Whether you’ve been consistently running well on Pokerstars and you want to take things to the next level as an online pro, or you’re a successful casino gambler who is constantly beating the odds and feels his daytime job is becoming obsolete, turning into a professional gambler takes more than just courage.
Going pro requires a sizable amount of discipline, and a well-thought financial plan. Without these two staple ingredients, things should go sour over the course of time. In all likeliness, if you fail to demonstrate discipline and common sense in the way you conduct yourself on and off the felt, your dreams and hopes of becoming a professional gambler will be shattered to pieces by the harsh reality of the world’s most cut-throat business.
Here are our top rules that separate the wheat from the chaff:
Gratefully Accept The Volatility
Even if you’re been doing exceptionally well in the casino or online, for a lengthy period of time, you should know that your luck is bound to change one day. Whether you’re a sophisticated blackjack card counter who believes he has the world by its balls, an ultra-savvy poker specialist who successfully grinds his 6 figure salary playing part-time, a casino rat who is set to unveil slot games that were accidently offset against the casino’s advantage, or genuinely a random lucky dude, your luck is due to change someday.
Casinos fix loopholes in games and technology all the time, and people who strived by abusing them lose their monthly income in a jiffy. Skillful poker players constantly lose coin-flip pots which can accumulate to lengthy losing streaks. Casinos that offer blackjack constantly switch from 1-deck to 8-deck and prohibit card counters from entering. Luck changes.
The solution is to accept reality as it is (exactly like as described on the Serenity Prayer). Professional gamblers make a profit by winning more than they lose, not by not losing at all. Your income will be highly volatile, and it is possible you will have losing streaks of a week, a month or even a year!
If you have a tight bankroll and an alternative source of income, you should be fine. If not, this financial uncertainty can drive you away from your dream and into the pits of hell, so read our next point carefully.
Reinvest your winnings
Not only you have to save money for a rainy day, you need to reinvest your winnings wisely so they will accumulate a passive income (through interest yielding, rent, or any other form of income which doesn’t require much of your time and energy).
Your goal should be to achieve a passive earning that can fully sustain you and accommodate your basic needs, regardless of changes in your gambling bankroll. This way, you know you can take bigger risks if you want to, without damaging you, or your family’s, well-being.
Until you reach such passive income, you should trim off your gambling bankroll when you win heavily, and move it to your investment account. Repeat this until you have saved approximately x250-300 of your expected monthly spending. Resist your gambler nature and stick into safer investments like property in good neighborhoods, ETF’s and Indices, and aim for 3-5% annualized return.
Resist temptations
If you aspire to become a professional gambler because of the glamorous lifestyle you believe is embedding to it, you won’t be able, nor have the desire, to avoid the temptations. In fact, you are in it for them!
In that case, you should perhaps forfeit your dream. “Living large” will consume a sizeable chunk of your profits in good months, and sink the money you have set aside in bad months. Everyone is entitled to choose his own lifestyle, but financially speaking, consuming massive amounts of cash on drugs and alcohol, buying expensive jewelry, spending thousands of dollars on a “date”, or simply gambling away at games where you’re at a disadvantage like slot machines, is ill-advised.
If you have the desire to avoid the habits mention above and actually turn your efforts into savings that will provide for you and for your family for years to come, avoid all the bad habits at once and focus on increasing your profit.
Good luck in your journey! You won’t need it though, if you stick to these rules.
Recommended read: Inspire yourself with the list of the top 20 Canadian gamblers.
