I did but it was way back in 2010 and it wasn't easy. My wife's Aunt worked for the mortgage company which I'm sure helped a bit.

Thanks for the input guys. Yeah, I also had to gift the money to my wife's bank account. Kind of unfortunate as I hope it doesn't be an issue if we move to a bigger house for kids etc.

I assume maybe trying a broker would give me more flexibility for next time.

I believe there are certain large banks that won’t lend to poker players. My wife and I bought our house with a mortgage (20% down) in 2015 no problem (well a little bit of extra work compared to someone with a regular job).

I also know several other poker players who have, and another who will be buying one soon. As long as you’re not dealing with a bank that has that moral clause wrt gambling, you have a couple years tax returns, and meet all the necessary requirements, it’s very doable.

We ended up just buying our place based on my wife's income since it was easier that way, but I pretty much was told the same thing as what InTheNow and Tre experienced. That taking my income into account was doable it just would add some hassle. The bigger banks are usually tougher because they usually aren't willing to work with you at all outside of their stringent guidelines. It will likely make the experience more annoying if you want to sell your place and get a bigger house with a bigger mortgage down the line, although at least by then you'd have even more years of history to show for your income stream.

Unreal imo that any banks are giving mortgages to poker players, seems like a terrible decision as an aggregate

In a way yes, but if the customer self fund minimum of 30ish % of the apartment/house it is quite risk free loan unless the location is horrible ie. the value of houses are predicted to go down.

I got a loan back in 2012 when I was a student and showed them a steady poker income stream AND self funded roughly 40%.

i got a mortgage with my thrice results

Ah that is super interesting, I've been thinking about trying to buy something for a while but just assumed I'd need to save until I had 100%, and then lose one of the main advantages of property which is access to cheap leverage.

tbf I would give you 100% mortgage with the hits you make

It's amazing we haven't bankrupted Gazzy yet.

+1

I can definitely see having to jump through hoops, but if said player shows consistent stream of income/ good credit/ all the check boxes I don't think it's as much of a liability at all.


Thanks for sharing your experience. Yeah, I used a fairly well-known bank. The frustrating part was me telling them immediately that I played poker and if that was an issue, sending them bunch of bank statements and even graphs (lol this felt veryyy silly, but they told me to go ahead) and then 2 weeks later tell me through email that they couldn't accept my profession.

Also kind of silly, they said they would accept my coaching revenue but not my playing revenue despite it being like 1/10th of overall profit.

Thankfully, the only hoop was transferring my $ to my wife's account.


Yeah also put 20% down; also could be my tax returns first 2 years of playing not showing enough income? (grasping here)

I'll definitely do some research ahead before next house purchase.



On another note, me and Vic got hit with a short stomach bug last two days. I actually had two group coachings back to back and with about 15 minutes left I had a strong urge to vomit; barely made it to the bathroom.

I slept most of today so feeling fairly tired but going for a quick lift to scoop up some endorphins and then hopefully play a short session, been missing a poker a bit despite the recent wreckage

Have to say though that I've heard its getting tougher to get a loan without an employment at least in Finland. Banks would still do it the same I think but there is some regulations / tighter supervision from financial regulators.

I think it helps a lot if you have a decent deposit like somebody else said. If you can stump up like 30-50% then the risk is way smaller for the bank.

I had no trouble getting a mortgage as a poker player with 20% down. What also helped was a few largish and well timed live mtt scores with the accompanying tax forms that were issued from the casino. They also accepted my ignition/bovada check deposits as proof of income. What they did not accept is my cash deposits from live poker because there is no proof of where the money came from.

The mortgage company I used is called Aim Loan and they are online only with the lowest interest rates I could find. I highly recommend them to poker players for zero hassle.

I used Aim Loan back in 2010 on a rental property with 20% down and had no problems as well. Obviously things could have changed since then. And like you said, the rates were the lowest I could find.

Awesome, thanks for letting me know. TBH I probably should of been a bit more diligent because going to the bank was not my first option. I checked a few online mortgage companies but the rates weren't great.



