Short answer: NO!
Long answer:
I have managed to sustain myself off online poker for almost three years - the emphasis is on sustain. It's very difficult to balance your bankroll between moving up through stakes and constantly cashing out. The vast majority of people will never even get to the point where they can turn a consistent profit even if they are motivated and reasonably intelligent, because there are lots of other things that factor into it. Read through davens blogs if you want to know how to do it right even when things are not going brilliantly. Hell, read through my old blogs if you want to know how it can all crash and burn :P
Live poker is a whole other animal. I've spent about half a year as a poker/BJ dealer - there is the odd player who can make a living off live poker, but they're all at 2/5+. At 1/2 the rake is absolutely ridiculous, and you need people to literally just throw their money at you just to turn a marginal profit. But the real reason why I would never even consider playing live is that EVERYONE IS MISERABLE. The few people who are actually enjoying themselves are all playing recreationally and/or are taking hard drugs :P.
It's not an envrionment that I would want to be in for any period of time. Even playing at home has its downsides. This sums it up pretty much.
I've heard about private games that are said to be very beatable, but you have to find them first, plus there's always the chance of getting robbed by either the dealers or by having someone stick a gun in your face.
Most of that is irrelevant because the chances of you just walking in and beating the game are very slim to begin with. If you're interested in poker I suggest you wait until the online thing gets resolved for US players, and then learn to play online. There's really nothing that can prepare you for the emotional and monetary swings that come with the game.
Things that are actually not that different from poker that might be worth looking into:
Becoming a reseller. - There are lots of people who are basically just buying stuff off ebay and craigslist and then selling it for more.
Open a small business: Open a restaurant and have monkeys work for you (see other thread) Find a market gap and go for it: some oddball stuff like electronic cigarettes or psychoactive incense.
Find out if you're any good at strategy games to begin with by playing SC2. Learning to beat poker for a living should be comparable with reaching 1v1 master league on the ladder.
^^ and it's lots more fun!
My overall suggestion to you is: Go for something with a long term plan. If you play poker for a couple of years and you come out of it there's really not much to transition into. When you have spent a couple of years selling psychoactive incense in your opium den with the help of a dozen monkey workers then the world is your oyster.
Reply With Quote