Thanks again for all your advice everyone. Looks like keeping the job is the best for me right now.

No shame in that.

Honestly, whether you have the skill to make it is almost negligible here. The truth is with a steady income it puts you in a position to take shots above your bankroll with little to no reprocussions.

Take for example wsop main event. If youre playing pro on a 40k roll, buying in for 10k is 25% of what youve got. If you have a job to back you up, you can buy in to the main event, take your shot and live cheap for a month and youve got your money back.

I think the biggest drawback would be a change in your mentality, now you play for fun (granted you do it to make money) but at the end of a day when you lose, you might not think too much about it. If you play for living it completely changes your mindset and therefore might change your game as well, and usually not for the better.
If you say your job is flexible, maybe consider a possibility of reducing your hours at work and playing more poker.

Yeah, its very hard to be able to treat poker in the same respect when you rely on it to put food on the table. Downswings mean much less when you have a check coming in regardless -- and you're not forced to play if you're running bad or in a bad mood. The inability to be flexible can be brutal, when you play for a living you gatta keep going back to work no matter what.

So true story...

After a long talk and a few days of discussing it with my gf, I told her what she thought of me playing poker full time for 2-3 years. She was hesitant at first, but she wasn't fully against it, nor was she for it. She eventually said, "do what you need to do" and even offered a suggestion where I can 'go on leave' for about a month or two, which is possible in my job. So I decided to take the jump and tell my boss next week.

Come Monday, 3/27, I go into work with the mindset that I will speak to my boss and tell him that I'm going to take some time off, and just try the lifestyle. I mean, what I'm doing is fine, working during the day, and playing at nights, but it really is such a grind. I want to have better balance in my life. I want to work out every day, eat healthy, not always be grinding, and just live life to the fullest when I'm not on the felt.

So anyway, I was going in the mindset on Monday that I am just going to take about 1-2 months off and see where it goes (albeit a small sample) but just to test the life. Next thing you know, I got 4 new client calls by 2pm. By 5pm, I received a total of 7 new client calls. I work in a 100% commission job, so this is actually quite a few in just one day. I barely received any in the past month since it's been slow, and the day I decide to tell my boss that I'm going to take a break, I get 7 new calls, LOL. Is God playing with me?

Anyway, so I ended up not quitting and just stay at it and help my past clients as well as my new clients and keep grinding. Maybe I can try and make this decision again once it gets really slow (which was also another big factor in my decision prior to Monday.) This month I had my biggest month in poker, mainly because I am playing bigger games, but also because I put in nearly 108+ hours this month, which truly was a grind. Not sure how consistent I can be with this lifestyle, but honestly, it doesn't affect me as much when I'm winning

I'm up over $68,000+ in 188 hours, putting me roughly at $360/h since 1/1/2017. In March alone, I'm at $39,000+ over 108 hours, pretty sick month. I had both my biggest losing session this month and my biggest winning session as well (-10.5k and +11.5k respectively). I'm probably playing in stakes above my roll, and taking shots while being backed, but I believe I have the mindset to keep up with the game (just not the swings, lol). Also, the $68k is not all of my profit, I was backed in some of the bigger games and made my backers some nice loose change. =]

I guess I'm still on the 'good run' and I hope it continues. I guess my goal for now is to reach $100k+ before WSOP so I can play in all the events I want to play in without selling action.

Anyway, thank you all for reading and for following me on my journey. Maybe I might make another post next month, who knows?

April fools?

Was it really necessary to create a separate thread for this post rather than just update your current thread? Perhaps the mods will merge.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/27...36/?highlight=

Do not ever tell your boss that you are taking leave to see if the poker grinder lifestyle is better for you. Remember that you (most likely) are an at-will employee. Unless you are indispensable, your boss would have good reason to beat you to the decision and replace you with someone less flighty.

I'm not saying never quit a job that makes you miserable (I have), but do all you can to retain control of your options. Just say you need a break — that's presumably why leave is offered.

Agreed.

If you plan on saying you need time off, don't tell him that reason is because you want to test another career path.

