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poker or work? if u earnt more money playing poker would u still work
As the title says if u earnt more money playing poker then u would if u worked would u quit your job to play poker full/time or happy doing both
Comments
I have an amazing job which I love, despite the long hours and rubbish pay.
It will depend on the individual, what they want out of life and the job in question and a whole host of other stuff.
Some main points I think are worth consideration...
Income/Job
Firstly I think anyone pondering this needs to look themselves square on and ask is the poker REALLY paying more? As a crude example, you may make £10 an hour in said job and if you divide your poker income in such a manner over your last year it may wind up at £20 an hour or whatever. That doesn't mean that poker will pay better in the mid and long term. You also have to consider the following...
What impact will it have on my employability down the line if I have a X # of years gap in my CV that cannot be explained easily.
How out of touch will I be with the workplace if I have been out of conventional employment for X # of years.
Do I have a pension in place?
What about holidays, life distasters, sick pay etc etc
What if I run terrible?
What if the poker climate changes (events like Black Friday).
Life balance
How do you keep your fitness up when you are sat at a PC for huge amounts of time.
How do you maintain friendships and relationships when you are playing unsociable hours and significant people in your life maybe do not understand WTF you are doing.
Are you going to be sitting with your blood pressure at dangerously high levels and a hair line receeding quicker than the tide going out due to the stress of making bills payments?
Enjoyment
Will you enjoy poker the same way if you are playing under the circumstances above?
Will you feel satisfied doing this as a profession?
It is, as said, such an interesting question but there are so many things to consider in order to make a proper considered choice. From a personal point of view... I was self employed as a carpet cleaner and 'getting by' when I found poker. I was lucky that my job was flexibile so I could let my poker income dictate what I was focussing on. To start with I won a few grand here and there and hand nice holidays, little extras and started to win a lot of packages to live tourneys. After this I started to win more and found myself just playing poker mostly. Very quickly after this I had a $100k win and well that was that, I now considered myself a full time poker player.
The journey was not so smoothe or straightforward from hereon out though. The site I was playing on and making 95% of my income on closed within a few months. I then had to adjust to playing on a much larger site which took some time. I maintained very consistent and profitable results from this point onwards BUT I was spending more than I was earning. Also, although I was good at poker, I had no idea about bankroll management and was playing far too small buy in tournaments. The big adventure turned into grinding SNG's for $1.5k-$2k profit a month, stressing myself out, watching my weight go from 13st to 19st+ and my fitness levels fall through the floor.
I decided this had to stop and I went back to uni to get some solid qualifications behind me.
Sounds like I would never recommend this then right?
Well the main reason I went back to uni was to get a decent basic income behind me and let my bankroll grow and give poker a proper shot. It might not be the most 'productive' profession in terms of what you are putting back into society but I can do that in other aspects of life. I enjoy it and I enjoy it so much I am happy to address all the factors above and study for years so I can do it properly with a better structure in place. Life is about enjoying the short window of time we have on this planet IMO and if you can realistically deal with the stuff above and your heart is in it then go for it!
It is bloody difficult though to address all these factors and ignoring them doesn't make them go away. My advice therefore to anyone in this situation would be to be very honest with yourself and then with that in mind, do what makes you happy as long as it is remotely realistic.