Definitely putting this info away for possible future use, thanks guys.

yeah this is actually super useful info, I was basically assuming I needed 2-300k cash locked up long term if I wanted to buy a house. Anyone in the UK had any success given there are no tax returns?

300k would be 10% deposit on 1bd flat in london right? hahahah

yeah if you're lucky, and this is the reason why I will not be buying in London

same with sydney :/

Week 33: 8/12-8/18

1.) 1h of meditation Yearly Goal: 13.37/60

2.) 0h of Yoga Yearly Goal: 5.24/60

3.) 21.77 hours dedicated to Poker Yearly Goal: 1000.66/2200


I spoke this into existence fairly quickly. It was a lighttt week volume wise as I went to socialize over the weekend (no regrets over that) and got a bug for 2 days during the week.

Have been absolutely thrashing the 200/500 pool since getting back from Vegas; feels like I've been playing at a v high level.

Meditation has been a big help and I've been extremely disciplined at the tables with my decision making and my mental game has been on point. It's been a complete 360 degree change from my issues last year.

I am planning on socializing again this week but during the week I will mostly be playing.

I still have a few things to budget for

-7.5k furniture for new house
-8k honeymoon
-8k left for wedding
-1.5k for cleaners and movers

After this I will have some relief and I can start saving for a surrogate while also building and moving into higher stakes.

Barring a big 6 figure downswing to end the year, 2019 has been a rousing success. If I can get to around 120k BR by end of the year, I will be primed for a massive 2020.


Upcoming BTS Content

MMA's Highstakes course is coming out, make sure to check out his stream today for exact details, but it's definitely a great course. Feels good I got some of that coaching 2 years ahead of the release.

Also working with some of the guys on creating more guides to the public, definitely with some topics not really on the market, but I am quite a ways away from finishing.

Lending is pretty strict in Australia.

I have a full time job and a side business and they would'nt even count the income from my business because i have less than two years tax returns.

I did however get my 5% deposit and pay down all debts solely from poker winnings and they did not question the monies (withdrawals) going into my bank every other week.

Seeing as Australia does not tax 'gambling winnings' i highly doubt any lender in Australia would include poker income.

Saving 20%-30%-40% would take forever!

Buddy of mine just moved to NJ and can't access Bovada/Ignition. Are you able to play any of the offshore sites or do you just not bother?

Hmm yeah interesting. My income started off drastically low when I started Year 1 til now, that I'm actually curious if it's a red flag come tax season or perhaps the big jumps in income kind of show the volatility of poker.

I remember specifically targeting 20% down so I didn't have to pay the insurance.

If you're a resident of NJ I know you can't play although I've heard people have gotten around it. I would very much love to play in the ignition pool but alas no luck.

Right now, I don't have the liquidity to spread midstakes BR over 4 sites but I have played some offshore/unregulated stuff in the past. The convenience of it being regulated is nice but getting volume can be difficult.


Been working on my game and playing well, things are just clicking for mentally and playing with a lot of confidence; results aren't great due to negative variance at 1k but happy with how things are going.

Also, officially signed the thousands of pages of documents for closing to officially own my first house. It's a great feeling! We are renting out the house to the previous owners for an additional 1.5 months for a nice little extra income as well.

As always GL at the tables!

There's a lot of things to be excited for, but I'm honestly really looking forward to having my own office for poker. Through 4 years I've never had one.

So, any tips with decorating/ set up? Some things you guys have to your set up that I wouldn't think of off the top of my head; any suggestions would be helpful

Reddits battlestations subreddit is a glorious place for nice desk setups

Choose a room that gets good light if you can and lets you look outside. I set all my **** up in the basement (finished basement) and although it's nice down here it doesn't get enough sunlight imo and I think makes the working from home all alone feeling mildly more boring.

I’m in the same boat as far as setting up my first separate office. First thing that came to mind is to be sure to have some plant life in there; I cant imagine having a (more) direct connection to the physical world would be anything other than a good thing.

GL man glad things are going well