I look at it like this.
In order for you to start poker as a profession full time you need:
1) 6-12 months living expenses in the bank (separate from your bankroll).
2) ideally would be debt free / low living expenses
3) about 1-2 years of living expenses for your Bankroll.
With your bankroll being about 1-2 years living expenses you hopefully should have enough to get through the variance swings. Your goal should then be to about double your bankroll every year. This would be to just stay even with living expenses the next year, pay taxes, health care costs, save money in separate account ("retirement"/rainy day fund/non-liquid investments), and have some piece of mind.
For me personally this would mean I would need a $&*% load of money. 150k-200k in cash upfront to get started.
I would figure I would need to win at least 50K a year at the tables just to stay afloat. At 50 weeks a year (figure at least 2 weeks for vacation), and play for an average of 30 hours a week you need to average about $33/hr.
At $10/$20 game for an average of 1-2BB/hr and we would could be about sustainable and over bankrolled (Buy-in $2,000 per game and need 20-30 buy-ins at least for variance, $40-60K). You could play up to $25/50 with your bankroll and need to average at least 1.5BB/hr.
This plan would get you in the ball park of realistic expectations (it too may be a little too optimistic). What this says to me about what it takes to become a full time/professional poker player is:
1) you need to already be well off
or
2) you need to have very low expenses and work your game and bankroll up over time
It can sober you up if you think you make a quick buck. If you look at it as a 10 year plan and you are good at poker you may be able to do it... or you could just win the lottery
Good luck
