hope its been going well, just thought I'll offer some advice since I've been pretty much in the same situation as you are.
Im a 21 y/o guy from toronto and have been playing pro now since winter 2014. In toronto I lived alone, I was also financially independent so it wasnt too easy to save up if you know what I mean, I had the ****tiest job (I know everyone says that but believe me mine was UP there) and I wanted out really quick so as soon I had a 3.5k roll and saw that according to my ev poker pays better then my crappy job I just quit going to work bought a plane ticket and jetted off to eastern europe (jftr I play cash games so the variance isnt as bad but my roll was still super small). Even at that point I was a bit insecure with my roll but I hated my job so much and really just wanted to get poker going already so I went out on a whim and hoped for the best. Spent a good few months in eastern europe building my roll at 25nl/50nl and luckily I did pretty well eventually getting up to 200nl and building a solid roll, I ended up moving to thailand 5 months ago and have been living here ever since.
Back in 2014 I pictured myself where I am now and I've actually exceeded my expectations and although Im happier now than I was working my ****ty job back in toronto it didnt turn out to be all milk and honey like I expected. So before I continue I just wanna point out Im not one of those pessimistic 2p2 regs who go around preaching "the bitter reality of poker" cause they weren't able to make it pro, this is honest advice I wish I would have been able to tell myself + some stuff for you to really take into consideration.
Playing poker as a sole income is EXTREMELY stressful, I know youve heard this one before but you gotta realize that once you go pro its no longer just a game to you, its your source of income. I was aware of this also but until you actually experience it you cant fully understand what thats like. And the smaller your roll the bigger the stress.
"I would compare the stress level of playing high stakes poker for a living to being an air traffic controller with an anxiety disorder", this is a quote from an article by a former highstakes pro 5 years ago but its applicable to the majority of pros due to the fact that if youre playing pro your stakes are generally gonna be fairly relative to your standards.Also dont forget its 2016, online poker is dying by the month meaning edges are getting lower which increases the variance for you if youre not improving. This leads to the next point,
The passion fades away. Believe me it really does, I used to love poker before going pro now I can hardly sit my ass down for a session thats longer than 4 hours. Poker is pretty exciting when youre rapidly learning the game, moving up stakes and proudly watching as your roll grows.
Once your playing pro you need to establish yourself at a certain stake and your shot taking strategy has to be much more conservative than you may currently be using. Idk about you but I know before going pro I would make calculations like "if I play "x" amount of hours "y" days per week I'll end up with "z" profit by the end of the month", but have you actually followed through with said schedule for a straight month? If not then believe me when I say its much harder than you expect. This + the fact that youre now making monthly withdrawals makes it much more difficult to move up meaning your probably gonna spend a good amount of time at certain stakes.
Now picture doing this day in and day out 5-6 days a week for months on end. The days of climbing your way to highstakes with some hard work and study have nearly all but caved in, I personally dont know anyone whos gone from micros to highstakes in the past 4-5 years. It becomes an actual job and no longer feels like a game. The excitement of upswings turns into more of a relief type of feel and dowswings start to feel worse (especially given a small br). Also youre in for some SICK runbad, the previous ones were nothing compared to what youre about to get hit with, this is due the fact that youre gonna be playing much more hands than you have in the past+making regular withdrawals so youre gonna be hit with some gross variance.
You start to devalue money/poorly manage your finances From all my poker friends/roommates and pros I've met all of them are terrible at money management, myself included. This is due to the fact that if youre hourly ev is say $30 youre experiencing daily swings that reach into the 4 digits. So when you have a 4 digit+ upswing youre not gonna second guess spending like $100 for example. And vice versa when youre down a lot whats another $100 to you? This is the type of subconscious mentality poker players are cursed with. A poker player who makes $30 an hour is almost always gonna have worse money management skills to that of someone who earns a similar wage at a conventional job. This is something too really be cautious with and
keep to your budget. This leads into more of a side topic
Travel/living abroad, ik this isnt poker related but I feel its worth mentioning. Travelling is super expensive, even if it is in a poor country. Youre in some cool new place, you may want to go sightseeing, hang out with girls/guys you met, go for drinks, do some tourist **** ect... all that really adds up. I personally spent more living abroad than i did at home and thailand is the worst, its full of distractions and fun stuff to do. For the first 3 months i was in thailand i was spending like 3x what i wouldve been back home. People think poker players live in thailand to live a cheaper lifestyle but its actually to live a better lifestyle, nearly all poker players I know here are spending more money than they would back home its just that here you get more bang for your buck. You gotta account for stuff like border runs, medical insurance, renting a scooter, paying bribes if you get caught doing something you shouldnt be, taxis into town can be just as high as toronto taxi prices depending on where you live. Also there are gold diggers everywhere and they feed on bankrolls haha.
So yea sorry for the long rant lol I'm currently on ritalin
. I dont want to discourage you but I want you to be fully aware of all the cons and dont just concentrate on the positives like i did, there are also a lot of pros. I know a guy whos been playing professionally for over 10 years now and he tells me he started wishing early on that he had a normal job so it really just depends on the person if it suits them or not. You just gotta be fully aware of all the negatives before just diving into it. I personally still prefer this over any other job at the moment but I think of it as a short term thing and in 2016 thats the only way you should be approaching it.
so yea the
tldr; I HIGHLY recommend you keep your 9-5 until you reach a five figure roll because thats gonna be +ev for you and will prevent the heaps of stress youre going to face if you take off with a 3k roll, i would tell myself the same thing if I could go back in time.
Also if you do end up coming to thailand I recommend chiang mai, its where I've been the past 3 months, it super cheap compared to some of the other cities, safer than montreal, awesome scenery, girls are easy to pick up, has a huge poker community and its pretty laidback. I'd avoid phuket if I were you its expensive and its pretty dead imo, and if you go to bangkok dont go for more than a 2 days if you dont wanna go busto. Anyways all the best and swing me a pm if you end up making it out here, GL with the grind and hope to see more updates