You guys give me very little credit for having common sense, eh? Of course I wouldn't tell my boss I'm engaging in poker, lol. Cmon guys!

Your original premise was wondering if you should quit a job of near six figures becauuse, based on 110 hours of play, you think you can sustain a win rate of $200 an hour at PLO.

Why would anyone question your common sense?

OP, Spew tabled the nuts. Time to fold, imo.

Sure quit your job and do it full time, it is costing you over a half million a year to go to work. I don't think I ever hear a story of some guy going broke because he thought he could crush the game, never hear of anyone going broke.
That is what you want to hear

Now the truth, No, get to work and stop day dreaming

100k a year a jobs are pretty rare for guys like you. (No offense OP, but its pretty obvious to everyone in this thread that you have an average IQ at best.)

Not saying this to be mean. I play professionally, and I'm no Einstein either. But I play because I probably make 5x more playing poker then I could working a career. If you quit, there's no gurantee a guy like you could find a 100k job, so quitting is super risky for you.

Plus, you gotta gf and all. Pretty hard to raise a family in the future as a pro gambler.

Don't know how IQ goes into all this, but I don't think that matters at this point. You guys are assuming too much info when I haven't Told you everything. 80k was just the amount I made last year and possible low forecast for this years' projection. Part of the reason I made 80k, was because I spent way too much time in poker. On the years I didn't play poker, I made significantly more. Again, I have a 100% commission job so the sky's the limit.

And yes I have a family to raise soon so money is not everything. It's nice, but I'm trying to figure out the pros and cons if I take the leap. How will it affect my future? Will I be able to get back into the corporate world after a break? Not all people take jobs because they pay higher, there are always other factors.

And yes I think $150-175/h at PLO is possible at the mixed stakes that I play.. Just because you've never heard of it happening doesn't mean it's not possible. But you are entitled to your opinion and I will have mine.

All the time though part time players online and live seem to think there's nothing more to it than simply multiplying winnings by hours . Like hmm currently I play 10 days a month when I'm feeling refreshed and up for a poker session and I make $X so if I play 30 days a month I will therefore make 3 times as much money... well you might but there's no guarantee of that and it's easier said than done . You might not be able to play your best poker every day . Your life /happiness and poker results might suffer because you no longer have a good balance . Not saying that's always the case but in general I think there's a law of diminishing returns in poker where putting in more and more hours (grinding) often doesn't equate to more and more money coming in

1) Possible =/= likely.
2) Games will almost certainly be tougher in a few years.
Having said that, GL, and keep building your BR.

OP- where do you live and what job are you vacating where you can make ~100k/year? Asking for a friend...

I agree with you since I am playing at prime times. I understand the games wont be as good if I play more frequently, especially during the week.

East coast in a great market. It's a sales job in the financial sector.

Honestly, all you have to do is take advantage of the opportunities that are present to you. I mean shoot, you can make a $100k+ being a car salesman if you are one of the best. I've met a person who was the top mattress salesperson in the area for her company and she made about $130k+ a year... SELLING MATTRESSES....

So the best advice I can give you is, work hard for what you want, and the benefits will reap in return. Hard work always pays off. Just make sure to work smart as well.

Thanks MJ88! Guess i'll ride the wave for now

plo is insanely swingy but you are clearly a winning player on a heater which just amplifies your already high winrate. im sure you will get your true number soon enough, but it still sounds like you should quit for sure and play poker. ....if i was making the money you are making at PLO... man.... jealous! haha anyway gl.

If you're playing where I think you are playing, you have to factor in the "newness" of the room. The action is always insane in a new room in a new market then it dries up (although prob. not too much in that room) after about a year. Maybe you can keep grinding it out with the job and playing night/weekends for the rest of 2017 and reassess. It'll give you some comfort with more of a sample size (lollivesamples)

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but if your job market is hot right now (like it normally is for $100k+ jobs) there's literally no reason not to quit and play poker. I have 5 recruiters e-mailing me a day with new opportunities. If I was to quit now I'd have a new job within a month with basically 0% chance of failure.

Worst case scenario you play full-time for 3 months, your winrate drops to something unsustainable, you say "bummer" and start looking for a new job.