Road to being a pro

[scotty77]

Who is to know what the legal issues with online poker will be in 5 years.

Let's say that online poker is stopped by a future government and you'll have to be a live pro.  Unsocialable hours, really tough grind etc.

In the last 4 years I have made £50k+ per year from poker and am under no illusion that I can't do this forever.  If you had asked me 2 years ago if I would have felt like this, I'd have been nah mate gonna do this forever.  And this year has been my best ever year.  I still enjoy the game, find it fun and interesting and love the freedom it gives me.  Don't have an exit plan yet, other than saving my binks for when that time comes.

The game is getting a lot tougher too.  I rarely feel that uncomfortable at the table, however recently I was at a table where 5 18-21 year old Germans were totally bossing and knew I was out of my depth. Who knows what they will be like in a few years.

Poker will always be around and certainly at social/recreational/fun levels there should always be really good action and liquidity. 

To make enough to have a decent living and maintain that living for the next 5-10 years tho?  I'm not so sure.  For the very best around like Pleno et all.  Sure.  There just aren't many Pleno's about tho!

[Whollyflush]

ITT gamblers tell people to forget about gambling.

There is luck is all aspects of life, if no option jumps out in front of you re: career path i say give poker a whirl. Its tougher than it was but there's still money to be made, and more importantly you will be your own boss with the freedom to pick and choose your hours. It doesn't work out for everyone, but this is probably the only real chance you will get to find out. If it goes tits up get a vocation, probably a better way to go than a degree IMO.

People who refer to pocketfives as a link to ability/profitability is enough of a clue that there is still money to be made at the game.

[Woodsey]

ITT gamblers tell people to forget about gambling.

There is luck is all aspects of life, if no option jumps out in front of you re: career path i say give poker a whirl. Its tougher than it was but there's still money to be made, and more importantly you will be your own boss with the freedom to pick and choose your hours. It doesn't work out for everyone, but this is probably the only real chance you will get to find out. If it goes tits up get a vocation, probably a better way to go than a degree IMO.

People who refer to pocketfives as a link to ability/profitability is enough of a clue that there is still money to be made at the game.

There is the famous quote by a certain sportsman 'the harder I work the luckier I get'

[tikay]

ITT gamblers tell people to forget about gambling.

There is luck is all aspects of life, if no option jumps out in front of you re: career path i say give poker a whirl. Its tougher than it was but there's still money to be made, and more importantly you will be your own boss with the freedom to pick and choose your hours. It doesn't work out for everyone, but this is probably the only real chance you will get to find out. If it goes tits up get a vocation, probably a better way to go than a degree IMO.

People who refer to pocketfives as a link to ability/profitability is enough of a clue that there is still money to be made at the game.

In my case, only forget about it untl he has his Degree sorted.

The gambling instinct in many of us is too strong to forget, I'm certainly not advocating that, just a question of priorities at certain times in our life.

[sonour]

Uni doesn't start until October guys...this is why he's focussing on poker lol. Honestly Tikay, you'd think you were out of touch with how things work for the yoof of today...

As if........

I fear I'm weeing into the wind here.

Amazing how addictive poker is, & the grip it exerts on us. I had a cracking job, & retired from it due to the lure of poker. Don't regret it either, had a ton of fun, made so many friends, had so many wonderful times & experiences.

But my career had run its course, pretty much, I'd ticked all the career boxes I ever dreamed of & more besides. Thats a bit different to doing it before my working life began though. In my case, it could never have happened, of course, my Dad would have killed me, he was in the "get a proper job, Son" school.

Times, of course, have very much changed, some for the better, some not so much.

What has not changed is that young men, then & now, were & are always resistant to advice from elder people. It was always so.   

Viewed from a distance, it's incredibly interesting how our perspective of life changes with age.

When I was 18 I thought my Dad was an idiot.

When I was 21 I was surprised how much he had learned in 3 years.

[tikay]

Uni doesn't start until October guys...this is why he's focussing on poker lol. Honestly Tikay, you'd think you were out of touch with how things work for the yoof of today...

As if........

I fear I'm weeing into the wind here.

Amazing how addictive poker is, & the grip it exerts on us. I had a cracking job, & retired from it due to the lure of poker. Don't regret it either, had a ton of fun, made so many friends, had so many wonderful times & experiences.

But my career had run its course, pretty much, I'd ticked all the career boxes I ever dreamed of & more besides. Thats a bit different to doing it before my working life began though. In my case, it could never have happened, of course, my Dad would have killed me, he was in the "get a proper job, Son" school.

Times, of course, have very much changed, some for the better, some not so much.

What has not changed is that young men, then & now, were & are always resistant to advice from elder people. It was always so.   

Viewed from a distance, it's incredibly interesting how our perspective of life changes with age.

When I was 18 I thought my Dad was an idiot.

When I was 21 I was surprised how much he had learned in 3 years.

BOOM!

And there we have it.

[pleno1]

ITT gamblers tell people to forget about gambling.

There is luck is all aspects of life, if no option jumps out in front of you re: career path i say give poker a whirl. Its tougher than it was but there's still money to be made, and more importantly you will be your own boss with the freedom to pick and choose your hours. It doesn't work out for everyone, but this is probably the only real chance you will get to find out. If it goes tits up get a vocation, probably a better way to go than a degree IMO.

People who refer to pocketfives as a link to ability/profitability is enough of a clue that there is still money to be made at the game.

