turning pro

Ive been playing on a free poker tour for about two years now. This is my first full year. The year before that i started i started half way in. So i decided if i can finish in the top five in my state for the year that i would tto take my game to the local casinos. Well im currently in fifith place with less that week left. Thats only going to three games a week out of eight. If you guys have any advice, let me hear it. Thanks tbiggy

Take a few grammar classes, and tell us something about your plans/this league so we could formulate an opinion.

I've been reading the book "Everybody Poops" and I still don't understand how everbody has the same talent as myself!

Think you can call yourself a pro if you can give up your day job and live comfortably off your poker winnings. Pay the mortgage, utility and other bills etc and spending money

KatyMaty is correct. You don't have to be "famous" or play in well known events to be a pro. Look at all of the grinders online that you have never heard of but make a living out of it and it considered their "job".

good answer , I agree .

so tbiggy how close are you ? I would wager not near as close as mz katymaty , she just hasn't quit her day job yet

If you know that you can pay for your kids college, buy your wife a car for christmas, pay the hospital bill when you break your leg, and still have a growing savings account then you can turn pro. If you think that you can pay for all these things good luck and remember McDonalds is always hiring.

imo

gambling as a job thats funny so being a pro in poker means ur life job lol 1ce u start u dont want turn around for a job!!!!

What is a free poker tour

A free poker tour that local bars put on is no way even close to real poker. Most of the people that play in them are there to have fun and drink. I would say maybe 25% of the people actually care about the out come of the games.

Take your game to the casino and see how you do. However, you need to have a better plan than that. How big is your bankroll?? Are you going to play tournaments, ring games, both??? Going pro is a lot harder than you think it is. I suggest you get more info before you quit your day job imo.

Bar leagues with freerolls whereby if you lose you just resign up and sit in again. Folks play these turbos like they play the 20 or 50 FTP FRs for PAD on Ft. They're donkaments

let me ellaborate on something quick

many of the internet "pros" are youngsters living with their folks and their room and board and food is care of mommy n daddy and the money they make online is money for jam.

great but when you can pay rent or your bond, pay your car, send your kids to school, feed and clothe your wife n kids and still have money left over to go on holiday and have some cashon hand to buy a few drinks at the local pub every once in a while then and only then should you consider yourself a pro.

One major cash in a tourney also does not make you a pro.

You need to show consistency

lol free poker tour......... this sounds like just the thing to tell if you should be going pro or not. come on?!? really? see how you hold up when your playing with your money and have to make decisions with it.

You might want to play in a few cash games before considering turning pro.

Even Daniel Negreanu had to start somewhere, he wasn't born playing poker.. but I think you will notice a difference between what you play now and whats played in the casino.

Id go to the casino and start playing see how you get on. I think its a little too soon to be considering this as a profession though. You may have a little more to learn than you realise at this point in your poker career

Daniel Negreanu went broke and had to move back to Canada, saved up for a few years, went back to Vegas and found his grove.

As everybody else has said, learn the game first, practice and if your feel good about it, then go for it.

wat!?

I mean, im living at home, but if I played poker online cashgames for a few years and make 60k a year, why would I not live at home? Why waste money by moving out and paying for all your expenses?

If it means spending 25k on expenses for yourself in a year, then you lessen your overall profit needlessly. If you play for 3 years online living at home at 60k a year, you will have 180k profit.

Now if you move out, 25k x 3 years of expenses = 75k lost. So instead of being able to play higher stakes w/ a 180k BR and making 150-200k+ a year with your buldging bankroll, you only have 105k to your name.

Wouldn't it make sense to live at home, then once you have accumulated a small fortune, move out into the world w/ far more money than you could've, had you moved out right away?

To me, its much smarter to do this, these young players are poker professionals - just really smart ones. Im sure your parents will understand, the more you make... the more you can help them finacially in the future.

Nobody is saying you shouldn't stay at home, just that it's a lot tougher when you don't have that security blanket.

I say if you got the money to try for pro go for it but!!! choose your tourney's wisley.

The common sense said that a "professional" is a person that could live from the earnings of the activity in was involved.
Lawyer, Doctor or Poker player.

If you can do that, then you can call yourself a "pro"


They are smarts I agree, but still not poker professionals... they are making a bankroll to "move out into the world" like you said. When they do, and live with the money coming from poker could be named "pros".

We've read several points of view about what the definition of what a poker pro is; none of them agree, except on one point. That a 2 year history of winning in FREE BAR POKER does not prepare you for nor allow you to claim you are a PROFESSIONAL POKER PLAYER. Since that was the question in the OP, why don't we spend out time trying to convine the young player why he's not ready, rather than fight over the intracacies of what makes a cash/tourney play ready to be an established pro.

A professional is anyone who devives their main source of income form that activity.

So someone who plays poker and earns $50 a week is a pro, so longas this is their main source of income.

Someone who earns $500,000 from poker a week but his main source of income is from owning Microsoft, is not a pro.

Being a professional is nothing to do with earnings or ability, its simply the fact that its their main source of income.

Living with your parents dosnt 'downgrade' you to an amature. Conversly a couple of million dollar wins dosnt 'promote' you to being a professional. To be classed as a main source of income, the preson has to spend the majority of their working time doing it. Otherwise you could argue that virtually every lottery winner was a professional lottery player before they won!!!

I would give my left nut to move back in with my folks and play poker full time - problem is, Im 35.

Ditto to pkrplr4116's posts. You can't judge your skills on donkfest results and this isn't to diss you.

The only true way to gauge yourself is, when you can afford it, take a pocket full of money and head to the real tables. For all you know you may win some money but still reach the conclusion that trying to survive on a life of pro poker isn't the best career choice for you.

I agree!!
I interviewed the husband of a local pro in AC and the stories he shared were brutally honest and a dang hard life. So if you are good enough to win a few free drinks in a bar. enjoy it and drink one for me because unless your ready to grind out your rent and car payments in a 3 month slump with no health insurance keep on keeping on my friend!

EVERYONE IS SO NEGATIVE! I say go for it. You have to start somewhere. Just forget about the definition of "pro"
just play your game and bankroll correctly. you may be the next big thing!

I think you need to get a year or two more of practice in before you risk losing money in something you plan on making a living off of.

I Agree with you. i have a lot of fun with playing freerolls and winning little money. You should have fun playing the game! Money is nice but that should not be the only thing to play poker.

Really? It's not like you even paid attention to the thread at all.

You can be a Free Poker Tour Pro, and live the lifestyle of a homeless person. Or you can start playing real money games, and see where you're at, like everybody else (That is not trying to get to 50 posts) tells you.

When someone talks about turning pro.. they are talking about using poker as their sole source of income.

So in the case of a pro.. money is the reason toplay poker

Holy crap, if I lived at home, didn't have a mortage, 3 car payments, 2 one I send the lease back this month, utilites, ect I'd be playing poker for a living. Honestly I love my life and enjoy having "bills" they suck, but that is life. If I can win enough to pay my house off and the cars I'd be doing it today.... I just have to get there first.