Allow me to chime in here to give some perspective from someone who had the poker life dream way back in 2010 and still loves to play the game today. BTW I am 36 years old.
I discovered poker via college classmate in 2010. Instantly fell in love with it. I was amazed by the money my classmate was making. It wasn't anything huge, but this was pre-Black Friday and he was cashing out $$$ thousands $$$ in tournament wins. Not to mention being able to log into Full Tilt Poker and watching the high-stakes games where hundreds of thousands of dollars were exchanging hands. I just got out of a 5 year stint in the Navy and was taking advantage of the post 9/11 GI bill. I was receiving about a $2k a month stipend.
$2,000 a month is great for a college student, as it allows you to study full-time without worry much about work or money. Long story short, I spent more and more time playing and studying poker and less time with school. I started to notice my grades slipping, but hey... I was actually starting to WIN at poker and was dreaming about 6-7 figures a year income while travelling and partying right?
Well Black Friday hit. Lost ability to play on the big sites. Poker in USA almost grinded to a halt, and we were relegated to semi-shady poker sites to continue playing. This killed about half my motivation and definitely big income possibilities while playing in the US. School wasn't going well, hard to catch up after neglecting my classes for a while. Eventually I ran out of benefits, had to get a $10/hr paying job and was thinking of taking a $10,000 loan and moving to Cambodia or Philippines to play poker full time. Thinking back today, I think this would have been very stupid. Although I admit part of me would have liked to try it to see what would have happened. Unfortunately you cannot go to your last saved checkpoint in life and try a new path or strategy.
Fortunately, I was able to secure a job at a big company by networking from a friend who was an employee. I was able to start at $60,000 a year. I am still working at the company today making $130,000 + benefits, WFH most days a week etc. I'm also married with one kid and I just got back into poker as a hobby / side-hustle. Went to the casino yesterday and made $500 at 1/3 in 3 hours. Felt good.
Now, time for the life lessons here.
- Trying to earn a living off of poker while already being broke SUCKS. Don't do it. You start to place too much value into every hand and you can't make the best decisions because you are scared money.
- Winrates are fun to talk and theorize about. However, that should not be your focus. As a player, you should be a student of the game. The high winrates will follow if you just focus on learning the game and being a better player.
- Adding to the first point, don't quit your day job. Make poker a side hustle until you notice that you're making more money from poker consistently than your job with benefits.
- IF you still decided you want to pursue poker only, then you better be ready to grind your F***ing brains out. I'm talking playing and studying. When you're not on the felt you better be studying. Deliberate practice hours a day. You need to eat, sleep, and breathe poker. This is for survival. Oh and you also should probably have 8-12 months living expenses saved. Give yourself 6 months to make it and if you don't, you still have a few months expenses to live off of to get a new job and to save up for another shot while you are still doing poker as a side hustle.
Finally, be prepared for anything that comes your way. I didn't think Black Friday would hit when it did. You should imagine the worst case scenarios and your response for each of them. What would you do if another Black Friday hit, effectively closing up the remaining sites? What would you do if you lost your job? What if you weren't as good as you thought you were? What if you run out of money? You don't want to be surprised. Be prepared for anything.
I think this is good enough. I may edit and add a few more points as I think of them. Good Luck.