Poker pro.

[b4matt]

A recent conversation had me wondering, what sort of bankroll do you need to start as an on-line pro. I realise it's hugely dependant on your level of living, but for arguments sake lets just say you are leaving a £25k p.a job (net £400 a week income).

[matt674]

Although not a professional player yet, that is my next goal i have set myself. My aim is to get my online bankroll to $60000 to allow me to take 12 months out of work to see if i can cut it in the cutthroat world of professional poker. This gives me $5000 a month then to live off and play tournaments without putting myself under the additional pressure of having to rely on getting cashes week in week out to pay the bills.

Hopefully though i'll win the WSOP main event and never have to worry about anything ever again!! 

[b4matt]

I really hope you get to give it a bash mate! As for winning the wsop... you surely mean chop it 2 ways with moi!

[Pokerron]

matt - If you did get to $60,000 would you ply your trade online, or would you mix it up with B&M action?

I have a huge mortgage, 2 kids and a fairly well paid job so (unless I get sacked!) I cant see me ever having enough of a bankroll to take the risk, but I have a lot of respect for those that do make the move from online winner, to full time poker pro and would wish you all the best if/when you do it.

[matt674]

well of course!! would we have to do a secret deal or would there not be a problem. I remember reading that Chris Moneymaker approached Sam Farha in the toilets during a break to make a deal and i dont remember ever reading about Raymer or Hachem making a deal.....

[Royal Flush]

A recent conversation had me wondering, what sort of bankroll do you need to start as an on-line pro. I realise it's hugely dependant on your level of living, but for arguments sake lets just say you are leaving a £25k p.a job (net £400 a week income).

It depends.....

What games you are going to play, and how good you are.

[matt674]

matt - If you did get to $60,000 would you ply your trade online, or would you mix it up with B&M action?

I have a huge mortgage, 2 kids and a fairly well paid job so (unless I get sacked!) I cant see me ever having enough of a bankroll to take the risk, but I have a lot of respect for those that do make the move from online winner, to full time poker pro and would wish you all the best if/when you do it.

As i make most of my profit online at the moment then chances are i'd probably continue to play mainly online. However playing live is something i'd like to start doing more of. At the moment i cant get the time off work to play in the midweek festival events as they are all two day affairs. I've been lucky in the fact that i've been able to use the winnings from the past few years to pay off the mortgage and buy a second house so that i will definately have some money coming in should i go through a bit of a "dry spell". I also dont have any family commitments or dependants (that i'm aware of anyway!!) so i'm able to spend my time concentrating on the poker.

Hopefully i'll reach my target and i can take the time out. If it doesnt work out after the 12 months then at least i can say i've given it a shot and i'd rather do that than never try and always wonder "what might have been"!!

Only time will tell...............

[byronkincaid]

$1000

Buy multi-table helper. 10 table Party $22 sngs.

10 an hour 7 hours a day 5 days a week.

1400 sngs @ 10% ROI = $3080 per month + I believe Party will put you in their VIP scheme and bung you a bit each month + rakeback ($700 @ 25%) if you can find it.

Very very tedious way to make a living but there are the obv advantages as well.

[Sark79]

matt - If you did get to $60,000 would you ply your trade online, or would you mix it up with B&M action?

I have a huge mortgage, 2 kids and a fairly well paid job so (unless I get sacked!) I cant see me ever having enough of a bankroll to take the risk, but I have a lot of respect for those that do make the move from online winner, to full time poker pro and would wish you all the best if/when you do it.

As i make most of my profit online at the moment then chances are i'd probably continue to play mainly online. However playing live is something i'd like to start doing more of. At the moment i cant get the time off work to play in the midweek festival events as they are all two day affairs. I've been lucky in the fact that i've been able to use the winnings from the past few years to pay off the mortgage and buy a second house so that i will definately have some money coming in should i go through a bit of a "dry spell". I also dont have any family commitments or dependants (that i'm aware of anyway!!) so i'm able to spend my time concentrating on the poker.

Hopefully i'll reach my target and i can take the time out. If it doesnt work out after the 12 months then at least i can say i've given it a shot and i'd rather do that than never try and always wonder "what might have been"!!

Only time will tell...............

You definitely have a good plan in place.  I hope you succeed.  Then Tikay can take you on Parkinson and reveal to the world there is a poker playing monkey.

[RED-DOG]

I started playing full time with a £10k bankroll, for multi table tourneys it wasn't nearly enough, my entry fees were about $2kpw (now 3.5k) plus living expenses.  

I was lucky. In my first year I managed to build my bankroll up to a more comfortable level quite quickly, and I recon I have won enough this year to cover the next six months or so, but the variance can be enormous when playing multis, so I'm not out of the woods yet, and I have to reduce the cost of my buy-ins and live game entries when things are going badly

To be honest, what you really need, barring sponsorship, is a small regular income, to take some of the pressure off.

Whatever happens, I have no regrets, it's been a blast!

[ACE2M]

personally i don't think it is feaseable to be a proffessional poker player only playing mtts. I think you could make enough to get by but never enough to live a comfortable lifestyle unless you take down some huge tournament.

[Royal Flush]

personally i don't think it is feaseable to be a proffessional poker player only playing mtts. I think you could make enough to get by but never enough to live a comfortable lifestyle unless you take down some huge tournament.

I strongly disagree

[RED-DOG]

personally i don't think it is feaseable to be a proffessional poker player only playing mtts. I think you could make enough to get by but never enough to live a comfortable lifestyle unless you take down some huge tournament.

I discussed this with Rob Yong last week, He says it can be done, but you have to play at least 200 tourneys a year to overcome the varience. I play about 1500 a year

[Gryff]

It really depends, what would your £400 salary be after tax?

If you're playing limit then 300-500bbs is enough and you could be averaging 3bb/100 at 3/6 and be pulling about £10/hr, put in 40hrs a week and you're earning more playing poker than your job, especially taking into consideration taxes.

I'm not a pro nor am I on the road to it, I'm currently playing $1/$2 though, with intent to be playing $2/4 within the next month or so and up to $3/6 by the end of the year. From there the jump is 5/10 which you need a bankroll of 3-5$k to play. If that was no limit you would be looking at 2000 bbs which is $20k, and I would expect thats a little on the low side for that kind of limit.

I'm still a student but if I can make my way up to the $3/6 by the end of summer I'll be making more than any part time job would make me and my fuel costs would be much lower as well etc. etc. + no taxes. In that regard I'd probably be making more thana part time job playing the $2/4 game especially given tax considerations.

As a student that would be great for me, for people who earn more then maybe that wouldn't be so great. I'd like to be playing the $5/10 level by the time I get my degree though.

To try and get to that level in NL holdem is not even viable yet for limit its doable if I have the game to win at that limit.

Limit is a much faster game to progress up the levels at than NL for sure.

[byronkincaid]

Limit is a much faster game to progress up the levels at than NL for sure

Why? Every day I read about another 19 year old who's gone from .50/1 to 50/100NL in 6 months or less.

I am only exagerating slightly seriously why limit?