PLAYING FOR A LIVING
MINIMUM PLAYING BANKROLL SIZE |
||
1-4-8-8 |
$10 |
$3,000 |
10/20 |
$20 |
$ 7,000 |
20/40 |
$30 |
$15,000 |
60/120 |
$80 |
$45,000 |
Not only do you need to guard against shrinkage of your bankroll, but you also actually need to be growing your bankroll.
That’s because without a growing bankroll you are always at risk of a short-term run of bad luck, which can great winning a little increase your risk need not only to win enough to live on, but you also need to be extra to keep adding to your bankroll.
If you don’t keep adding to your bankroll and you keep playing, eventually you will run into a run of bad luck that wipes you out.
It has happened to a lot of good poker players. Playing bankroll and living expenses aren’t all you need to worry about, however. Credit and insurance can be big problems for a full-time poker player.
I’m a poker player, and I’m a freelance writer-self-employed. Being self-employed can make things like getting a car loan or a credit card somewhat difficult. If you’re self-employed as a poker player, it can make those sorts of situations even more difficult.
The problems the self-employed can have with credit were described in an essay by Larry L.
King in which he wrote about an experience he had the year he sold the move rights to The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. He decided that he needed an American Express card.
So, he applied for one. They turned him down. His income that year was very large. But he was self-employed.
Larry had written a few books, so he got a letter from the publisher of most of his books that said he was employed by them as an assistant editor with a salary of $30,000 (a fraction of his actual income).He reapplied for an American Express. They game him one.
The self-employed do really get discriminated against when it comes to credit. As for self-employed gamblers, well, what do you think?
Insurance and credit are two things that the prospective professional poker player needs to take into consideration when deciding to start playing poker full-time.
The amount of money you may need to have set aside to take care of those contingencies might be even larger than the amount of money you need to have set aside as a playing bankroll.
The subject of the ordinary personal finances of gambler is seldom discussed. Be sure you don’t forget to take those things into consideration.
There are a couple of old jokes related to playing poker for a living. Like most jokes, they’re based on an uncomfortable truth.
What do you call a professional online poker player who broke up with his girlfriend? Hopeless. How do you get a professional poker player off your front porch? Pay him for the pizza.
