playing for a living

does anyone actually play for a living. i know that that actually winning enough is slim to none, buut there has to be someone on the site that knows the real hard road of starting out and are willing to give some insight. i recently put my notice in at my job, and while i have another job lined up im seriously considering
not taking it and just playing poker, you know see if the natural want to succeed takes over and makes my play better. it could just lead to more stress, but this is what i want to do with my life anyway. anyadvise plz chime in

i'd whore the bonuses playing limit poker if i were you

its a whole other world playing if you need to live off it

definatly a case of playing within your bankroll though

good luck keep us informed

I think Stackthemup is the only active member on site that is playing professionally, so do a search for the posts he has made. You need to have a large enough bankroll to enable you to play at a high enough level to make playing full time possible, and you need to be aware there are going to be large fluctuations during periods when the cards aren't running. You have to realise that making $1,000 a month playing poker is great going, but it clearly isn't sufficient if it's your sole form of income.

As I said, read Stackthemup's posts, and good luck (but please, take the job!).

I've seen numerous posts on this subject on other message boards. My advice is to take the job...poker is stressful and is a VERY hard way to make a living. You can be the greatest player in the world, but the grind catches up to you, mentally as well as physically.

That being said, the usual number I hear being thrown around to make a decently succesful living as a poker player os ~ $1,400 a week or ~$72,800 a year if you are relying on poker alone to cover all bills and living expenses. I would not recommend this occupation to anyone really.

I could never go full-time even if I had the ability simply because I couldn't stomach playing for so many hours a day (I probably could make a decent living atm doing something silly like 8-tabling low limits and SnGs after some practice, but my brain would melt after a few days).

If you're considering taking it up full-time I strongly suggest you use your in-between jobs time as a sort of trial period. Play as if you were playing full-time, after a couple of weeks if it's a strain, get out and fall back on the other job. Even if you do decide to go full-time after a while, always have a backup "get-out" plan and ensure you're suitably bankrolled.

Hi,
As Rob pointed out,i'm currently playing full time poker for a living. I'm 21 and my parents have given me a year to prove myself that i can make it work. My year is up in October and to date i have made $136,000. I keep a minimum of $10,000 in my account to allow for cold days. I always and i mean always stop playing if i'm down $2,000. On a good day i expect to clear over $1,000/$2,000 in cash games. However over 60% of my winnings have come from MTT wins especially the 100k win of $30,000 and 3 50k wins of $14,000 each and a 2 20k wins of $6,000 each.

I decided to quit university to concentrate full time on poker and although my parents were naturally disappointed they understood. I was studying biomechanics linked to my golf ( i play off +1) and i intented to go to the states on a scholarship but after breaking my wrist,i lost all confidence in my golf game and that reflected in my work at university. So here i am playing 7/8 hrs a day 6 days a week. It certainly limits your lifestyle but so does a full time 9-5 job, the hrs are crap for me as i'm 8 hrs ahead of EST so i'm like playing at 2 am through til midday.

My best advice is to not set daily targets because they simply cannot be made,you will encounter absolute shocking runs and bad beats. My worst week so far has been a loss of $8,000 where absolutely everything went wrong. It is stressful but the rewards to me balance that, i find no bigger rush than winning a huge pot or playing in a big tournie.
Any questions don't hesitate to ask.
John

i decided to take the job for the time being, since i last posted i've made 500 dollars witch is twice three day work for me. but i can't thro myself into the fire quite yet.(only 20) my fiance said it would probably be best to wait till february(when i turn 21) and play three or four events in the world series.

thanks for all the advice. i really wanna jump in but better safe then sorry i guess. i curnetly make 10 hour working and a pretty consinstant 10-15 hour playing poker. i also just bought a house and took half of my funds to pay the down payment and closing cost. with none of the money being mine to begin with i feel like i'm on the right track. but i'm gonna shoot for februrary and hope i have 20000 by then starting today at 1500(had to pay some bills).

wish me luck

What limits do you play on your cash games?

If you wouldn't mind us watching you play in your cash games, could you tell us your user name and where you play. I am a small money player and I'd like to watch a pro play on line, just to see the game style!!!

I wish you well poettic1(remember your friends at cardschat when you win the big one!!)keep us posted on your progress mate.

Hi Sammy,
I play 20/40 limit and 40/80 when there is enough players. My screename at paradise is Dubaikid or TheKiddyKid...depending on my mood,lol. Yeah come watch,its fun..some of the plays are unreal,some are worse than you see at 1/2 limit.
For example,today there were 4 people in preflop for the max amount on 20/40 limit which is $80,so there was $350 preflop (SB and BB folded),flop was A 5 8 two clubs. Max amount bet again and all 4 still in.Turn is 6 spades,now two possible flush draws,it gets raised and reraised and 2 are left. River is K spades. Raised and re raised. Player one shows trip aces but is beaten by 10 Q spades for runner runner flush.I couldn't believe the guy who hit the flush who was out of position a) capped prelfop with Q 10 b)called $80 on flop with nothing and c) called $120 on turn on nothing more than a backdoor flush draw. I guess some people are just willing to chase no matter it takes. I felt really sorry for the guy with AA,he had the goods the whole way. You'll see quite a few pots won on high cards and sometimes pots in the region of $400 on high cards.
John

You didn't say where you played, Stack. Also, are you completely "out on your own" or do you still live at home with your parents. I ask because expenses like a home and upkeep can affect your outcome as far as money kept on site for bankroll purposes, etc.

Paradise,as it says in the top right corner! lol. I'm living with my brother and we are renting an apartment here in Dubai. All bills etc are paid by my dad's company so that saves me well over $10,000 a year. Living here is extremely cheap,petrol for example is 80cents a gallon!! Its likes 10 times cheaper than England. The quality of living is amazing too. I'm looking at buying my own apartment here as the property market it is the place to make serious money here at present and for the forseeable future.

I asked the site question to see if you played other than at Paradise. I would hope you know I'm a bit quicker than that, man. Anyway, you seem to be doing well enough at the higer-limits, so why are you bothering with the thread where you're running a roll up out of the free 25 from RVP? I don't know, but it seems to me that the hours spent on that exercize would be far better utelized playing the game you're crushing for big money. Also, do you use pokertracker and if so what are your stats? BB/100, etc.?

you know if i was rich i would do it for a living unafourtuanetly i work a suckazz job

Hi Diablo,
Regarding my quest at empire..i stated in it that i still dedicate most of my time to paradise and my quest was more of a challenge than anything else. Read the first post i made and hopefully that might answer your questions. I do not use pokertracker but i keep my own statistics in my poker journal. From the last 10,000 hands which took 9 days, i won 83% of showdowns,i folded 68% of the time preflop. The stats on paradise are pretty basic so i might look into pokertracker.
John