Who doesn’t? well, me for one. Actually that’s a slight exaggeration - I love poker - I just don’t see my long term future in poker and as such, I’m currently studying a degree in psychology. In the end I may well spend several years studying and decide poker is for me, but the bottom line is that as will all things in life, it’s nice to have options.

So you want to play poker professionally? Well, first of all can you actually beat the games as an amateur? Really?? Hmmm. What are you basing that on? The last three years, or the last three months? The last tournament you played, or that big donkament you luckboxed two years ago? This is possibly the most important part of playing poker for a living; not so much that you are a winning player (obviously this is a consideration ^^), but that you are completely honest with yourself. You have to be 100% candid with yourself, 100% of the time or forget it, it just won’t happen. As human beings, we have a natural tendency to filter out our failures and remember only the times we were successful and won, and then base our self schema on that winning moment, however lucky or statistically insignificant that particular result may be. So, look at your poker career to date holistically, and if you can satisfy that requirement, then you might actually have a chance of being able to make a living from poker.

So we are a winning player, now what? As we all know poker is in a constant state of flux which requires us to be aware of all the new information entering the market, and how this is affecting the player pool. We need to spend at least as much time reading, observing, analyzing and number crunching as we spend at the tables – at least. My recommendation would be to spend two hours theory for one hour practice, so that’s probably six hours a day. Do I do this? No. have I done this in the past? Well, not always, but I have on occasion. Over the last year I have become very lazy in this area, but then my results have been for the most part very solid, and I’m reluctant to spend too much time on theory when I’m playing well and winning – why? Well, does a golfer mess with his swing when he is very successful and winning everything? No, but that’s not to say it’s not the right thing to do. As a professional we are looking to make as much money as possible, and while we are satisfying that requirement, then I’m happy to go with it – this might cost me in the long term, it might not, but this particular style works for me at the moment. There is no blueprint of what is right or wrong in this area; in theory I should be still working hard at my game away from the tables, in practice my results are very good and I’m half way through a semester, so meh – anyway, what’s the point in playing poker for a living if we can’t allow ourselves a little flexibility ^^

However, regardless of whether we are putting the hours in we should be, becoming a professional poker player requires AT LEAST as much dedication as becoming a doctor, and needless to say the career prospects are not nearly as good. And let’s face it, if any sane girl has the option of dating a card player or a doctor…. Well, if you can’t figure out which horse to back there then you really are in trouble, but the point is that poker isn’t some kind of get-rich-quick-scheme where we just need a couple of months run good and we have made it. It requires patience, dedication, lots of other adjectives and a huge dollop of hard work; not to mention a sprinkling of luck. If you don’t apply yourself 100% to the profession, then again forget it and go to law school or something.

So we have good results, we work hard away from the tables - what else can we do to improve? Well, personally I think a healthy lifestyle is imperative. Lucky for me my girlfriend is both a qualified personal trainer and has a master’s degree in nutrition. However if you don’t have that luxury, then make sure you have gym membership, are getting some good advice and you sort that diet out. Drugs and alcohol? everything in moderation. However I don’t think it’s a coincidence that since I all but gave up drink that my results have shown a marked improvement. Take that for what it’s worth. I also think it’s vital that you have a good quality of life away from the tables. Poker offers excellent flexibility, so if you have always wanted to climb Kilimanjaro, run the London marathon or take dance classes make sure you do it. Personally I find boxing excellent. It releases tension, provides discipline, keeps you in great shape and gets you out of that chair. It doesn’t matter what you pick, just make sure you enjoy it, it gets you out of the house and it takes your mind off poker.

I could (and frequently do) go on for hours about playing poker for a living, but this is a 3000 milestone so ill leave it at a length people can read in five minutes, and hopefully give them food for thought. Just bear in mind that poker is a very tough, solitary career, so be mindful of all your options before you consider doing it for a living.

And ofc most importantly, run good

great post, 1st

Good times Elrazor. Thanks for doing this.

As I work long hours at the bank and really love playing poker, I often find myself dreaming of a career free of time and place. Poker would be perfect.

I'd like to ask a few questions:

1) How important do you think reading 2p2 is? (posting & analyzing hands, seeing what new is up etc)

2) Do you have friends talk you constantly talk strategy with? (housemate, chatting in AIM etc)

3) Do you get coached frequently? How much time do you spend time watching instructional poker videos?

4) How much weight do you put on rakeback when you decide on which you play? Is it a factor at all? I would think this is major consideration as you as a professional player / entrepreneur must maximize your incoming cash flow.


