I am studying IT at the moment and will be going and finishing university at 22-23 years of age so i have until then to see how my poker goes and obviously i will be focusing on my IT just incase.
Welcome from one IT Specialist to a future one. The job market is tough at the moment even for graduates in this field. Best advice I can give you is to focus on Oracle based applications and programming in Java that will open a whole new world to you in the IT field. You don't want to be in my position which is over qualified and under paid. Waste of your investment in school IMO unless you get into software engineering and programming.
As far as poker goes. Wait until you are 18 (general consensus). Don't let poker distract you from school. Everyone here at one point or another thought about becoming pro, the truth is that you can't just say you're going to do it and do it. You have to build a proper
bankroll. You have to sustain a positive X BB/100 which could compensate you financially. But, the swings are a monster.
Like they do in Real Estate they encourage you to have two years worth of income before becoming a real estate agent in my state. I don't think poker should be any different. If you're really going to pursue this you're going to have to grind from the micros all the way up to at least $1/$2 while retaining a +BB/100 but if you go on swings do you think you could survive if you had to drop to .5/$1 NL? Probably not.
You have to be a consistent player and to become a consistent player you have to learn from your mistakes (there will be a lot of them) and absorb all things that you read, experienced, learned, etc. Right now, it's a long shot. If you can grind that $100 to $6K (your 30 buy in minimum for $1/$2). Then I would say you're competent enough to really think about doing it for a living.
But, ask some of the guys here who make all their income from poker about their hardships, the swings they face, their living situation etc. They're going to advise most to not get into it. It's a high stress environment it's going to require many hours a day because you have to put the time in on a day to day basis because what if you only played 8 hours one day and then next day you go on a downswing and then you lose everything you earned over the past 3 days? It's an emotional roller coaster and the ultimate test of dedication. I probably threw nearly $5K down the drain within the first year I was playing because I didn't understand anything like BRM, Hand Ranges, Position,
tells, Bluffs. I kept running in circles... bust my bankroll, not learn from my mistakes, redeposit, x100.
You're going to have to study, you're going to have to put the time in to take it seriously, you're going to have a very difficult time starting out. We are here to help (once you're 18 of course). Post up your
hands, get advice, play
freerolls with us, etc. This community is the one community that will get you the information and advice you need to take the next step. Everyone here is pretty helpful if you stick around. Not like other forums filled with Elitists who won't help you and instead call you every degrading thing under the sun because you don't understand something.
You picked the right forum. Let us help you with your game once you are legally able to play
online poker.
Cheers,
Sean