I am a mid 30s Midwesterner looking to take my shot at playing live poker full time. I am prepping myself for taking the leap to full time live poker player March 1st. I have been a successful live player for years and have reach the point of misery at my current job so I figured now is the time.

I will be playing in the Ohio/Indiana/West Virginia/North Carolina areas. I will mostly be playing live and will mix in possible online and some sports betting in WV.

I plan to be fully transparent about my financial situation in order to make this interesting and to hold myself accountable. I will have a strict budget to follow and I think it will help be the key to my success.

As of March 1st I plan to have 6500 in savings, with a 2k roll and my budget will go as follows. My car is newish and paid for and my rent is basically 0 at the moment. Unfortunately I do have a 6k in credit card debt but have them on zero percent interest cards for the next 18 months. I plan to pay off this debt over 10 months from March to December. I also have a goal to have 10k in savings to end the year.

Monthly Budget
-Car Insurance $110
-Cell $70
-Credit Card $600
-Save $350

To pay my budget I need to win $300 per week. Any money won above 300 per week goes into the roll. Gas and food will also come out of the roll but both are pretty minimal.

I play mostly 1/2 and 1/3 and to say i'm a minimalist is an under statement. I also get lots of free play and buffets from the various casinos I visit and all of that will just go into the roll as well.

Would love all feedback or any tips you all might have. Lets make 2019 the year to finally make this happen.

My recommendation is to stick it out at the job a little longer. $6500 is far too small for a professional bank roll. That’s totally adequate for rec playing. The biggest thing though is that credit card debt. Even though it’s on zero interest for now, it is imperative that you get out from under it as fast as possible. Poker is way too volatile to have that small of a bank roll and that big of a black cloud over your head. How much do you make at your job? If you went bare bones living, how fast could you pay it off? You could also use that time to pad your roll in preparation for making the leap.

I pretty much stay at bare bones living, not out of necessity but more just because that's how I have always been. I agree with the debt being the key to the equation and getting rid of it is the most important goal of 2019. I currently make 40-45k at the job. I would imagine I could have the debt cleared if that was my only focus in maybe 4 more months.

Obviously I could get a job pretty quickly if this goes south in a hurry. I would make game selection the utmost important because of the minimal amount of money I need to win to survive.

Thanks so much for the input, it's something I have pondered as well.

Good luck! Subbed!

OK, so you currently make 40-45k and you want to play 1/2 and 1/3 for a living - let's look at the math:

If you crush these games for 10bb/hr and play 50/50 1/2 and 1/3 then you're making $25/hr.

To make 40-45k/year, therefore, you need to play 1,600-1,800 hours per year, or 135-150 hours per month.

And that's all without health insurance, travel time to/from the games and assuming you're the best crusher in the games (which you're probably not).

Using a more realistic 7bb/hr win rate you'd have to put in more hours than a regular job to make less money.

Oh and it will be mind-numbingly boring too! Because a lot of OMCs play 1/2 and 1/3 and to beat these games you'll need to play tight disciplined poker.

Ugh, is this really better than your current job?

As someone who’s been in his shoes right now it probably is. It won’t last forever. As long as the career gap isn’t a career killer I sayfo for it. My only point of contention is that if OP waits even a couple more months he’s setting himself up much much better to succeed.

And...the MAX you are going to make is $20-$25 an hour. And why not keep the job? It's not like those 8-4 hours at the poker room are very good for playing.
And 0 Vacation Days? Yuck.

I would do it for half of the money I am making now. Part of me has always wanted to do this and even if i fail miserably, I would be glad I tried.

I am a minimalist in all aspects of finances so I really feel like that's what really makes it possible. Even with a roll that should stand around 8.5k on march 1st, I still would live very tight. If I paid off the 6k in cc debt and got the total savings to 10k and maybe the roll to around 5k at the end of the year I would reward myself somehow.

