How many hours a week are you planning on playing? Weekends mostly when the party people are out or out in the 9-5 grind?
Are you planning on tracking your wins (hopefully) and declare it on your taxes?
Is this expected to be a long term job change or did you get burned out at the last job and feel like doing this for a few months?
I have a bunch more but I’ll space them out.
My goal is $1,500/week. If I can make that I'm fine and can keep up with expenses and get ahead even. Anything beyond that is cake. The amount of hours I play will be a lot less than the 70+ I put in at my previous job. It's important to me to maintain a work-life balance. I'm trying to eat healthier, I still need to plug in some workout regimen but haven't gotten there yet. But I try to take at least two days off per week, sometimes three, to ensure I have time to unwind, spend time with the wife and cats and take care of life things.
I do have an app on my phone that I track ALL of my results with so I can be honest with myself and ensure that I am a winning player. I usually play a Monday 1/2/5 PLO game, a Wednesday/Friday/Saturday 30/60 mixed game and then also sprinkle in 2/5/10 PLO on Wed/Fri/Sat and if I happen to play either Tues/Thurs/Sun.
At the moment this is expected to be a long-term thing. I love the freedom it's given me, and the money. Plus I do love to play poker. I do have an interest in becoming a voice-over actor, as I have a great voice for commercials, can do various cartoon voices, telephone prompt systems, etc. but that's something I'd need to investigate and devote time and money to that right now I can't because I need to focus on winning at poker.
I also have fallbacks as far as going back into the workforce if needed, and can also build computers so that's another fallback or side income possible.
Are you dual income, then? If not, what percentage of your winnings go to maintaining your household?
How many hours a week are you playing?
I am the sole breadwinner. My monthly nut is around 5K, I have been able to exceed that comfortably. Some weeks I play under 40 hours, some weeks over. Generally between 30-40
How many buy ins is your bankroll? Are you looking for backers?
Are you straight cash now, or do you still dabble in tournaments?
I play strictly cash for my income. I've found it's the most reliable, consistent source of income. Tournaments are fun and all, but they are a true grind. You have to weather losing a LOT, to hit one big score to carry you through the next round of losses. With cash games I'm winning 2/3rd of my sessions, so it's mentally a lot less stressful.
I do still enjoy tournaments, but none of the local events really appeal to me. They're all unlimited rebuys for like 11 fucking levels and you have to compete with guys throwing stupid money at them, and then you're stuck there playing for 8-10+ hours. In a cash game, I could win the money I'm happy with in 2-3 hours and then leave and enjoy life outside of work. Or I could just not feel like playing a full 8 hours, or the game isn't great, etc. and I can just up and leave. In a tournament you're locked in.
I won't get into specifics on my roll, but will say that I did have 6 months living expenses socked aside AND a separate bankroll appropriate for the games I'm playing outside of that, such that I was comfortable with the risk of ruin.
