Hey guys, just wondering if any grinders have thought about there long term/ back up plan ? Interested to know what it would be. What do you see the husng community like in 5 / 10 / 20 years ?

to expand, what if the games dry up? poker becomes illegal in your country? or you lose your edge? Or are poker players just not long term thinkers ? lol

get a degree at school, easy backup

fwiw i never liked the idea of playing poker full time, as a "job" while studying, its great.

I feel getting a degree is a very good contingency plan. It leaves you qualified if something occurs that makes grinding poker no longer a viable option and you can always consider doing a masters/PhD. Also very good for feeling like you aren't just sat inside grinding all day. You can do that throughout the summer if you so choose but for the rest of the year it makes poker feel like a treat rather than just a job that you don't want to turn up for.

Also after you have a degree you can consider just taking a few years out, grinding really hard and trying to get as much money in the bank as possible until that becomes no longer feasible at which point you can have enough money to leave your life choices wide open. Like you could go back into education, seek out teaching qualifications and the money you have allows you to take a few years to go about getting the necessary experience and qualifications.

also flipping burgers at mcdonalds is always a possibility

I'm almost building a villa here in Bali which I'll sell for a profit (Put 150k into it, will sell for over 300k due to rising land prices).
I've also started a 5 villa project with 2 other poker players. Hopefully I can make enough out of flipping villas and poker to set myself up.

haha thanks guys! advice and input is much appreciated
as im a touch confused atm lol but ya think the school route is def the option to go

I don't have any special backup plans, but I think HUSNG's and poker in general will be far less profitable in 5 years. If I thought that there was a greater than 50% chance that I would be earning good money 5 years from now playing poker, I would be dropping out of school.

Edit: And by good money I just mean anything >$60 per hour. I guess I have an especially negative/cautious outlook on the future of poker then :S

that's what ppl used to say 3-5 years from now but imo you can still make good amount of money and will probably be able to in another 3-5 years.

still waiting for asian market to join stars

Become a writer, and if that doesn't work, porn.

i dont know what average ROI is for standard speed and turbos but hyper regs run at 2-3% ROI? so they arent really beatable withabout a ton of volume atm

i heard pokerstrategy was making videopack tutorials of how to change from poker to stock market, or something like that
i think bighusla? posted on husng.com blog about someone explaining propriety buying like mers explained hypers dunno, i remember reading something like that

Show off.

Yeah Deepak, it's in his PGC thread I think.

Imo if you're good at poker, you'll cruize through school easily. It might not always be the case, but surely you'd have an edge over most students. You can also follow great classes online.

i think most pros would switch to live if something were to happen to online poker. and if that didn't work out then obv they'd have to find a job.

most pros who make it def are willing to learn new games instead of only grinding HUSNGs tho (if HUSNGs were to die)

My 6 step long term plan to billions.

Step 1: Build capital playing poker until June next year while educating my self as much as possible during my downtime about real estate investing, primarily house flipping and rental properties.

Step 2: Quit poker poker June 2014 and hire a coach/mentor to allow me to shadow him while he does flips for 2-3 months.

Step 3: While shadowing my mentor build my contact list by networking with his team members and also by attending REIA meetings.

Step 4: Build a solid team and September 2014 invest a max of 10% of my net worth into my 1st property.

Step 5: Repeat step 4 but with less mistakes.

Step 6: Go ham and make billions.

everybody flipping houses these days. somebody create a video pack for that, pls.

