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Hey everyone. I’m just looking for some advice if you can help me. This is very long so you don't want to read it, it is fine but anyone who wants to that can give me advice i appreciate it. If you play poker for a living or had play poker/gamble sports for a living only and then decided to try and get a job, i would really appreciate your real world experiences and know how it was trying to get a job.
I’m 24 right now and never ever had a job. I graduated college about 1.5 years ago with a finance degree. My gpa was 2.9 so it was not very good. The mistake I made was I never did any internship at all when I was in college. I don’t even know how to do an interview because I never done one in the first place. I live in New York City with my parents at the moment.
I use to be very smart back in high school and when I went into college I was still good after the 1st semester with an A- average in my grades. However, the 2nd semester I had something happen to me that just changed my life for a very long time. I don’t want to mention what that is but it made me depressed. I went to doctors and never got any help. So during the next few years of college, I started dropping so many classes. I was an accounting major and just couldn’t pass those classes and in my 5th year of college, I switched to finance major and got that degree because it was the easiest degree to get at my college. I also went to a commuter college as well so I lived at home the whole time.
My health issues is much better so i have to think about the real world if you want to put it that way. I'm not sure about you guys but your health is the biggest thing in the world and im better now and don't feel depressed anymore.
From the middle of 2009 till now which is about 1.5 years, I have just been playing online poker and nothing else for my income. I didn’t make much money in 2009 but in 2010 I made about $40000 in online poker. I have to report these winnings to the government this year and I’m not sure how much I owe. I guess around $15000 or so which is definitely a lot of money. Can someone tell me how much I would have to pay around if they do play poker? I would have to file as a professional and not recreationally because this is my sole income.
My parents obviously want me to go and get a job instead of playing online poker. Primarily reason is because a job is stable and you get money and health insurance. Problem is I have no experience at all. I don’t think I will get any interviews because I don’t even have any skills. I don’t even know how to use Microsoft excel. Most of my friends who did internships in college have jobs such as working for AIG and Morgan Stanley. These friends were accounting majors so those jobs are not that harder to get I know. However, a lot of my closer friends never had any internship and was also finance major like me. This is the worst major you could have in business many say which is true. Most of them cannot find any job except my friend who got into working for social security and he got very lucky I heard because many people applied and he got in. He told me its around $41000 salary per year and every few years it would go up etc to $50k, $60k etc if he gets promoted. He tells me he doesn’t like his job and it is very stressful which is normal for most jobs. Reason is because his mom would get mad at him if didn’t go since their family is very low income and it would be impossible for him to get another job since he never had any experience or job before this. My family is a very low income as well but they have money saved in the bank from the many years they saved money. My other friends who don’t have jobs say they wouldn’t do jobs like social security job because it’s a crap job… and they rather do something else but can’t find it. They say if they were offered it, they wouldn’t even take it.
Would you guys suggest I go and try to find a job instead of playing online poker for another year? Right now I would have to say if I did play it this year, I would estimate I can win around $30000-$50000. Of course I could lose as well but I’m pretty certain in a stretch of a year I will show profit. However, I felt burned out many times when I was playing this year and just didn’t want to play online poker anymore many times during this year. I know I’m a winner at this game since I have been playing it for 1 year full time already but right now I won’t mind finding a real job. However, I’m still young but if I wait too long, it would obviously suck if I’m in my late 20s or early 30s and never had a job. If I know I was able to make $100,000 a year playing online poker, then I would probably be fine because that is more money than most people make even though taxes are higher for me. If I made just 40k a year and then pay like 14k in taxes, I would probably make less than the average person a year.
And if I do look for a job where would I look? Most of my friends look for job postings online and do a ton of searching but don’t find much success. I think if they put in this much effort and cannot get a call back, I doubt I would get any phone call back since I’m probably in the worst position of them all. I also don’t have any connections at all because I was depressed all those years in college and didn’t bother looking or connecting with people and never even went to a job fair. I don’t mind a job that pays me nothing but gives me experience. Problem is I probably can’t even get a bank teller job since I have no experience at all. I have a finance degree but know absolutely nothing. I don’t even remember how to compound a basic interest rate.
