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how do I become a professional poker player?
I don't need advice on how to play I've been playing more or less professionally for about 6 months now wether online or offline I have no problem making money and I want to know how I do it legally as a profession so if someone were to look up my credit or something it would say that and how much I make. Any one know how I do that? I don't want to become a professional in the sense of every one knows who I am aka playing in the wsop and making waves or entering a lot of tourny's in vegas and winning there's hundreds of casinos out there I usually play at the chumash in california not far from where I live and average about 1500 a day. I do not need advice on how to become famous or to read a book read them and found them pointless. Even if you win the wsop doesn't make you a professional poker player. Just want to know what I got to do to make it legally my profession.
Public Comments
- Gotta learn how to CHEAT!
- Play a lot in Vegas using BIG CHIPS! This will get you noticed and invited to amateur competitions. My friend tried this but he was not very good so it didn't work well. But he tried the same advice... which he read in a "How to Poker" book he bought in Vegas. True story. Funny too.
- You read poker books. You read from professional players and you just learn.
- regIster to play in the wsop
- That's one of the (probably many) downsides of professional poker. You'll have a hard time getting credit. You'll pay a bundle for health insurance. Goodluck getting a mortgage. When you're dealing with cash, there's no paper trail. There's nobody to call to find out how much you make. My only suggestion is to keep detailed records (which you'll have to do for tax time anyway, and then maybe next year you can use your tax return for reference. Probably the only sure fire way is to become famous and get some endorsements. That will bring in a steady stream of money that can be traced. Goodluck.
- Mikey, For a solid poker player, you're a little dense. There's really no 'Professional Poker Player' title for you to have. It's not something you get licensed for, or pass an entrance exam for, or can claim as your major in college (although a lot of college players spend more time on their game than their classes.) At the earliest levels, being a "professional poker player" looks exactly the same from a credit report/resume angle as "Living in Mom's Basement." Basically, you are a sole entrepreneur, running a business with no 1099 income, only cash. Therefore, the only way you can show established income is through your past years' income tax returns, and as for the resume ... well, good luck with that. If/when you take the next step, you can consider incorporating, which will make your enterprise far more legitimate, and generate a usable paper trail. That would be especially helpful if you start to get enough interest for endorsement or appearance money. But to be cost effective, I'd think you'd need to get your winnings to 2-5 times the current level ($150,000-$400,000 annual or better.) Good Luck!
- This is a hard part of being a professional gambler. Come next tax season, when you fill out your paperwork, you'll be entering "Professional Gambler". Now since 1990, if the IRS hasn't changed or ammended their laws specifically for poker, the rules are not straight forward. You cannot take your winnings, subtract your losses and give them your earned income. You must keep detailed records, if you aren't already, of every playing session. Any time you win, even one hand if they knew about it, you just earned that income. It's so backwards that it hurts to talk about it, but you need to know. Then, if you lose any money, that gets recorded as " a gambling loss" and is only tax-deductible. As far as the IRS cares, if you played 2 hands for the day, won $50 on the first, then lost $2,000 on the second and left, you just made $50 for the day, even though your net was -$1500. It's horrible and an awful way to do it, but the laws weren't ready for what poker has become. However, it's up to you to report what your numbers are. You're working with cash and there's nobody looking over your shoulder most of the time. As far as credit goes, don't worry about it. There's the nice side to being a pro. When you're playin well enough to earn that kind of income, even 5BB a day at 150/300, you're pulling about $390,000 a year working 5 days a week. Once you're putting serious money like that into the bank, you'll be fine, so don't worry about that. It's not about luck, I believe that, so keep going, work hard, and keep it up.
