There are many players who dream of turning professional and playing Texas Hold’em poker for a living. I admit I dream of it. The money, the freedom, it is an alluring and tempting piece of fruit. But there are other more pertinent things that you must consider. We shall forget for a moment, although it is obviously the most vital consideration, about debating whether or not you are good enough to be a professional and assume that you will be able to win $250,000 or so once your decision is made. I want to focus on the other things.

Listening to a podcast this week via the 2+2 Pokercast there was an interview with Eric “Sheets” Haber. Eric is a big staker of players and he has a ton of experience on the circuit and understands things from a longer term view than most poker players. Most poker players have only been a professional since around 2004, so the effects of fifteen years of poker are unknown to them. So I listened carefully to what Sheets had to say, and it was thought provoking.

Most people will read this and say “Your assuming $250,000 of winnings, of course you should turn pro!”, but this was a little trick I put into this article. Sheets said that if you win playing poker live and online this may only be for a short time. Buying in to live events all around the world your expenses and so forth will be around $500,000 a year. Can you win $1 million a year on poker tournaments? Even the likes of Jason Mercier and Elky would struggle to do this for ten years straight. Can you get a hold of a mortgage playing professional poker? Certainly if you have a massive deposit but if you are a normal grinder then in the current economic climate (indeed any situation) sitting in front of a mortgage advisor and saying I gamble for a living is not instilling much confidence. Try telling a bank manager, it is even worse.

How hard would you find it to go back into normal jobs after a spell of the freedom of being an online poker professional? The ability to get up when you want, go where you want, eat when you want and not have the stress of a full time job is as intoxicating as the money you win from poker. We work to live, so if you can bring in the money through poker is that really so bad? But not becoming too used to a life of leisure is not a bad idea in poker; you cannot guarantee that you will always be able to beat the game.

Sheets also told players to play poker as a hobby only. Personally, there is nothing more patronising to me than an actor, footballer, anyone who is successful being asked “Would you recommend someone follow your path?” and they say “No”. They say no as they sit in their massive house with all the benefits their success brought them. It is better to say, the path is paved with rocks but if you get through it and are happy with the risks you can have a good life. That is the right answer to the question. Poker players might lose everything; you also might win it all. For me, it is about learning the game and trying to set up an income stream. I love to write and without that I would feel I had a massive gap in my life. So poker is a part of the overall life package I choose. It may be your entire life, only you know that.

I worry for the young Internet professionals who enter poker and make crazy money straight away. Would they find the “normal life” simply too boring for words? I hope they appreciate that they are highly privileged and life is sometimes boring. I worry they slip into drugs and other dangerous things for the addictive kicks they enjoyed from their pursuit of money online. Invest your winnings and do as much as possible to maintain any success you achieve. That is real achievement.

Poker sites are a great place to learn and a great place to get a hold of that money that will make this article especially relevant for you. I hope to one day have the $250,000 sitting in my account so I can “agonise” over such a decision. I hope you do too. The important thing is to enjoy your life and I believe that online poker is a legitimate way to possibly improving it. Learn the game, study it and enjoy it. Then the money is just another bonus for you.

By Malcolm Clarke

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.