... And so it begins anew!

[shipitfish]

I titled my first post ever in this journal, about 15 months ago, ... And So It Begins. I said late last year that there was a big plan coming in January. I'm a month behind, so I wanted to at least say what it was all about:

I hope to be a professional poker player ten years from now.

I do know many people who turned pro much more quickly than this. But, they are mostly young and just out of college or have dropped out (a move, BTW, that I think is a bad one). For me, who has an existing career that I must focus on, I need a good amount of time to adjust to a new lifestyle. Effectively, it will be more of an early retirement more than turning pro.

I've paid close attention to "Should I turn Pro?" advice that has been written by existing pros, such as Daniel Negreanu and Mark Gregorich. I am particularly interested in Mark's points, because he's a middle limit grinder like I would be; I don't expect to be a top pro in the game.

One key point in Gregorich's recent column on this subject is the following: If you can succeed in poker, can't you do better financially elsewhere?. Of all the items I've read about turning pro, this is the most compelling. You have to be sure that being a pro is going to provide a better life than some other career would. To me, this means that I have to work on my poker game so that my hourly rate, ten years from now, matches the hourly rate I'm receiving from my regular job (nine years and ten months from now).

I want to do this because I love poker. I mean, poker is as important to me as doing computer science was when I picked that as my first career. That's an indication to me that it is a reasonable goal to pursue it professionally.

Another point is that I would like to flip-flop hobby/job in my life again. Computer science, programming and Free Software development was my hobby for many years. It became more and more of a job as I got older. My interest in doing it with high enthusiasm waned as it became just a day-to-day job. I realize that as poker becomes less of a hobby and more of a job, I'll begin to feel as I do about computer science now. Poker will slowly become something that I love to do, but not something that I want to do every waking moment I'm not busy with something else. The nice side-effect that I hope to gain, then, is that computer science will again become a serious hobby while poker pays the bills. Indeed, I want to do some serious Free Software development in my 40s while I play poker for a living.

So that's the big news. There's lots of planning to do. By the end of February, I expect to have a basic, extremely rough ten-year outline and a detailed plan for the first six months of 2006. Hopefully, in early February 2016, I'll post here that I've quit my job to play poker exclusively.

Comments

[roryk.livejournal.com]

playing poker as a job sucks dont do it

[swolfe.livejournal.com]

good luck. i'm on the path with you...although i'm hoping it's sooner than 10 years :)

[shipitfish.livejournal.com]

I understand what you are saying. That's part of why I'm waiting ten years. I hope to find out during those ten years to see how bad it sucks. I've been working a job to support myself for nearly 14 years. Every job I've ever had, even up to this very day, have sucked. Even all the jobs I've had in a field that I loved supporting causes (I mostly have worked for NGO's) that I loved — they suck, too.

Frankly, poker is a meaningless thing; a pointless activity that has no social value. I live with it as my hobby because, in my professional life, I try to only work jobs that have some redeeming social value (I stopped working in the corporate world long ago). My hope is that if I can make poker my job, I can spend the rest of my time doing things I love that have strong social value, instead of turning my social value activity into a job that, well, sucks.

[shipitfish.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be posting more about why I want to wait so many years. Part of it is that I think it will take me about that long to make my annual poker profit the same as my current salary (adjusted for inflation, of course). Gregorich's point on this really struck me; there's no point in doing it if I have to take a pay cut to do something, as roryk points out, is so difficult.

[brettbrettbrett.livejournal.com]

You know the games in ten years will be vastly different from today's. And I suspect they won't be better.

good for you!

[tmckearney.livejournal.com]

I applaud the effort. It seems that you are putting in the requisite studying and playing time in to get yourself there. I, for one, would need a LOT more studying time to get there.

T

[shipitfish.livejournal.com]

Indeed, I think it's a certainty that the games won't be as good then as they are now! But unless I lose my job, I doubt I'd consider playing poker professionally now. I'm not clearly winning enough at high enough stakes to get near my real salary.

The other factor is, that if I can survive the next ten years of poker, with the big changes that are bound to happen as the boom crashes, I am sure I can easily use those skills to survive the following thirty years after that! After that, I'm probably dead, so I don't need to be a favorite to any game at that point. :)

just a thought....

[(Anonymous)]

...are you so self-absorbed that you think anyone gives a rat's ass? man, i wish they made dumb ass poker blogs like this illegal.

Re: just a thought....

[shipitfish.livejournal.com]

Well, Mr. 67.80.95.53 using Safari on Mac OS X, if you read the comments above yours, obviously some people do give a rat's ass. I wonder, though, what difference does it make to you if this journal exists or not? Any online journal is ultimately going to be self-absorbed, I pointed this out myself in the first post I ever made, which is linked to above.

You suggest that online journals should be illegal. Given that you are coming from a USA IP number, I am a bit surprised that you are so opposed to free speech. Anyway, as you'll see in upcoming posts in my journal, my goal in talking about my thoughts about becoming a full-time pro is to help others thinking about doing so. A number of people have expressed some interest hearing about it. If you aren't interested, I'd encourage you to avoid reading my journal.