Full-Time poker playing

[Rake Fighter]

Wonderful post Kellerman. I have been playing full time for the past 1 1/2 years and he really hit the nail on the head.

[PPP]

"I got no fulfillment from sitting in front of my computer all the time. The solitude is MUCH worse than the stress."

Working as a drone in some telemarketing boiler room would prevent solitude, but what fulfillment you might get out of it is another thing. Playing poker for a living is a great way to have a full life that is different than the norm, where you set your own schedules and priorities. Some people are suited for it, some aren't. That is part of the point. Lots of people have neither the discipline or interest to be a professional poker player and shouldn't be one any more than someone not interested in cars should sell cars.

Playing poker is a great job if you have the skills for it, but it is a job and if you don't like doing it then it will suck like any other job.

The more important thing is just for someone who starts doing the job to have the right tools. You can't sell cars without a car lot. You can't be a pro poker player without an adequate bankroll. You can try, but you'll fail almost always.

Full-Time poker playing, any recomendations

Yea don't play like me!!!

More importantly is the discipline and bankroll management you need to have in order to do this full-time. Also like PPP said I imagine you have to have a very healthy bankroll. Taking a few thousand dollars and deciding to go pro seems all but impossible. What if you have a bad month? How do you pay your bills that month. In my donkeyniss I have swung a few dimes in the course of a night.

Personally I am happy to admit that I don't have the patience, discipline, or bankroll management skills to ever.........and I mean EVER go pro. I love action and big swings and as my wife says, I love to piss away money. Luckily don't have cash flow issues so this is not a problem. Grinding it out at boring limits trying to make a few hundred dollars a day doesn't appeal to me. I'd rather go find a few hundred players to multi-table under my tracker that like to do this for me.

Honesty is also the best policy..............85% - 90% of poker players are losing players for the reasons I mentioned above :P. If your not playing winning poker on a consistent basis right now, you may be living a pipe dream. Only if you fall into that 10% of poker players who consistently win should you consider doing it full time.

WTF do I know though............I played $100 slots with my poker winnings last time I was in Vegas................EEEEEEEEEE AWWWWWWW!!!!!

[ThePokerProf]

There are a significant number of full-timers out there IMO, i don't see why this number won't continue to grow in future years? I've been one for 2 years. I found actually playing poker much more fun when it was a profitable hobby rather than a source of a significant proportion of my daily bread.

I figured the best way to achieve my goal of 'retiring' early was to work a regular job for several years whilst playing poker 20hrs/week or so at the same. I was able to build a big enough BR to quit the 'regular' job after 4yrs.

Now I find playing mostly a grind, but a necessary one......playing online means you get to work from anywhere in the world, I'm my own boss, and as a Brit I have no tax worries.