Good work at discrediting everyone else's advice without providing counterpoints nor any real substantive advice of your own.

i think live poker for a living is perfect for the right person, but very few people are that person

My advice was that he not take the advice of people he doesn't know to make perhaps the biggest decision he will make in this stage of his life. He likely already knows the counterpoints. People here are saying being in a casino all day is a miserable grind. He says he finds what he's doing to already be a miserable grind so that's discounted. Someone (like myself) might say he is not a crushing player. Some will obviously believe otherwise. This question has been asked tons of times and gotten the same answers. Most of those answers come from people who have never done it and some couldn't do it if they wanted to. This skews their answers. Squid is the only person I know of who can actually be verified as a long time pro and offers a realistic perspective.

You for instance always offer posts I deem relatively well thought out and you seem to know what you're talking about. When t comes right down to it though I have no idea who you are or what you've accomplished in the game and I'd never take your advice over my own reasoning in a major life decision.

Maybe this should be moved over to the "True life IMA pro" thread

Only Squid is allowed to give advice in these forums because he's the only player that BirdsallSa can verify is legit.

Good point.

If you leave your current job and the real estate/poker thing do not work, are you able to return to your field making a similar salary? If so, and you're dead set on this, give it a go. #yolo

Lol

I actually really really like this point. Johnny, you clearly have been wise with your money and will not go hungry or homeless, even if you went on a 20k downswing at 1/2 or 2/5. So go ahead and give it your best shot bro you have nothing to lose but some money and you're more than young enough to make the money back.

GL GL go for it man

Thank you for the kind words. I'd say there is an 80% chance I could get back into my field at a comparable salary if I were to crash and burn for a year or two. It would take some explaining in an interview, but I think I could spin it in a positive way.

I'm also in the process of investing in a mobile app and becoming a part owner which may require me to quit my job anyway to pursue it full time. If this app were to take off, I would be leaving my job with no salary but 15% equity in the app basically working full time on this and playing poker for income.

I'm at a weird stage of life right now (mid-20's, no family, kids, major responsibilities) but I feel like there are some potential important decisions/opportunities presenting themselves that will be pivotal points in my life when I look back on it years from now.

I've always felt I thrived on adversity and pressure - I hate feeling comfortable and complacent which is the way I am feeling at my job now.

Weird stage in your life? Haha mid 20s is where you really start finding out who you really are and what you want in life, embrace it. I've been catching up on this topic the past hour and it just sounds like you really want to turn pro. If your finances are in order as in you can still live when the cards dry up then go for it. It's probably the best time to do it since you have no dependents or significant other to consult with. If in doubt just go watch Rounders again haha. Good luck buddy hope you end up choosing what's best for you at this stage of your life

I don't think you've presented any compelling reasoning of how turning pro addresses your crossroad (whatever that is as I'm not really clear on that either). Your comment about the 3 million 401k being "a waste of a life", for example, how is playing full time poker any different? I feel like if the end game is financial independence, you have such better avenues of achieving that through the career path you've already paved. What this really sounds like a result of is you just getting bored, and I certainly don't think full time poker is the solution to that.

Also, how do you all of a sudden have so much cash to fling around? It seems like just yesterday you were on here whining nonstop about being under rolled to move up to 2/5.

I was over rolled for 2/5. I didn't start playing 2/5 until I had a 15k roll. When I got frustrated from 2/5 and "moved down" to 1/3 (for a week), I still had a positive win rate of $10/hr over ~100 hours at 2/5. I just wanted a mental break from the variance. Since then I've won about $12k over last two months. I also don't commingle funds, so my poker roll and life roll are completely separate.

I work in finance. Saving and managing my money is my career. It's what I went to undergrad and grad school for. I max out my Roth 401k and Roth IRA. If I really needed to, I could cash out my retirement accounts for another 55k (less 10% penalty). Basically I feel like I am working and saving money for no particular purpose. I am just "existing" at the moment but not really living.

You are right though, I am incredibly bored at my job and just life in general. I jump out of airplanes and ski off 50 foot cliffs. So working on a computer in a cubicle just crushes my soul. I went to college and got a degree in a "practical" field that has job openings and pays well rather than get a degree in basket weaving with tens of thousands in student loan debt.

But I've always considered it my backup option. Ie: if all else fails, I could use this degree to make a living but I never wanted it to be my primary means of income.

What are you looking for Johnny?

