planning on turning into a pro next week

I'd say stick with 1/2. You shouldn't play stakes where you're worried about losing a big pot due to it being a significant chunk of your bankroll. It will effect your play and get in you head. Just my advice. I'm a novice, but I think it's probably good advice. Others on here I am sure will give better advice.

OP, I see no evidence whatsover in your post that you are a winning poker player. That's obviously the basic requirement when it comes to becoming a pro.

Where does the $15k in your bankroll come from? Hard earned money, binking a tournament or slowing grinding it from the poker tables? If it's either the first or second, you should really reconsider before you lose it all at the tables, imo.

That

The money comes from me withdrawing from my retirement savings plan. I know this is a huge risk but I have a dream of playing poker for a living and nothing is going to stop me from taking my shot. Even if I go bust I will probobly be doing the same thing a couple of years later. I have played more hands of poker over the last 5 years than the average player so I know the game I think. To tell the truth I have been up and down but have mostly lost due to playing over my bankroll and trying to turn a thousand dollars into a huge sum in a short period of time. I have been more a recreational poker player. My biggest poker accomplishment so far is winning 7200 dollars for 12th place in the sunday millions on pokerstars. All this said, Im taking my shot at making a living at the table. In all likelyhood I will go bust a few times before I end up on the cover of a magazine for player of the year. I have a good plan I think and if I stay disciplined I think it will all work out for me.

Well, you certainly have the, ask for then ignore any & all good advice part down. Good luck with the rest.

Good luck Biff!

Good luck Biff.

study, study,study, and grind away man...i spent two years in thailand and befriended a couple guys that did what you are thinking . just stick within your br and have a stop loss limit. i also knew another guy that would make 250 a day. that was it if he made it in half an hour he got up and left if it took eight he was pissy to be around the next day lol.
gl

imo, if you're needing to ask these questions than you should probably stick to $1/$2

I'd even start with small home games, this is the REST OF YOUR LIFE.
Do not try this if you are not a winning player over a serious amount of hands (i.e: over 250k hands at least) at a decent level. I am assuming in the States that means closer to $10/$20.

Many better and wiser than you or I have tried and failed. Please do not spend your golden years living in a cardboard box.

Take $500 if you have to. Invest the rest. Your dream is reachable, but please just be a little bit sensible about it...

This is either the world's greatest level, or the world's worst life choice.

Sadly I think he's for real.

cyborg

I real. And loving tyler 69's picture!

i think the general census is that this is a terrible idea, given the mentality with which you're approaching the situation...but all you need is a dollar and a dream, and if ur willing to take the risk then you never know...well yea, you do know for the long term what will most likely happen, but if you genuinely play smart then best of luck to you...

Seriously?

OP is saying he's going to gamble away a significant part of his net worth while his income barely covers his living expenses and all you have to say is "Good luck Biff" ?

Do you also go to alcoholic anonymous meetings and offer the participants a beer or two?

Only sensible thing you wrote in this thread, imo. That deserves positive feedback:

http://www.google.fr/search?q=Ana+Be...=1390&bih=1045

+1

Sometimes the cotton-wool atmosphere of CC is a bad thing, not all the time, but at times like this, its bad.

As said your conditions for going pro are far from optimal.

• Your BR isn't money you can lose without hurting your lifestyle
• You're not bankrolled for NL 200 (100 buy-ins = 20.000$)
• You don't have too much experience grinding imo

You admit being a recreational player - why do you think you can turn pro and make a living so easily ?
You realize that you're planning to do exactly that again ?
The average player doesn't play too many hands and he usually sucks - just saying.
Oh well .

Suggestion:

Invest 10K $ (in something safe) and take 5K to the tables playing 100NL - though 50 buy-ins isn't optimal you wouldn't put all your money at stake.

Check whether the plan to play 5d x 8h a week is sustainable at all over a longer period of time.

Good advice, $5k is plenty for 100nl live though imo.

Or a weird combination of both?

How does that translate in terms of actual numbers?

FWIW, I have a full time job and usually play for an hour or so after work to chill out, sometimes a lot on weekends, but most often not at all. So even though I'm actually good at this game, i'm still a recreational player. And I've played about 300k hands last year alone.

How many have you played?

Even if he is for real, I admire him. Sure if someone wants it so much and clearly this guy really does want it so much, then you have to take risks to get rewarded.

Many upon many of top pros wanted and dreamed of playing for a living and they like OP did these sort of things, if not even worse.

Phil Ivey springs to mind more than anyone, wasn't he at some stage I heard him saying in an interview he moved to las vegas with pretty much nothing, trying to play poker for a living and kept busting and busting till the point he couldn't even afford his rent and had to sleep under a bridge? He then hit that big score of 90k and "never looked back" as they say (I hate that saying by the way"!!!!)

