not sure what your point is here champ. I do not poast conjecture or "BS"- simply stating my personal thoughts from years and years on the scene

You're too young to know what a real job is, let alone a normal job.

There are many players who have been around the scene will tell you the same thing that squid did, and that is called wisdom.

But hey whatever, some "reasonably good" players rather be told that they can make it, somehow.

my POV would be that both sides are right. I've never been a full time poker player and never will be/want to be, unless I can morph into old man coffee in about 20 years when I'm retired etc.

I've done some pretty ****ty jobs man. worked in a metal factory, been a garbage man, been a dishwasher, been a bouncer. Playing poker full time is better than any of these. You're your own boss, you have freedom to choose hours, days, locations, you pay no tax etc etc

but it's certainly not the golden ticket and I think many young guys miss this in the rush of making loads of money for a young guy and the supposed glamour compared to guys in 'proper' jobs. To a large degree your earnings are capped, unless you stake/coach, there's no leverage and it takes you down a single road - you reduce your options considerably. and it seems to be a million times less fun when you're doing it for your paycheck week in week out

If I was life coaching young guys considering poker as a career, I'd advise they invest in a full time career and then played liked 15-20 hours a week over the weekend. they stay in touch with their game and have a profitable hobby/passion while giving themselves a **** ton more options down the track

You're right about having had crappy jobs, but few would consider those to be anything other than short term.

squid was basically saying that poker is in the same category with very little long term potential. Whether the counter was coming from the same place, I am not sure.

I think most people that play live professionally in their 20's don't plan on playing it their whole life.

I want this to be something I do 10-20 hours a week on my off days for a nice chunk of side income to supplement my normal income from my regular job. I haven't even played 1000 hours live yet and I realize that although I love the rush I get from playing now, I don't wanna turn into some of the people I see inhabit the casinos here in AC playing for a living.

45k a year with benefits is like ~75k/year playing poker given stress/no health insurance/no retirement plan

Beautifully stated sir. This is how i believe poker should be played. Side income keeping it fun but non essential

On the real, this was beautifully said ILCD.

I'm 25 and this is what I'm doing. Having the consistent income from my career is awesome, and I try to hammer out at least 15 hours a week at da pokahz (with a completely separate bankroll).

I have a higher hourly with poker, which is a solid brag as I am lucky in that I have a great career. But the bigger reasons for sticking with career are as you said more options down the road.

x3. I'm 27 and have consistent income from my "real job" but the extra money from poker is nice. Goes towards my house down payment fund, retirement savings, and toys for my car. If I had to grind out a living from poker just to pay the bills it wouldn't be nearly as much fun. I probably play more hours than the average person who has a "real job" though.

Started my foray into 2/5 this month with a few short sessions, most 2-4 hours, will probably play more 2/5 in April and see what happens. Had a pretty terrible last week of the month but one run-good day saved it for me. A little unhappy with some of my play this month, probably could have won a lot more if I hadn't made a few stupid hero calls and bluffs. March results (2/5 results in red, the rest are 1/2):

Total sessions: 27
Winning sessions: 17
Losing sessions: 10
March win percentage: 63%
YTD win percentage: 74.7%
Biggest win: $1,127
Biggest loss: $700
Total profit for the month: $4,368
Average win for the month: $169.78
Total profit year-to-date: $18,099
Total average win for the year: $218.06



March graph:



Year-to-date graph:

Thanks man finally someone who feels what I say. I love being a poker player.

wj94: I'm pretty envious that you have a real job and were able to log so much time playing poker in March. How many hours was all of that? It looks like you played about 24 days out of the month. That would be impressive for a full-time poker pro. So how many hours a month do you work your "real job"??

I'm in the camp with others where my hourly rate at poker exceeds my "real job" hourly rate and for the foreseeable future I'm doing it as supplementary income. Along the lines of what ILCD said, the stability of a real job is nice but I never look forward to going to work and I always look forward to playing poker. I think about this sometimes and if I was retired I'd probably be spending a good amount of time playing poker because I legitimately love playing it.

I work from home, so pretty much however many hours I feel like working. My "real job" never really ends though since I answer phone calls/emails after hours and on weekends. All in all, I probably work my real job 40-50 hours/week but some of those hours are more like screwing around on the internet and watching TV while sort of getting work-related things done. Poker is probably 30-40 hours/week on average.

Here are my graphs for this year, from PokerJournal. Cash games only, then tournaments, then combined. All cash games are 2/5 (300 max buy-in) or 3/5 (500 max buy-in). The tourneys are $75 buyin, about 30 entrants. First time posting pics from photobucket. Hope it works.

Think I got it.

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I played poker "for a living" for several years, a mix of online/live. I sarcastically quote that because I was about the worst poker professional out there. I played when I felt like it and only ever made enough to get by. I was more interested in partying with friends, playing video games, spending time with gf's and whatever else other than working. Let's just say the growing up process for me has been slower than most people as I'm currently 30. At the start of 2012 I finally decided to get a life as it were and got a real job. As luck would have it I found something I enjoy doing and excel at and have moved up rapidly and plan on making a career out of it. I hardly played any poker for most of the year and was all but done with the game until FTP relaunched and I had money on there. Rather than cash out I decided to play and have had a fair amount of success at it, not to mention it renewed my interest in the game. With the added cash boost I have played some sessions of 1/2 sporadically and have renewed my love of the game. Like was recently stated by ILCD there is just that feeling you get entering the poker room and being there playing cards and I have that as well. With a solid career behind me I feel I am once again able to pursue my passion except now will be doing it right. Proper BRM, less hours and a stable income behind me. I plan to become a more active member of this section of the forum as I start putting more and more time into live games. For the moment I will play online (proper BRM) but I plan to be mostly playing live by June at the latest.

You guys are gambling addicts. Congrats, I hope you enjoy that "feeling," it's better than what I feel when I enter a poker room, disgust and dread.

How you perceive your environment and surroundings is more important than what your environment and surroundings actually are.

If you feel disgust and dread when you walk in the poker room, and you're on this forum, then you're doing something wrong.

Was last weekend potentially the best weekend for live poker all year?

I ask because when I played on Friday night I've never seen so many terrible players in my life. People at my tables had no idea what they were doing and seemed perfectly content with losing everything in front of them. I know this sounds fairly normal for live poker, but this just seemed more so than usual.

My assumption that it may have been the best weekend of the year was bc it was:
a) last weekend of the month. errybody got paid.
b) people are getting tax refunds and blowing their checks at the casino

If there is a better weekend during the year I'd like to know when and why people think it's better. All I know is that I wish I hadn't made plans last Saturday or else I probably would have just spent all weekend at the casino.

Tax season is always good every weekend. Not just one weekend. Feb/March/april are great poker months. Always have and always will be like that.

So it should continue through April and then die down in May?

Tax season is over April 12. All the degens did their taxes already. So the rush is almost over.

I would think the degen way to do your taxes would be on the 15th at the deadline.

But i guess we only care about people getting refunds, and they probably do file early.

Yea, I wait until the last minute every year because I know I am never going to get a refund. That and I am lazy.