22 years old, right? What are your other career options. You have six months, right? Use the time to search for a comparable job or speak to someone about career transition skills. You have your whole life ahead of you, so start trying to make something of it.

Poker is not an easy career, and most people fail. Plus, you will encounter times that you can only imagine where desperation and failure is only a card away....those ineveitable downswings. Take a look at the threads "Many people are delusional about how hard it is to enter the real world after poker" and "Should I be a poker pro" as was already mentioned. Once you go down this road, you should be prepared for what it really takes to become and maintain success.

There are also threads, too many to mention, in the "Poker Goals and Challenges" forum. Try searching there to get an idea of other's people's journeys. And don't just focus on the successful ones, the exaggerated ones, and the easy times. Read inbetween the lines and understand that any career takes time and practice to get there. Many people have already given you good advice here, advice you may not want to hear, but getting another job is the best answer. You can still play on the side, and not have to worry about grinding for your rent.

If you do decide to try it, be prepared to experience mixed results at first. Poker is not an all up and up road, you WILL have times where you lose, even when playing the best game. The emotional challenges will be your toughest battle to win. Best of luck in your search.

I don't know how anyone can consider playing professionally without at least a $10k roll, a padded life roll of at least 6 months of living expenses, a long history of winning at a level high enough to keep things cycling, and the mental stability of not being completely miserable after mass-grinding and/or the inevitable downswings. This is a question I'm sure 2+2 has discussed ad nauseam, and no offense to the OP, but I just don't understand how people can be so naive.

Wait... you need 1.5k a month, but 500 or 700 is the salary for an engineer? wtf?

Well, it is going to depend on the person. I mean if you're 30 years old and have a mortgage and kids, your safety net should be a lot bigger and softer than a 19 year old who lives with their parents.

But yeah, OP is being naive.

The lower the local income, the harder it is to replace a poker BR from other means. If he's in San Francisco and can pick up piecework JavaScript work for $80/hour, a lost NL400 BR is whatevs. If you're in a place where a working engineer (and there is high unemployment among those) makes $500/month, coming up with a second NL50 BR seems nigh impossible. Gambling is a tougher career for people who can't come up with money in other ways. Ruin = homeless in that case. For a web developer in Santa Clara, Ruin = less expensive sushi, tonight.

Via the forums, I've known a few people who live in low cost of living countries who ground out locally excellent lifestyles even in the micros. They tended to be pretty decent players before they went pro. I'd say that it stunted most of their games, because they had to make a bunch of decisions about playing to pay bills vs. improving as players. Their BR was immensely valuable, as it represented the net worth of well off people in their neighborhood. As a new player who needs to learn, build a BR, and then move up to stakes where he can earn a living, I think the OP is making a huge ask.

The harder your BR is to replace, the more you have to cherish it. You have to make conservative decisions. Even for a young kid, if you go homeless and lose your job the day you lose a few all-ins, conservative BRM becomes important.

This +1