I am making a terrible decision to turn pro

I am very nervous about this decision, but also excited. Obviously, I love poker. Go ahead and tell me I'm insane and stupid. I know it already. But I have to give it a try.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Here is my situation.

1. I am not looking to get rich, just looking to make enough to pay my bills while I find a great job. (Which may not come any time soon. I'm aiming high).

2. I have very few expenses. I only need about $2,000 a month living in LA.

3. I am getting laid off from my job and all other offers have been crappy. Will collect unemployment.

4. Without unemployment I can only last 2 months, not using my bankroll.

5. So far I play live games only. $100NL. I plan on playing full time, mostly on the weekends when the tourists, partiers, and drunks play. Btw, the live games I play are very very easy.

6. My bankroll is currently $3,700.

7. Here's the scary part. I have only been playing poker since last November. And I have only been playing NL since April. But I play a solid tight aggressive game and started with a $600 bankroll.

Is it possible? Or will I have to find crap work in a couple of weeks to pay my bills?

Sorry. I may have posted this in the wrong forum. Excuse the error.

The swings can get brutal in cash games and I don't think you have the time to learn SnGs or limit.

It can be done, but I don't know anything about how well you can play. You probably wont be able to nut-peddle your way to success.

-'rilla

It's possible. Carlos Mortenson did it. It's worth a shot I guess, but it can get ugly in a hurry. The thing that worries me is that you call yourself tight aggressive. Is that strict? Show me a table full of tight aggressives, and I'll show you my high stack.

If you're just playing against drunk idiots and tourists all the time then go for it. Somehow I don't think that's all your going to encounter. If you start losing, and you don't know why, try mixing up your style. Stay unpredictable. Professional poker has very little to do with a starting hand chart.

Problem with live games is you just can't play that many hands. If you could two-table $100NL online with an average return of 10BB/100, then you're looking at roughly $20 an hour. That's $800 a 40-hour week - not too shabby, but what happens when you're in a downswing? Which, if you're pro for 9 months, could last, um, 9 months.

On the other hand, if you're the king on your live table and bringing 100BB/100, maybe you'll be fine. But your margin of error, combined with your lack of experience (even playing 24 hours a day for 3 months wouldn't teach you nearly enough to hold your own at medium-high limits), is ringing fairly hefty warning bells...

Only thing I would be worried about is how it will affect your decisions?

It is one thing to play poker as a hobby, trying to make money for a vacation, new car, new computer, or simply to make money (IE keep moving up in ranks and building a fat BR) But once you make the change to *Pro* and need to start relying on poker to pay the bills like rent, food, utilities, etc. it might become more stressful.

It seems all too easy to catch a bit of varience, drop a couple buy ins on someone that's there to GambOOl to start to feel the heat. Then all of a sudden your down from $3700 to 3k, know rent is coming up in a week, want to try and at least get that $700 back so that your BR doesn't take a big hit when you need to pay the bills. Then you've lost another buy in or 2 and start to play to make money.. not to lpay good poker.

I would sugest even a crummy part time job to help ease the preasure of bills and use poker as a way of suplementing your income until you can find a better job and can go back to BR building or saving for whatever you want.

I am in no way a pro, no plans on becoming a pro(yet), so might want to see what some of them say... these are just my random thoughts on the matter.

Here's a good perspective. A while back I had to pay some major bills so I cashed out like a grand and started my bankroll from scratch on PokerChamps. The $5NL table requires you to play tight aggressive to win, since everyone is loose passive (basically they all suck). At the $10NL table a good loose aggressive style takes the day, as the table is full of tight aggressives. At the $25NL 6max table tight aggressive gets eaten alive by all the loose aggressives. A tight passive style is more successful. You still have to play loose aggressive against the tight passives however. You have to start playing the player, and not the table.

If you understand that this is how it generally works, then you'll be fine. Play to the situation.

best advice if your determined to do it, is go ahead and do it, but be prepared to get a job immediately, more then likely you wont be able to sustain a decent living.

play alot of low buyin MTT, eventually you will win one and that will be a better boost to the BR

I eventually want to sustain myself from poker, but i intend to have a bankroll of $20-30K before i cut off other forms of income.

$3700.. good to play .50/1 nearly good to play 1/2, I think you could do it if you pick the right games. but i would suggest you look out for other job possabilities.. if you were to cop a nasty run that would put you in an awful posistion and if you have to start eating into your bankroll before you even get started then what do you do?

I hate to sound negative as i've had a fair bit of expeirience with people telling me i cant do things.. So i say go for it, just be prepared to fall back on that "crap work to pay the bills" temporarilly until you can get a firm grounding. If that does happen then deffinately absolutely dont give up on it.. you can do it Very Happy

*Last edited by bair on Thu, 23 Jun 2005, 11:00am; edited 2 times in total*

your bankroll isnt big enough to handle any downswing whatsoever, you havent been playing for long enough, you only know how to play ring games. you probably only know how to play hold em decently, if you want to be a professional live gambler you need to be proficient in other games as well IN MY OPINION. i consider myself proficient in 7cs, 7cs split, omaha, omaha h/l, and limit and NL hold em, and I still dont think I know enough to go pro. after i perfect card counting I may consider it if my bankroll is $20k~. What are you going to do when hold em isnt the game to play anymore? start over w/ a new game that you have no experience in?

i dont think youve ever played nl500...

its definitely a competent game, live or otherwise. i play live about 3 times a week (5/5) and some of the best players i know are there.

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I am making a terrible decision to turn pro