Right now I have two ****ty jobs that pay minimum wage (8.25) and I can work a max of 20 hours a week. This leaves me with a paycheck of about 300 every 2 weeks so about 600 a month. I go to school full-time this being my last year so that's the most I can work. I'm sure I can find another job that pays more but finding one that is going to be flexible with my schedule while giving me enough hours to live would be hard. My expenses per month are around 900-1,000 for everything so this stuff just isn't cutting it.

On to the poker. I've played a total of 43 hours with a $/hour of 18.04 over the past couple of months. (yes lolsamplesize) This has been for fun not really trying to grind or anything. I know I am better then the player pool and my play has improved dramatically since I first started playing live so I believe the hourly is doable.

I can play minimum 15 hours a week no problem if I wanted to which would be great if I could keep this hourly. I'm confident but also scared that I'm not as great as I think I am and will probably end up more broke than ever. Best part is I could make money while having fun.

What I would like to do is keep my jobs and test if I can do this thing but there just isn't enough time in the week I simply can't do school, jobs, gym and poker for enough volume.

If anyone has any suggestions I what I should do it would help me out a lot. Some way I can tell if this is even worth trying....

Graduate > keep yr job for 20 hrs/week and grind on the side.

Work the guaranteed job.

Work jobs, it's not close.

If poker is making you so much money over a long period of time that working your other jobs is COSTING you money, then yes, quit the other job. Play on the side if you can even afford it. What happens when you have a losing month? Do the bills just not get paid?

poker is the game that is easiest to do part-time and transition full when mega-profitable. The best time to play the fish are during non-working hours. Ever see a poker room at 11 am on a work day? Depressing I tell you.

If you need these jobs so badly, I wouldn't recommend playing poker. Variance will slap you one month (or more) and you're going to be in the hole and unable to make ends meet unfortunately.

43 hours at approximately 25 hands per hour would equal about 1075 hands.

Saying lolsample size doesn't come close to describe how bad it is to draw any conclusions about your ability to play good poker. And even if your current winrate is your true winrate, you are still going to be at the mercy of variance. Ask grinders who put in a lot of volume and they will tell you that they have seen 2-3k hand stretches where you get KK vs AA, set over set, sucked out on over and over again multiple times which would destroy you not just financially but also mentally.

Take everybody's advice here and stick with your jobs and grind poker when you can but definitely focus on your education first and foremost.

If you don't already I would recommend grinding some micro stakes online as well. You'll hit the long run that way much quicker as you can get in a lot more volume and the variance will likely humble you in a good way.

Best of luck.

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Having a losing month would mean I am unable to pay rent and other essential things which wouldn't be acceptable.

Any free time I have I'm going to try and put in some hours and if I have success then maybe I'll work less and play more without leaving my jobs.

Seems like you already made up your mind, but I'd pile on to also say there really isn't any dilemma. Take the job ainec.

You kind of buried the thing I consider important in the middle of other stuff. You're getting an education in something valuable? I'd really focus on that. You're paying for it on the side with a job? Great. People eat Ramen noodles, go into debt, and all kinds of stuff to get an education. They do so with good reason, having an education is valuable in life-changing ways. Don't focus on your minimum wage job, poker, or anything else. You could be talking a delta of millions of $, so it is worth investing.

You want valuable advice that can make your life many times better, let's talk about the career prospects of getting this education.

+1

In basically a week of playing, you've improved and confirmed your WR? Wat? No. Anyone who figures their $/hr over a 1K hand sample has no idea. No problem, there are millions of things in this world that I have no idea about. At the same time, I'd never consider making my rent contingent on one of those things.

Talk to us about this education thing. I like that you're getting one. Let's focus on that. Clearly your proirities should be
1) Education
2) Job
)
)
1 million) poker

Getting a degree (and preferably education on top of it) should be your goal.

Your two jobs seem low risk steady grind to secure your goal. Stay on the straight and narrow. If you can put in few hours on poker without risking A) education B) jobs that pay the bills you need to pay to get A).. play few hours of poker as a hobby. .. do not risk the steady paycheck.. do not put money on the table that would risk A) or B).

stay with the jobs

doesn't work like this..

if you're good, it's pretty easy to not having losing months playing micro stakes over decent samples, lets say 100k/month, which should be pretty easy to achieve, and you obv would be making way more than $600 a month playing 25nl / 50nl , even 10nl fwiw

i would say, if you're really sure you can beat the games, go for it, would be making way more money per hour

He's got a 43 hour sample of live poker saying he's sure he's a winner. With that, you're advising him to become homeless.

