All lies. We're all pro poker players in this thread, making millions upon millions of dollars a year. We just don't want you getting in on the action ok?

basically this. i never went to college but i would have definitely dropped out had i gone and continued to play poker but im not a school person (hence me not going in the first place) and I can log 200k hands/month at msnl which is some seriously life changing money and when people start these threads I always say that poker may not be around or profitable in 5 years but college will still be there. and if you are playing stakes worth while and dont suck with money you should be able to afford it when you are done with poker. if you can invetst and save a decent amount of money a year you'll love yourself when you are 35. and lol at some of the comments in this thread. just because you arent in college have a job doesnt mean you'll never see a girl. and you can play just a tad lower than railheaven and still make life changing money. but yeah if you make 100 bucks an hour at 200nl just stay in school and play as much as you can and take shots more aggressively so when you graduate maybe you are beating msnl and then you can consider going pro.

when i was about to leave for college, i already knew in my heart that i wanted to give an artistic/creative career a shot before "giving up" and just getting a regular job in my field and making money. i went on and got a degree in materials engineering. after college i gave my dream a shot and actually have been running a successful business for twelve years now. the business has nothing to do with my degree. however, attending college gave me two very important things:

1) it taught me how to think, how to solve problems, and how to deal with people. i "grew up" in college. i became a responsible individual, and i was driven to succeed in my studies because it felt good to succeed. that said, i was very interested in my field. if you are truly "bored" in university, i would probably suggest finding something that does interest you. there has to be something!

2) it put my mind more at ease about my future. i knew that i had a backup plan. while the backup plan was not 100% ideal - i had done a few internships at some of the jobs i would be up for in my field, and i found that i did not like the jobs themselves nor the companies/people that i would be working with - it was a safety nonetheless. i made a pact with myself that i would give it a shot, and if it didnt work, i would at least know i tried, and i would fall back on the "regular job". luckily i succeeded, but if i had not, i would still be able to live comfortably.

i have a few friends that are in situations where whenever they play poker, they really get hurt financially if they lose. theyre not rolled for the games they play. i cant imagine playing under these conditions; it seems like pure misery. to HAVE to win to pay the bills, i mean. so, unless you are crushing the game and consistently winning enough to live comfortably on, and have been doing so for long enough to have at least 6 months of expenses saved, dropping out would be a horrible idea imo

I did it

i wouldnt do it. but if there is any time to hone your game its in college. just too much variance and not as much fun to grind as it is to gamble for fun.

dropping out of college to pursue a professional poker career is a terrible idea unless you are already a substantial winning player over a large sample size. if you aren't and would like to be, then study poker while you are studying for your degree. if poker takes off, ask this question again.

i play music and obviously wanted to be a rock star when i was younger. i had mild success at a really early age but was humbled quickly and realized that i could not rely on music for a living as the chance for success is very slim so i began looking into things that if my music venture failed, i could fall back on. obviously having a degree is an excellent way to have something to fall back on. even if it is simply a liberal arts degree, a bachelors degree is basically saying, unless very specific for certain graduate degrees, that you can make a long-term commitment and finish it, and that is very important for employers these days. saying that you can grind 15hr days at 1.5bb/100 playing 24 tables is not the same.

Thanks for the answers , i have huge respect for some of the users in this forum thats why i think their opinion is important.
answers like "you ll never find a real life girl again" etc are off topic but kinda funny
The truth is i didnt expect to hear alot of answers like " yea go for it etc " but its like 99.9% are : "DONT DO IT".
anyway keep it going i found some answers very interesting.


*just to say i am already a winning player 1,5 year now thats how i pay for things in life but I AM NOT considering seriously something like this i just made a general question.

The main thing is, if u try to be a "poker pro" before going trough university, get degree and stuff, u might **** that up for life. Now, if u first get a degree, u won't **** up ur poker skills. Poker will always be there, as ur willingness to play it.

It's much easyer and safer to first get a degree and than pursuit the poker dream than the other way around. Obv there are exeptions, but they a rare.