...as this is not a well, I'd appriciate if other pros would share their thoughts and views too.

good post. to be a full time player is very very very hard. very few can actually pull it off


unless u run hot on sunday and bink the millions

its a hard way to make an easy living.

when you play poker and make decent money at it, your friends envy you and think you have "the life". They are right, but for the wrong reasons. they think you have the life because you can sit at home profit from something you enjoy. they think you have the life because you make money from your "hobby" and can work whenever you want. They are right that you have the life, but the reason you have it is not because you work two hours a day. the reason you have it is not because you have fun playing, its because playing is only fun when you win, and you only win once you have put in the hard work behind the scenes. studying poker isn't fun, i'd rather smoke weed all day, but winning is fun, so we study. working 2 hours a day isn't the life, $$$=the life, and for that you better be working six.
you don't have the life
but you have the opportunity to live your dream
and that is what they envy.
back to work.

Good post.

.

EUROLINX! bastards. lost 5k there too

depends on the girl too. lotta girls would rather go for the ride with a poker player/ travel etc. than settle down with a boring doctor.

thanks again buddy!
and good luck moving up

Well, i guess thats part of the problem - for a grinder like me, im stuck in-front of a PC for the majority of the time, and in all fairness have no desire to be a tv sit-n-go donk or travel playing the circuit. Even if i did, i guess its a huge sausage fest and the small number of girls who do hang around are mostly following the money.

nice post

i have taken some shots at $3/6, and..... nah! ill continue to sit in if i can find huge value, but for the most part im happy at PLO100 and 200

oh yeah that was another question...so you can actually make a decent living just playing plo100 and plo200? seems so at least

great post

most def, few do though

Just one final thought on reflection. Obviously these are just a few words about playing for a living, but possibly the biggest hurdle to overcome in making it is self doubt. i don't think it matters how long you have played, how many hands you have had xbb/100 win rate, or how many times you have gone through a downswing, when things start to go bad you will always have spells of self doubt and crisis of confidence. Its incredibly difficult to sit at your PC day after day watching your Ev line steadily dive, and no matter what you do nothing can change this. Nothing. You just have to accept that this is all part of the job description, get your head down and plough through it. I only wish it was as easy as it sounds. Ultimately, this is the difference between the average players and the good players; anyone can win when they run hot but its dealing with the tough times, when you lose session after session, week after week, that really sorts the wheat from the chaff.

yeah, i mean i reckon you can make a living at PLO50, maybe even PLO25 if you have a solid work ethic - i guess that in part depends on whether you have to pay tax on your winnings, but certainly if you don't i reckon you can make a modest income with little risk at these stakes.

cheers for the read. and you can make a living at plo10, it jsut depends on ow you define 'living' and also how much volume/winrate you are capable of. Greed is the biggest downfall of poker players, myself included, one needs ot learn about soul, and tightening up ones NUTZ, as every kind of temptation in life translates to tilt at a poker table. Weakness, needs to be crushed. Also one needs to take adv of the unsavoury and downlooked options which i wont mention or influience for they are taboo but they make a huge difference in terms of roll building and profitability.

ROFLCOPTER @ Mt. hinting that using substances will make you a better poker player

not at all, but i will advocate, learning how to control them would. weed and losing a buy in are pretty simlar stimulus. Cocaine and winning an mtt are also pretty similar stimulus. Anyway lets not derail the thread about drugs, my post repped something alot broader, or at least i tried to. Oh and the negative *******************, again I didnt want to go that way, so learn to read between the lines, and pless dont stereotype me into a wreckhead, for i am not, as i have control (90% of the time anyway)

Cocaine blocks dopamine and noradrenaline re-uptake into the pre-synaptic cell; marijuana activates anandamide receptors. I guess you could hypothesize that winning a big flip might stimulate the production of noradrenaline, however if it did then you could equally argue that producing such a chemical response suggests that you are emotionally attached to the outcome and as such are susceptible to symptoms of addiction, which will ultimately affect your cognitive processing.

I know when i am playing well, i don't even bother to check whether i have won a hand on an all in; i just shove and get on with other tables, next time i go back to that table will be when the next hand has been dealt.

Hell no.

LOL op is obviously a fish...

addiction is craving, craving should be harnessed like some horses onto a chariot, its why its there. dunno how else addiction matters here. emotional attatchment is desire, The flux of money is the same as time ofcourse you are emotionally attatched and you cannot surely beleive you are not. The problem is not attachment to results as they come and can be observed and ignored, but placing actual boundaries and expectation on them. wtf tho ???? 'cognitive processing?' wat does that mean? arrhythmic? too stoned



this only works if you are playing so many tables you can't keep track of stacks (as you only lag the knowledge of result) and maybe where win rate suffers heaviest decline per volume... Also depends how you focus, spread over the combined roll on screen or moving attention from pot to pot, tiled or stacked or two tiles of stacks- yadda