^noooo dont ruin the house flipping edge, the fish still think its a gambol because of the name

i went back to school for 8 months at a community college to get a financial planning certificate (i got my undergrand like 5 years ago). i've also written the industry standard exam. i've been interested in economics and finance for years... so it's a logical transition. i'm set up for an entry level job in the field.

the problem is, now that i'm interviewing for jobs, most of them are commission based and you only get paid if you get new clients and sell them insurance, mutual funds, etc. so the job is actually more of a sales job, where you have to actively be selling your services.

so now that i'm faced with the reality of actually getting one of these jobs, poker sounds way more appealing. i can probably make more money playing poker and it's a lot more fun and i don't have to put up with all the BS of having a real job. though if i put in the work at one of these jobs, i'll probably be making more money in a couple years than i do from poker at the moment.

also, i've been doing close up magic as a hobby for about 2 years now. i did it when i was around 12 years old, but i just recently picked it back up again (i'm 29 now). and i'm actually getting really good. when i perform now for people, they think i've been doing it for like 10+ years because the effects i perform are really strong.

so i'd like to start performing magic for money. turning tricks as i call it.

i'd like to start off at a bar or restaurant, and just perform there for 3 to 4 hours a night... one night a week. then after i've gotten some experience at that, i'll try and get some more work and do 3 or 4 nights per week at different places. good restaurant magicians charge $50+ per hour.

and for me, performing magic for people is a lot of fun. when i'm out at my local bar, i show people tricks for free (though they often buy me drinks afterwords). so it wouldn't really seem like working.

after i've done some restaruant work to get some experience, then i can start doing weddings, corporate functions, etc. These types of events you can charge like $500 for just a couple of hours.

so i think playing poker and doing close-up magic would be good for me going forward. the magic will get me out of the house, give me some steady income, and i'll get to socialize and stuff like that.

but i'm also going to try to get one of these financial advisor jobs too. there's one big company that sounds like it would be a good job... i've got an interview with them next week. but it's the type of job where i can take as much vacation as i want... i can work as many hours as i want... because it's all commission based.

so my plan would be to work at that job during the day, work as a magician in the evenings... then play poker on the weekends. that way i'll have a triple income which should provide me with a bit more security.

however, i could easily see myself quitting that finance job and just sticking to poker and magic. because i love poker and magic and those are the jobs i actually want to do. i do truly enjoy finance... i've followed the markets closely for years and i listen to all sorts of financial media just as a hobby... but i'm just not sure if i'll actually enjoy a real job in finance after playing poker for so many years. a real job probably sucks balls in comparison. but i'll give it a go if someone hires me.... i can always quit if i hate it.

The way the vast majority of people attempt to flip a house, it is a gamble.

I know it isnt the subject of this thread, but LOL at people thinking house flipping is some holy grail to wealth. Done correctly [buy a house for significantly below market value, make the minimum needed repairs to get a quick sale], it is a solid way to generate cash, but it is not a way to generate wealth.

For somebody like BigHusla who can generate significant capital through poker currently, I dont think it is a good long term pursuit, because his earnings will cap out very quickly and it would likely be very difficult to find enough deals to match his poker earnings without taking on huge speculative risk. It isnt a bad short term plan to get his feet wet, learn renovation skills, etc, but for true wealth you need something that continues to produce returns. Being a landlord scales much better than being a flipper, there just arent shows glamorizing it.

I think most poker players in this forum are in for a rude awakening, because I would be absolutely shocked if hu hypers remain profitable for anybody except a tiny fraction of the current winners in 3 years time [and thats being generous]. A unified, legal online poker system in the US could maybe prolong that a year. The deeper stacked HUSNGs will be theoretically profitable for longer, but the action isnt going to get any better and if hypers get too tough, more regs will switch back and further shrink the pool of fish.

Make as much money as you can from poker for as long as you can, and save as much as you can. Constantly try to improve your game and develop a solid worth ethic for studying AND grinding if you dont already have one. Most importantly though is to read as much as you can from true experts in other fields that you find interesting and figure out a solid backup plan.

You want to study the people that can explain why they are successful based on repeatable fundamentals. If somebody cannot explain why they have an edge, then they are just gambling. Maybe they are +ev, but you shouldnt try to learn from them, because they have nothing to teach.

If you arent entrepreneurial [having an idea for the next facebook doesnt count], then strongly consider saving up a cushion so that you can go back to school when poker fades away. If you do go back to school, pick a major that basically guarantees you a good job [e.g. any type of engineering instead of "business"].