I agree 8-4 hours in the casino aren't going to be the time I play but I am close to an hour drive to each room, so I would take advantage of the free hotel stays and all that. My main grind time would be Thur, Fri, Sat and mix in some other days when I see a soft spot or something. I really feel like table selection will be huge for me.

Love the feedback guys, thanks for all the input

So i have spent the weekend really thinking hard about this point you made. I am thinking about paying down 4000 of my debt right now and then paying 500 per month for the next 4 months to clear it. Paying down the 4000 will really drain my account but will help motivate me to get it built back up.

I am going to get a part time job to add to my full time job to create somewhere around $200 more a week. Then maybe in 3 to 4 months I could have 6-8k and no credit card debt.

I would literally be starting with only 2 bills to pay each month with a nice nest egg. I really feel like my risk of ruin diminishes big time.

I will update soon with what I decide.

So I decided to go with the new plan and pay down my debt with my roll and rebuild. Sent 4000 of my 5000 in savings towards my 6k in credit card debt. I will finish the last 2000, 500 at a time out of my next 4 checks.

Current situation:
2000 in credit card debt
1000 in savings

New Goal by 3/15:
$0 in debt
$3000 in savings

Will be picking up a second job to help rebuild the roll faster and will be playing 1/2 & 1/3 on Saturday nights. Let me know what you all think

Made another payment on the credit card, really pushing this hard to try and get this cleared so I can focus more on the grind.

1500 in CC debt
400 in account

Going to take one buy in and short stack 1/2 this weekend. Im broke now but the end of this debt is in site.

I actually like you keeping this thread going while you work/pay down debt. You should post about your part-time sessions.

I’d say keep the job until no debt and 15K liferoll. Then start at 1/2, 1/3 and after a couple positive months sample start sprinkling in 2/5.

Grinding lower than 2/5 has to be worse than whatever job you have.

Thanks so much, glad to know someone is reading this. 15k may take me a little longer then i would like to wait. I would say it would take me most of 2019 to get there. I hoping to get to around 6-8k in the next four to five months working a second job. With the roll so little now obviously I won't be playing too much except the occasional one buy in short stack. I will post updates of that for sure.

Made my second to last payment on my credit card for 700. I owe 800 more which will be paid in two weeks and I will finally be debt free. I have been playing low stakes at global to pass the time, due to the awful weather in the Midwest I haven't been able to play live. Trying to keep my head down and complete this and then start building the roll for the move.

Current Situation:
Debt $800
$600 in account

I know reading about me paying off debt may not be the what this thread was started to be but the recommendation from one of the posters really got me thinking and changed my course. The grind will continue in no time and feels good to be near debt free.

Finally making the last few small payments on my debt. I have ran up a roll on Global Poker from $25 to $505. I don't know if you all reading play that site or not but it's super soft and the MTT's are such good value.

Still working the job and building the roll, going to re-evaluate quitting the job and playing full time when I get to 5k.
Current Situation:
Debt $0
Savings: $2800
Global BR: $505

Get that buffet bread

Put in the notice at work and I am moving to Florida and will be living with a girl I knew from down there before who lives close to the beach. I am starting a new job there as well and will continue to work and play poker on the side until the poker income becomes high enough to not need to.

Current Situation:
Debt=$0
Savings=$6000

Still playing online poker at ACR, global and 5dimes and have a decent roll on each. Will have a few weeks off before I move to Florida so will be grinding the games online and in the casinos locally.

Thank you for your comment here and also thank you for the daily strange comments you send to my inbox each day. I have never had a male stalker before so let me know if i'm being good prey or not.

Stalker? you're the one who started commenting on all my posts in Rayz' thread..lol

Had to see who the loony tune who got triggered by my stock picks was..

Good luck getting that bread. get er

Congratulations on being debt free!

Smart to get the debt paid off. Keep building while working.

Thank you guys, It feels really good to have the debt cleared. For some reason I have 10k roll in my mind as a safe starting point since i keep my bills so low but as long as the new job is going well I will just keep building.

I suggest a few stocks which pay dividends, can give you recommendations.