Thinking of going Pro. Looking for feedback from those who made the switch.

Makwa said:

Heh, he's an Internet idiot, I know the type.

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mommies basement / 4 chan right?

Let's where should we start, Poker in my opinion isn't "Gamboling" if you are skilled enough and don't let your emotions get in the way. Some people tend to think its "gamboling" but it's really not, if you are trying to accomplish something that's reasonable and don't have much to lose then its worth taking a short. I think mr Zachvac (aka math genius) covered the numbers very nicely and I do agree with him on moving up a limits a little. I think maybe start at 1/2 and then move up to 2/4 and etc, and if you are doing good at it, then great for you. If it doesn't work out, play poker as for fun and do it part time.
I think its a good idea you came to consult with us, you will have few a$$holes sometimes, which I think nobody has a right to judge someone they don't know. if you were someone that has never had a job and no education or anything like that, then yes I definitely wouldn't suggest it.
But you seem like an intillgent person and since you said you can live off what you got for half of month without a problem, I think you should use 4-5 months to test yourself. If you lose to much, then go ahead and stop, also don't quit to fast, give it sometime.
After those 5 months are over, which I think is a good amount of time and good amount of hands to tell, you should think about it and make your decision, ask yourself
can I live off this and enjoy my life, have extra money for fun stuff?
do I have enough time to do other things, in your case ride motorcycles?
do I want to continue doing this or should I go back to working?
can i handle the mental part?
Basically if you don't have much to lose, give it a shot and if you have a back up plan, which you do, its not a bad idea to try like I said.

Guys enough!!! we are not in school anymore, cut your shit or take it somewhere else (excuse my french please). This forum is not for this type of crap.

bob_tiger said:

Let's where should we start, Poker in my opinion isn't "Gamboling" if you are skilled enough and don't let your emotions get in the way. Some people tend to think its "gamboling" but it's really not, if you are trying to accomplish something that's reasonable and don't have much to lose then its worth taking a short. I think mr Zachvac (aka math genius) covered the numbers very nicely and I do agree with him on moving up a limits a little. I think maybe start at 1/2 and then move up to 2/4 and etc, and if you are doing good at it, then great for you. If it doesn't work out, play poker as for fun and do it part time.
I think its a good idea you came to consult with us, you will have few a$$holes sometimes, which I think nobody has a right to judge someone they don't know. if you were someone that has never had a job and no education or anything like that, then yes I definitely wouldn't suggest it.
But you seem like an intillgent person and since you said you can live off what you got for half of month without a problem, I think you should use 4-5 months to test yourself. If you lose to much, then go ahead and stop, also don't quit to fast, give it sometime.
After those 5 months are over, which I think is a good amount of time and good amount of hands to tell, you should think about it and make your decision, ask yourself
can I live off this and enjoy my life, have extra money for fun stuff?
do I have enough time to do other things, in your case ride motorcycles?
do I want to continue doing this or should I go back to working?
can i handle the mental part?
Basically if you don't have much to lose, give it a shot and if you have a back up plan, which you do, its not a bad idea to try like I said.

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Well said Bob ^^^ and Eugenius heres a link to some threads from the past that you may find interesting about others doing the same as you.

The link will show many threads about wanting to go pro
Poker Forums - Search Results

JAMILE1 said:

Well said Bob ^^^ and Eugenius heres a link to some threads from the past that you may find interesting about others doing the same as you.

The link will show many threads about wanting to go pro
Poker Forums - Search Results

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Thank you (spam post)

bob_tiger said:

Guys enough!!! we are not in school anymore, cut your shit or take it somewhere else (excuse my french please). This forum is not for this type of crap.

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Wot crap?

Makwa said:

Wot crap?

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Let's all just stay cool, you had your say and we all know how you feel so lets leave it at that and all be cool headed

Mahalo

Makwa said:

Wot crap?

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I will be smarter than you, because I'm a good poker player who doesn't tilt. With that smart comment you are trying to get me to post something rude back, and that's what you want, well guess what? Wrong, not happening, I'm done with you, go find someone else to argue with, if you want to play heads up for rolls on full tilt let me know, I will sit with you in any game from 1/2 up to 10/20.

Wow, Makwa, you need to take it down a peg or two. It's one thing to offer advice from the other side of the coin, it's another to be insulting about it.

I don't think you've read all of Eugenius' posts in their entirety here. He is a software engineer, and can get a good job when he feels it's time to do so. He has a clear plan of attack, and if it doesn't work, he's prepared to quit the scene. True, his sample size is not big enough to give a clear overall picture. He realizes this but is willing to take a calculated risk.