The thing that I am very happy of is my health is lot better and I don’t feel depressed anymore and can be smiling and grateful because of this. On the other hand, I do have to worry about the real world which I never been in.
And to those people who played online as their sole income for a few years and decided to get a real job, it was real tough to find a regular job right since even if you had your degree, most of your skills if you had any after college would have been rusty right?
Can someone give me some advice? Thank you very much.
You really need to get some fresh air. Living with your parents is going to get real old real fast.
The fools that are telling you that any job that pays $40k a year and has plenty of room for advancement Is "crap" are idiots and if you listen to them you are dumber than they are.
The fact is that there are whole lot more people living pretty darned comfortable loves earning salaries than there are gambling for a living.
I am not opposed to gambling, in fact I have several friends that are excellent poker players, some of which have won tournament pots that were in the tens of thousands of dollars. The problem with this is that when the cards don't go your way and you are out early you have zilch. You can't rely on taking any winnings and that makes it impossible to really make a living at it.
The handful of "poker circuit" people that claim to be making a living doing it are "staked" by backers are really have a celebrity marketing kind of business, just like an entertainer or former sports star. Even if you win a huge toirnanament the celebrity aspect is a fraction of what it was when poker was hotter.
The longer you live with your parents and believe you can't earn a living the harder it is going to be to make a lving doing anything.
One great way to get a wake-up call is to get a job selling stuff -- ideally cars or something else that requires people tomget a loan, so you see first hand how the "whole thing works" involving buyers/ customers and sellers as well as borrowers and lenders. Even if you are not really great at selling / only get a job selling used cars you will have some pretty useful experience.
If you are not the kind of person that can handle a 9-5 office job things are harder to get started, but the difference between maybe doing something for yourself in a successful way and just lusting after your hardworking parents savings is pretty extreme. Sitting on your butt is not healthy. Get out. Volunteer. Make an effort to find ways for low income people tom get a leg up. MAKE YOUR OWN OPTIONS!
Last edited by chet everett; 01-05-2011 at 06:05 AM..
I know a lot of people who tried to make a living as a professional gambler and ended up broke and even in debt as a result. I know one person EVER who was able to make it work. He's getting ready to semi-retire after 35 years as a professional card player. Here's the difference:
His wife is an RN. She makes enough income to support the family in a modest manner, and also carries the health insurance. The stability of knowing she was bringing enough income to pay the mortgage on their modest home and put food on the table was reassuring.
He considered the gambling a job. He was very disciplined about it, and it was never something he "had" to do. If his luck was down he walked away rather than hanging around hoping his fortunes would reverse. He and his wife put 50% of his net earnings into retirement savings every year, the rest paid for his two childrens college fund, home repairs, and an inexpensive vacation each year. If he won big they didn't change their lifestyle, it was just more for savings. Although the few years he won huge and they did put some of that money into remodeling the kitchen and bathrooms and a 25th anniversary trip to Hawaii.
Again, he was very disciplined about it in ever respect and first and foremost considered it a job. He understood the way he needed to claim it on his taxes, he understood what expenses he could write off against it, he never went crazy when he won a big pot but saved it for a rainy day.
Very, very few people in this world have that type of discipline, and even less can sustain the level of winning in order to support themselves over theri lifetime.
I'm a winning poker player, both live and online but the thought of doing it for a living makes me ill. I'd have to book wins in the hundreds of thousands to even consider leaving my good paying job that offers retirement and good insurance and even then I'd use invest most of that money, start a business of my own and continue to play on the side.
Remember, Republicans are now back in control of congress and it is very possible Obama will lose in 2012. That means all the bible thumper issues will once again get attention and one of the things bible thumpers hate is things like online poker. It could very well be banned soon. Better take that into account.
