Taking my summer off to play poker full time: bad idea?
Hello everyone, a little background on me first. I'm a sophomore at a top 10 national university with a 3.5 GPA and currently majoring in economics. After graduation, I hope to work in a prop shop such as SIG, DRW, or Jane Street.
I have been playing poker since my freshman year in high school. It is my passion and I and am undeniably a solid winning player. Live poker has been my sole source of income for the past few years. During the school year, I try and play at least 20 hours a week plus spend at least a few hours studying the game through books, articles, forums, and training sites. Last summer after my freshman year in college, I played full time for a few weeks and absolutely crushed. My current bankroll is upwards of $15,000 and my main game is $2/$5 no limit hold'em with a $1000 max buy-in. I use software to track all my play, and have played over 2000 hours since my junior year in high school. Over the past several hundred hours, I average about $45/hour. I have complete confidence in my abilities as a poker player.
My question is this. Considering my future career goals and the fact that I am currently only a sophomore, would it be a good idea to take this summer and play full time? Would such an experience when applying for a prop trading internship junior year give me an edge over someone who spent their sophomore year at a conventional internship at a boutique bank, private equity firm, etc? If not, how detrimental would playing poker full time be compared to taking a conventional internship given the fact that I have no work experience on my resume? I know such firms place great emphasis on poker skills and at interviews I would be able to back up my claims with data because I record my wins and losses for all my sessions. However, I do not know whether I will be able to successfully substitute relevant work experience with professional poker playing. Thank you all for your feedback!
SIG would love you.
I played poker, 95% online, professionally up until black Friday and some time beyond that at Casinos and VPN'ing through Canada.
I now work at an HFT fund in Chicago that looks highly on those with a poker background.
I'd strongly recommend against taking the summer to play.
Main reasons are: 1) You can play in your spare time while working a summer gig 2) You'll be playing live vs online which is a different (less appealing) animal than someone with online experience 3) You'll be more valuable to any trading shop by strengthening other skills (programming, research, familiarity with the markets) you could acquire over the summer.
I agree with the previous post for one main reason: All the pros you state will be just as strong if you just list part-time poker player (20-30 hrs/week during school year) and then all your stats on your resume. The extra 20 hours a week for 10 weeks will give you very little additional on your resume, if anything at all, and nothing compared to a traditional internship.
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