Good luck to Eugenius. Please keep us updated on your progress.

juiceeQ said:

Wow, Makwa, you need to take it down a peg or two. It's one thing to offer advice from the other side of the coin, it's another to be insulting about it.

I don't think you've read all of Eugenius' posts in their entirety here. He is a software engineer, and can get a good job when he feels it's time to do so. He has a clear plan of attack, and if it doesn't work, he's prepared to quit the scene. True, his sample size is not big enough to give a clear overall picture. He realizes this but is willing to take a calculated risk.

Good luck to Eugenius. Please keep us updated on your progress.

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....and this is why she is a mod here ( nice play JQ, I meant nice quality post, always like seeing those from mods )

Sounds like you have a good situation to make a switch. Just realise that you *probably* aren't going to make much of a living of 200NL live. In order to get the same $$/hr as online, you need much higher stakes in order to be able to compensate for the multitables/extra hands per hr of online. If you include your vegas session/s in your table, you'd probably get a much better idea of how you will run. It hardly matters if you were a worse player in vegas, because there will be times that you will be playing amazing and be losing money. Even if you only pegged on 8 hrs for vegas, your $$/hr would be cut by half and such a win rate does not make for much of a living.

But far far far far far far too small sample size to tell. I'd keep playing, seeing how you run and move up in stakes if you really want to play live poker.

bob_tiger said:

Let's where should we start, Poker in my opinion isn't "Gamboling" if you are skilled enough and don't let your emotions get in the way. Some people tend to think its "gamboling" but it's really not, if you are trying to accomplish something that's reasonable and don't have much to lose then its worth taking a short. I think mr Zachvac (aka math genius) covered the numbers very nicely and I do agree with him on moving up a limits a little. I think maybe start at 1/2 and then move up to 2/4 and etc, and if you are doing good at it, then great for you. If it doesn't work out, play poker as for fun and do it part time.
I think its a good idea you came to consult with us, you will have few a$$holes sometimes, which I think nobody has a right to judge someone they don't know. if you were someone that has never had a job and no education or anything like that, then yes I definitely wouldn't suggest it.
But you seem like an intillgent person and since you said you can live off what you got for half of month without a problem, I think you should use 4-5 months to test yourself. If you lose to much, then go ahead and stop, also don't quit to fast, give it sometime.
After those 5 months are over, which I think is a good amount of time and good amount of hands to tell, you should think about it and make your decision, ask yourself
can I live off this and enjoy my life, have extra money for fun stuff?
do I have enough time to do other things, in your case ride motorcycles?
do I want to continue doing this or should I go back to working?
can i handle the mental part?
Basically if you don't have much to lose, give it a shot and if you have a back up plan, which you do, its not a bad idea to try like I said.

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Gamble- bling, to stake or risk money, or anything of value, on the outcome of something involving chance.

Thats according to ole Webster's Dictionary. Poker may not be 100% luck based, but it is still gambling. I understand where you guys are coming from though.

As for Eugenius, if you have a juicy 1/2 game in your town and you are committed to putting hours in, then you can make a decent amount a week. By hours i mean if anything you should put together 10+ hour sessions.

thasauce7 said:

Gamble- bling, to stake or risk money, or anything of value, on the outcome of something involving chance.

Thats according to ole Webster's Dictionary. Poker may not be 100% luck based, but it is still gambling. I understand where you guys are coming from though.

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By this definition, getting out of bed is gambling. Eating something is gambling, you're gambling that it's not going to kill you. Long-term poker playing is as much a gamble as that. It's as much of gambling as casinos gamble on their slot machines with the edge. Remember for a winning player as number of hands approaches infinity, chance of losing approaches 0. Obviously you can't play an infinite amount of hands, but you can play enough so that the odds of you losing are equivalent to the odds of having a tornado come through your house and kill you that night.

basically, because you're playing live, you won't be able to grind out as many hands, so your downswings will last longer, so you will have weeks/months of pure agony and no income. this is one of the reasons i stopped playing live.

Just one small thing to think about, have you checked out what the action is like at your casino during the week?

If you've only played weekend sessions, you've been going during the highest volume hours in the casino. On a weekday, particularly during business hours, the action slows down substantially - you may find there's only one or two tables going and you have to wait a long time to get a seat at one of them.

If there's not much money on that table you get sat at or if the game is bad or whatever, it'll seriously hurt your earn rate.

The action can pick up at night, so I guess you could conceivably become a vampire, play all night and sleep all day if that's when the action comes. You'd have to think about whether you really wanted to live like that though.