Well, he obviously has no idea.

But what MartimC said is true, if you can put big monthly volumes (>100k) in poker and if you have a >5bb/100 winrate at 50nl then you can make money and be pretty sure not to lose at the end of the month.
At the moment you have absolutely no idea whether you are a winner or a loser. Keep your jobs.

I would finish the degree for sure, but I wonder if your current jobs help with future employment. Are these positions related to your degree, or are they strong networking opportunities? If not, you can definitely do something like food service to make more $/hr and many corporate restaurants offer benefits. This would ideally give you more time at the tables while not sacrificing "regular" monthly income.

Work towards something you want, and unless you have people depending on you for income, now is the time to figure out what that is.

If OP can beat 25nl at 5bb/100 and puts in 100,000 hands a month that's 50 buyins made per month - $1,250.

And if he can beat 50nl at 5bb/100 and play 100k hands/month that's $2,500/mo.

And at 100nl that's $5,000/mo..

And at 1000nl that's $50,000/month!!!

Think you'd struggle to get in 100,000 hands a month at 1000nl and it's pretty obvious OP can't beat that limit anyway. He might be able to beat 25nl though and if he can then it's surely worth considering his options.

He's making $600 a month right now. 100k hands at 5bb/100 at 25nl would be doubling his monthly income, and that's assuming he gets no rakeback. With some rakeback it'd be even better.

It isn't obvious that OP can beat any limit. He's played a laughably small sample size of live cash games... that's it. Nothing in there indicates that he can beat anything.. let alone 25nl.

You have this terribly flawed logic in your head (based on this post and your riggie posts) where you present someone winning $x in one month then you can simply extrapolate that out for all months. OP isn't making $600 per month.. OP has made like $750 across several months. All this without the stress of having to win money or he doesn't eat and has no place to live.

To blindly come in here and say oh.. just play 25nl for 100k hands and win at 5bb/100 (without knowing if he can beat 25nl, can win at that rate, or can play that number of hands in a month) is giving advice that is just as bad as go play 100k hands of 1knl/month and you'll win 50k/month.

Note that my post said if OP can beat the limit. I've no idea if he can or not (with that said, there's only one way to find out...).

But if he can, he'd be doubling his income playing 25nl compared to working the day jobs.

Plus those kind of jobs are 10 a penny, if poker doesn't work out he can always go get another one.

Really. You've read ops posts and you've "no idea" if he can or can't beat 25nl. Poker is a game of probabilities. Based on the information you have, you are supposed to make educated +EV decisions.

Based on the information I have, I think it highly unlikely op can beat 25nl period.

As to op putting 100K volume a month and beating 25nl for 5bb/100, I'd say on what ****ing planet????????

Which maybe explains why Ice Wolf, was rightly taking the p1ss in his first post (or being ironic/sarcastic if you need the explanation)

Op...this

and only this. Play poker for fun, because it is fun.

How are you making due right now? Maybe you should try cutting down your monthly nut?

If your jobs are active or physical in nature than maybe you don't need the gym, there's plenty of workouts you can do on your own as well.

If the places you go to like work and school are not far away you can bike it instead of paying gas and insurance, if you have a car, or save on public transportation if that's how you get around, plus you get extra exercise as well this way if you get rid of the gym membership.

If you have cable then maybe you can get rid of that too since you're quite busy anyways, tons of ways to watch your programming for free. There are also cell phone services now that use wifi and cost alot less than major carriers. I pay just $10 a month on RW. Try to find ways to cut your monthly nut and don't quit your jobs.

Trust me the moment you go on a downswing and cant pay your bills, poker will cease to be fun and be a cause for great stress instead.

Just play on the side and build a healthy bankroll, continue to practice and figure out your true winrate after a substantial samplesize.

This, it's a rare person indeed who is still having fun when losing money when they need to win in order to eat.