Thinking about going pro (serious post)

[bdon22]

I'm graduating in a month with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Some of you may know from my journal that I got offered a job for $45k at AMD. After taxes in Toronto this will work out to around $35k and the benefits suck. I really feel that for the amount of effort that this job requires, it's total shitballs (I had several OT to 2AM last year). Industry standard is $55-65k for a position like this. There's no real opportunity to move up in this position since they're hiring 4 other people at the same time and the company's in a slump. My boss and other co-workers told me not to take it if I had other offers.

I do not have any other offers.

Knowing that, how crazy would it be to go full time poker over this job? I play $50NL right now. This is something I've always wanted to do and I might never get another chance to in my life.

My current financial situation is that I have $1800 in the poker BR, $12k in savings, and $8k invested in RRSP's. I own my own car and I currently live with my parents. I have zero debts.

I'd really appreciate some feedback especially from the full time players here.

[black_knight6]

I'm gonna talk to you about this

[Tyrannic]

[DoctorHandles]

[hard2tel]

[Xaston]

[redhouse]

[JimmyJet]

[iceman5]

[Pok 7's]

[GodlikeRoy]

[MacAnthony]

[emmasdad]

[Triple B]

Xas is pretty spot on.

You are not ready to go pro. You barely have an adequate BR for NL50, let alone NL200 (which is really were you need to play to be a legitimate pro IMO) By legitimate I mean making enough to move up in limits, move out of the parents house and not have to play 60 hours a week to pay the bills.

Plus, by playing only NL50 you really don't have any idea how good you are. What if you will never beat NL400? I would never want to go pro if I didn't know I could move up and beat some decent sized midstakes games.

What about the mental aspect? This is something I personal struggle with, and I think is the hardest thing to explain to people. I pull $4k out of my BR monthly. Do I make $4k every month? Nope. Can you handle that? Can you handle getting 2 outered for a full stack 5 times in a month? Can you handle getting your AA cracked for a full stack every second day? To put things in perspective I lose more money than your whole BR in a day with some regularity. Can you handle that kind of variance?

I understand your expenses are probably less than mine, etc. I really just think that you need more of a track record and need to play higher to really consider going pro as anything more than a stop gap measure while you look for a better offer.

[black_knight6]

Okay, guys...

I agree that it's hard to move up from 100NL with a monthly nut around 2500 (my situation). But, if you put in 60k hands +RB, then you're pulling in 6-8k/month, and that's enough to move up...

So, it's totally possible to get by grinding 100NL for 30hrs/week...but once you get to 200NL (and then 400NL), life gets SO much easier.