I say if you have the drive and motivation and can afford to lose this money, which you say is your life retirement savings then maybe not but who are we to judge. The point is though, I think with 15k, I'm not sure if live is the way too go in a sense these days. Sure mix and play both live and mix in some online too, you say you have a 12th place in the Sunday million so you have something, unless you got lucky all the way! The amount of hands you get in is going to be so little compared to online. Why not give online a go first? I know it's much tougher competion but I'm sure if you have an edge you will turn a profit regardless.

Good luck either.

We don't know how good he is though. If you gave your live savings to a pro and they said they was going to build a roll from it playing with correct BR management, would you class it as a gamble or more of an investment? I'd class it as an investment and for sure would give my money away.

He might be the next best thing for all we know. I'd say he clearly isn't going to change his mind and I wouldn't be doing this myself personally but if someone is that motivated and you can't change their mind, then wishing them GL is the next best thing and hope it works out for them. He's putting a lot of money on the line to either make it or break it. I'm guessing there are a lot of pros who have done this in their time, taking a lot bigger risks than this and have been rewarded with a very healthy income.

So who knows, time will tell - will be nice to actually see his progress to be honest.

Sure it's good for people to wish him luck rather than beat him down though and say how much of a bad idea or how he shouldn't be attempting it.

If he has the money, even if it means him withdrawing his retirement funds then it's his choice and I think GL is the only thing we can do.

Someone playing exclusively LIVE like he is have to ALWAYS take these steps, so if no one did this there would be no pros out there apart from online.

I'm interested in to knowing why you think it's a bad idea? If he's a bad player then yeah of course it's a bad idea but again, we don't know how good or bad he is and I'm sure he wouldn't be just doing it as a newcomer and this would be plain stupid. I can't imagine him wanting to gamble 15k if he didn't have an edge either, who knows though.

I'm sure if some of the top players at CC decided to go pro(maybe someone like you even), you/we would wish them all the good luck in the world, purely based on knowing what they are capable off. We, don't know what he is capable of and might be the next best thing since sliced bread!

Even with the legendary softness of live $1/$2 games I've gotta say I agree with a lot of the comments above - this is an excellent recipe for losing $15K. Take things slower, make sure you can actually beat the games and as others have suggested consider investing or saving a chunk of the money instead. If you burn through even $5K playing $1/$2 and $50 tournaments then it's a pretty bad sign. And whatever you do don't sit in $2/$5 games before you're sure you're at least beating the level below.

Are you kidding? Did you actually read the OP?

This is as fishy as it gets in terms of poker goals. It shows a very deep lack of knowledge and understanding of the variance of this game.

Yeah I read his post and it does seem very, erm fishy you're right. I didn't actually read it in dept to notice that last line, I struggle to concentrate and read one paragraph worded posts.

Then again, I think he has his heart set on it and regardless of what anyone says I think he will be going ahead and doing it I just think we should wish him luck either way and maybe give him some advice on which games to play. I agree though with starting at 5k and playing the smallest limits just to see how he gets on first. There's nothing worse than receiving negative feedback when you have a goal/dream.

If he is actually playing it without any real experience then this is just plain stupid and obviously with you all on the fact he shouldn't even bother, if it's just a phrase he's going through but I admire people who put their money on the line for a goal, but if it really is just a phase which I hope it isn't then I'm not sure what to say apart from maybe re think and try online first.

On another de rail belgo, I love the zero - freeroll - $10k post I recently saw. Very impressive and congrats, shame I didn't see it last year when I first joined. Please reply here or back to your OP in regards to the my question of how your roll is 2 years later.

Indeed. This doesn't strike me as a wise decision (to say the least), but if he seriously insists on following through with it against general consensus, I have nothing but best of luck to wish him!

BTW, that's a nice bit of phrasing, "cotton-wool atmosphere".

While this is true, it's also a bit pointless to start a thread about something as serious as risking 15K$ to go pro and replying has the OP did.

Although many of the posters here were somewhat negative, some of the people have made sensible and inteligent suggestions. Putting that kind of money on the line to go pro... I decided to go pro in game development and my plan was risky but didn't put anything on the line and I took a lot of advice from a lot of people. Being reasonable is often the easiest way to make a dream come true, it just takes longer.

For sure I wish him luck. He'll need lots of it to succeed.

As of which games to play: if I was to do this, I would play mostly online at 10, 25nl FR until I have enough experience and confidence that I can beat those games, then move to live 200nl games as in my experience the level of play is somewhat similar but profit potential obviously much larger.

I don't keep a very accurate record anymore, but i've made about $40k profit from poker so far. Withdrew/spent/invested most of it and I only keep enough on my bankroll to play 100nl usually, sometimes some 200nl. Don't want to spend the time required to improve my game up to the level it would need to be to beat mid-stakes, so i'm pretty happy with playing small stakes recreationally and enjoying the profits as a side income.

God I love threads like this!

I really wanna see how it works out. I say go for it!