What I mean is: u will aways have the energy to try to be a poker pro, while the energy needed to get a degree will eventually fade away with time. Use the energy to get a degree while u still have it.

A lot of the most successful players in poker got most of their current success off image, marketing and non-poker play. Yes they did have to win to get there I concede. Durrrr sold out because he had too - he finally realized that hey even if I lose at least I still have income to live off of.

Yeah, but players like Durrrr are the absolute exeption, not the rule.

I think that if someone wanna chase the poker dream, he\she has to be 110% commited to it. Doing scholl at the same time would get one thing in the way of the other and f up both. Again, the exeptions might suceed at both, but they still the exeption.

I know very few live/online pro's that aren't in permanent make up the costs to travel to events is redic high your travel budget will almost mirror your buy ins.

while i dont disagree that the time exists for this i highly doubt more than some fraction of a percent of people do this. id put the % of pros who even play this much a week (playing, not studying/watching vids/2+2) at under 25%. if someone in school is knocking out 120 hour months at poker they will be nanonoko style machines if they go pro.

I don't really agree. I've had some of my best poker results when in high school and college. You aren't a reg, so people have worse reads. The swings seem less consequential when you are playing less, and you enjoy the time you play more. I think this is especially true for an MTTer, and works perfectly since Sunday is the most profitable day. You don't have to chase a dream. Just playing, working on your game when you play, and enjoying it is worth a lot and should be enough to paint an accurate picture of whether you have what it takes or not.

Jeff

I don't recommend it because a diploma should always be your fall back plan.

solid post

finish school first, get your degree, playing poker on the side and build a bankroll (and test whether you are or are not made for the game) and after graduation, decide.

'poker will always be here' and 'don't do it, poker is drying up and might be dead in 5 years' are almost mutually exclusive statements ... just saying

def graduate obv, unless you make like 500k/year after taxes and even then there are a lot of reasons to stay in college

after graduating, meh, depends on a lot of things. i can see travelling the world for years while playing poker to sustain yourself, saving nothing, and it being worth it. i can see playing poker, winning 500k a year, and regretting it, depends on how you manage yourself and what you want from life.

what you are always gonna regret is playing poker, win 100-150k, and not developing yourself in any way though

lol 500k after taxes is a crazzzzzy high bar. it also matters how far into college, how good your college is, what you are studying etc etc. i really just cant imagine winning 500k a year and regretting it. obv there will be negative aspects but i cant ever imagine being like wow i wish i didnt make 500k and made 75k at a normal job and had a more normal life. but part of that is because if i made that much (~250k ater taxes) id probably invest 100k of that which is a massive boon to your financial security esp if you are young. if i had that kind of money id feel like even if poker ****ed up my life id be able to make a clean break and be able to do whatever/go wherever without having to be worried about paying the bills.

what barryg said

Don't know if this has been said yet.
But with the new rushtables, you no longer have to choose between poker and a study.

stay in school

Its possible only when you are a high-stakes player or mid-high hu player.

Playing midstakes for a living is a full time job now, winrates are significantly lower then few years ago but rakeback deals are much better and basicly the majority of midstakes pros make money mostly from rakeback and you cant get a great rakeback deal (SNE on Stars is probably the best now) unless you play a ton. The bigest winers in Stars 1/2 NLHE make 60-110% of their money from bonuses.

I dont think its possible to grind lots of tables for 40+ hours a week and get a good degree.

Ask a question that makes sense, kiddo.

Is there a guarantee that poker will still be fun for you in 10 years, even if the games don't change? Only correct answer - no. So get something to fall back on. Finish Uni. I didn't even mention the fun you'd miss if you dropped out.

/ Dumb thread.

if someones needs to ask the question if it is hard to become a successful poker player, they should obviously not drop out. you don't drop out to become a successful player, you drop out because you are a successful player and you feel like you would be missing an opportunity to make a lot of money by not playing full time for the few years you would be in school.

finish university, then try poker