So many of us out there with the same thoughts and feelings about our decision to play poker for a living. I have a sigh of relief knowing im not the only one who has these questions flowing through my mind, success is around the corner. Damned be the down swings! Grinding will achieve positive results.

You should go pro at coming off like a bitter a-hole. I think you'd be great at it.

Stopped reading here, though I should have looked at who the poster was so I could have stopped reading even sooner.

33 big blinds I couldn't have said it better myself..there is so much more to learn from poker than just making money. I gained an unexplainable amount if knowledge from the game, and I am still learning.
In an ideal poker playing environment money is just a way to keep score. Losing a buy in or two shouldn't effect you too bad. Key word being ideal. If you concentrate too much on the money at hand then not only will you be playing bad but you won't be able to learn while playing.
Long term poker full time might not be the best option but if you have a solid hourly over a good sample size you can build up your money from poker while looking for other investments.
Personally I am playing to pay my bills and my school loan off, and to make enough capital to start up a small business which should keep me occupied for a few years. No one really has a "set plan" just a small idea if what they wanna do and where they want to end up in life.

This is the smartest thing I've read in a minute.

And yet, this may be even smarter

Yeah. I'll be out of the game in 5 or 6 years. At that point I will play two months out of the year. I started later in life, so things like saving, investing and thinking long-term were already instilled from another occupation.



I applied for a mortgage and had to show several years of tax returns. So long as you can show consistency in income, responsibility (i.e., stellar credit history) borrowing within your means, etc., I'd imagine it would be the same for any stakes player. It is not much different than any other self-employed individual applying for a loan.



This is fine wherever, but you can't lie to a bank (since this response of yours was to the guy asking about a mortgage).

Nice, im glad you went back and re read what you wrote, its a pretty brutal picture you paint lol. And you're right, not trying is so much worse than trying and failing. Gl dude, i hope it works out for you, poker or otherwise.

Im making $144/hr playing live 2/5, 5/10/, & 10/20, with an 1100hr sample size. It is a wonderful lifestyle, the freedom is amazing. You 'work' whenever you eant, with no one to boss you around. Friend wants to grab drinks? Np take the day off. Cant be bothered playing today? Np, take the day off. The only problem with this lifestyle is managing ur money. Dont play pitgames, impulse buy, etc.

I'm self employed.

Wrong. The average worker doesn't have meaningful benefits....nor will they ever.

You're flat out wrong and the continuous spreading of these falsehoods is quite annoying.

You need to stop spreading such ill-informed info. within this thread. You haven't been right once. You're detracting from what could be an intelligent discussion.

Health Insurance in the US tidbit.....Also check out the US Census for graphs and data (facts).

The percentage of workers who got health insurance through their jobs fell from 60.4 percent in December 2007 to 55.8 percent in April 2011.

A report issued Tuesday by the Employee Benefit Research Institute said there had been a slight rise in the percentage of workers who had employment-based coverage in December 2009, but that increase disappeared, according to the most recent data studied.

The decline isn’t necessarily because fewer employers are offering some kind of health coverage. As of July 2011, about 90 percent of the employees who lacked work-based coverage said they didn’t have health insurance because of the cost.

.....

Since the 1980s, except for a few years in the 1990s, the share of individuals without health insurance coverage has increased.

Over most of that period, the percentage of workers offered health benefits had been increasing, but the take-up rate had been declining, according to previous research by Fronstin.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/22...#storylink=cpy

Average cost of college tuition and fees (2011-2012)

In its most recent survey of college pricing, the College Board reports that a "moderate" college budget for an in-state public college for the 2011–2012 academic year averaged $21,447. A moderate budget at a private college averaged $42,224. But what makes up these charges? Of course, financial aid might help cover some costs, but it is good to know how they add up to a total "cost of attendance" figure provided by the college.


http://www.collegedata.com/cs/conten...rticleId=10064

Retirement plan trends in the US over the past 30 years can be found here

http://www.ebri.org/publications/ben...fm?fa=retfaq14

Stick to drums - you suck at posting.

Rumor, there are lots of questions for the 20 something player. Mine was about the later times in life, and yours is in the earlier to middle years. You have great ideas in your answer, and that takes committment as well as planning.

The point is, do the "professional" players have a plan, or do they just play poker? The same can be said/asked in any profession from CEO to greeting at Wal Mart.

I'm just curious if the player posting here have a plan, and are preparing for their future? Soon these "kids" will be wondering how they are going to buy their first home, pay for a wedding, support a family, and get through their later years with some intergrity..

Wtf is this supposed to mean?

The thing for me is I almost don't want to be too comfortable financially. I make about 2k a month in residual income from my work as a contractor and the more I work and grind by doing what I do, the more money I make each and every month. I have been playing a LOT of poker the past 3 months (my thread is in PGC for those interested, playing 8/16 LHE) and have been doing very well so far. And haven't been building my regular business much at all from where it is right now.

I want to continue to grow my business to where I am at 10k a month in residual income coming in, but then I think to myself, my true passion poker won't be as fun because the results won't matter as much because I would be really financially secure.. So maybe I only want to have 3 or 4k coming in a month and make more of my money from playing poker.

I mean I can bust my ass at my job and have really good money coming in but that just doesn't appeal to me like being able to make money by hustling other people in poker to generate good income.

I've realized my happiness is in the form of being able to make decent money off others by outwitting them. I'm thinking it is almost a napoleon complex type thing with me because I'm not really good at much else. I have played about 400 hours in the past 3 months and am running at 25 bucks an hour in that timeframe at 8/16 limit. I would be way happier making 20- 25$ an hour and crushing 8/16 than making twice that at a regular job where someone is paying me what I am worth to them.

I want the winnings and losing to matter to a degree. I want to feel awesome about making a few hundred bucks in a session and I want it to hurt somewhat to lose a few hundred. I personally need that sort of edge to my life to keep myself from becoming bored.

It means planning for the future, and not being broke at 50/55/60 years old...

Making a decent living at 20/25/30 and not planning for the future can be an ugly proposition, with less than desireable consequences later in life. Even though today some have the freedom everyone would like.

I own a company, we provide the benefits that I'm speaking of. The benefits packages at tech companies, finance companies, insurance companies etc, etc. are quite competitive.

But yes, Walmart does offer healthcare coverage for their workers (until recently, even for part-time workers), and a 401k plan:

The most popular plan for employees for “quality coverage” will cost $15 per pay period, every other week, an increase of $4 per pay period from last year, Rossiter said.

http://careers.walmart.com/company-benefits/

If I had a choice between playing poker for a living, and working at Walmart, it's not even close, imo. I'd give playing poker a shot.

If you really think that Walmart is the metric to measure things by, I'm not sure what to tell you. Not many people go to college in order to have a career path at Walmart...

well said

make more than i spend every month and invest the difference - was doing this for many years before i became "poker Pro" so my retirement plan hasn't really changed

Uh, considering I said the average public school tuition + room board was in the ballpark of $20k/year, gee, thanks for proving my point.

My point was the average kid should consider sacrifices in light of that, like going to community college, staying at home, and getting a part time job.

Your comparison is poker pro to menial laborer. I'm not disputing those folks have limited benefits.

But that's not the better comparison. If you're good enough to beat 2/5 for a meaningful win rate you likely have skills that are translatable to a real job if you get some education. And those jobs generally have benefits. LOL at teachers, nurses, business people mostly NOT having benefits.

You're biased because you're self-employed. For you benefits mean foregoing cash comp.