Dont Give up your Day Job

I ve been playing poker now for 3 years and in that time ive had quite alot of fun, My second year of playing poker i played proffessionally for about 6months, It was great id get up in the morning around 9am GMT and play till around 12 o'clock making about £300-400 and then id go for lunch and come back and put another 2-3hrs in, in the evening time, and i made alot of money, built my bankroll right up. However my advise to anyone who is thinking of playing poker for a living is - dont give up your dayjob, you never know when you might need the extra cash. After about 5months of living quite comfortably just on poker winnings i went through a bad patch and lost an awefull amount of money. Shortly after i decided to go back to playing for fun, and not for massive amounts of money -

Try explaining your income to the bank when trying to get a mortgage. Its a nightmare/ trust me

I don't know if i'd ever consider playing poker professionally. First off, I'd rate myself as an decent poker player. I don't think I'd ever make it as a pro. Second there is way to much risk involved. I don't think I could go to a table every night with my weeks pay check, lose it, then explain to the wife and kids, sorry... but I lost gambaling. I'll just stick to taking my friends money.

Well, I'm going to be the dissenter and disagree with this. I say, if you're good enough, then go for it. How many people really do for a living what they love and are truely good at. it's a once in a lifetime opportunity and if you let it pass you by, then you'll never know and always ask yourself, what if? I'm trying to turn pro and when that time comes, you can bet your bottom dollar I will in fact go for it.

Now, that being said I will be taking certain precautions for just in case. Before that time to turn pro comes I will have the following:

An account which contains 6 months of bill money. Rent, food, cigarettes, electric, cable, etc. In my circumstance that will equal about $1700/month so we up that to 2 grand which equals $12000 in that account. If i tap out that gives me 6 months to find suitable employment.

Now there's the bankroll. Mininum 1000 big bets at stakes of either $3/$6 or $4/$8 At the mininum that's $6000 for the bankroll.

In another account I would have what I call weekly paycheck money, meaning on those weeks that i break even or lose a little I can pull what I am trying to earn and use that fund as my pay for the week. In my case the wife and I have decided that $500/week is a good amount to earn and in this account I want to be able to pull $500 out if needed at least a dozen times so in this account i will have $6000.

Finally on those weeks I may lose a bit I will need to replenish the bankroll in addition to withdrawing my "weekly pay" In this account I will have another $1000 big bet bankroll which will equal a mininum of $6000.

If you add it all up it comes to about $30,000 before I officially turn pro. That is by no means a short road, but once i reach it, you can bet I'm going for it all the way baby, all the way.

i have to agree with zaphor on this one. I would never give up my Day Job. I have been playing for about 5 yrs now I would say I am an average player and have won my share of tournies both online and off but everyone goes through a streak of bad times and unless you have much money put away to get you through you are better off just playing on and off line when you are free and if it was meant that you were to be an excellent player and make lots of money then it will happen if not then at least you still have an income.

Well Good Luck StarLight, but its a dangerous path, its incredibly easy to go on a downward cycle like i did, i lost nearly £100k in 5months which was not pleasent at all. Even some of the guys who play in the WSOP and win have gone bust before.
Ive done it already I was like you i thought right im quiting my dayjobg and im going to live from my poker earnings and have a good time, you know what else? its boring lol, sitting at home all the time playing on the internet, sigh...