Dude if you have the money and the opportunity, then why not go for it. I mean, you aren't pipe dreaming because you do have the education and training to immediately do something else. Enjoy it, why not. See how it goes. If it doesn't go as planned, just don't tilt off your life savings.

If you want to play live, I guess you're gonna have to play bigger stakes. The disadvantage of not being able to multitable is huge.
Also, as has been mentioned already, you have posted a very small sample. 42 hours of live play (even with that automated dealer) equals less than 2,000 hands. 2,000 hands is NOTHING.
A 20K hand break-even stretch is probably going to drive you insane if you play live because it'll last weeks (months?)

Have you considered online play as well? I know it is a different beast but if you won't be working and can't get in enough live play maybe you should think about it.

Check out ChrisT's graph in his last thread - you can do quite well.

I wouldn't suggest this to just anyone but with your skills it is something perhaps you should consider.

I thought about doing the online thing, but, I just don't enjoy online play as much - it becomes too much like my day job - sitting in front of a computer all day long. I really enjoy the "interacting with people" aspect of the game.

You all make good points about the hands/hour issue and such. I decided that once I grow my bank-roll to $6k (win at least $3k more at 200NL), I will try sticking my nose into a 500NL game.

I don't think you are going to find any professional players on this site (especially casino only ones).

I agree with Zach, I can't really see you making enough money long term from sitting in a Casino playing full time. Have you been to the casino you would be playing at? As Oz says, you need to see it midweek if you are going to play there midweek.

Doesn't seem like you have anything to lose, so you could give it a go and see how you get on, but surely you'd be better playing as a hobby in your spare time?

Eugenius said:

I thought about doing the online thing, but, I just don't enjoy online play as much - it becomes too much like my day job - sitting in front of a computer all day long. I really enjoy the "interacting with people" aspect of the game.

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Just some food for thought. We will assume the following:
-> winrate = 2.5 ptbb/100 online || 5.0 ptbb/100 live*
-> hands/hour = 80 online || 45 live
-> number of tables = 4 online || 1 live
-> stakes = $1/$2 online || $1/$2 live

Let's say, initally you want to make $4,000 per month.
Number of hours required if you play:
-> live = $4000 / ($20/100 * 45) = 444 hours
-> online = $4000 / ($10/100 * (80*4)) = 125 hours

Online may be like your day job but once your heater in the casino ends, you'll wish you had a day job.
*Maybe my assumptions are incorrect. Maybe your live winrate is 4x your online winrate due to a ridiculous number of fish, but I kinda doubt it. In fact, twice the winrate is probably stretching it.

wow talk about no optimism....sorry makwa, I think leading someone away is the worst....we are supportive here, we are helping wether it is tough love or not to tell the truth..

Eugenius personally i think if you have the BR to go pro and have that money saved up and are about to move job which therefore means you have the spare time then i think you should give it a shot. Say take one month and see how you do your stats at the beginning are too small and you probs need to see how you do over a month or 2 months and see how you do at different limits and when you go through downswings,upswings and break even periods just keep going and you will experience all kinds of things then you will see how you react to different situations when you come across them and then you can review how you think you went etc etc then make your decisions accordingly, its like anythin take a risk at the start a few of my friends dropped out of college to take up rugby professionally and so far they are with clubs on contracts so that risk paid off but it might not have and they would have been ****ed.
Whatever you decide to do i wish you the best of luck and hope you succeed if you enjoy playing poker!

live poker should never be played as an only source of income imo, unless you have enough money already to live off, so that you don't need to win everyday. As far as i see it, live poker is more of a social activity than a genuine money maker. Unless you are going to travel the world to play in major events, i.e. wsop, ept, wpt, wsop europe etc etc. or smaller ones such as irish open etc. I think that is the only real way to maintain living off poker winnings but once again you need a huge bankroll to start.

online poker just makes more sense imo

It is possible to play live for a living if you feel like it, but you need to be prepared to go on several month long downswings.

I am by no means a pro but I don't think I would ever try "live" poker as a full time job. I like the interaction as well, I am a salesman by profession, but the benefits do not outweigh the MAJOR advantage online play gives. As Zach has pointed out you can play many more hands online. Probably 3x as many per hour for just one table and online you can play multiple tables. My buddy who plays 5/10 NL online as a pro figures to make the same as he does online he'd have to play 50/100 NL live. YIKES! I can't even imagine playing that high.
So I say go for it but really wheigh the advantages and disadvantages of online vs. live. Online may not seem as appealing but if you becoming good enough you are only gonna have to work minimal hours per week (less than 30).
Good Luck, and keep us updated on your progress.