I read an article on why visiting Japan is so different and more desirable than living there. It's about why people living in tourist hot spots are usually so miserable but it applies here as well. Instead of finding it, I'll summarize it to the best and laziest of my ability.

As a tourist you have freedom, an excess of funds, and a plethora of opportunities. When you enter the working community, what you once considered fun and excitement is now associated with responsibility and the monotony of a daily grind. Even when you do the same activities you might have when on vacation. It isn't "free" like it was then, you had to "earn" it. I think if selecting poker as a career isn't done for the right reasons, you'll experience this same phenomenon and that's assuming you crush the game.

I think a more prudent course of action would be to spend more time fleshing out your end game, and connecting value with the right actions. As of right now you see your job as a means to an end, but you're saving for no reason. So there is a mean to no end, and because of that your job has no value. It stands to reason poker (or anything else) would suffer the same judgement.

Also that was my last post about it because it really is a thread derail but I'd continue the convo in pm if you wanted.

Well, if I was mid 20's, had everything going for me that Johnny duz, then I'd hire one of them expensive coaches, spend 3-5k on him & then ask: "So, what do ya' think?" Am I ready?

I hope you're talking about a life coach, not a poker coach, cuz that is what jb needs. Lol midlife crisis at 25.

I've heard quarter life crisis is actual a thing for the millenials nowadays.

You don't know how good you are at poker.

You don't know if more poker hours will be soul crushing.

You could scale back your work hours. You could find a different job in your field. You can change your attitude about your current job.

Gather more data. Talk to people in your field. Talk to a life coach. Talk to people with more life experience. Do you plan on kids someday. (they very expensive) Talk to Cammando.

In the end, YOLO, but I'd get better informed.

Good luck.

I think that's called "graduation".

Well, I guess I am the voice of dissent here. I quit a six figure job--I owned a 9 lawyer law firm--to grind for a living.

I'm playing 1/2 and 1/3. For a variety of reasons, I've been stuck at 1/2 and 1/3 for 4 years. I have had long stretches of epic run bad. I'm making about 1/8 of what I made with my law firm. None of the expectations I had when I quit law have been fulfilled.

Despite all that, I have no regrets. I'm happier now than I ever was practicing law. The freedom, the independence, the lifestyle, all of it I value much more than the money I gave up. I'd do it all over again even if I knew the 4 year struggle that lay ahead of me.

That said, I think there's a smarter way for you to go about quitting than just to quit. It involves ensuring that you have a reliable passive income--maybe the app, maybe some real estate investments--to cushion the transition and create some long term wealth that you'll have in the years ahead.

So my advice would be this: if you want to go pro, go pro. But first, develop and execute a plan designed to provide you passive income. You're in a better position to develop that plan than I am to offer advice on what it should be. So I am just going to counsel a little patience. But if you want to do it, and you understand the costs as well as the benefits, then do it. There's more to life than just money.

Best advice for Johnny's situation, solid post Mpethy

how old were you when you left your old profession, if you don't mind my asking?

Wow..I remember reading ur post 4yrs ago about how were about to grind 1/2 for a living..Ur long stretches of epic run bad--is that still in the realm of normal variance or are u going thru a negative outlier?

Agree 100% with mpethy, he's just much better with them wurds

I was def not trolling.

you said specifically that playing poker can lead to financial independence, which you define as passive income, but your 6 figure job could not lead to financial independence. unless you are going to make more playing poker than you do at your job, the 6 figure job is going to lead to financial independence quicker.

money begets money in most cases. your one example is a great example. you're looking to invest in an app. that takes money. the only way that quitting your job to play poker gets you to financial independence quicker is if a) you make more money playing poker than your job or b) you use the time to create something that could lead to more money, ie design the app yourself. in other cases, you're going to make more money to invest quicker by working a normal job


beyond all that. if you do actually quit working full time, is there anyway you can freelance in your industry or work part time?? this would be how you can avoid explaining time gaps in your resume if you ever decide to stop playing full time and go back to work


at my last company (i'm an engineer), i would have never thought people work part time at all. i got a new job 6 months ago and work with several people who work part time. 1 guy works like 20 hours/week. sometimes all you have to do is ask.

if i ever get to the point that i quit working to play full time, i would start my own company and basically take minimal work. this way i'm still "working" and if i ever wanted to get back to regular work, i just say i started my own company and worked less because of personal reasons.

either way, good luck with whatever you choose.