I know a lot of people who tried to make a living as a professional gambler and ended up broke and even in debt as a result. I know one person EVER who was able to make it work. He's getting ready to semi-retire after 35 years as a professional card player. Here's the difference:
His wife is an RN. She makes enough income to support the family in a modest manner, and also carries the health insurance. The stability of knowing she was bringing enough income to pay the mortgage on their modest home and put food on the table was reassuring.
He considered the gambling a job. He was very disciplined about it, and it was never something he "had" to do. If his luck was down he walked away rather than hanging around hoping his fortunes would reverse. He and his wife put 50% of his net earnings into retirement savings every year, the rest paid for his two childrens college fund, home repairs, and an inexpensive vacation each year. If he won big they didn't change their lifestyle, it was just more for savings. Although the few years he won huge and they did put some of that money into remodeling the kitchen and bathrooms and a 25th anniversary trip to Hawaii.
Again, he was very disciplined about it in ever respect and first and foremost considered it a job. He understood the way he needed to claim it on his taxes, he understood what expenses he could write off against it, he never went crazy when he won a big pot but saved it for a rainy day.
Very, very few people in this world have that type of discipline, and even less can sustain the level of winning in order to support themselves over theri lifetime.
Get a job and play poker for fun.
Agree 1000% with this.
The discipline is an absolute must. You have to approach your cards like a "real job" all the time, and you have to be an outstanding money manager, not just in your games, but in your finances because you will run into dry spells. And, your dry spells might last a hell of a lot longer than you think they should, so there's that.
And, when you have no other source of income or safety net, it starts affecting how you play when things start going south. Playing with "scared money" is the most surefire way to make sure you will never win.
Yes, finding a job is hard and this is the worse job market I have ever seen, but people are still finding jobs. Maybe you could work in a casino somewhere. You like playing cards, maybe you could work as a card dealer in like Vegas, an Indian casino, or riverboat gambling place.
I know I have friends who play cards. Sometimes they win big. I had one friend win $1000 gambling then as quick as she won the $1000 she lost it. Gambling can lead to a lot of debt and do you really want to deal with bookies, maxed out credit cards at 30% interest, loan sharks, and payday lending places?
Playing poker is not a job that prepares one for the real working world. First thing I would suggest is that you get a real job just to get a foothold and see what working is like. I would seek something part time so I could still play poker as well.
After a while on the job, you will be able to figure out what you might want to do. It's rough out there. Your friends are either extremely lucky or full of BS if they are scoffing at 40K starting salaries with full bennies.
Yes, finding a job is hard and this is the worse job market I have ever seen, but people are still finding jobs. Maybe you could work in a casino somewhere. You like playing cards, maybe you could work as a card dealer in like Vegas, an Indian casino, or riverboat gambling place.
I know I have friends who play cards. Sometimes they win big. I had one friend win $1000 gambling then as quick as she won the $1000 she lost it. Gambling can lead to a lot of debt and do you really want to deal with bookies, maxed out credit cards at 30% interest, loan sharks, and payday lending places?
Work on getting a job.
Keep in mind that while I suppose you still must call poker "gambling" it is far from lotto or craps or blackjack. Poker is much more akin to chess as the good player will ALWAYS beat the bad player over the long haul. ALWAYS.
Still though, unless you are one of the truely elite players that comprise perhaps 0.01 % of all players you are better off having a job and do poker on the side. Most good players (myself included) can't beat games big enough to earn the same living we could at a decent day job. I do beat 1/2 NL live for about $15 per hour and probably could beat 2/5 NL for 50 or 60 K per year (before taxes) but what kind of life is that? I'd stroke out always worrying about a possible bad run making it impossible for me to pay my bills.
I have excellent advice for your low GPA and lack of work experience: Go back for your MASTER'S DEGREE!
How do you get a master's degree if you have a low GPA?
Last edited by altlover85; 01-07-2011 at 11:03 AM..
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