are making more playing poker, but haven't had the down month or months some of the guys on here talk about. The job income cushions those blows a lot I'm sure.

So many people brainwashed by the TV. Quitting a job to try and copy the people you see on HSP, PAD etc is ******ed. Use the job for a safety net, play more in your spare time. Best of both worlds, and job as insurance incase you hit some awful downswing.

Depends on the employer, some have "domestic partnership" benefits covering two non-married people who live together.

Re: ScooTizzle if you don't mind me asking, where do you live currently/what's your monthly nut? Any chance that UPS would transfer you to a city with a bigger poker economy than where you live currently?

As someone who has lived off of strictly poker income at certain times in his life, my advice would be to not give up your insurance and pay check unless you would literally bet your life that poker is the path for you. I tried the pro thing back in the internet days and the money was better than I could make elsewhere at the time, but I was mainly grinding 1/2 - 3/5 NL games and maintaining a bankroll eventually took a lot of the joy out of the game for me. I had other friends in similar situations that were solid winners at low stakes but like me they eventually got bored feeling like they weren't growing their game, so they ended up taking shots at higher stakes without being rolled properly and going broke. Only one of them actually made it (he runs goot though)

One last thing to consider: I'm not sure who said this (I think Matt Flynn maybe, or El Diablo), but I've come to really appreciate the wisdom in the phrase: poker is a terrible job, but a perfect hobby. When you have to play, and you have to grind low stakes, most people have more losing sessions than when they just feel like playing some cards. It's less challenging, there's less variety, and they can't do what most rec players can, which is take a break, do something else for a while, and then come back to poker with a replenished bankroll and get excited about it all over again. In the poker game of life, you're deep stacked right now and just saw the flop, you don't need to commit to the hand just yet. You've got a lot of life to live, and a lot of poker left to play. FWIW, my advice is to not rush it.

I think I may have only met one or two professional players that aren't miserable, and these guys are all at least 30 and are pretty grounded with their emotions.

This is not common and will be even less common in the future. Most large employers are auditing their employees just to verify they actually have a spouse and that their kids are who they say they are. Lots of people are trying to add relatives to their group health insurance and hoping nobody notices. My parents had to submit tax returns and birth certificates to verify they were actually married and that my brother (who's on the plan with them) was one of their kids.

See this article - http://articles.marketwatch.com/2013...alth-insurance

I know this, too.

Almost Completed 1000 Hours of live poker since I stopped playing on the internet. I work now so the money doesn't mean as much. I work my scores out on a works date base spread-sheet. 990 in it looks Like I will end 6BB/Hr winner in £1GBP/1GBP NLH Casino Card Room Game. This is a little smaller than 1/2USD if your not familair with USD/GBP conversion rates.

This was deep yo'

With regard to 5k in 50 hours of 2-5, I've always played 1-3 with 500 max, or 2-5 with 1k max, and staked, ad have never been Jim 5k makeup ever. And I play 2-5 basically everytime it runs at my casino. My staker plays 2-5 as much if not more, and has never lost more than 4k straight at any stake...he showed me his record. Book thing because we were talking about another horse of his. Just f fwiw

another friend who plays big games...lost 10k in like 3 days at the 2-5 game I play in mostly...he hasn't made as much money from poker as my staker, but I'd say he prolly has made 50k+ at very least

I'm hearing a lot of people say you need 100k cash to play poker professionally lately, lol. That's so overrolled it's ridiculous.

If you were just to dive into it with absolutely no assets to your name and no job to fall back on, I think 100k is a reasonable number.

But I would expect most people do have a home and some savings.