If you don't do it, you'll always wonder, and every time something pisses you off, you'll get mad that you didn't try poker. You have already been sucked into the blackhole. Stop fighting it. Try it out, and if it doesn't work for you, go back to the real world of humping a 9-to-5. The always wondering will eat you alive until to try it. Do it now while you have the time and means to see if it will work and if it's truely the life for you.

i make a six figure salary playing poker like 20 hours a week and then i have all the time in the world to do whatever i want. plenty of freedom after poker for me to enjoy life imo

QFT 10000000000%

so OP is turning down a good job offer that has all sorts of benefits to sit in a casino all day playing 3-5nl? seriously?

You dont have enough money or enough ability to pull it off, just put it on the back burner for a while and maybe revisit it if you get better.

Take the job.
play part time.
you don't want to end up 40 yrs old grinding playing poker for a living.
thats sad.

TbK

Lots of good, heartfelt advice here...net/net, multi-table LIVE for $$$ and get phone-based customer service job for human interaction/social value.

- 2x-3x handrate vs. weaker competition guarantees big bucks
- stay in shape and save on expensive gym membership
- 2nd income covers expenses: rake, tips, shoes, suckouts, etc.

(pant)(pant) "Hi. my name is....raise 200...(pant)(pant)...Lope...check..(pant)(pant)..H ow can I help you today...

I would rather be 40 and grinding poker than working a ****ty 9-5.

OP you totally don't sound like a guy who should go pro; it's quite possible you've not even put in enough hands to tell if you're a winning player or not.

well he does play live.

live players are terrible....

therefore he is likely terrible

in other news, witches are made of wood

HEY jerkoff I play live... wait, I am terrible...

OP, if you have to ask such question in NVG, you should know the answer.

Don't do it.

Don't throw away the chance to make good money in a field you apparently like unless you're pretty freaking sure.

I've been a professional low and midstakes grinder for a year now. I dropped college for it.

If I had stayed in college, I would've had to do 8 years there to have any hope of making as much as I make right now.

But still, right now I have plans to go back to college this Fall.

Playing poker professionally isn't very exciting. Poker is only exciting for the sick degens like Stu Ungar and Sam Grizzle, and they always end up broke so you can't really call them professionals.

The life you're conceding yourself to when you make the decision to be a professional poker player is a very quiet one. Your job is to sit at your computer, be safe and click on things.

Probably the worst thing about being a professional poker player is the impact it has on your social life. Your job never requires you to leave your home, so you don't meet very many people. It's a one-man job. You could spend your entire life never speaking one word to anybody and never setting one foot out the door, seriously.

When you do meet new people, they turn on you as soon as you tell them you're a professional poker player. Nobody believes that this is possible, and immediately you are dirt to them. There's no difference between slots and roulette and poker and propbets to normal people, they think of it all as gambling and they think gambling is as simple as "you always lose and the house always wins."

So telling anybody that you're a professional gambler gets pretty much the same response as telling them you're an alcoholic.

I've also found that the only people who believe me and are interested when I tell them I'm a professional gambler, are people I don't want to be anywhere near. Potheads and beggars and stuff.

If you haven't made millions, your social status is so low as a professional gambler. You get no respect from anybody at all. Maybe rightfully so.

You also have to live knowing your job isn't relevant to anybody but yourself. It's extremely isolating.

Even if you do have the capability (which I'm surely not convinced that you do), you should never drop college or a post-college job for poker. Keep poker as a hobby, poker is great when it's just a hobby.

Try telling people (especially women)...
That you are a software engineer in a cubicle...
Their eyes glaze over and you are instantly invisible.

There is really no substantial difference...
Between slaving away in a corporate cubicle...
Grinding out code or advertising or whatever...
Or sitting in a casino grinding poker.

MOST people feel secure CONFORMING to SAFE social norms...
Others can only live a life of non-conformity...
Whether that means sailing around the world or playing poker.

I'm a software engineer that runs a successful hedge fund.

The last "job job" I had was 18 years ago...
And it turned me into an out-of-control alcoholic + drug abuser.
On my own running a business for the last 15 years...
I have been clean and highly functional.

To each his own.

My only concern about the OP...
Is that he has not demonstrated that he is in the Top 2% of poker players.

This applies to all Zero Sum Games such as trading and poker...
If you do not have ** inborn special talent **...
And are not in the Top 2%...
You are wasting your time and will never succeed.

In a parallel universe...
A young Teddy KGB decided to take that "great" job offer...
And is know a middle-aged Systems Group Leader at 70K/year with benefits...
Lives in a 1,200 sq ft condo and drives a sensible car...
And is viewed with approval by the equally boring people in his community.

Is this...
Supposed to be...
A poem...
Or something...?

Put down the drugs and try writing in sentences.

lol at the idea you need to be in "the top 2%" to succeed playing poker for a living.

To succeed to a level that outweights hurting your career and not being able to earn a living when the games dry up... yeah you got to be in the top 2%.

I image you have to have something else than poker if you go pro. A social life and other hobbies are important to be able to cope with a bad day and downswings, i would think working out would be good to decrease frustration and help you focus. I'm not a pro, just some thoughts.

Jurrr is right.

Keep in mind that people who make $2,000/month trading or playing poker...
Are not "professionals"...
But are described as "subsistence level gamblers" by sociologists.

For every trader or poker player making > 100K/year...
There are 10 "subsistence level gamblers" making 20K/year...
And 100 delusional people losing money.

I don't mean this negatively and may be wrong, but...

It sounds like OP has already made up his mind to take some time between careers to take a shot at being a poker pro and simply needs current grinding, live poker pros to validate his decision.

Either way, there's nothing wrong with taking a shot when the opportunity is there. You've got an opportunity to give it a try with little downside except for losing your present roll. Go for it! It's only a couple of years out of a long lifetime ahead. (When you are 44 and look back, 2 yrs will seem like the blink of an eye! :-(

One thing to consider though. Since you don't know what the outcome will be, you should probably plan it out as though you will go back to a day job after a couple of years. If that's the case you have to keep you retirement planning in mind. Loosing (not making) a few yrs of 401K contributions at the start of a career translates into lost compounded interest that cannot be made up with extra investment later on (assuming you don't come into large sums of money from another source(s) later in life). So, even if you do play poker for a living for a while, make sure you keep up your retirement contributions so you don't suffer a setback in your "normal life's" retirement plans. That is if and when you do go back to a "real" job.

"Always leave yourself outs" - Mike (Rounders)

End of sermon.

Hey NickyC, did you have any time to play while you were in law school? Im going this fall, and am just curious as to whether I will have time to grind. People have scared me into thinking I will have no free time. thx.