I don't know about that. I know some flippers that do very well.

The way I see it, having capital to buy houses, having skills to accurately value a home's worth and having the skills to renovate a house cost effectively (getting the maximum value for the repairs and/or improvements made) is a skillset that not many have.

When there are barriers to entry (cash) and many decisions that are difficult to make emotionally (and require patience, research, discipline, experience), there often is a high ceiling on the profit that you can make in the industry.

Not that being a landlord isn't a way to make good money too, but I think both can earn you some real wealth.

I think it's too general to hate on it. While most people that get into it probably don't make anything, you can say that about website building (SEO stuff), poker playing, poker businesses, restaurants, and yes, even landlords too.

Most people that do anything aren't getting wealthy off of it.

Your advice about learning from experts is good, and your school focus is good, but I wouldn't hate on flipping while being high on being a landlord. Some of the skills even overlap (pricing houses, initial renovation skills).

Husla's general outline seems good. I'd assume he's kidding about billions, nobody can honestly plan to make anywhere close to billions on anything they aren't investing 100s of millions minimum on, but otherwise it looks like he's not rushing into things, not risking too much and he's aware of how much he does not know. If you ask most people that get into flipping why they get into it and their plan, I bet a vast majority would risk a lot more and fail to admit how little they know.

agree...

anyone playing poker should be saving anyway. Even if poker is super profitable for the next 50 years i really would hate to grind that long lol. I will always play poker to some degree but would like to have other business interests within the next year or two.

Property has always been my long term plan but with that the profit is made when you buy it not when you sell/rent it.

Im pretty confident i'll succeed in something outside of poker mainly because I dont care about failure and understand that you will probably have to fail a lot before you succeed.

persistence biatch

also think a lot of poker players would do well in internet marketing and seo type of stuff. Most people fail at that because they think they can earn money without work and low cost to entry (ie buy $10 domain and $3 hosting and not be willing to put any more money in lol)

If your analytical and logical and willing to test test test you can succeed online.

Good post.

Yea, if poker has taught us anything, it's that finding value then attacking it with relentless work ethic is a great plan for success. Expecting to get rich with anything less is pure gamble (or you have a rigged game way of getting rich, inheritance, insider trading, scams etc.).

probably more about value... being able to find the pre 2004 poker games in other areas

sucks that im always a bit late to the party like the beggining of hypers

I must not have done a good job explaining the point I was trying to get across. There is a fundamental difference between flipping and buying+holding+renting; flipping generates a 1 time sum of cash while rental properties generate monthly income AND build equity [which you can keep in the house or leverage to buy more properties]. Sure, flippers can make good money [I never suggested otherwise], but after every deal they are starting from scratch whereas landlords build a portfolio that continues to generate returns.

Further, it is just so hard to scale house flipping. There are only so many deals you can oversee, so when you hit that point you can hire another employee but then you start running out of deals. When I said flipping doesnt generate wealth I meant that the income stops when you stop. That is the problem with flipping; you always need to find the next deal. When you stop flipping, you stop earning.

I did not take Hustla's comment 100% literally about the billion dollars, but I did read it as him having very lofty goals. The ceiling for landlording is much, much higher than flipping, even if small towns. Also, capital is not a significant barrier to entry with flipping because if you find a profitable deal in almost any city, you will be able to find a hard money lender that will finance it for you.

Finally, as I said in my original post, flipping is a good way for him [or anybody] to get experience, but with lofty goals it likely isnt the best long term play.

That simply isnt the case. Of course somebody can rely on luck to make a profit, but that isnt repeatable. What is repeatable is busting your ass to find an edge in whatever niche you pick. It is very hard to get super rich without being at the right place at the right time at least once, but very few get there only because of that reason. It is foolish to say that circumstances outside your control dont matter, but when you only focus on those circumstances you are no more astute than the guy at the slot machine praying for a jackpot.