I think you can explain the time commitment to your friends and family in terms of working really hard to get better so that you can make good money in the future, rather than telling them about X $ made per hour/week. Your passion for the game is a much better reason to devote a lot of time to it than how much money it might be making you at this point.

Unless you are already beating your games at a healthy clip, I don't think it is wise to rely on being able to turn 1k into 15k in a year. If you need the money you're almost certainly better off getting a normal job and working on your game during whatever free time you have. You could get a part-time job and focus 10-25hrs a week on poker around your work schedule. There is no rush to dive right into chasing your poker dreams right now. As long as your passion for the game remains strong, and you're willing to work hard to develop your game, there is no reason why you can't chase the dream 5 years from now, after college. Poker isn't going anywhere.

I think passion is the answer to a lot of your questions. If you really enjoy poker, especially if you enjoy analyzing hands away from the table, it won't be as hard to motivate yourself to put in the work to get better, and to put in the hours grinding. If you're not already playing 8 hrs a day, but imagining how hard it will be to do so (rather than being excited about it), you may want to ask yourself: "Why poker?"

There are many easier ways to make money. Are you chasing the dream of making lots of money and having the freedoms of the poker lifestyle, or are you interested in poker as a career because you expect to start your day excited to play more often than not. Any skill is much easier to develop to a high level if you enjoy practicing it. It's going to be a lot harder to study the finer points of strategy if you're not at least a little fascinated by the subtle intricacies of the game. It takes A LOT of work to become very good at this game. I've got a tons of work to do before I'd consider myself a very good player, and I've been passionately working on my game for more than 10 years.

There are many successful players that grind out a great living from poker without being very passionate about the game. However, if you were to take a survey of all the biggest winners at medium to high stakes, I'd be willing to wager at least 90% of them started their career because they loved playing and were fascinated by what they learned as their strategies progressed. Many of these greats have been playing for years but still get excited to analyze hands and/or situations, especially if they're able to bounce ideas off other great players. Getting ready to play rare events like the WCOOP or other series that only come around once a year is something these players relish. Can you see yourself feeling that way after 10+ years of playing?

So... Why poker? Ask yourself, write it down, keep the paper. Look at it from time to time and add to it, or cross out what's there and start all over. Your 'why'.will lead you to more success than you could ever dream of... If it is strong enough.

Great post and some solid advice! I can definitely relate to Shr0om's circumstances. MY parents were also divorced when i was young so never seeing my parents (i live with my grandparents due to mother's alcoholism) was always in the back of my mind, asking myself What i should do. Should i reach out and talk to them? or neglect the negative careless parents and focus on positive things? Should i fix this hole in my life or avoid it and move on? In addition to that, my current living environment involves lots of arguing and cops showing up every so often! Very stressful, plus my grandfather passed away a month ago. I've had a little success in tourneys (around 4k) but the problem is i feel like i have to hide my dreams from everyone since they constantly discourage and don't think its possible to do more than one thing at once?!?! i.e school, work, and poker. Its very difficult to find quiet time to play solid poker when the environment is so toxic, so tend to stay up all night and sacrifice sleep in order to have quiet time with no distractions (i get better results at night). Right now i'm focussed on getting into real estate with my twin brother but i also want to pursue poker full-time! Poker has always been a strong passion of mine .... it never fades away like other things that come and go. Hand analysis and poker theory are a must and i feel that inorder to become a pro you have to master poker theory, unless you rely on instincts like Phil Ivey lol. With regards to balance, i strongly believe you need to have other things going for you in life too in order for you to invest your emotions in other places. You dont want your bankroll to reflect your mood throughout the day. Some people even have this problem with their relationships. If they 're arguing with their significant other, they take it out on everyone else and isnt cant seem to help it no matter what they do. Even having something small like playing on a sports team once a week and working out every day will help a ton to get you back to neutral or positive! :) I would definitely take "MuckMYNuts" advice and find a job while investing in poker. Only because this money is very crucial to you and your schooling! Work on theory and invest in HUDS for accurately depicting hand ranges and where your leaks are PRE and POST. Its essential for MTTs, especially when you have multiple tables running. Im also in the process of reading The Intelligent Investor ....i'll send some links to books that i found very useful when it comes to investing. Hope this post helps you out, goodluck with everything! Focus on improvement and what you love.

I was thinking about this a bit more and I want to recommend a book. Excelling at No Limit Holdem by Jonathan Little. Many very talented players contributed chapters, and it has a lot of sound advice about strategy, life balance, and the mental game. The price is higher than most Poker books, but after a chapter or two you will see why.

You may find the chapters by Evan Jarvis (AKA Gripsed), Dr.Patricia Cardner, and Ed Miller particularly relevant, and there is a TON of really good strategy for MTTs in the second section. Alex Fitzgerald's chapter helped me a lot - he strives to simplify a bunch of MTT strategy and show that a big portion of winning poker can be understood through a relatively simple approach. He breaks down a lot of common spots mathematically and provides you with simple tools to do the same with any holdem situation. I will caution that some plays he suggests are very opponent dependent, and you're just burning money if you're regularly making them in the wrong spots. Even if you use none of his specific strategies, he teaches a really useful way to think about the game.

I feel "Deep Work" by Cal Newport is a book that could help you a lot.

He describes how to attain a good work schedule where the quality of your work is high. This goes hand in hand with a good life/work balance and you will have lots of ideas after just a chapter or so.

You can listen to an interview with him here:

http://jaredtendlerpoker.com/blog/deep-focus-cal-newport/

got the audiobook :)

So, how does one that is starting 'kind of' from start and wants to make 15k€ in 12 months balance poker study time, grind and other activities, without really falling asleep and feeling drained throughout the day?

If this is what you want, and you're starting this project without previous success, say "balance is for wimps" and get going. There is a lot of talk about micromanaging daily schedule these days. Minutiae and tedium won't get you anywhere, just immerse yourself, eat when you're hungry and sleep (enough) when you're tired.

Also what about not time to keep a track of what is happening in the world? Not having time to pick up a newspaper and figure out what is going on and happened in last few weeks or months?

There's always news. It's mostly the same. If there's a war starting, you'll hear sirens, don't worry about it.

GL!