I just wanted to pull out 10 guys who were basically recognised as being good/have own hundreds of thousands

[SuuPRlim]

When I was 18 I thought my Dad was an idiot.

When I was 21 I was surprised how much he had learned in 3 years.

Haha brilliant 

[SuuPRlim]

you wanna learn PLO?

Now we're talking

[muckthenuts]

Wow, if you're just in 2nd year and decided you're settling for a 2:2 then you really need to change that and i can't stress this enough. The graduate job market is tough as it is and so many places won't even look at you if you don't have a 2:1 minimum. This will be the most important thing you can achieve next year and it's not close.

With regards to being a pro, don't. Do it on the side. I would say quite frankly it's close to impossible to "make it" as a professional poker player in 2014. Games are so solid even at small stakes and rake so high that you don't stand much (or any) chance of rapidly climbing up the stakes, and the amount of work and study it's going to take to get to an hourly of even like ~$20 starting from scratch just isn't going to be worth it for someone trying to make a living. Having it as a hobby though is a different story, and this is how i'd encourage you to start thinking about poker. It can be a fun game, rewarding, and the UK poker community is an awesome thing to be a part of. Just don't put all your eggs in the poker basket at the expense of a 2:1 and especially not at a degree.

[cambridgealex]

Very good post, agree 100%. Last sentence sums it up.

[KingPush]

Wow, if you're just in 2nd year and decided you're settling for a 2:2 then you really need to change that and i can't stress this enough. The graduate job market is tough as it is and so many places won't even look at you if you don't have a 2:1 minimum. This will be the most important thing you can achieve next year and it's not close.

With regards to being a pro, don't. Do it on the side. I would say quite frankly it's close to impossible to "make it" as a professional poker player in 2014. Games are so solid even at small stakes and rake so high that you don't stand much (or any) chance of rapidly climbing up the stakes, and the amount of work and study it's going to take to get to an hourly of even like ~$20 starting from scratch just isn't going to be worth it for someone trying to make a living. Having it as a hobby though is a different story, and this is how i'd encourage you to start thinking about poker. It can be a fun game, rewarding, and the UK poker community is an awesome thing to be a part of. Just don't put all your eggs in the poker basket at the expense of a 2:1 and especially not at a degree.

2:1 is genuinely not mathematically possible. just to clear things up for everyone I have 3 modules left. My uni hasn't started yet and it finishes in December.

Also I appreciate what you're saying about it not being an easy line of work. I agree when I started playing online ages ago I thought it was extremely simple and I thought it wouldn't take that much time to become a winner. I genuinely think to become a pro you need to put in more work than anything else you do or will do in your life. I expect that and I'm happy to do it.

[tikay]

Wow, if you're just in 2nd year and decided you're settling for a 2:2 then you really need to change that and i can't stress this enough. The graduate job market is tough as it is and so many places won't even look at you if you don't have a 2:1 minimum. This will be the most important thing you can achieve next year and it's not close.

With regards to being a pro, don't. Do it on the side. I would say quite frankly it's close to impossible to "make it" as a professional poker player in 2014. Games are so solid even at small stakes and rake so high that you don't stand much (or any) chance of rapidly climbing up the stakes, and the amount of work and study it's going to take to get to an hourly of even like ~$20 starting from scratch just isn't going to be worth it for someone trying to make a living. Having it as a hobby though is a different story, and this is how i'd encourage you to start thinking about poker. It can be a fun game, rewarding, and the UK poker community is an awesome thing to be a part of. Just don't put all your eggs in the poker basket at the expense of a 2:1 and especially not at a degree.

Terrific post, but the boat has long set sail & won't be changing course.

[SuuPRlim]

So many paths to take in life, i know so many people who have wasted a lot of years by umming and arrring over which one to take so fair play to you imo, decide what you're going to try and do and do it. Not like you can't try uni again at 23 or 24 anyways, friend of mine finishing his course at 28 and enjoying himself.

If everyone took the sensible or linear pathways then it would be a dull world.

Let's get behind the lad, cmon KingPush run good

[KingPush]

A couple of buy ins down at nl25 but came seventh in a tourny on 888 so about a BI down. Got loads of leaks and also not ran great. Gonna try and get 5 hand histories in tomorrow and then grind for at least 6 hours.

So many paths to take in life, i know so many people who have wasted a lot of years by umming and arrring over which one to take so fair play to you imo, decide what you're going to try and do and do it. Not like you can't try uni again at 23 or 24 anyways, friend of mine finishing his course at 28 and enjoying himself.

If everyone took the sensible or linear pathways then it would be a dull world.

Let's get behind the lad, cmon KingPush run good

Cheers man, could do with it!


PokerStars - $0.25 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 100 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
BB: 51.68 BB (VPIP: 80.00, PFR: 60.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
UTG: 252.52 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
CO: 44.56 BB (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
Hero (BTN): 111.04 BB

SB posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has  A:spade: K:diamond:

fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, BB raises to 5 BB, Hero raises to 12 BB, BB raises to 51.68 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 39.68 BB

Flop: (103.76 BB, 2 players)  5:club: 2:diamond: 8:diamond:

Turn: (103.76 BB, 2 players)  J:club:

River: (103.76 BB, 2 players)  J:diamond:

BB shows  8:heart: A:diamond:  (Two Pair, Jacks and Eights) (Pre 27%, Flop 87%, Turn 93%)
Hero shows  A:spade: K:diamond:  (One Pair, Jacks) (Pre 74%, Flop 13%, Turn 7%)
BB wins 99.08 BB