This time we’re gonna focus on all the downsides of a professional online poker player career. There have been too many careers and marriages ruined by online poker, and only a few selected people manage to balance their freshly started career with their personal life. If you choose to be a professional player you will face many difficulties along the way of making it, so we’d like to stress out the most common problems and risks that are waiting for you if you still decide to give it a go.
Poker playing is a stressful job
Even though the mental image of you sitting in front of the computer, sipping on coffee and playing online poker for a living might sound appealing, what professional players warn you most about is that this job is as stressful as any other, even more than the average office job. With regular jobs, the logic is pretty simple – if you work, you get paid, if you don’t, you don’t receive any cash. With online poker, it’s a bit more complicated. You can do your best and still lose money if luck happens not to be on your side at a particular day. Not only you don’t earn anything, you’re risking losing money, which is far worse. There have been tons of sad stories about people selling all their assets or ending up in jail while trying to cover their online poker debts, so if you can’t control yourself, think twice before quitting your day job.
Unreliable source of income
With online poker as a career, it’s a “you win some, you lose some” for the rest of your career. There is no guarantee that you’ll play well enough to pay the bills for the next month, but on the other hand there’s a chance (although slim) that you’ll make enough money to keep you financially secured for years. With your income fluctuating this much and no health insurance or other benefits you would get from a regular job, it’s hard to find a spouse willing to go through the high and low with you and make it through. Professional online poker players have a hard time keeping their family together or starting one.
Risk of losing more money than earning
The statistics are not on your side on this one, as it turns out that the majority of online poker players actually lose more money than they earn in the long run. Only a few selected players get to be on top and earn serious cash or get invited to play poker tournaments worldwide. It’s a long way to the top, and it’s not covered in rose petals but rather with thorns. You will be constantly needing to improve your playing by reading professional books on the subject and by practicing hard every day, and even that can’t guarantee that you won’t end up with less money than you had to begin with. If you think you’re willing to make all these sacrifices, go ahead and give it a try!