Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
How can someone be serious about poker while being in the University? Obviously they have chosen a career and they are after it.
If thats not the case they are just wasting time, having fun, and spending someones money probably by being there Then yes they can use some of the free time to learn poker and chase a career at it.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 3361
I understand both sides of the thread. I've seen where major players have learned the ropes of poker while being in school / college and examples are Vanessa Selbst (Law School Student) and many others. I also wonder how one does get into being a professional poker player while in college with all the efforts required to meet class schedules and get good grades. I'm going to do a bit of research to verify just how many proffessional hanged their life plans after doing well in the poker world. Just think it would be something worth posting.
Joined: Feb '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 5712
Hm! Interesting thoughts on this one. I know nthat when I wa sstudying that if I'd have tried to learn or played poker I would have struggled to spend any time studying my course at Uni. People have to make a career choice though and some might pick poker first!
Joined: Nov '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 67 (M)
Posts: 3361
aye i've noticed that quite a few poker pros are actually students going to college/uni, they must have too much spare time on their hands,i think they should get more homework.l
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Germany
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 1242
There is also time for Poker when you have a job and family (like me), but for sure it is much less than for a student without a girlfriend Nevertheless I can play in the evening and have fun and I am able and willing to improve my game.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Personally, I find it much harder to juggle Uni and poker than I do a job and poker.. Mind you - my job isn't a career.. it's just (IT) help desk stuff.
But I find my poker playing seriously affects my study.
------------ Actually - the way I juggle poker at the moment is a kind of unique way for people in Australia (and similar timezones).
As a tournament player, all the good european time MTTs start around 2am-6am Aus time, so if I'm going to have a poker session, I'll just have an early night (say bed @ 9.30-10pm) and wake up around 3am-4am - this allows me to register in about 10-15 MTTs generally, with latest ones starting around 6am - normally this means I can finish up my poker for the day by around 10am, unless I happen to run really deep in a long game, but even then I'll be finished by about 12pm-1pm at the latest.. This means I still have the whole day / evening to study + spend time with my fiancée.
Edited by jessthehuman (11 August 2012 @ 07:56 GMT)
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
imo it's not where you are: school, college, full time job but how you go is the matter. if you want to achieve anything in any department- you just have to drill hard and no matter how much time you have you still have to get most out of it...of course more free time you have the better, but that's only one side of the medal
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
For every kid in university who made it big at poker, how many do you think screwed things up for themselves? Very few people make any serious money out of this game, so make sure you balance things in your life. I know several young guys I used to play live poker against (when I had the time! ) who are still working crap jobs while they spend the rest of their time playing poker - and the years are going by and I don't see them getting better or advancing. Still playing the same way and blaming their losses on bad luck. My biggest regrets with this game are not finding BRM sooner, and not taking a long term view of the game but trying to move up too fast. GL
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
It really depends on the person and i think the key is to know yourself!
In my case i already decided that poker is just a hobby for me but i try to approach it as pro as i can can in order to bring me some satisfactions. I also do believe that having a stable job is more important than poker!
) who are still working crap jobs while they spend the rest of their time playing 
